Election Integrity Update: Five Million Names Cleaned from Voter Rolls Thanks to Judicial Watch

Judicial Watch made history last month when new developments in landmark legal actions led to the inactivation, processing, or removal of more than five million ineligible names from voter rolls nationwide. “Judicial Watch’s clean-up of over five million dirty names from voter rolls is a historic achievement for clean elections,” said JW President Tom Fitton. “I have no doubt that Judicial Watch’s election integrity heavy lifting helped stop the steal in 2024. But there are millions of more names to be removed from voter rolls.”

Clean elections matter. Dirty voter rolls—the presence of voters who have been disqualified from voting due to death or a change of address—create opportunities for fraud, opening the door to illegal votes swinging close elections. A key weapon in the battle for clean elections is the National Voter Registration Act. The NVRA directs the states to make “a reasonable effort” to remove from voting rolls “the names of ineligible voters” who have been disqualified from voting due to death or change of residence.

Judicial Watch has been deploying the NVRA for years in courts across the land, pressuring state governments to clean up their voter rolls. Recent developments in cases in Kentucky and New York put Judicial Watch past the five million milestone.

In Kentucky, state election board officials reported that “roughly 735,000 ineligible voter registrations” have been removed from voter rolls, as part of a 2018 consent decree settling a Judicial Watch lawsuit. “Since the consent decree was entered,” election officials notes, “a lot has changed. The State Board of Elections has worked overtime to comply with the consent decree and to clean up Kentucky’s voter rolls.”

A lot has changed in New York City too. As part of 2022 settlement with Judicial Watch, New York City began removing the names of ineligible voters from its voting rolls. Following the settlement, New York removed 440,000 ineligible names. New data for March 2023 to February 2025 show the removal of another 477,000 names—a total of more than 900,000 names.

Judicial Watch has notched victories in election integrity cases across America. In Los Angeles, county officials confirmed the removal of more than 1.2 million names from voter rolls as part of a settlement of a 2017 JW lawsuit. Judicial Watch legal pressure also resulted in election roll clean-ups in Pennsylvania, Colorado, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Ohio.

JW continues to pursue cases in Illinois, Oregon, and California.

President Trump recognized the importance of election integrity efforts with a March 25 Executive Order, “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections.” The sweeping order notes two key areas where Judicial Watch has long been a national leader.

One is voter roll clean-up under the National Voter Registration Act. “Maintaining accurate voter registration lists” through the NVRA and other federal laws “is a fundamental requirement in protecting voters from having their ballots voided or diluted by fraudulent votes,” the presidential order notes. It directs “the Attorney General [to] take appropriate action with respect to states that fail to comply with the list maintenance requirements” of the NVRA.

The presidential order notes a second area where Judicial Watch has long been active: fighting to ensure that Election Day remains just that—a single day. “Federal law establishes a uniform Election Day across the Nation for Federal elections,” the order says. But “numerous States fail to comply with those laws by counting ballots received after Election Day. This is like allowing persons who arrive three days after Election Day, perhaps after a winner has been declared, to vote in person at a former voting precinct, which would be absurd.”

Judicial Watch has mounted numerous legal challenges to states seeking to stretch Election Day into Election Week or Election Month.

In Mississippi, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit sided with Judicial Watch. The full Fifth Circuit court declined to revisit the appellate panel ruling that ballots arriving after Election Day cannot be counted.

The appellate panel ruled that “Congress statutorily designated a singular ‘day for the election’ of members of Congress and the appointment of presidential electors. Text, precedent, and historical practice confirm that this ‘day for the election’ is the day by which ballots must be both cast by voters and received by state officials.”

In an Illinois case, Judicial Watch has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review lower court rulings that allow the state to count mail-in ballots as late as fourteen days after election day.

And in California, Judicial Watch filed a federal lawsuit to prevent state officials from transforming Election Day into Election Week. The Judicial Watch lawsuit was filed on behalf of U.S. Representative Darrell Issa to prevent state election officials from extending Election Day for seven days beyond the date established by federal law.

“Despite Congress’ unambiguous and longstanding statement regarding a single and uniform national Election Day,” says the JW lawsuit, “California modified and extended Election Day by allowing seven additional days after Election Day for receipt of vote-by-mail ballots.”

The lawsuit notes that late-arriving ballots can “change electoral outcomes in California.” Two of Rep. Issa’s Republican colleagues were leading on Election Night 2024 “but ultimately lost reelection due to late-arriving [vote-by-mail] ballots.

Issa called on California to fix its “broken systems of elections.” In California, he told Breitbart, “Election Day has become Election Month and ballots are counted until Democrats are declared the winner.”

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Micah Morrison is chief investigative reporter for Judicial Watch. Tips: [email protected]

Investigative Bulletin is published by Judicial Watch. Reprints and media inquiries: [email protected]

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