Fayette election bureau to remove thousands of inactive voters from county rolls
Over 3,000 inactive voters were removed from the county’s rolls Tuesday, said Fayette County Election Bureau Director Marybeth Kuznik.
“We want to keep the voter rolls as accurate and as up-to-date as possible,” Kuznik said. “We have to do it in the confines of the federal and state law …It’s an important process.”
Kuznik said the purge is done annually to maintain an accurate list of eligible voters in the county.
According to state law, inactive voters who either fail to respond to the election bureau’s change-of-address letters or who do not vote in two consecutive federal elections are removed from the voter rolls.
This year the county removed 3,146 inactive voters from the county’s rolls, according to Kuznik.
Every year the Department of State receives National Change of Address notices from the U.S. Postal Service, along with information from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and other state agencies, that some voters may have moved.
From there, the county election board attempts to notify them to help keep voter records as up-to-date as possible.
“Over the summer, we send letters to these voters and ask them to confirm their address information. We don’t want voters on our list who are no longer residents of the county, but we also don’t want to remove anyone from the voter rolls incorrectly or accidentally, because the right to vote is so important,” Kuznik said.
Once removed, voters must re-register for future elections, a process Kuznik said is very simple.
“It’s the exact same process as a first time voter,” she said. “You can come to the election bureau office and pick up a form, or you can do it online at vote.pa.gov where they can register or check their voter registration status.”
Other than a death notice or a court order, this process is the only way a voter’s registration can be canceled without the voter’s expressed written approval.
If a voter wants their registration to be cancelled, Kuznik said the forms to do that are available at the election bureau office and online.