Oregon election officials plan to start removing hundreds of thousands of inactive voters from the state’s registration lists — a long-delayed process now moving forward after mounting lawsuits and public criticism, Fox News reports.
In a press release issued Friday, Oregon’s Democratic Secretary of State Tobias Read announced two new directives aimed at resuming “routine cleanup of outdated, inactive voter registration records” in accordance with state law. The changes target roughly 800,000 inactive voter files currently sitting in Oregon’s system.
According to Fox News, “the first directive orders counties to immediately cancel long-inactive voter registrations that already met the legal requirements for removal before 2017. These are registrations where election mail was returned as undeliverable, voters failed to respond to official notices, and they did not participate in multiple federal elections. State officials estimate roughly 160,000 registrations fall into this category and should have been removed years ago.”
“The second directive changes how the state handles inactive voters going forward. It updates the language on voter confirmation cards to clearly warn voters that their registrations will be canceled if they do not respond or vote within the required time frame. State officials say this step restores a process that allows routine cleanup of inactive registrations under federal law.”
The directives aim to clear a backlog of inactive records and resume routine voter-roll maintenance after Oregon halted removals in 2017.
Read explained that the directives focus on clearing out outdated information to ensure Oregonians can trust that voter records remain current. He added that the goal from the start has been to administer elections that are “secure, fair, and accurate,” and that this step will enhance the voter rolls while building public confidence in the election process.
According to state data, inactive registrations make up about 20% of all voter records — roughly 800,000 in total. Officials stress, however, that those voters do not receive ballots. “None of the individuals associated with these records will receive ballots,” the statement reads, noting that the presence of inactive records does not affect election results.
In Oregon, being labeled “inactive” means that while your voter registration still exists, you will not receive ballots until your registration is reactivated. Nonetheless, inactive voters are included in the total count of registered voters, which many election experts argue can distort the accuracy of official voter data. They contend that an up-to-date voter roll should reflect only active, eligible voters.
Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project, told Fox News Digital that voter lists naturally change as people move or “can’t be located,” and that neglecting updates increases the “risk of errors and abuse.” Snead added that the issue is even more critical in mail-in voting states like Oregon, where ballots are sent automatically. If voter rolls aren’t current, ballots could be mailed to ineligible people. While the state insists inactive voters don’t receive ballots, Snead argued that Oregon’s administrative missteps — including a 2024 pause in its automatic voter registration program after some non-citizens were added — justify continued scrutiny.
“I think there’s clearly a degree of skepticism that’s warranted, and I think that it really speaks to the need to always be focused on the basics of election administration,” Snead said, according to the outlet. “Cleaning of the vote rolls is really one of the most foundational, important things that a secretary of state should be doing.”
The issue of voter roll maintenance has increasingly become a partisan debate. Republicans insist that stricter oversight protects election integrity, while Democrats accuse them of “attempting to ‘disenfranchise’ voters.”