Posted on 11/27/2007 4:55:29 PM PST by Dubya
AUSTIN — More than 49,000 people on the Texas voter registration rolls in May may not have been eligible to vote, state auditors reported today.
The ineligible voters included 23,114 possible felons, 23,576 people who were deceased and 2,359 voters with duplicate records. The auditors said the ineligible voters represented 0.4 percent of the state's 12.3 million registered voters.
A spokesman for Secretary of State Phil Wilson said numerous improvements have been made in the state's Texas Election Administration Management system since the audit was performed in May.
"It has been no secret that TEAM had not performed at the level this agency and the county officials required, especially in the May election," said Scott Haywood. "However, since the conclusion of the audit our agency conducted a significant stress test and an election that showed vast improvements in the TEAM system."
Haywood said the secretary of state's office is continuing to work to improve the system "to ensure that TEAM is a system that election officials across the state can feel confident in."
While State Auditor John Keel's office found no instances of any of these people voting in the May special election on a constitutional amendment, the auditors said the voting history data was incomplete. There were 929,000 votes cast in the May election.
"Although the (Texas) secretary of state's office has processes to identify many ineligible voters and remove them from the state's voter registration list, improvements can be made," the audit said.
The auditors said the secretary of state's office does not maintain a list of people who previously were removed from voter lists because of death or felony convictions.
"This limits its ability to identify ineligible voters who may not have been previously removed, convicted felons who try to register multiple times or applicants who who a deceased person's information to register to vote," the audit said.
The audit said state officials also have no requirement that counties investigate and attempt to identify ineligible voters.
"As a result, voter registration records identified by the secretary of state's office as potentially ineligible may remain active indefinitely."
The secretary of state's office additionally has weaknesses in its backup system that increase the risk the office "would be able to promptly and fully recover from a disaster." The audit said the state also lacks the ability to monitor the electronic voter registration system for unauthorized access.
r.g.ratcliffe@chron.com
The “felons” will probably all vote for the Libertarian.
The “dead” and “duplicates” always vote democrat in TX.
This entire article is racist [/sarcasm off].
LBJ would be proud that TX politics hasn’t changed much from his time when the dead elected him.
Since at least 5 of them were Republican voters, this is a bipartisan problem :>)
Like my ole grandpappy from Fort Worth...he voted republican all his life...after that he voted democrat.
Gee, I wonder why the dimocraps would not want such a thing?
Are they sure about the "may" part?..(some of those deceased voters have better turnout than some of the live bodies around here)
I haven’t voted in Texas in 35 years. But since I was a registered Democrat back then, maybe I’m still voting..{{{{{{shudder}}}}}
But the dead one’s have already mailed in their ballots for next year!
Even after death liberals are hell bent on supporting the opposition party.
“Like my ole grandpappy from Fort Worth...he voted republican all his life...after that he voted democrat.”
Amazing how dying can change one’s politics in TX. ;-)
Actually, I don’t mean to pick on TX, because this happens in other states as well. If they would just make someone show a photo ID before they vote it would stop all this. However, somehow this is considered to be racist????? Something I could never understand.
And these have all been prosecuted - and loudly announced so that other double voters will be reluctant.
I know this has happened - I just must have missed it
Issue them drivers licenses; call it a "voter-motor progam" and sell it to the Democrat's as a solution to illegal voting.
What the heck, make them eligible for public office.
When the politicians realize they might lose their gravy train jobs to Pedro, they’ll fix the problem quicker than you can spit!
49,000 my butt.......add another zero just to make this a story
All you need is a utility bill from a registered voter to vote in Travis County. Someone should collect these for each local office holder and vote on the first day of early voting, so when they show up to vote...
Well, you see, the photos don't properly register certain races, due to the light, and uhm, well, you know, it's just RACIST!
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