Poli-ticks

Dirty voter rolls open the door to a corrupted system

By Arlene Violet
Posted 11/3/16

Rhode Island's voter rolls contain as many as 189,000 more names than they should, says a Providence Journal analysis. That is a huge discrepancy, given the fact that the base should be about 592,672 …

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Poli-ticks

Dirty voter rolls open the door to a corrupted system

Posted

Rhode Island's voter rolls contain as many as 189,000 more names than they should, says a Providence Journal analysis. That is a huge discrepancy, given the fact that the base should be about 592,672 voters according to census information. Yet, when confronted with such an astounding deviation Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea barely shrugged her shoulders and talked about the fact that she’s only been in office less than 2 years, so don’t blame her.

It is too much to ask that a secretary of state do the job for which she is most responsible, i.e. fair elections? Granted, this has been a festering problem for more years than she has been in office, but the democrats who have been elected to that post have done next to nothing to clean up the voting roster. It’s long past time to ensure that only the voters who should vote are eligible.

People move, people die, or get married and reregister under new names. Some states think they have the answer with The Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). This program uses several databases to match voters across state lines, comparing voter lists with DMV records, Social Security Administration records, and the Postal Service's national change of address registry, among other databases. (Incidentally, the same data should be mined to make sure that folks in welfare programs are eligible as well). John Doe is flagged if he appears in 2 or more states, because the system uses many touchpoints for identification which results in a 40 digit code per person. Because states share data, the system becomes stronger. If Rhode Island doesn’t belong to the system it should — though if it does, apparently nobody is checking the data. Other systems like the Voter Registration Crosscheck Program are another useful tool.

Assuming arguendo that somebody is mistakenly taken off the roster, then the state must ensure a timely notice and protection to voters before they are excised off the rolls.

Using such tools, Indiana identified more than 700,000 voter records that needed updating or were marked inactive. Other secretaries of state have sent out mailings which, if the second mailing comes back as undeliverable, shifts that person to inactive status. These states have a mechanism for the “undeliverables” to reinstate their status before an election.

Certainly, there is some evidence of voter fraud. In 8 Virginia counties 1046 registrants were removed because of citizenship problems. Pennsylvania has a similar problem. In Texas the federal district court this year required a clean-up of voter rolls in Zavala County. That county had a census of 105 percent of voters listed, a number far less than that which shows up on Rhode Island’s roster. Broward County, which figured in the election recount of Bush/Gore has also been shown to have a voter registration problem.

This state has a problem with a dirty voter roll. There’s no explaining it away. It is time for action. Citizens must make the cleanup of the voting registration the central issue if Ms. Gorbea seeks reelection or promotion to a higher post. Thank heavens, at least, voter picture identification is mandatory, a step fought fiercely by some democrats. Let’s all of us love this country enough to have eligible people exercising their voter franchise.

Arlene Violet is an attorney and former Rhode Island Attorney General.

Arlene Violet

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