Posted on 09/10/2001 4:15:47 PM PDT by dvan
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 31, 2001 CONTACT: David Blount, 601-359-6342 Secretary of State Eric Clark's Select Task Force on Elections Procedures and Technology has targeted the state's inaccurate voter rolls for improvement.
"Keeping accurate voter rolls is the first step in running fair and honest elections," Clark said. "With the advances we've seen in technology and communication, now is the time to change improve upon the old procedures for keeping our rolls up-to-date."
"From our efforts to clean up the voter rolls in recent years, we have learned that we need greater uniformity between the computer systems of different counties and the state government," Clark said. "Each county needs to be able to 'talk' electronically with other counties and our office. We need a system in which all counties gather the same information about voters in the same format, and can use computers to compare voter rolls with every other county and with a statewide list. We can use new technology to get cleaner voter rolls."
The creation of a statewide voter registration system was the first recommendation of the National Commission on Federal Election Reform announced earlier this month. The reports called for "statewide computerized voter file [that] should be networked with and accessible to every election jurisdiction in the state so that any level can initiate registrations and updates with prompt notifications to others. It should also include provisions for sharing data with other states."
At Clark's urging, the Mississippi Legislature in 1997 passed a law to create a statewide list of registered voters. The purpose is to help county officials identify people who should be removed from the rolls. These include people who had died, moved from one county to another, or been convicted of a crime resulting in the loss of voting rights.
In 1997, 45 counties had more registered voters than people of voting age. Today, 33 counties are in that situation.
"Maintaining an accurate list of 2 million voters in our state, with changes occurring every day, is a tough challenge," Clark said. "The Census Bureau estimates that more than 15 percent of eligible voters moved from one voting district to another in the past year."
"Our Circuit Clerks and Election Commissioners are hard-working people who take their responsibilities very seriously. They need better technological tools to do their job as well as possible."
"Our task force is working to produce a practical game plan to clean up the voter rolls. It will take money to implement this plan. We can do it slowly with local funds, or much more quickly if we can get federal funding," Clark said.
"This is not just a Mississippi problem. Virtually all states are working on cleaning up their voter rolls. In the aftermath of the Florida problems, the U. S. Congress is considering several bills that would provide money to the states for cleaning up the voter rolls, as well as helping to buy new voting machines. Passage of such federal legislation would be a big help to us in Mississippi," Clark said.
In addition to voter rolls, Clark's task force will focus on other election issues in the coming months including voting machines (like punch cards), determining voter intent (such as how ballots are marked on different types of machines, whether by chads or blackened ovals), reducing the number of good ballots that are not counted (under-votes and over-votes), and seeking standard procedures for all counties so that voters are treated the same regardless of where they live.
The Select Task Force is comprised of 25 members appointed by the Secretary of State, the Lieutenant Governor and the Speaker of House, and other state and local leaders.
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