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As voters hit the polls Tuesday to make their picks in this year’s primary races, a fresh lawsuit against California’s secretary of state is calling into question whether hundreds of thousands of unqualified voters are still eligible to head to the ballot box.

Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner, the Republican candidate for secretary of state, joined the American Independent Party of California in suing incumbent Secretary of State Shirley Weber, alleging that 873,092 inactive voter registrations are still on the rolls.


  California Secretary of State Shirley Weber. AP California Secretary of State Shirley Weber. AP

The complaint, filed through conservative voting watchdog organization Judicial Watch, claimed the Democrat Weber is in violation of federal law that requires most inactive voter registrations to be removed after two general federal elections.

Instead, more than 800,000 registrations have remained inactive and on the rolls for at least three elections — with 151,202 on the rolls after at least four consecutive elections, the suit claims.

The lawsuit also alleges that the state takes no effective action to require counties to fix the issue, citing admissions by California officials.

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  A lawsuit alleges that 873,092 inactive voter registrations are still on the rolls. Pedro Colo for CA Post A lawsuit alleges that 873,092 inactive voter registrations are still on the rolls. Pedro Colo for CA Post

Currently, over 23 million Californians are registered to vote.

Back in 2019, Judicial Watch had settled with the state of California and Los Angeles County to remove more than 1.2 million names from the voter rolls. Since then, the organization claimed 20 counties across the state have only removed 50 or fewer inactive voters, despite census data showing hundreds of thousands of residents leaving California.

“Judicial Watch’s federal lawsuit confirms California has a dirty voting rolls crisis — with thousands of old names on the rolls going back at least 10 years,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. “Dirty voting rolls can mean dirty elections. And California and its counties must take immediate steps to clean the over 870,000 dirty names on the voting lists.”


  Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner, the Republican candidate for secretary of state, joined the lawsuit. Facebook/Don Wagner Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner, the Republican candidate for secretary of state, joined the lawsuit. Facebook/Don Wagner

The California Post contacted Weber’s office for comment.

The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court Central District of California Western Division, seeks to force the state to stop further violations and require a new voter-roll maintenance program to remove ineligible voters.

California’s election system has faced scrutiny despite state Democrats proclaiming it as safe and secure. Even President Trump said the state’s elections “are a “fraud.”

There were questionable voting incidents just days before the primary.

On Sunday, officials discovered a voting site vandalized and mail-in ballots burned in a drop box. The same day, a Bay Area voter showed up to vote on Sunday night at a closed ballot center, only to discover its doors unlocked and the building unsecured.

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