Rock Island County Clerk Karen Kinney insists her office conducts daily purges of county voter rolls, making a warning from a conservative watchdog group puzzling.
Rock Island was one of 24 Illinois counties listed in a letter from Judicial Watch claiming that they have more registered voters than voting-age residents. The group warned the state that it could file a lawsuit if the numbers were not corrected over the next several months.
Kinney told the Rock Island Today that she doesn’t know how her county could be in error, given all the meticulous detail her office pays to such matters.
“We did a massive purge in 2010, where we removed 45,000 voters,” she said. “Since then, we’ve purged daily based on death records. Perhaps they're looking at all those that are listed in the records as part of our voting history, but not all of them are still part of our rolls.”
Judicial Watch also identified voter roll problems in the counties of Alexander, Bureau, Cass, Clark, Crawford, DuPage, Franklin, Grundy, Hardin, Henderson, Jefferson, Jersey, Massac, McHenry, Mercer, Monroe, Pulaski, Sangamon, Scott, Union, Wabash, Washington and White.
The group said its numbers are based on tabulations composed by the U.S. Census Bureau and other government agencies, with representatives going on record with their contention that there is strong evidence to suggest that the counties are violating the National Voter Registration Act.
Meanwhile, Division of Voting and Registration Systems Director Kyle Thomas argued that the only counties where his office has found discrepancies are Monroe and Massac.
Thomas also notes that Judicial Watch has previously lodged similar concerns about other counties. Back then, top executives from the Washington D.C.-based watchdog group never replied when Registration System officials responded to their initial inquiry.
Judicial Watch sent similar warnings to Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Tennessee.
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