New York is known for a lot of things: The Big Apple, Niagara Falls, and Buffalo wings. The Empire State also lays claim to some of the worst voter rolls in the country, according to a new report from an election-integrity watchdog.
According to the Public Interest Legal Foundation, nearly 50,000 registrants on New York’s voter list are registered in at least one other state. About half of those — 24,873 registrants — are also registered in Florida. Another 6,247 have duplicate registrations in North Carolina, and another 5,724 are also on New Jersey’s voting rolls.
PILF’s review stated 6,788 cases of duplicate or triplicate registrations were found at the same residential addresses because of name variations, typographical errors, or missing Social Security data. The mess includes 3,845 registrants with placeholder or likely false birth dates going back to the turn of the 20th century.
A sample of 15 records found six registrants who had died dating back to 1998, and four registrants who could not be matched to any Social Security or credit bureau data, putting in doubt the authenticity of the records.
“New York is a disaster,” J. Christian Adams, president and general counsel of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, told The Federalist in an interview. “They have got millions of voters in New York who don’t have complete voter files, don’t have full names, don’t have driver’s license numbers, things required under federal law.”
‘Slipping Through the Cracks’
A lawsuit filed last month by Mount Vernon City Council candidate Bill Schwartz alleges the New York City suburb of some 80,000 residents saw its voter rolls surge by 30 percent — or nearly 10,000 voters — in the course of a year, and the numbers heavily favor Democrats, the New York Post reported. The complaint asserts the city’s voter rolls include registrants born as early as 1901, more than suggesting there are dead people in Mount Vernon’s voter file. Schwartz charges the list includes registrants who have not voted in over a decade.
“The requested relief arises from documented irregularities and credible allegations of election fraud in the June 24, 2025 Democratic Primary, including the unexplained addition of over 9,600 new voter IDs, purging of enrolled voters without notice, and mismatches in voter ID and registration data,” the lawsuit states.
Schwartz lost a party primary election in June, the Post reported. Mount Vernon is a Democratic Party stronghold in Westchester County.
“When the voter rolls are that sloppy and no one at the Board of Elections is answering questions, you start to wonder what else is slipping through the cracks — or being pushed through them,” Schwartz told the Post. “I’m asking the court to step in and make sure the November election and future elections are conducted fairly, transparently and by the book.”
‘We’ve Got to be Vigilant’
As The Federalist reported earlier this week, voter rolls are sloppy all over. The Public Interest Legal Foundation has tracked more than 19,000 registrants on Pennsylvania’s voter rolls with second registrations in other states. PILF found north of 32,000 suspect voter records in New Jersey. In Maine, the foundation flagged 18,453 apparently deceased registrants in the state’s voter files.
PILF successfully sued the state for refusing to release voter registration records as required under the National Voter Registration Act. In internal communications uncovered during the lawsuit, the watchdog said it found Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows’ office “flagged PILF and other organizations for government staff to discredit and attack on social media.”
“Other emails show coordination with left-wing advocacy groups to portray PILF and even other sitting Secretaries of State as purveyors of disinformation in the lead-up to congressional hearings,” asserts a PILF press release.
Dirty voter rolls in states across the country is an alarming concern as partisans prepare for next year’s midterm elections. Adams said the concern is particularly worrisome in key battleground states.
“It’s going to make a difference in places like Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Nevada,” he said, adding that “Nevada is worst of all.”
Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat, told NPR just days before November’s election what Democrat elections officials have long said: the system is safe and secure. Trust us.
“I hope, notwithstanding that recent news, that people look at numbers … and they understand that the system really is one of integrity,” Simon told the left-leaning news outlet. He was responding to a glitch in Minnesota’s new automatic voter registration system that added nearly 1,000 noncitizens to the voter rolls. Simon said elections officials quickly caught the “mistake” and removed the ineligible voters from the database.
PILF has sent letters to several state elections officials seeking meetings to further discuss sloppy voter rolls. Adams said failure to clean the voter lists of ineligible registrants presents a significant threat to election security.
“We’ve got to be vigilant. We’ve go to make sure everything is being done even-handed.”
PILF’s J. Christian Adams joins us to talk election integrity on the latest episode of The Federalist Radio Hour podcast.
Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.
