SOS Doesn’t Keep ‘Deceased Retractions’ Reports from ERIC
(Portland, OR) – April 7, 2025: The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) has reached a settlement with the Oregon Secretary of State regarding a lawsuit over violations of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and the state’s failure to retain key voter list maintenance records.
The litigation centered on Oregon’s prior practice of destroying “Deceased Retraction” reports received from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), which indicate when a voter previously flagged as deceased is later found to be alive.
PILF filed suit after Oregon officials admitted they received—but did not retain—these reports, a policy the Foundation argued violated the NVRA’s 24-month document retention requirement.
As part of the settlement, the Secretary of State has agreed to make reasonable efforts to obtain and retain future Deceased Retraction Reports in accordance with federal law.
“This settlement is a win for transparency and election integrity,” said PILF President J. Christian Adams. “No government should be allowed to destroy records showing it wrongly labeled living Americans as dead and removed them from the voter rolls.”
The lawsuit was part of PILF’s broader effort to assess how states handle voter list maintenance data from ERIC, particularly as it relates to erroneous removals based on death records. PILF submitted similar records requests to multiple states throughout 2023 and 2024.
Attorneys for the Public Interest Legal Foundation in this case were Noel Johnson and Samuel Swanson. Local counsel included Thomas Rask and Julie Parrish of Portland-based Kell, Alterman & Runstein, L.L.P.
Read the original complaint here.
For media inquiries, please contact: Douglas Blair/503-956-9899/dblair@publicinterestlegal.org
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Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) is the nation’s only public interest law firm dedicated wholly to election integrity. The Foundation exists to assist states and others to aid the cause of election integrity and fight against lawlessness in American elections. Drawing on numerous experts in the field, PILF seeks to protect the right to vote and preserve the Constitutional framework of American elections. PILF has brought lawsuits and won victories in Texas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and across the United States.