Conservative groups are systematically attempting to challenge the legitimacy of large numbers of voter registrations across the country before the presidential election. The strategy is part of a wider effort raising questions about the integrity of this year’s election as former President Donald Trump repeatedly claims without evidence that his opponents are trying to cheat. The voter roll tactics include mass door-knocking campaigns, using special software designed to identify voters whose eligibility could be challenged and a crush of lawsuits. Some of those have been brought by the Republican National Committee, which hosts the GOP’s national convention this coming week. Several Republican secretaries of state are combing through voter lists on their own, including in Ohio and Tennessee, or to comply with aggressive new state voting laws. Those behind the reviews cast them as good government endeavors intended to help local election offices clean up the rolls. Voting rights groups and Democrats believe the effort aims to shake faith in the results of the 2024 election and lay the legal groundwork to challenge the results. Here is a look at what’s happening around voter roll challenges: States already must maintain their rolls “Soles to the Rolls” in Michigan, whose name echoes the “Souls to the Polls” get-out-the-vote efforts of Black churches, and Nevada’s Pigpen Project are among state-level initiatives in which volunteers are trying to find flaws in state voter rolls. Their findings can sound ominous: dead people or non-U.S. citizens registered, or people listed at addresses where they no longer live, suggesting the potential for double-voting. Conservative activists identify the suspect records, then deliver them to local or state election offices for possible removal. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, earlier this year told a suburban Detroit clerk to reinstate the registrations of about 1,000 people who had been removed through such an effort, after the purge was reported by The New York Times. Amy Cohen, executive director of the National Association of State Election Directors, said information from member states suggests the efforts are happening nationwide. She said many of the challenges ignore or misunderstand the complexity and legal requirements around maintaining voter rolls. The National Voter Registration Act already requires states to take steps to maintain accurate and current voter registration lists. Just because someone finds an outdated registration doesn’t mean election officials are unaware of it, Cohen said. “Voter registration lists are living, breathing databases,” she said. “That’s part of the challenge, because people move and die and change their names and just exist every single day, and when you get a list, you’re purchasing a moment in time. Registration activities and voter registration list maintenance activities are happening on an ongoing basis.” The fight for voter data Conservative groups behind the voter roll reviews have filed hundreds of public records requests across the country to gain access to voter files. In almost a quarter of states, the disputes have landed in the courts. One of their goals is to create public databases for anyone to search and question whether certain voters should be allowed on a state’s rolls. The Public Interest Legal Foundation, led by conservative attorney Cleta Mitchell, is behind challenges in Colorado, Hawaii, Michigan, Minnesota, South Carolina and Wisconsin. Mitchell is perhaps best known for participating in Trump’s call asking Georgia’s […]