Search

RITE Backs DOJ Effort to Inspect Pennsylvania Voter Records

PHILADELPHIA, PA — Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (RITE), an organization dedicated to protecting the rule of law in elections, has filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in United States v. Pennsylvania. RITE’s brief supports the U.S. Department of Justice’s effort to obtain Pennsylvania voter-registration records as part of its enforcement of federal election laws, including the Help America Vote Act and the National Voter Registration Act.

The Justice Department requested Pennsylvania’s voter-registration records under the Civil Rights Act of 1960, which authorizes the Attorney General to inspect federal election records. Pennsylvania refused to comply. The Justice Department then sued to compel production, but a federal district court dismissed the government’s case.

“Congress gave the Attorney General broad authority to inspect election records for a reason,” said RITE President & CEO Justin Riemer. “DOJ should not have to prove that a violation has occurred before it can obtain the records needed to investigate whether one exists. That gets the statute backwards. Pennsylvania has experienced serious voter registration failures before, and recent events across the region demonstrate exactly why meaningful oversight and accurate voter rolls matter.”

RITE’s brief points to recent registration problems in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. New Jersey recently removed approximately 5,100 noncitizens from its voter rolls after officials discovered a motor-vehicle system error that had registered thousands of people who indicated they were not U.S. citizens. Pennsylvania previously acknowledged that approximately 8,700 noncitizens had inadvertently registered because of a longstanding problem in its own motor-voter system.

“There is nothing improper about investigating whether voter rolls contain people who are legally ineligible to vote,” Riemer continued. “Accurate voter rolls protect eligible voters and strengthen public confidence in election results.”

RITE urges the Third Circuit to reverse the district court’s judgment and allow the Justice Department’s action to proceed.

Receive RITE news and updates directly to your inbox.

Andrew C. McCarthy

Bestselling author Andrew C. McCarthy is a contributing editor at National Review, a senior fellow at National Review Institute, and a Fox News contributor. He is a former Chief Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York and led the terrorism prosecution against the “Blind Sheikh” (Omar Abdel Rahman) and eleven other jihadists for conducting a war of urban terrorism against the United States that included 

the 1993 World Trade Center  bombing and a plot to  bomb New York City landmarks. After working on other national security cases, including investigations in Africa after the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, he helped supervise the Justice Department’s command center near ground-zero in lower Manhattan following the 9/11 attacks. During his 20-year career as a prosecutor, he received numerous honors, including the Justice Department’s highest awards. He taught trial advocacy at New York Law School, and constitutional issues in criminal law at Fordham Law School. Andy speaks and writes widely on law and national security, radical Islam, politics, and culture. He has testified before Congress as an expert on issues of constitutional law, counterterrorism, and law-enforcement. In addition to his regular columns at National Review, Andy writes frequently for other major national publications. His most recent New York Times bestselling book is Ball of Collusion(Encounter Books, 2019), about the Russiagate controversy (an updated version was published in 2020). His other books include Willful Blindness (2008), The Grand Jihad (2010), Spring Fever: The Illusion of Islamic Democracy (2012), and Faithless Execution (2014). He has also written several pamphlets in the Broadside series published by Encounter Books, most recently Islam and Free Speech (2015).

Andrew C. McCarthy

Bestselling author Andrew C. McCarthy is a contributing editor at National Review, a senior fellow at National Review Institute, and a Fox News contributor. He is a former Chief Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York and led the terrorism prosecution against the “Blind Sheikh” (Omar Abdel Rahman) and eleven other jihadists for conducting a war of urban terrorism against the United States that included 

