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Washington State Having Difficulty Removing Felons From Voter Database [ Work Harder ]
Government Technology Magazine ^ | Oct 17, 2008 | Government Technology Magazine

Posted on 11/02/2008 7:06:54 AM PST by Son House

"Ever since we launched the statewide voter registration database back in January, 2006, we have been able to remove 160,000 invalid registrations, including a number who were signed up in more than one county, voters who had died, and convicted felons who have not had their voting rights restored," said state Elections Director Nick Handy. "But we would be the first to acknowledge that dealing with felon voters is a work in progress. Ultimately, we need state lawmakers to clear the way by passing reform legislation."

The state aggressively uses reliable and current data to scrub the voter rolls four times a year to remove ineligible felons, he said. The state uses information from the Department of Corrections and the Administrator of the Courts. The Elections Division made a conscious decision not to use data from the Washington State Patrol or historical files from the DOC because these records do not reveal whether a person is eligible or ineligible to vote.

During the past three years, 11,610 felon registrations have been cancelled.

Handy's comments came after KIRO-TV aired a story on offenders who are still on the voter rolls, some presumably without having had their voting rights restored. Handy took issue with methodology used in the story, but concurred that the state needs a better system for scrutinizing registrations of ineligible felon voters, particularly those who were convicted years ago.

Handy said the KIRO data is seriously flawed, and is reminiscent of the situation in Florida in 2000, where election officials purged over 57,000 possibly ineligible felons from the voter rolls, and later were roundly criticized for cancelling many legitimate voters in their sweep.

"The KIRO data stretches back to the 1800s and contains no information about whether voting rights have been restored," he said. "Most of the cases involve files that have already been closed by the Department of Corrections.

"There is no definitive list of people who are ineligible to vote and we do not simply revoke registrations based on speculative data or mere statistics. The government must have real evidence before we go cancelling a person's registration. To do otherwise would violate citizens' civil rights."

The Elections Division has been clear on the criteria for dealing with felons, and a six-page explanatory report has been posted on Secretary of State's Web site for weeks, he said. Still, Handy said, the Elections Division has consistently advised the Legislature of the need for reform.

"Great improvement has been made in screening registrations, but major reform still is needed when it comes to dealing with people who have been convicted of felonies at some point in their lives. The courts have changed the legal landscape several times in the past few years as we attempted to discern a `bright line' for when an ex-offender should have voting rights restored."

A central question has been whether the offender must complete not just imprisonment and community supervision, but also restitution and payment of all court costs and attorney fees before applying to a judge to have voting rights restored. That is the way state law reads, but a judge ruled that unconstitutional and said voting should be restored after inmates leave Department of Corrections jurisdiction. The state Supreme Court later reversed that.

The Legislature has debated the issue for the past several years, with the Senate passing legislation two years ago that would have restored voting rights after the offender completes the sentence and community supervision. The House rejected that, and the issue remains on the table for the upcoming session. For now, there is no "good-to-go" list that tells election officials that an individual has had voting rights restored _ and no definitive list of felons and ex-offenders who must not be allowed to vote.

"We are part of the Executive Branch, and it is up to the Legislature to settle this question, to write the policy changes and create a better, clearer, workable system of tracking felons and the judicial process, and dealing with the backlog of possible ineligible voters," Handy said. "We call upon the Legislature to act promptly."

If lawmakers do not change the current law about when voter rights are restored, they could mandate and finance databases that would track inmates status as they satisfy post-release restitution and financial obligations, and could require that the Administrator of the Courts keep records of all ex-convicts whose voting rights are restored by the Superior Courts.

The state is committed to aggressively dealing with the issue, even as a more complete answer is developed, Handy said.

"The Elections Division is diligently screening against all available reliable data," he said. "This remains, however, a work in progress. Unfortunately, reliable data does not exist for many felons whose convictions are many years old. Some of these felons may have had rights restored but others may not. No database exists in Washington state for these voters. Thus, any information about them is speculative, outdated, and unreliable."

While complimenting KIRO-TV for shining a light on the continuing issue, he said the report unfortunately relies at least in part on exactly the kind of data that is "speculative, outdated and unreliable. The KIRO story references data for whom no party knows with any certainty whether persons listed in the data have had voting rights restored or not. The data is speculative and not a sufficient basis for denying a person voting rights.

"Washington law does not disenfranchise a felon for life," Handy said. "Washington law allows felons to have voting rights restored when they have completed all of their obligations to society."

Handy gave this hypothetical example: "John is 70 years old and lives in a nursing home. John was convicted of felony assault in a barroom altercation in the 1950s and was required to pay restitution to the bar. The bar no longer exists. John believes he paid the restitution. No records exist on whether restitution was paid. No records are maintained by any public agency as to whether persons like John have had voting rights restored. John registered to vote many years ago based upon his belief that his voting rights had been restored. John would appear on any list like the KIRO list because he was convicted of a felony 50 years ago and is currently registered to vote.

Under the law, John is an eligible voter if he paid restitution. John is not an eligible voter if he did not pay restitution. John signed an oath on his voter registration form that his voting rights have been restored. Is John an eligible voter? Should the Secretary of State remove John from the voter rolls?"

