Evans v. Clay

On October 3, 2018, the ACLU of Missouri filed a federal lawsuit, Evans v. Clay County Board of Election Commissioners, on behalf of plaintiff Denise Evans and other affected voters in Missouri. The suit alleged that the Clay County Board of Election Commissioners systematically purged thousands of eligible voters from registration rolls by improperly changing their status to “inactive” based on returned mail, without providing the required notices and waiting periods mandated by the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). The plaintiffs argued these actions violated the NVRA’s procedural safeguards and the constitutional right to vote, risking mass disenfranchisement just weeks before the November 2018 midterm elections.

The federal district court granted a preliminary injunction ordering Clay County to immediately restore wrongfully purged voters to active status and to cease further illegal removals, ensuring affected individuals could cast regular ballots in the upcoming election.

Whether the Clay County Board of Election Commissioners violated the National Voter Registration Act by systematically removing or inactivating registered voters without following mandated notice and waiting period requirements, and whether such actions infringed upon the constitutional right to vote.

The case highlighted the danger of aggressive voter roll maintenance and its disproportionate impact on marginalized communities. It reinforced the binding procedural protections of the NVRA, prompting greater scrutiny of election administration practices nationwide ahead of the 2018 midterms and leading to improved county-level voter registration safeguards.