the 1993 World Trade Center  bombing and a plot to  bomb New York City landmarks. After working on other national security cases, including investigations in Africa after the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, he helped supervise the Justice Department’s command center near ground-zero in lower Manhattan following the 9/11 attacks. During his 20-year career as a prosecutor, he received numerous honors, including the Justice Department’s highest awards. He taught trial advocacy at New York Law School, and constitutional issues in criminal law at Fordham Law School. Andy speaks and writes widely on law and national security, radical Islam, politics, and culture. He has testified before Congress as an expert on issues of constitutional law, counterterrorism, and law-enforcement. In addition to his regular columns at National Review, Andy writes frequently for other major national publications. His most recent New York Times bestselling book is Ball of Collusion(Encounter Books, 2019), about the Russiagate controversy (an updated version was published in 2020). His other books include Willful Blindness (2008), The Grand Jihad (2010), Spring Fever: The Illusion of Islamic Democracy (2012), and Faithless Execution (2014). He has also written several pamphlets in the Broadside series published by Encounter Books, most recently Islam and Free Speech (2015).

Bobby Burchfield

Bobby R. Burchfield is a co-founder, with Karl Rove, of Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections, Inc., and currently serves as RITE’s Chairman. Before retiring from the practice of law in March 2021, after serving as a partner in three international law firms, Bobby was a trial and appellate  lawyer who tried cases before judges and juries and argued appeals throughout the United States. His cases addressed a broad  range of subjects  including antitrust, commercial  disputes, constitutional law,  election law, and class action issues. Bobby argued two important First Amendment cases

in the Supreme Court of the United States (McConnell v. FEC and McCutcheon v. FEC), as well as two dozen appeals in the lower courts. Over a 40-year career, Bobby never lost a jury trial. Among other recognitions, he was listed for many years in Best Lawyers in America, and Chambers Partners rated Bobby highly for Commercial Litigation and for Election Law. Bobby is an Adjunct Professor at George Washington Law School, teaching a seminar entitled “Fundamentals of Free Speech as Applied to Contemporary Issues.” He also serves on the Board of Trustees at Wake Forest University, is Vice President for Finance for the Executive Board of the National Capital Area Council of the Boy Scouts (NCAC), is Chair of two Super PACs, and serves on the Dean’s Advisory Board of the George Washington Law School. A graduate of Wake Forest University (BA 1976 with distinction in Economics and Political Theory) and the George Washington Law School (1979 with high honors), where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review, Bobby clerked for the Hon. Ruggero J. Aldisert of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He served as General Counsel of President George H.W. Bush’s Re-Election Campaign in 1992, by appointment of President George W. Bush on the Antitrust Advisory Commission (2005-07), and at the request of President Donald J. Trump as Ethics Advisor to the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust (2017-2021).

Bobby Burchfield

Bobby R. Burchfield is a co-founder, with Karl Rove, of Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections, Inc., and currently serves as RITE’s Chairman. Before retiring from the practice of law in March 2021, after serving as a partner in three international law firms, Bobby was a trial and appellate  lawyer who tried cases before judges and juries and argued appeals throughout the United States. His cases addressed a broad  range of subjects  including antitrust, commercial  disputes, constitutional law,  election law, and class action issues. Bobby argued two important First Amendment cases

in the Supreme Court of the United States (McConnell v. FEC and McCutcheon v. FEC), as well as two dozen appeals in the lower courts. Over a 40-year career, Bobby never lost a jury trial. Among other recognitions, he was listed for many years in Best Lawyers in America, and Chambers Partners rated Bobby highly for Commercial Litigation and for Election Law. Bobby is an Adjunct Professor at George Washington Law School, teaching a seminar entitled “Fundamentals of Free Speech as Applied to Contemporary Issues.” He also serves on the Board of Trustees at Wake Forest University, is Vice President for Finance for the Executive Board of the National Capital Area Council of the Boy Scouts (NCAC), is Chair of two Super PACs, and serves on the Dean’s Advisory Board of the George Washington Law School. A graduate of Wake Forest University (BA 1976 with distinction in Economics and Political Theory) and the George Washington Law School (1979 with high honors), where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review, Bobby clerked for the Hon. Ruggero J. Aldisert of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He served as General Counsel of President George H.W. Bush’s Re-Election Campaign in 1992, by appointment of President George W. Bush on the Antitrust Advisory Commission (2005-07), and at the request of President Donald J. Trump as Ethics Advisor to the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust (2017-2021).