SOS Doesn’t Keep ‘Deceased Retractions’ Reports from ERIC

(Portland, OR) – January 29, 2025: The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) filed a lawsuit against the Oregon Secretary of State for violations of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), commonly known as “Motor Voter.” The State is denying access to voter registration list maintenance records supplied by the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) because of a local policy not to retain the “monthly” reports.

Throughout 2023 and 2024, PILF requested “Deceased Retractions” reports from Oregon and other ERIC member states to gauge the number of impacted registered voters.

In 2024, Oregon denied PILF’s document inspection requests because of a policy to “not retain them.” In short, Oregon election officials say they review the files upon receipt but intentionally do not save them before being destroyed in an online document transfer portal. PILF’s lawsuit claims this policy violates the NVRA’s 24-month minimum document retention mandate.

“The NVRA requires document preservation and transparency,” said PILF President, J. Christian Adams. “This is a case that the Biden Justice Department should have brought, but instead private parties have been stuck enforcing federal election laws.”

The attorneys for the Public Interest Legal Foundation in this case are Noel Johnson and Samuel Swanson. Thomas Rask and Julie Parrish of Portland-based Kell, Alterman & Runstein, L.L.P. serve as the Foundation’s local counsel.

Read the full complaint here.

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