New database cleaning up state’s voter rolls

OLYMPIA – More than 176,000 names were removed from voting rolls last year under a new statewide voter database developed to help counties find duplicate registrations and dead voters, Secretary of State Sam Reed said Tuesday.

The purge of illegal registrations is the result of the new system that consolidated all 39 separate county systems into one database in January 2006.

Reed said that from Jan. 1, 2006, to Dec. 31, 176,373 names were removed from the state’s database of about 3.2 million registered voters:

•39,814 duplicate voter registrations. Reed said these often happen when a voter moves across county lines, forgets to notify the local election office and then reregisters somewhere else. Under the new database, automated screenings for duplicate registrations are conducted each day, and reports of duplicate registrations generated for the counties, which confirm each record.

•40,105 deceased voter registrations. The database searches daily for names of deceased voters against databases from the Department of Health and the Social Security Master Death Index.

•4,500 felon voter registrations. A screening for the names of felons is conducted quarterly, using a list from the Department of Corrections to identify possible matches. Potential matches generated from the Department of Corrections list receive notification letters, giving the recipients 30 days to respond.

•91,954 active and inactive voter registrations, because voters move to other states or request cancellations of their registrations.

“We’re doing a good job of preventing problems,” Reed said. “We really are improving the integrity of the system itself.”

Reed said that he would be working with officials in California, Oregon, Idaho and Montana to see how they can all cross-check their voter rolls.

The database brought the state into compliance with the 2002 Help America Vote Act, which required better voting systems, improved voter access and statewide voter registration lists by Jan. 1, 2006.

Last month, Reed launched an oversight program of the database that requires election staff to review the database each month and research each possible match. Staff must also work with counties to collect missing information from voter registration records.

Reed said that elections officials also search for people who may have voted twice after each primary and general election. A search of the November found 61 pairs of records that appeared to be matches, but all but one pair were researched and resolved, such as cases of separate people having the same name and birth date.

One case in King County has been forwarded to the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

Reed said that just because a high number of names were removed doesn’t mean that there is anything fraudulent going on – it’s just that cross-database information makes it easier to quickly catch duplication registrations and voters who have recently died.

He said that for January and February of this year, 118,000 voters who haven’t cast ballots in the past four years were removed from the rolls.