{"id":2397535,"date":"2025-01-31T13:22:02","date_gmt":"2025-01-31T18:22:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lawsuit-oregon-sos-destroyed-important-voter-records\/"},"modified":"2025-01-31T13:23:42","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T18:23:42","slug":"lawsuit-oregon-sos-destroyed-important-voter-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lawsuit-oregon-sos-destroyed-important-voter-records\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawsuit: Oregon SOS Destroyed Important Voter Records"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Flawsuit-oregon-sos-destroyed-important-voter-records%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2397535&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The Public Interest legal Foundation (PILF), a \u2062conservative legal \u200bgroup, has\u2062 filed a lawsuit against\u2062 Oregon\u2019s Secretary\u200d of State\u200d Tobias Read for\u2063 allegedly destroying records\u200b from the Electronic Registration Facts Center (ERIC). These records purportedly indicate which voters were wrongly\u200d marked as deceased and \u2063subsequently removed from voter rolls. PILF \u200dclaims that Oregon has failed to retain &#8220;deceased \u200cretractions&#8221; reports, which are\u2062 critical for identifying such errors, in \u2062violation of the National\u2062 Voter Registration Act of 1993. <\/p>\n<p>Oregon\u200b officials had previously denied PILF&#8217;s requests for\u2062 these \u2062reports,stating \u2064they do not keep the \u200ddata. The lawsuit argues that this non-compliance with federal law is \u2062concerning, notably as Oregon participates in ERIC, which aims to help states maintain accurate voter registrations.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the article\u2063 discusses issues with the Oregon DMV\u2019s \u201cmotor voter system,\u201d which has unintentionally registered noncitizens to vote, \u2063leading to \u2063over 1,600 possibly ineligible voters on the rolls. This situation \u2062came to light thanks to inquiries from a left-leaning group.<\/p>\n<p>The legal and procedural challenges surrounding voter registration in Oregon highlight issues of transparency and accuracy in the electoral process.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A conservative legal group is suing Oregon&rsquo;s secretary of state for allegedly destroying records from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) indicating which voters have been wrongfully removed from the rolls.<\/p>\n<p>The Public Interest Legal Foundation filed a <a href=\"https:\/\/publicinterestlegal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/1-PILF-v.-Read-Complaint.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">complaint<\/a> Jan. 28 against Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read, a Democrat, for allegedly failing to keep data from ERIC that would show which voters the database had wrongfully marked as deceased and flagged for removal.<\/p>\n<p>ERIC is an elections <a href=\"https:\/\/www.influencewatch.org\/non-profit\/electronic-registration-information-center-eric\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">database<\/a> and network that supposedly helps states clean their voter rolls through membership, but it has <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/01\/31\/if-erics-voter-roll-maintenance-is-so-popular-why-do-democrats-feel-a-need-to-force-states-to-join\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">close ties<\/a> to the left, as The Federalist previously reported. It has <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/03\/20\/report-eric-deemed-168000-dead-or-relocated-virginians-eligible-but-unregistered-to-vote\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">deemed<\/a> dead voters as &ldquo;eligible but unregistered&rdquo; in the past.<\/p>\n<p>PILF had been requesting &ldquo;deceased retractions&rdquo; reports throughout 2023 and 2024, according to a press <a href=\"https:\/\/publicinterestlegal.org\/press\/lawsuit-oregon-sos-destroys-documents-indicating-which-voters-were-wrongly-purged-as-deceased\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">release<\/a>. ERIC issues these reports to member states, showing voters the database had inaccurately flagged as dead and needing removal.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Oregon is a member of the network, so PILF <a href=\"https:\/\/publicinterestlegal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/1-1-PILF-v.-Read-Exhibit-A.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">requested<\/a> &ldquo;deceased retractions&rdquo; reports in April 2024 from Democrat Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade. A staffer <a href=\"https:\/\/publicinterestlegal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/1-3-PILF-v.-Read-Exhibit-C.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">denied<\/a> this request, saying officials do not keep the data.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We receive the data monthly; however we do not download and retain the data,&rdquo; a public records analyst wrote in an email to PILF.<\/p>\n<p>But the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/103\/statute\/STATUTE-107\/STATUTE-107-Pg77.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">requires<\/a> states to retain &ldquo;all records concerning the implementation of programs and activities&rdquo; for &ldquo;ensuring the accuracy and currency of official lists of eligible voters&rdquo; for two years.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Oregon thus does not maintain the ERIC Retraction Reports for two years as the NVRA&rsquo;s Public Disclosure Provision requires,&rdquo; PILF&rsquo;s lawsuit <a href=\"https:\/\/publicinterestlegal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/1-PILF-v.-Read-Complaint.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reads<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Since Read has since replaced Griffin-Valade, he is <a href=\"https:\/\/publicinterestlegal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/1-PILF-v.-Read-Complaint.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">now<\/a> the defendant as PILF is suing the Oregon secretary of state in his official capacity.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The NVRA requires document preservation and transparency,&rdquo; said PILF President J. Christian Adams in the <a href=\"https:\/\/publicinterestlegal.org\/press\/lawsuit-oregon-sos-destroys-documents-indicating-which-voters-were-wrongly-purged-as-deceased\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">release<\/a>. &ldquo;This is a case that the Biden Justice Department should have brought, but instead private parties have been <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">stuck enforcing federal election laws<\/a>.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>Registering Noncitizens To Vote<\/h2>\n<p>State officials <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/09\/16\/oregon-secretary-of-state-defends-law-automatically-registering-hundreds-of-noncitizens-to-vote\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">discovered<\/a> in September that glitches and oversights in the Oregon DMV&rsquo;s &ldquo;motor voter system&rdquo; had registered more than 300 noncitizens to vote since 2021. Griffin-Valade and Democrat Gov. Tina Kotek ordered limited audits of the issue, finding <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/11\/22\/oregon-dmv-busted-allowing-people-of-unknown-citizenship-to-register-to-vote\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">more than 1,600<\/a> potentially ineligible voters on the rolls.