{"id":2400456,"date":"2025-02-07T17:26:02","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T22:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/watchdog-to-doj-investigate-or-for-destroying-voter-records\/"},"modified":"2025-02-07T17:27:58","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T22:27:58","slug":"watchdog-to-doj-investigate-or-for-destroying-voter-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/watchdog-to-doj-investigate-or-for-destroying-voter-records\/","title":{"rendered":"Watchdog To DOJ: Investigate OR For Destroying Voter Records"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/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%2Fwatchdog-to-doj-investigate-or-for-destroying-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=2400456&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>An <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-ohio-supreme-courts-ballot-amendment-ruling-is-not-the-win-democrats-think-it-is\/\" title=\"Ohio Supreme Court&#039;s ballot amendment ruling disappoints Democrats.\">election integrity legal group<\/a>, the Public Interest Legal Foundation \u200d(PILF), has requested that the Department of Justice investigate the Oregon \u2064Secretary of State, Tobias Read, for allegedly mishandling records from \u200cthe Electronic Registration Facts Center (ERIC). PILF claims that \u200cRead&#8217;s office destroyed \u2062vital records indicating voters \u2064wrongfully removed\u200d from registration rolls. <\/p>\n<p>the organization filed a lawsuit against Read,\u200c highlighting that Oregon\u200c officials do not retain \u200cmonthly alerts from ERIC \u2064regarding\u200d registrants \u200binaccurately\u2062 flagged as deceased. \u2064ERIC,which aims to help <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">states maintain accurate\u2064 voter rolls<\/a>,has faced criticism for it&#8217;s left-leaning\u2063 connections. <\/p>\n<p>PILF has been seeking \u2062&#8221;deceased\u200b retraction&#8221; reports that\u200d would reveal\u2062 improperly removed voters, which Oregon officials reportedly have received but\u200d failed to retain. Federal laws mandate that states keep such records for a specified \u2064period, raising concerns about potential violations in Oregon&#8217;s \u2062handling \u200cof\u2062 these documents.<\/p>\n<p>In a broader context, issues of \u2063voting integrity have been spotlighted in Oregon,\u2062 as officials recently discovered \u200dthat the state&#8217;s DMV system inadvertently registered over 300 noncitizens to \u200dvote. \u2063The PILF believes that a\u2062 federal investigation is warranted to analyze how Oregon relies on ERIC&#8217;s data and the potential \u2062misinformation risks due to\u2064 missing public records.  <\/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>An election integrity legal group is asking President Donald Trump&rsquo;s Department of Justice to investigate the Oregon secretary of state&rsquo;s alleged mishandling of records from a leftist voter registration network.<\/p>\n<p>The Public Interest Legal Foundation <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/01\/31\/lawsuit-oregon-sos-destroyed-eric-records-showing-wrongfully-removed-voters\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sued<\/a> Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read, a Democrat, last month for allegedly destroying records from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) indicating which voters have been wrongfully removed from the rolls, as The Federalist reported at the time. PILF sent a complaint to Leo Terrell &mdash; Trump&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.business-standard.com\/world-news\/trump-announces-leo-terrell-as-senior-counsel-to-assistant-attorney-general-125011000395_1.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">senior counsel<\/a> to the assistant attorney general for civil rights &mdash;&nbsp; on Thursday.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Oregon officials do not retain monthly alerts from the Electronic Registration Information Center (&lsquo;ERIC&rsquo;) relating to registrants who were previously and inaccurately flagged as deceased,&rdquo; wrote Logan Churchwell, PILF&rsquo;s research director, in the complaint that he shared with The Federalist.<\/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> that <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/01\/31\/lawsuit-oregon-sos-destroyed-eric-records-showing-wrongfully-removed-voters\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">supposedly helps<\/a> member states clean their voter rolls, 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 left-wing ties<\/a>, as The Federalist has reported in the past. In Virginia, the group <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\">labeled<\/a> dead voters &ldquo;eligible but unregistered.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>ERIC issues &ldquo;deceased retractions&rdquo; reports to member states, listing voters the database wrongfully flagged as dead, 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> from PILF. The legal group has been requesting &ldquo;deceased retractions&rdquo; reports &ldquo;throughout 2023 and 2024.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But in spring 2024, when Churchwell asked the Oregon secretary of state&rsquo;s office for &ldquo;deceased retractions&rdquo; reports from ERIC, a public records analyst <a href=\"https:\/\/publicinterestlegal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/1-3-PILF-v.-Read-Exhibit-C.