Opinion ID: 306444
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Use of off-year voter lists.

Text: 32 Ross argues that the Jury Commissioner violated the Act by refilling the master jury wheel with names taken from voter lists other than those for the most recent state or federal general election as required by 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1869 (c). It is clear that the required lists were not used. In the 1970 refilling of the master wheel from which Ross' jury was drawn, only two of the five counties in the relevant division provided lists from the 1968 general election. Of the three remaining counties, two provided lists that were current as of January, 1970, and one provided a list that was current as of December 4, 1969. However, while we agree with Ross that this practice violated section 1869(c), it is not such a substantial departure from the Act as would warrant reversal of his conviction. 33 It is conceded that the Plan could use either lists of persons registered to vote in the most recent state or federal election or lists of persons who actually voted at such election. 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1863 (b)(2). Under California law persons who do not vote in a general election are purged from the rolls unless they request reinstatement within a designated time. Cal.Elect.Code Sec. 383 (West Supp.1972). Thus, those non-conforming lists that were used in the 1970 refilling included the names of most of the persons who actually voted in the 1968 general election, persons who did not vote but requested to be reinstated, and persons who registered since the election (who, we might add, in view of Ross' other arguments in this case, would include young persons not eligible to vote in 1968). 34 Of those persons who voted in the 1968 election, the lists would not include the names of persons who moved to other counties in California and registered there, persons deceased since 1968, persons convicted of certain crimes since that time, and persons who requested that their names be removed from the registration list. Cal.Elect.Code Secs. 381, 383 (West Supp.1972), Secs. 385, 388 (West 1961). Only the latter group would have been eligible for jury service, 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1865, and it is unlikely that many persons request that their registration be cancelled. 35 In sum, use of the non-conforming lists probably resulted in a larger pool of potential jurors than if the counties involved had provided lists of persons who had actually voted in the 1968 general election. This is certainly consistent with the policies of the Act. We are not impressed by Ross' argument that use of these lists resulted in a biased sample of new registrants because young persons are far less interested in registering for local elections. This lack of interest is not confined to the young. As we observed above, there is no evidence that young people are inhibited from registering to vote, which is all that they need to do to qualify for jury service. 36 We therefore hold that the departure in this case from the literal requirements of section 1869(c) was the type of harmless error that does not entitle Ross to a reversal of his conviction. 37