Grassroots Patriot Helped Election Officials Keep Voter Rolls Clean

After an accident left pharmaceutical executive Dave Carver a quadriplegic in 2013, he dedicated the rest of his life to cleaning up New Jersey’s voter rolls. It’s thankless work, in an environment where corporate media smear grassroots volunteers for their efforts — but Dave’s legacy shows the important work that ordinary citizens can do for election integrity.

As an evaluation of New Jersey’s voter rolls that he shared this month explained, Dave’s “expertise in data analysis and anomaly detection” paved the way for him “to meticulously evaluate state voter registration data uncovering inconsistencies and identifying trends.”

Dave, a self-described computer and data geek, assembled an amazing group of fellow “geeks” who developed sophisticated systems for obtaining, reviewing, analyzing, and correcting voter data in New Jersey’s 21 counties. Dave and his fellow volunteers established working relationships with county election administrators across the state. By approaching them with a “we are here to help” attitude, the team has been successful in working with the counties to identify and remove thousands of registrations that should no longer be on New Jersey’s voter rolls.

Dave Carver passed away on July 20, 2024, from complications of a recent heart attack. He had become one of the national leaders in viewing, reviewing, and helping to clean voter rolls in New Jersey and in helping volunteers from other states learn from his experiences.

Just over two weeks ago, Dave prepared and circulated a report detailing the work of his team since January 2021. It reflects the extensive and brilliant work that Dave was able to accomplish in New Jersey over the past three years.   

Dave was also a guest last year on my podcast “Who’s Counting?” where he talked about the important and valuable work of citizen volunteers in the effort to maintain accurate state voter lists.

I am often asked how the election integrity movement can possibly compete with the vast resources and the 10-year head start of leftist election groups. And I always say that, although we will never have the money the left has, although we will never have the number of well-funded groups the left has, we have patriots — thousands of volunteers who are dedicated to reclaiming the integrity of America’s elections so that we can save our country.

Dave was such a patriot. He devoted thousands of volunteer hours to assisting New Jersey election officials in doing their jobs on list maintenance. Because of him and others on his team, thousands of bad, incorrect, duplicate, or otherwise inaccurate registrations are no longer on the New Jersey voter rolls.

Over these past three years, the national corporate media have relentlessly ridiculed citizen patriots like Dave who devote themselves to this difficult and tedious work of voter roll maintenance. Outlets like CBS, the Associated Press, and NBC have belittled these volunteers and their efforts across the nation. In particular, Jane Timm from NBC seems to have created a “beat” for herself by attacking voter roll integrity advocates on an ongoing basis. She even coined a new derogatory term to hurl at these citizens, calling them “voter fraud hunters.”  

These so-called “journalists” don’t bother to write positive reports about the tireless work and countless hours spent by hundreds and hundreds of people like Dave Carver who analyze and seek to correct voter roll errors. 

I recently asked Timm why she views voter list maintenance efforts, which are required by federal and state law, negatively, but she did not respond.

Then there are the people supposedly on the side of election integrity — those who write self-aggrandizing articles chest-thumping about this or that technology they use and what they “know” about cleaning voter rolls — who have never removed a single bad registration in any state. They talk loudly but have nothing to show for their bravado.

Dave Carver was just the opposite: quiet, humble, and effective — and with thousands of invalid registrations removed from New Jersey’s voter rolls to show for it.

A few months ago, I asked the National Working Group on Voter Rolls, a weekly national meeting hosted by the Election Integrity Network, for updates from the states on their work, so that I could send a report to Glenn Beck, who had wished on his radio show that more people would get involved in cleaning up neglected election systems like messy voter rolls. (I sent my findings to Beck, some of which were then shared on his website.)

The state leaders’ responses reflected a phenomenal amount of work and completely unheralded stories of success after success, in county after county, state after state. It is a remarkable testament to the incredible dedication of hundreds and hundreds of volunteers like Dave working tirelessly across the nation.

We can all look to Dave Carver as an example to understand the importance of accurate voter lists and how citizens can be effective in that effort. Dave accomplished much with his brilliant mind, his gentle spirit, and his servant mentality.  

Rest in peace, dear Dave Carver. Prayers for God’s comfort to his family upon the death of this amazing man whose life is an inspiration to us all.

Dave will be sorely missed. 

Cleta Mitchell is the Founder of the Election Integrity Network, and the Senior Legal Fellow at the Conservative Partnership Institute.