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a> that, though the office receives the reports monthly, &ldquo;We do not download and retain the data.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The National Voter Registration Act of 1993, however, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/103\/statute\/STATUTE-107\/STATUTE-107-Pg77.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">requires<\/a> states to keep &ldquo;all records concerning the implementation of programs and activities conducted for the purpose of ensuring the accuracy and currency of official lists of eligible voters&rdquo; for two years. The Civil Rights Act of 1960 also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aaihs.org\/the-hidden-history-of-the-civil-rights-act-of-1960\/#:~:text=Title%20III%20of%20the%20Civil,African%20Americans%20had%20alleged%20discrimination.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">requires<\/a> election officials to &ldquo;retain and preserve&rdquo; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dc-sends-ballot-intended-for-another-voter-to-michigan-resident\/\" title=\"DC Sends Ballot Intended For Another Voter To Michigan Resident\">voter roll maintenance documents<\/a> for 22 months and produce them &ldquo;upon demand.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>So far, PILF has collected &ldquo;deceased retractions&rdquo; reports &mdash; some going back to 2013 &mdash; from seven ERIC member states without any legal action. The files include names, registration dates, and &ldquo;unique voter ID numbers.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>ERIC Executive Director Shane Hamlin told all member states on Nov. 7, 2023, that &ldquo;deceased retractions could potentially be shielded under state laws&rdquo; from PILF&rsquo;s record requests, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n<p>From PILF&rsquo;s latest data, 55 percent of registrants that ERIC erroneously categorized as deceased were already removed from voter rolls before &ldquo;deceased retractions&rdquo; reports went out, Churchwell wrote in the complaint. So, the &ldquo;deceased retractions&rdquo; reports help indicate &ldquo;registrants who were removed improperly based on ERIC data.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Given all the above facts and analysis, the Foundation believes federal investigation within this specific statutory lens is warranted,&rdquo; the complaint reads, referencing the legal <a href=\"https:\/\/uscode.house.gov\/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title52-section20701&amp;num=0&amp;edition=prelim\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">requirement<\/a> for document retention.<\/p>\n<p>PILF was &ldquo;appreciative of the speedy confirmation of receipt by the Voting Section&rdquo; of the DOJ, Churchwell told The Federalist.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s important that we are able to study patterns between ERIC&rsquo;s Deceased Reports, Oregon&rsquo;s reliance upon them, and the elapsed time before a Retraction,&rdquo; Churchwell said. &ldquo;Missing public records are a basic misinformation risk to all.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>According to InfluenceWatch, ERIC&rsquo;s founder is &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.influencewatch.org\/non-profit\/center-for-election-innovation-research\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">hardcore leftist<\/a>&rdquo; David Becker &mdash; who also founded the Center for Election Innovation and Research (<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/ceir\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CEIR<\/a>), which funneled millions in &ldquo;Zuckbucks&rdquo; to election officials in 2020 to boost Democrat turnout.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In September, Oregon 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\">found<\/a> the state DMV&rsquo;s &ldquo;motor voter system&rdquo; had registered more than 300 noncitizens to vote since 2021. Democrat Gov. Tina Kotek and then-Secretary of State Lavonne Griffin-Valade 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 1,500<\/a> potentially ineligible registered voters. As The Federalist previously reported, between June 2021 and October 2024, 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;<\/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 ...\">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 legal group is urging Trump&#8217;s DOJ to probe Oregon&#8217;s voter record mishandling<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":507,"featured_media":2400457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/U.S._Department_of_Justice_DOJ_53840386529-e1733159318950.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[7076,40156,6056],"class_list":["post-2400456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-doj","tag-voter-records","tag-watchdog"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/U.S._Department_of_Justice_DOJ_53840386529-e1733159318950.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2400456","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=2400456"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2400456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2400460,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2400456\/revisions\/2400460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2400457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2400456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2400456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2400456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}