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« Comments Deleted | Main | State Comptroller Proposes State Grab Control Of Local Public Schools » November 21, 2006I See Dead People
 Memphis political investigative blogger John Harvey has checked the state of Tennessee's voter database and found more than 7,000 dead people are still registered to vote in Tennessee - and, equally shocking, more than 5,600 voters who are registered twice. He reports on his blog:Why do I feel like a voice in the wilderness? I keep pointing out problems with the election commission in Shelby County and nothing happens. Now, I have been given a copy of the state voter database by the Republican Party for analysis. Checking the oldest 200,000 voters, I find over 7,000 people who are deceased. This doesn't include the voters who had birthdates from the 1800s or 01/01/01. Checking for voters who might have two registrations in the state, I find over 5,600. Why doesn't this alarm other people? Why doesn't the state election commission push for a state-wide voter database?I suspect we'll be hearing more about this in the days ahead... Meanwhile, please note that it is an unpaid blogger, not a paid professional political reporter, who uncovered this story. Posted in Tennessee Government News
Comments
What story? The story would be if any of those duplicate registrants attempted to cast multiple votes, or if the dead folks attempted to cast a vote at all. There's your story. If either of those actually happened. Multiple registrations are easy: move to a new county then register to vote there. When your new county forwards the information to your old county, the old county election commission is supposed to purge your voter information. I wonder how far down the list of their things-to-do that is... I also imagine that getting a decedant removed from the rolls probably isn't top of the list for estate executors, either. But after two years of no votes cast (as I recall), their name is automatically purged from the rolls, anyway. Posted by: Anne at November 21, 2006 4:22 PMMultiple registrations are easy: move to a new county then register to vote there. When your new county forwards the information to your old county, the old county election commission is supposed to purge your voter information. I wonder how far down the list of their things-to-do that is... I also imagine that getting a decedant removed from the rolls probably isn't top of the list for estate executors, either. But after two years of no votes cast (as I recall), their name is automatically purged from the rolls, anyway. That's the problem! Many voters in Tennesse are like you. They believe the government is taking care of this problem. The fact that there are multiple registrations in a statewide database should tell you the system doesn't work. As to purging the databases, we've found voters who died over 40 years ago, still on the rolls in Shelby County. I would imagine the rest of the state is in better shape, but 7,000 dead folk on this rolls is disturbing. It opens up the possibility of voter fraud, if they are allowed to remain on the rolls. Can you say absentee vote? The participating voter list for this past election isn't available yet. That is another problem, you have ten days to file a protest on the elections, but they don't release the data until after that time has expired. Wonder why not? If you pay a death tax you oughtta git to vote ;) Seriously, it all comes back to the multi-biometric global passport/national id card again. J/Speedy might work just as well -- think easy pass voting. But why not vote by phone then? Or use that internet thingie they let us pay our taxes by ( they just don't let us choose who gets to spend the money by that means -- isn't that called "irony"? ). Posted by: Ed Dodds at November 22, 2006 7:38 AMThis seems more like a byproduct of red tape bureaucracy than a real scandal. But I'll definitely be watching Mr. Harvey's page for updates on his research. Posted by: brittney at November 22, 2006 9:56 AMPost a comment
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