Oregon Settles Voter Roll Lawsuit After Years of Neglecting Inactive Registrations

Oregon has finally put an end to a years-old lawsuit accusing the state of failing to keep its voter rolls clean and compliant with federal law. Under a settlement finalized last week, Secretary of State Tobias Read agreed to send annual data for five years to the plaintiffs — including the conservative group Judicial Watch and the Constitution Party of Oregon — who had sued over Oregon’s lax approach to removing inactive voters.

The lawsuit centered on Oregon’s failure to cancel registrations of voters labeled “inactive” after they failed to respond to notices or vote in two federal elections, as required by the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. Judicial Watch pointed to a 2023 report revealing that more than half of Oregon’s counties removed almost no inactive voters between 2020 and 2022, despite having millions of registered voters.

Read, a Democrat, has not conceded that Oregon broke the law but acknowledged in January that about 800,000 voters had been marked inactive—some for nearly a decade. He attributed the backlog to a 2017 change under former Republican Secretary of State Dennis Richardson that altered the language on voter notices, removing warnings that registrations would be canceled if voters did not respond or vote.

To address the problem, Read ordered counties to cancel roughly 160,000 long-inactive registrations and revised the notice language to allow future removals of inactive voters. His office says these steps were underway before the lawsuit but settled the case to avoid wasting taxpayer resources.

Judicial Watch attorney Robert Popper praised the changes but warned the group will keep monitoring Oregon’s compliance and is ready to sue again if necessary. Despite its aggressive stance, Judicial Watch admits it has no proof of widespread voter fraud tied to inactive registrants, emphasizing that its goal is strict compliance with voter roll maintenance laws.

Oregon’s settlement is part of a broader national debate over how states manage voter rolls, especially amid false claims that mail voting and inactive registrations fuel fraud. While Oregon has taken steps to tighten its “motor voter” automatic registration system after discovering noncitizens were mistakenly added, the state’s experience shows how administrative decisions and political battles over election rules can impact voter access and confidence.

This case underscores the ongoing pressure on states to balance accurate voter lists with protecting voting rights, a challenge that remains a flashpoint in the fight over election integrity in the Trump era and beyond.