Too cute, right?
This was in Thursday's New York Times. (Does this mean our votes might actually count on election day this year? Only time will tell.)
By Ian Urbina
In part: ...The Times article cited evidence of purges from the voter rolls in Colorado, Louisiana and Michigan within 90 days of a federal election, when the law allows states to remove only those who have died, moved out of state or been convicted of a felony. The article also described evidence that Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio were using the federal Social Security database to check and flag voter registration applications in ways that violated federal law.
...In Michigan, the elections director, Christopher Thomas, said the state had removed only about 11,000 voters from the rolls in August. The Times analysis, which was reviewed by two leading voting experts, found the number to be closer to 33,000.
...In Colorado, Mr. Coffman adamantly rejected The Times’s estimate of 37,000 voters taken off the roles in the three weeks after July 21. He said that the number of people removed from the rolls was about 14,000 and that most of them were people who had died or moved out of the state.
Under federal law, election officials are supposed to use the Social Security database to check a registration application only as a last resort, if no record of the applicant is found on state databases, like those for driver’s licenses or identification cards.
(complete article is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/10/us/10voting.html?ei=5070&emc=eta1)
Colorado to Review How It Purges Voters’ Names
By Ian Urbina
In part: ...The Times article cited evidence of purges from the voter rolls in Colorado, Louisiana and Michigan within 90 days of a federal election, when the law allows states to remove only those who have died, moved out of state or been convicted of a felony. The article also described evidence that Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio were using the federal Social Security database to check and flag voter registration applications in ways that violated federal law.
...In Michigan, the elections director, Christopher Thomas, said the state had removed only about 11,000 voters from the rolls in August. The Times analysis, which was reviewed by two leading voting experts, found the number to be closer to 33,000.
...In Colorado, Mr. Coffman adamantly rejected The Times’s estimate of 37,000 voters taken off the roles in the three weeks after July 21. He said that the number of people removed from the rolls was about 14,000 and that most of them were people who had died or moved out of the state.
Under federal law, election officials are supposed to use the Social Security database to check a registration application only as a last resort, if no record of the applicant is found on state databases, like those for driver’s licenses or identification cards.
(complete article is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/10/us/10voting.html?ei=5070&emc=eta1)
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