WASHINGTON, D.C.— The Center for Election Confidence (CEC) announces the filing of its latest amicus brief before the U.S. Supreme Court, in which noted advocate and former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement urges the Court to grant review in Public Interest Legal Foundation v. Nago. This case concerns a decision by the Ninth Circuit that would exempt voter roll list maintenance activities in California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington—major automatic vote-by-mail states—from the National Voter Registration Act’s (NVRA) vital transparency provisions.
“Congress enacted the NVRA to advance two complementary objectives: increasing the registration of eligible citizens and ensuring that inaccurate or ineligible registrations are removed from voter rolls,” said Lisa Dixon, CEC Executive Director. “Transparency is a cornerstone of that framework.”
Congress enacted the NVRA to advance two complementary objectives: increasing the registration of eligible citizens and ensuring that inaccurate or ineligible registrations are removed from voter rolls.
The NVRA requires state officials to release information about how they maintain accurate and current voter lists. The Ninth Circuit held that this requirement did not include the voter roll itself, which represents both the end product and evidence of those list-maintenance activities.
“Keeping this important information from public inspection undermines Congress’s statutory design and deprives the public of the most important record for evaluating whether states are meeting their obligations under the law,” continued Dixon.
CEC notes that the Supreme Court has recognized that inaccurate rolls can threaten both the right to vote and public confidence in elections, while Congress described accurate and up-to-date voter lists as a central safeguard against voter fraud. The brief also cites the Supreme Court’s observation that an estimated 24 million voter registrations nationwide were invalid or significantly inaccurate, with millions of people reportedly registered in more than one state.
Keeping this important information from public inspection undermines Congress’s statutory design and deprives the public of the most important record for evaluating whether states are meeting their obligations under the law.
In his brief for CEC, Mr. Clement explains that public access is critical for ensuring accurate voter rolls because it permits citizens and organizations to identify mistakes, test the effectiveness of state list-maintenance programs, and hold election officials accountable.
CEC also stresses that transparency serves the NVRA’s voter-registration objective, not merely its list-maintenance requirements. Organizations across the ideological spectrum have used the NVRA’s public-inspection mandate to determine whether eligible voters were improperly removed or denied registration. The brief points to litigation by groups such as Greater Birmingham Ministries and Project Vote, which sought voter-registration records to assist eligible citizens and investigate potential registration problems.
Mr. Clement concludes for CEC that the Ninth Circuit’s approach frustrates the NVRA’s core purposes precisely where transparency is needed most, making Supreme Court review particularly urgent. The Ninth Circuit includes California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, which mail ballots automatically to all registrants without any affirmative request. This means errors on the voter rolls translate directly into ballots being mailed inappropriately to ineligible or no-longer-eligible registrants.
“Public access to voter rolls allows citizens and organizations to verify that election officials are maintaining accurate, comprehensive registration lists and gives the public an independent means of evaluating the integrity of election administration,” concluded Dixon. “‘Sunlight’ remains ‘the best of disinfectants’ in elections.”
‘Sunlight’ remains ‘the best of disinfectants’ in elections.
CEC is a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the role of ethics, integrity, and legal professionalism in the electoral process so that all Americans, regardless of party affiliation, can take part in the electoral process and have confidence in election systems and their results.
The Center for Election Confidence thanks Paul D. Clement, James Y. Xi, and Jeffrey C. Thalhofer of Clement & Murphy, PLLC, for their representation in this matter.