SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. — A claim that there are more registered voters than those who are eligible to vote has spread on social media.
Chris Bish, a state congressional candidate, tweeted earlier in July that Sacramento County has 37,000 more people registered to vote than those who are eligible.
ABC10's sources to verify this claim include: Election Integrity Project California, a group that describes itself as defending the integrity of the voting process; and Janna Hayes, Sacramento County public information officer overseeing voter registration and elections.
The numbers come from an estimated census data of eligible citizens which puts Sacramento County's population at 1,028,719. The depicted chart states that Sacramento County's total voter registration is 1,065,456, leaving a difference of 36,737 voters.
Hayes said there's a factor that is not included in the data. Out of the total voters registered, there are more than 202,000 inactive registrations.
That is important because inactive voters do not receive any election materials in the mail. To be reactivated, they have to provide the elections office a declaration that they are still eligible to vote or re-register.
So, the statement that there are more registered voters than people eligible to vote is misleading, according to Sacramento County officials.
ABC10 can verify that it is not true and that there are many inactive voters in Sacramento County.
For the upcoming recall election, Sacramento County said that they will mail out about 864,000 ballots, a number far less than the number reported by the Election Integrity Project California of registered voters.
