Report Says Flawed Florida Voter Rolls Portend Election Disaster

TAMPA, FL — As a presidential battleground state and a party focus for increasing voter turnout, Florida is ill-prepared for the number of mail-in votes it will receive during the November general election, according to a new report published by the nonprofit Public Interest Legal Foundation.

Unveiled this week, the foundation's analysis found that Florida’s voter rolls include widespread deceased and duplicate registrants, the potential for double voting and registrants with nonresidential addresses.

“Florida’s concerning registered voter lists paired with the expected surge in vote by mail this fall is like watching a high-speed train collision occur in slow motion,” PILF President and General Counsel J. Christian Adams said. “As a must-win state for both political parties, Florida’s history with election integrity, ballot counting and voter rolls makes it particularly vulnerable to potential errors and fraud as we near Election Day. Our report’s findings will hopefully spur action by election supervisors and officials across the state to protect the integrity of the coming elections.”

Due to potential health risks posed by the coronavirus, a record number of voters are expected to forgo casting their ballot at their polling precinct and vote by mail instead.

Key findings from “Is Florida Ready for the 2020 Elections” report include:

• Deceased registrants — South Florida dominates in terms of deceased registrants remaining on the voter rolls, with Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade among the top counties. As of October 2019:
  • Palm Beach: 3,656 deceased voters on list and 139 votes cast by deceased voters.
  • Broward: 3,339 deceased voters on list and 10 votes cast by deceased voters.
  • Miami-Dade: 2,323 deceased voters on list and 45 votes cast by deceased voters.
  • Hillsborough: 1,121 deceased voters on list and nine votes cast by deceased voters.
  • Orange: 1,000 deceased voters on list and nine votes cast by deceased voters.
• Nonresidential addresses — Nationally, during the 2018 general election, 35,800 ballots were cast in 41 states, including Florida, from nonresidential addresses. Florida was among the top 10 states with 1,267 registrants on the voter rolls who were later determined to either not have a residence anywhere in the state or who were simply made up.
• Double voting – 1,836 Floridians’ records indicate that they voted twice in a national election, with a second vote being cast in a different state.

All Florida counties now use VR Systems software for managing its voter registration. But, according to PILF, when it comes to ensuring that new voter registration applications are processed correctly, the system continues to have a significant software problem in that it automatically pre-populates the most important information on the application form:

▶ The applicant is NOT a felon
▶ The applicant is NOT mentally
incompetent
▶ The applicant has signed the Oath
stating that he is a U.S. citizen
▶ The applicant has provided a legible
signature

According to the VR Systems manual provided by Miami-Dade County, if any of these are missing from the application, it is to be categorized as "Incomplete." However, the staff member inputting the record must be careful to uncheck these boxes or else it will go through the database as “Complete.”

In Palm Beach, the foundation found that human error in data input accounted for at least 19 noncitizens becoming registered to vote, even after they had checked "no" in response to the U.S. citizenship question.

As a result, the foundation has recommended changing the default settings on its VR Systems for processing applications.

The Florida report is part of a larger PILF project that collected and standardized 42 states’ voter data and marks the first of several state reports to be published in the coming weeks.

Courtesy PILF