Posted on 08/10/2003 3:25:38 PM PDT by John Jorsett
Voter rolls in Broward and Miami-Dade counties are bloated with nearly half a million people who have never cast a ballot, a Herald investigation has found. They comprise 25 percent of the rolls, a troubling proportion that invites fraud and inflates election costs, possibly by millions of dollars. Election officials blame the ''motor-voter'' law, which made voter registration easier and purging the rolls more difficult. New legislation aims to clean up the rolls with better technology, but Florida lags two years behind a 2004 deadline. And in Broward, the elections office does not aggressively pursue voters who leave town but keep their county voting cards. The Herald found 475,069 South Florida voters who have ignored every Election Day since they registered. Tens of thousands of them have moved; some have died or gone to prison. ''We call it deadwood,'' said former Miami-Dade elections chief David Leahy, who held the job for two decades. ``Twenty-five percent -- that's high. We normally estimate 10 to 15 percent.'' In a random sample of 100 of these no-show voters, the Herald found people eligible to vote in Broward who had moved to Ocala, New York and as far away as Spain. One so-called active voter is a Coconut Creek man who died last year. Another sits in jail for violating probation on an armed robbery conviction -- a felony that should have knocked him off the rolls. Most of the deadwood in Broward and Miami-Dade has accumulated since 1995, when the motor-voter law took effect. It aimed to make voter registration more accessible by requiring driver's license agencies and other government offices to offer applications. It worked. The rolls in South Florida and across the nation swelled with new voters whose interest evaporated after they filled out the registration form. Since they signed up out of convenience rather than because of political interest, many did not choose either major party. While swelling the voter rolls, the motor-voter law prevented election officials from automatically removing voters who didn't go to the polls. BROWARD'S EFFORTS In Broward, robust population growth and the voter registration campaigns of Supervisor of Elections Miriam Oliphant helped boost the number past a million -- even higher than in more populous Miami-Dade. But Broward would not have surpassed the milestone if her office had purged relocated voters more aggressively. About 180,000 voter registration cards mailed in the fall were returned unopened, apparently because most of those voters had moved. ''It disturbs me to know that there is so much deadwood in Broward County,'' said Mayor Diana Wasserman-Rubin. ``One solution would be outreach into the community. Also, purging the lists.'' The consequences can be disastrous. Dozens of ex-residents and felons and one dead man illegally cast ballots in the 1997 Miami mayoral election, throwing city politics into chaos and prompting an appeals court to overturn the vote. The amount of deadwood on the rolls in Miami-Dade and Broward also makes these counties easy targets for unscrupulous voters and candidates. ''The system is very vulnerable to fraud, and it's hard to know how much is going on because it's illegal and underground,'' said G. Terry Madonna, director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs in Millersville, Pa. Hardened by its vote fraud experience, Miami-Dade is more proactive than Broward. The county sends notices every six months to voters who report address changes to the post office, warning that they will be purged from the rolls. Broward has not conducted such a mailing in four years. And Broward still has not finished reviewing the returned cards to determine whether those voters moved within the county, relocated elsewhere, or temporarily forwarded their mail and were unaware that the post office will not forward voting cards. The county has sent only 13,500 purge notices so far this year. In contrast, Miami-Dade has mailed 38,945. ''Removals are the lowest priority,'' said Bruce Eldridge, Broward assistant elections supervisor for systems. ``Changes of address and new registrations are more important because these are active voters.'' While electIons officials could not pinpoint the cost of carrying each voter on the rolls, deadwood clearly increases expenses for the cash-strapped elections office. Non-voters artificially inflate the demand for voter registration cards, sample ballots, poll workers and voting machines that must be maintained and programmed for each election. As the voter list gets longer, more employees are needed, along with office and warehouse space, cellular telephones and other office equipment. ''The price of democracy is high,'' said recently appointed Supervisor of Elections Constance Kaplan. It would cost only about $77,000 in Broward County to send purge notices to all voters who have reported new addresses. Officials say they can't afford the expense until the new budget year begins in October. Oliphant referred an interview request to her deputy, Ken Leb. ''I agree we need to get the list purged,'' he said. Neither he nor Kaplan defended the volume of deadwood. ''It is something we need to address,'' Kaplan said. ``But when you talk about purging, certain groups get very alarmed, and that's a concern for me. We want to maintain accurate rolls, but we also need to ensure that every qualified person can vote.'' In the 2000 presidential election, scores of black voters were turned away from the polls because their names were mistakenly