Missouri has 4.2M registered out of 4.3M people

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

http://www.darnews.com/articles/2004/10/22/news/news5.txt

 

Voter rolls reach record, likely inflated

 

By DAVID A. LIEB ~ Associated Press Writer

 

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A record 4.2 million Missourians are registered to vote on Nov. 2 -- a figure so high that election officials acknowledge it likely is inflated by a large number of people who are registered more than once.

 

Statewide, there were fewer than 4.3 million voting-age residents, according to the most recent Census Bureau estimate. If Missouri's voter rolls were accurate, that would mean 98 percent of adults are registered to vote.

 

"We've wondered if there's anyone left in the state who is not registered," Betsy Byers, an election director for Secretary of State Matt Blunt, said Tuesday.

 

"It's inflated somewhat," she added, "but I don't know what to tell you as far as how much."

 

The inflated voter rolls could allow some people to illegally vote twice, Byers acknowledged. Yet a more likely outcome, she said, is that many of the duplicative registrants will vote only once or not at all -- and Missouri's voter turnout will appear lower than reality.

 

Missouri has no way of automatically updating its central voter registration database when a resident moves to another city, county or state. And under federal law, it can take more than four years to remove a voter whose address cannot be verified.

 

The result is that in 36 of Missouri's 114 counties, and in the city of St. Louis, more voters are registered for the November elections than there were residents age 18 and older in the July 2003 Census Bureau estimate, according to an analysis by The Associated Press.

 

At the top of that list is St. Louis -- a problem spot in the 2000 elections -- which has an estimated 246,320 voting-age residents yet has 281,316 registered voters. The city reports 65,993 of those voters as inactive, meaning their addresses haven't been verified and they haven't voted recently. Yet by virtue of remaining on the rolls, they still could vote in the November elections.

 

Byers said voter rolls may also be inflated in other counties because, like St. Louis, they have not followed procedures for removing people whose addresses cannot be verified.

 

Under federal law, local election authorities are supposed to periodically mail address verification cards to registered voters. If they are returned as undeliverable, then election officials are to mail a second notification that can be forwarded to a new address. If election officials still don't hear from the voters -- and they don't vote in the next two general elections -- then those voters can be removed from the rolls.

 

In St. Louis, election officials in past years didn't properly notify people that they could be dropped from the rolls if they didn't verify their addresses. As a result, the city's voter rolls still have people whose addresses haven't been verified and who haven't voted since 1992, said Jim O'Toole, the city's Democratic election director.

 

O'Toole said he expects about 40,000 people to be dropped from the city's voter rolls after the November election because two general elections will have passed since properly worded notifications were mailed.

 

Byers estimated that "a couple hundred thousand people" statewide could be removed from voter rolls after the November election for the same reason.

 

Statewide, 561,969 voters are classified as inactive.

 

In the November 2000 elections, some potential voters were turned away in St. Louis because their names were on inactive lists and couldn't quickly be verified. Because of long lines, a judge ordered the city's polls to stay open past closing time but was later reversed by an appellate court.

 

This year's statewide registration of 4,206,423 voters is up 9 percent from the 2000 elections. Because of a dip in voter rolls as names were removed, this year's total is up 14 percent from November 2002 and up 20 percent from the Aug. 3 party primaries.

 

I will admit that the system in Missouri is very disorganized (But if you like the job Matt Blunt's done with our elections, you can get him elected Governor!).. of course, a vast vast majority of people will vote once.

 

But this state could really use a better system of voter registration. Or any system for some of these things.

 

Now, if more people vote than live in counties, then the lawyers will swarm on the state. Unless our electoral votes end up being irrelevant.

[NoCalMike 0]

well also the fact that a lot of registered voters, don't vote anyway.

[Guest MikeSC]

I can't even mention that FL is well aware that voters are registered in multiple states and are unable to do anything.

 

And Philly has more registered voters than people of voting age. Can anybody defend that?

-=Mike

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

re. Philadelphia: probably dead people, and people who haven't voted and moved away.

 

There's steps to be taken. When it comes to Florida. One step involves checking to see if the same person voted in the same election in two states. I'd guess the same person would have the same SSN in two states as well. Unless they don't record that or something, which is unlikely

[Guest MikeSC]

re. Philadelphia: probably dead people, and people who haven't voted and moved away.

 

There's steps to be taken. When it comes to Florida. One step involves checking to see if the same person voted in the same election in two states. I'd guess the same person would have the same SSN in two states as well. Unless they don't record that or something, which is unlikely

Any attempts to take care of these problems are inevitably decried as "disenfranchisement" by the left.

 

One of Kerry's people has already said that if "all the votes are counted", Kerry will win. Gee, no chance of THAT possibly causing problems.

-=Mike

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

I'd love a national check of registrations to start narrowing down duplicates (people registered twice in one state, or in two states, and only keeping the newest registration). I doubt that will happen though.

 

And there should be better ways to remove deceased people from the rolls.

 

There's a bit of an exaggeration on the complaints of disenfranchisement too. If it's done by legitmate means, it's not disenfranchisement.

[Guest MikeSC]

I'd love a national check of registrations to start narrowing down duplicates (people registered twice in one state, or in two states, and only keeping the newest registration). I doubt that will happen though.

 

And there should be better ways to remove deceased people from the rolls.

 

There's a bit of an exaggeration on the complaints of disenfranchisement too. If it's done by legitmate means, it's not disenfranchisement.

Asking for some supervision on the SD Indian reservations, where Thune was utterly fucked in 2002, is considered racist and decried as disenfranchising people.

 

FL trying to fix up its voter rolls after the debacle of the 1998 Miami mayoral race --- and due to legislation signed by Lawton Chiles --- is called racist and disenfranchising.

 

In fact, a state would be wise to simply say, after the election, ALL registrations all null and void and you must re-register.

-=Mike

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

Asking for some supervision on the SD Indian reservations, where Thune was utterly fucked in 2002, is considered racist and decried as disenfranchising people.

there's possibly a bit more to that. Shooting that down would require some evidence that such observers would subconsciously intimidate voters or something like that. Which might be a bit unlikely.

 

FL trying to fix up its voter rolls after the debacle of the 1998 Miami mayoral race --- and due to legislation signed by Lawton Chiles --- is called racist and disenfranchising.

 

it seems that from some of the reports, that job had some flaws. Granted, the fact that there's not really a uniform standard for felons voting is bound to cause problems too.

 

In fact, a state would be wise to simply say, after the election, ALL registrations all null and void and you must re-register.

 

That would be even more of a clusterfuck than our current system.