Integrity of Voter Rolls

Recently, there were allegations of voter fraud in Pasco County.  My office initiated a thorough investigation into the allegations by True the Vote organization of Houston Texas which we found to be untrue.  My colleagues across the state were notified of the allegations through the Secretary of State’s office which received a letter from True the Vote organization regarding what it perceived as interstate ballet dilution in Florida and Maryland.  

True the Vote conducted a comparison of the voter registration rolls in the States of Maryland and Florida.  Of the 127 voters they identified as allegedly interstate double voting, three cases were identified as Pasco County voters.  In cooperation with the Maryland State Board of Elections, it was determined that the individuals were registered to vote in both states, however, none of the individuals had cast more than one ballot in any election.  Two of the voters had not voted in Florida since 2008, and one had never voted in either Maryland or Florida. 

Federal and state laws dictate that in order for a person to be removed from the voter rolls, the new state of residency must notify the former state of residency upon registering to vote, a signed notice must be received from the voter, or they may be removed as part of statutorily prescribed list maintenance procedures.  In the Pasco County cases, one voter had not provided the Maryland registrar with any previous registration address information, one responded to our list maintenance correspondence but failed to sign the document, and the third, although not an active voter, was only recently selected in April 2013 for list maintenance through the National Change of Address. 

These are perfect examples of how the statutes fall short of maintaining accurate voter registration rolls, and more specifically, how important it is for the voter to be proactive and take responsibility for the accuracy of their record.  The interstate procedure would have prevented the dual registration had the voter provided the prior registration information.  In the second example of the three voters, the voter nullified the notification by failing to sign the document, and in the third example, it likely that this voter maintains two residences in different states and is unaware of the laws regarding being dually registered to vote.

Recently, there is rarely an elections discussion where the topics of voters’ rights, disenfranchisement, and voter fraud are not included.  However, a discussion devoid of voters’ responsibilities as well, is much too subjective in achieving the common objective of electoral process integrity - beginning with accurate voter rolls.