The Indianapolis Star has a long story today titled "11,214 on rolls in 2 counties: Analysis finds voters who are registered in Marion, another county." Some quotes:
Lists of Indiana voters that will be used in next week's election include thousands of people registered in two counties and long-dead voters, according to an Indianapolis Star analysis.One section of the story that struck me as odd is this, which seems to forget that East Chicago is located in Indiana and has been the national poster-child for absentee voter fraud:In Marion County, at least 50 registered voters who died six years or more ago, and even Gov. Frank O'Bannon, who died just over a year ago, remain on the rolls, according to The Star's review of thousands of voter registration records.
The Star's database analysis also found that nearly 3,500 voters are registered in both Marion and Hamilton counties, and a nearly equal number are registered in both Marion and Johnson counties. In all, more than 11,000 voters are registered both in Marion and in one of the surrounding counties. * * *
In Indiana, thousands of errors may exist in voter databases for years, in large part because federal law makes it difficult to remove outdated registrations.In the past, for instance, registration officials could remove a listing based on an obituary in the newspaper. The federal "motor voter" act, which became effective in 1995, required much more -- and in the view of some election officials, unnecessary -- proof in the form of official documents. * * *
The Star matched a list of deceased residents from a Social Security database to Marion County's voter list and found several dozen cases of people who had died and were still registered. However, the analysis could find no instances of votes cast using the name of a deceased person.
Other officials note that voter fraud cases are rare in Indiana. Recent cases around the country have tended to involve absentee ballots.Posted by Marcia Oddi at October 28, 2004 08:39 AMEast Chicago, for example, replayed its 2003 mayoral primary this week because courts found widespread absentee ballot fraud. In Miami, the city's 1997 mayoral election results were overturned after absentee ballot fraud was discovered.