Handy said flatly, "The Elections Division will not remove voters based on speculative data. The Elections Division will - and does -- investigate specific cases based upon credible evidence."

He added, "The voters cited in the KIRO story have signed an oath, under penalty of felony prosecution, that voting rights have been restored. No other data is submitted other than the fact that the person was convicted of a felony at some time in the past. The person may have had rights fully restored, the crime may have been a misdemeanor, not a felony, the crime may have been committed as juvenile offense, or the person may be improperly listed."


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: database; felons; felonvote; votefraud; voter; wa2008; washington
Wonder how many Government Bureaucrats 'Having Difficulty Removing Felons' are Øbama supporters?
1 posted on 11/02/2008 7:06:55 AM PST by Son House
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To: Libertina; blasater1960; conservative cat; cherry; SatinDoll; lilycicero; E. Cartman; Grunthor; ...
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Say WA? Evergreen State ping

FReepmail sionnsar if you want on or off this ping list.

Ping sionnsar if you see a Washington state related thread.

2 posted on 11/02/2008 7:07:44 AM PST by sionnsar (Obama?Bye-den!|Iran Azadi|5yst3m 0wn3d-it's N0t Y0ur5 (SONY)|http://trad-anglican.faithweb.com/)
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To: Son House
Ultimately, we need state lawmakers to clear the way by passing reform legislation.

An important point. Elections officials can't clean up the voter rolls if the legislature won't let them.

3 posted on 11/02/2008 7:08:52 AM PST by Tax-chick ("This is our duty: to zot their sorry arses into the next time zone." ~ Admin Mod)
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To: Son House
Remove one fraudulent registration - it is replaced by 10 more new, equally fraudulent ones.

If it's the last thing that McCain and the RNC should EVER do for this country. Together, with the backing of this administration, they should force this election in to neverending litigation. File local, state and federal lawsuits in EVERY state in this country. They should spend EVERY last penny in their coffers, and when that's gone ask for more.

4 posted on 11/02/2008 7:10:44 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: Son House

5 posted on 11/02/2008 7:10:56 AM PST by Diogenesis (Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum)
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To: Son House

I think the article points out the source of the difficulties, including the failure of the legislature to exactly define the point where voting rights are restored.


6 posted on 11/02/2008 7:11:49 AM PST by sionnsar (Obama?Bye-den!|Iran Azadi|5yst3m 0wn3d-it's N0t Y0ur5 (SONY)|http://trad-anglican.faithweb.com/)
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To: Tax-chick
An important point. Elections officials can't clean up the voter rolls if the legislature won't let them.

Why should we care about what the legislature wants when they don't care about what we want.

Purge the rolls and let the chips fall where they may. Pray for courage and integrity for our election officials.

7 posted on 11/02/2008 7:12:46 AM PST by pray4liberty (This election will separate the wheat from the tares. Watch, pray, work and VOTE!)
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To: Son House

I’m sure two days after the election the glitches will be fixed.


8 posted on 11/02/2008 7:14:38 AM PST by DemonDeac
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To: pray4liberty

That’s a good point.


9 posted on 11/02/2008 7:16:46 AM PST by Tax-chick ("This is our duty: to zot their sorry arses into the next time zone." ~ Admin Mod)
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To: Son House

Does this mean Florida is not the only state with a problem, could there be widespread voter fraud in other states?.

My post from another thread (below)
“Looks like Florida has some work to do, I would think this commitment means Florida’s efforts would to o ensure that no vote is negated by a fraudulent vote. Democrats IMA depend on voter fraud and lies (with the help of the factually challenged media) for as much as one third of their votes. Except for propaganda and fraud and would clean their house or go the way of the Whig party.”


10 posted on 11/02/2008 7:16:48 AM PST by Peter Horry (Mount Up Everybody and Ride to the Sound of the Guns .. Pat Buchanan)
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To: Son House
Reading this, a fantasy occurred in my mind ...

During the Obama regime, a great effort to clean up the votong rolls begins.

Unfortunately, anyone that has had even a traffic ticket is flagged and removed as a felon.

The removed voter doesn't realize this until the off year election of 2010, raises the hue and cry, begins the "investigation" to correct this travesty, but it's not resolved by the 2012 presidential election.

The Rolls have been purged of true American voters and the numbers haven't changed due to being replaced by illegals, foreigners and Mickey Mouse.



I base the possibility of this nightmare on the fact that my wife died in June of 2004, and having done nothing to have her name removed from our local voting roll, I was surprised she was gone from the book when I went to vote that November. Whomever is/was in charge of validating and updating voters rolls that year had taken it on their own to find out my wife was dead and removed her name.


Or worse ... it was all electronically done with no more human input than an obit is submitted to a public medium.

11 posted on 11/02/2008 7:35:37 AM PST by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true.)
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To: Son House

Well most of the “state employees”, county employees and other gov jobs are union represented. That is should be the first clue that the vast majority of people working with our ballots are O lovers.


12 posted on 11/02/2008 8:11:20 AM PST by ThisLittleLightofMine
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