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Officials <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/09\/16\/oregon-secretary-of-state-defends-law-automatically-registering-hundreds-of-noncitizens-to-vote\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">concluded<\/a> workers at the Oregon DMV made errors recording the forms of identification provided, leading the system to automatically register noncitizens to vote. As The Federalist previously reported, the Oregon DMV processed more than 54,600 registrations for voters of &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/11\/22\/oregon-dmv-busted-allowing-people-of-unknown-citizenship-to-register-to-vote\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">unknown citizenship<\/a>&rdquo; from June 2021 to October 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Months later, before Read took office, Oregon&rsquo;s then-Elections Director Molly Woon and other top staffers in Griffin-Valade&rsquo;s office <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/12\/19\/oregon-elections-director-resigns-months-after-hundreds-of-noncitizens-found-registered-to-vote\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">resigned<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Leftist Ties<\/h2>\n<p>The DMV only found it helped register <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/09\/16\/oregon-secretary-of-state-defends-law-automatically-registering-hundreds-of-noncitizens-to-vote\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">noncitizens<\/a> to vote because the leftist group Institute for Responsive Government (IRG) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oregonlive.com\/politics\/2024\/09\/oregon-dmv-only-learned-it-helped-register-300-non-citizens-to-vote-after-a-national-think-tank-raised-questions.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">inquired<\/a> about the state&rsquo;s &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/noncitizens-on-voter-rolls-assure-election-will-be-unsafe-unfair\/\" title=\"Noncitizens On Voter Rolls Assure Election Will Be Unsafe, Unfair\">motor voter&#038;rdquo<\/a>; system, according to The Oregonian\/OregonLive.<\/p>\n<p>The IRG is a project of The New Venture Fund, of the leftist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.influencewatch.org\/organization\/institute-for-responsive-government-irg\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">dark money<\/a> network Arabella Advisors, according to InfluenceWatch. It issued <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/08\/23\/zuckbucks-org-promotes-6-million-election-grant-from-left-wing-dark-money-group\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&ldquo;Zuckbucks&rdquo;-style<\/a> grants to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-zuckerberg-broke-law-with-dropboxes\/\" title=\"Trump: Zuckerberg &#039;Broke Law&#039; with Dropboxes\">local election offices<\/a> ahead of November.<\/p>\n<p>IRG Executive Director Sam Oliker-Friedland is chief counsel for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.influencewatch.org\/non-profit\/center-for-secure-and-modern-elections\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">left-wing<\/a> Center for Secure and Modern Elections, also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.influencewatch.org\/non-profit\/center-for-secure-and-modern-elections\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">under<\/a> Arabella&rsquo;s New Venture Fund. After finding Oregon&rsquo;s &ldquo;motor voter&rdquo; system had registered noncitizens to vote, state officials including Woon planned a briefing <a href=\"https:\/\/oregonroundup.substack.com\/p\/koteks-office-sought-emergency-noncitizen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">call<\/a> with CSME, according to emails obtained through a FOIA request by Oregon journalist Jeff Eager.<\/p>\n<p>Following the 2020 election, Louisiana&rsquo;s attorney general <a href=\"https:\/\/lailluminator.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/2020.10.02-AG-Petition.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sued<\/a> CSME and the Center for Tech and Civic Life &mdash; which are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.influencewatch.org\/non-profit\/center-for-secure-and-modern-elections\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&ldquo;closely connected<\/a>&rdquo; according to InfluenceWatch &mdash; alleging illegal interference.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>ERIC was <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/01\/31\/if-erics-voter-roll-maintenance-is-so-popular-why-do-democrats-feel-a-need-to-force-states-to-join\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">founded<\/a> by David Becker, who leads another group &mdash; the Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR). Together, CEIR and the Center for Technology and Civic Life funneled close to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.influencewatch.org\/for-profit\/chan-zuckerberg-initiative\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">$400 million<\/a> from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to local election offices in 2020, boosting Democrat turnout. Meanwhile, ERIC helps <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/04\/03\/heres-a-look-into-popular-voter-database-erics-left-wing-origins\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">register<\/a> the &ldquo;new American majority&rdquo; &mdash; changing the existing electorate, which Becker has <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/04\/03\/heres-a-look-into-popular-voter-database-erics-left-wing-origins\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">disparaged<\/a> as &ldquo;disproportionately white, disproportionately wealthy and disproportionately old.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Logan Washburn is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lawsuit-clark-county-keeps-commercial-addresses-on-voter-rolls\/\" title=\"Lawsuit: Clark County Keeps Commercial Addresses On Voter Rolls\">staff writer covering election integrity<\/a>. He is a spring 2025 fellow of The College Fix. He graduated from Hillsdale College, served as Christopher Rufo&#8217;s editorial assistant, and has bylines in The Wall Street Journal, The Tennessean, and The Daily Caller. Logan is from Central Oregon but now lives in rural Michigan.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A conservative group is suing Oregon&#8217;s secretary of state for allegedly destroying voter removal records<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":507,"featured_media":2397538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Oregon-capitol.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[20658,32644,4585,6642,40156],"class_list":["post-2397535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-sos","tag-election-integrity","tag-lawsuit","tag-oregon","tag-voter-records"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Oregon-capitol.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2397535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/507"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2397535"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2397535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2397540,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2397535\/revisions\/2397540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2397538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2397535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2397535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2397535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}