A federal lawsuit has been filed by the Justice Department against Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, contending that Missouri has violated federal voter registration laws by not purging ineligible voters from its rolls. The complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City alleges the state has delegated voter registration to local jurisdictions, which have failed to remove the names of voters who have died, moved or otherwise become ineligible. The Justice Department claims the voter registration rolls in about a third of the state’s counties exceed the voting age population in those counties. The complaint states that in the November 2004 election, 29 jurisdictions had more registered voters than there were people of voting age in those jurisdictions. The jurisdiction with the highest ratio was Reynolds County, which had 151-percent of its 2004 voting age population registered. The Justice Department asks that the court order the Secretary of State to devise a plan to correct the problem within 30 days.
