Oregon announces plan to begin removing 800,000 inactive voter registrations after years of delays and mounting legal pressure from lawsuits filed against the state.
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Oregonelectionofficialsaresettobeginremovinghundredsofthousandsofinactivevotersfromthestate’sregistrationrolls,amovethatcomesafteryearsofinaction,mountingpublicpressure,andlawsuitsfiledagainstthestateinrecentmonths.
Oregon’sDemocraticSecretaryofStateTobiasRead,ina pressreleaseFriday,outlinedtwonewdirectiveshesaidwill“restart”the“routinecleanupofoutdated,inactivevoterregistrationrecords”inaccordancewithstatelawtoaddresstheroughly800,000inactivevoterrecordsthatarebeingmaintainedbyelectionofficials.
Thefirstdirectiveorderscountiestoimmediatelycancellong-inactivevoterregistrationsthatalreadymetthelegalrequirementsforremovalbefore2017.Theseareregistrationswhereelectionmailwasreturnedasundeliverable,votersfailedtorespondtoofficialnotices,andtheydidnotparticipateinmultiplefederalelections.Stateofficialsestimaterou
