Jefferson County has 11% more voter registrations than it does eligible voters. That’s according to a study conducted by Judicial Watch, a Washington, D.C. watchdog group known for suing states with dodgy voter rolls.

The study revealed that 353 counties across the country had 1.8 million more voters on their rolls than they did eligible voting-age citizens. Eight states had registration rates higher than 100% of possible eligible voters: Alaska, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont.

“The data highlights the recklessness of mailing blindly ballots and ballot applications to voter registration lists. Dirty voting rolls can mean dirty elections,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

Judicial Watch has successfully sued several states for having voting rolls that did not comply with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.

Other Washington counties showed registration rates above the maximum eligible voter rate: Garfield County, Pend Oreille County, San Juan County, Wahkiakum County, Stevens County, Pacific County, Clark County, Island County, Klickitat County, Thurston County, Lincoln County, Whatcom County, and Asotin County.

The Judicial Watch study indicates that Jefferson County has 2,770 ghost voters on its rolls. The Auditor reports there were 27,701 registrations on record for the November 3 election. That number of ballots would have been mailed out to whatever addresses were on record. According to the Judicial Watch findings, 11% of that number are not eligible voters for one reason or another.

In August, Port Townsend Free Press reported on how Jefferson County had invited non-residents to vote as though they were county residents by sending ballots to a couple that had moved to Texas. We never got an explanation from Jefferson County Auditor Rose Ann Carroll. We are reaching out to her again to seek her response to the Judicial Watch study and will report what she has to say if she answers our questions. We will also contact the Secretary of State Kim Wyman for her response.

Update: The table that accompanied the press release seems to be missing the data for Washington state. I have contacted Judicial Watch and requested that information.

Update: In response to this article, I was contacted by a couple in Arizona saying they had received Jefferson County ballots, and woman in Jefferson County who says a ballot was delivered for her daughter who moved to Texas about 2 years ago.

Update: I have not yet received from Judicial Watch the data they used. I am trying to speak with their public information officer, and was told I could reach her tomorrow. If you read their data on other states, they are using several categories of data, not just a fixed “eligible” versus “registered” comparison.

Judicial-Watch-Voter-Roll-Study-Oct-2020-1

Jefferson County Auditor Rose Ann Carroll in an email to County Manager Phillip Morley says the Judicial Watch analysis is incorrect. I will pass this on to Judicial Watch and seek their explanation. I also sent an email to the Auditor to ask how she calculated precisely 30,107 eligible voters and what steps her office takes to prevent people in other states from getting ballots, and why those measures appear to have failed. 

The number of voters receiving ballots in Carroll’s email to the city manager, 7,704, differs from the number of registered voters on the 11/6/20 canvas, which is 7,751, and is different than the number of registered voters shown on the Auditor’s website for “Current Election Results,” which is 7,701.

Yet Another Update: I stumbled on the Washington data in the table accompanying the Judicial Watch press release. It was not near the alphabetical end of their table, but in the middle. They grouped states by two categories and I initially missed that. Their data is taken from the Secretary of State’s website which apparently differs greatly with what the Jefferson County Auditor is reporting. The Washington Secretary of State, according to Judicial Watch, shows a total voter registration figure of 29,221 (the last figure to the right). That is the sum of active and inactive registrations from the immediately two proceeding columns. The eligible voter population they are reporting is 26,780, based on the Census Bureau’s most recent five-year estimate, which comes from data collected the monthly American Community Surveys. We still have a lot of unanswered questions. Auditor Carroll has promised an explanation to the Chair of the Jefferson County GOP by week’s end. By then I may have more information from Judicial Watch, as well.

I checked the link to the Secretary of State’s data (not active in the above snipped image, but in the original table) and it does not match the total or even active registration numbers on the Judicial Watch table. The SOS reports a total Jefferson County registration of 7,704. That is what the SOS shows as of now. I can’t say if there were different numbers there when Judicial Watch gathered its data. Also, I don’t know the source of the “inactive” registration figure. Back to waiting to hear from Judicial Watch and the Auditor.

Jim Scarantino

Jim Scarantino was the editor and founder of Port Townsend Free Press. He is happy in his new role as just a contributor writing on topics of concern to him. He spent the first 25 years of his professional life as a trial attorney, then launched an online investigative news website that broke several national stories. He is also the author of three crime novels. He resides in Jefferson County. See our “About” page for more information.