ACRU Wins Consent Decree in Third Mississippi County to Clean Up Voter Rolls

Alexandria, Virginia, November 30, 2015 (Newswire.com) - The American Civil Rights Union (ACRU) has settled its federal lawsuit against the Clarke County, Mississippi Election Commission, marking the third time a Mississippi county has agreed by consent decree to clean up its voter rolls.

In July, ACRU, represented by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), sued the county because it has more voters on the rolls than living citizens.  The lawsuit, filed by PILF and Mississippi attorney Henry Ross, alleged a violation of Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), which requires maintenance of accurate voter rolls.

In 2013, the ACRU secured Section 8 agreements with Walthall and Jefferson Davis counties, and two weeks ago, on Nov. 12, sued a fourth Mississippi county, Noxubee, over its corrupted voter rolls.  

The agreement between the parties was approved by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, Hattiesburg Division, on Nov. 25. The agreement requires the Commission to begin identifying and removing voters who are no longer eligible to vote in Clarke County as early as April 2016. 

The ACRU originally notified the Commission by letter in June 2014 that its voter rolls were potentially in violation of federal election law. According to U.S. Census data and other public records, Clarke County, Mississippi had 12,646 registered voters, despite having a voting-age population of only 12,549. The Commission never responded to the notice letter.

The agreement also requires the Commission to periodically notify the ACRU in writing about the Commission’s efforts to clean up its voter rolls.

“Corrupted voter rolls have been a problem in Clarke County for years,” said ACRU Policy Board member J. Christian Adams, who is president and general counsel of the Public Interest Legal Foundation.  “This settlement is a positive step towards a cure and should give Mississippians confidence that their legitimate votes will not be cancelled out by an ineligible voter.”

The Obama Justice Department has shut down enforcement of Section 8 of the NVRA and thus allowed voters rolls around the nation to remain corrupted and filled with ineligible registrations. The ACRU is the only private party under NVRA to successfully sue to clean up county voter rolls.  

Policy Expert

J. Christian Adams is the President and General Counsel of the Public Interest Legal Foundation.   He served from 2005 to 2010 in the Voting Section at the United States Department of Justice. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department. He litigates election law cases throughout the United States and brought the first private party litigation resulting in the cleanup of corrupted voter rolls under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.  He represented multiple presidential campaigns in election litigation.  He successfully litigated the landmark case of United States v. Ike Brown in the Southern District of Mississippi, the first case brought under the Voting Rights Act on behalf of a discriminated-against white minority in NoxubeeCounty.  Prior to his time at the Justice Department, he served as General Counsel to the South Carolina Secretary of State.  He also serves as legal editor at PJ Media and appears frequently on Fox News and has appeared at National Review, Breitbart, the Washington Examiner, American Spectator, Washington Times and other publications. He also serves on the Policy Board of the American Civil Rights Union.  He has a law degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law. He is a member of the South Carolina and Virginia Bars.

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The ACRU publicly advances a constitutional understanding of Americans' essential rights and freedoms. It files amicus briefs in key civil rights cases and litigates to protect the integrity of our election process.

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