erased from the rolls. Civil rights groups sued the state and seven counties, including Broward and Miami-Dade. Settlements restored voting rights to thousands. The chaotic election also generated a federal law that requires states to improve their voter roll upkeep. A new database will connect voter information with the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, the Social Security Administration and the U.S. Postal Service. The goal is to build a real-time voter list that election supervisors can depend on for accuracy. But Florida won't make a 2004 deadline and has asked for an extension to 2006. Meanwhile, The Herald found bloated voter rolls statewide. In more than half of Florida's 67 counties, the number of registered voters is more than 75 percent of the adult population, indicating a high number of voters who will never cast a ballot. ''Generally speaking, when you get up to 80 or 85 percent, you're carrying a lot of deadwood,'' said Madonna of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs. ``Every percentile above 75 amounts to an infinitesimal number of people actually voting.'' Broward's registration rate is 76 percent. Miami-Dade's is only 55 percent, mostly because of the large number of immigrants who cannot vote. The number of no-show voters in Miami-Dade, however, suggests that the rate should be even lower. Many election supervisors blame the deadwood on the motor-voter law. Only proof of death, a felony conviction, a finding of mental incapacity, or a move outside the county can trigger a voter's removal. Said Doug Lewis, executive director of the Election Center, a Texas-based association for election officials: ``They made registration as near permanent as you can get.'' Still, state law gives Florida election supervisors three options for updating their rolls every two years: • Comparing voter rolls with change-of-address forms filed with the post office. Former county residents get purge notices. Those who don't respond are put on the ''inactive'' list. If they do not vote in the next two federal elections, their names are removed. But voters who don't report new addresses fall through the cracks. Even if they register elsewhere, they won't be caught if they don't disclose their Broward registration. • Tracking correspondence returned from a countywide mailing, such as the distribution of voter registration cards. Voters whose cards come back get new ones with their correct addresses or purge notices if they left the county. • Sending address-confirmation notices to voters who have not gone to the polls in two years. The last time Broward reached out to these no-shows was 1995, said assistant supervisor Eldridge. He said it created too much ''data entry'' for the staff. ''It's a very daunting process for an organization of our size,'' he said. The elections office will compare its rolls with the change-of-address list this fall for the first time in four years. FREQUENT REVIEWS Miami-Dade reviews the change-of-address registry every six months. Employees even scan newspaper obituaries for voters, since the state's death list comes out several months behind. ''When you go through 1997, you get your act together, though it's never going to be perfect,'' said former elections supervisor Leahy, referring to the widespread voter fraud. Chicago is going even further to pare down deadwood. This month, poll workers and election employees are walking door-to-door to obtain the most updated voter information -- a massive undertaking in a city with 1.5 million voters. Election officials also send out address-confirmation notices to all voters once a year. ''It's much easier administratively to do a mail canvass, but you miss a segment of the population,'' said Tom Leach, spokesman for the Chicago Board of Elections. ``The cleaner the rolls, the less chance there is of fraud.'' That possibility concerns voters who have learned that previous residents are still registered to vote at their addresses. Sharon Malloy, 51, was astonished that the woman who sold her a house three years ago was still eligible to vote at the Dania Beach address. ''I think she moved to Virginia or Arkansas,'' Malloy said.
Dual birth certificates, etc., the "living" dead.
Democrats hard at work.
A factoid which sounds like pure propoganda considering the black voter turnout in Flordia was higher that it is for free cheese (to paraphrase one black Philadelphian who was equally skeptical of the near 100% turnout in some precincts of this state).
All the more reason for Republican controlled legislatures in both states to mandate adoption of the Nebraska and Maine system for assigning electors-- two for the state, one for each congressional district.
Well, clearly the answer is to make it legal, safe, and rare...
Assigned electors? You mean the Electoral College used only in presidential elections? The one mandated by the Federal Constitution?
Some people skim too lightly across many an article. Here's a quarter RB, please buy a clue.
Mandate adoption...Maine and Nebraska's system...You kill me.
The intent of the post seems pretty clear -- Republicans should pass legislation in Florida and Pennsylvania (or constitutional amendment, whatever) adopting the Maine/Nebraska system. I guess because both states have strong majorities of the congressional seats as Republican and we wouldn't have to worry about voter fraud in the cities throwing an entire state to the Democrat nominee. And of course it's only for the presidential election.
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