One out of eight voting registrations is inaccurate, and about a quarter of those people eligible to cast a ballot are not even registered, according to a report released Tuesday by the Pew Center on the States.
The report describes a voting system in confusion, with about 1.8
million dead people listed on the rolls, some 2.8 million with active
registrations in more than one state and 12 million with serious enough errors
to make it unlikely that mail, from any political party or election board, can
reach the right destination. In all, some 24 million registrations contain
significant errors.
Intimidating Voters In Philadelphia during 2008 Election |
The United States has a long and rich history of voting, with both good and
bad elements. Fights over who is eligible to vote -- and how to get them to the
polls --- date back to colonial times, sometimes featuring outright fraud or
legal restrictions based on property ownership or education.
Even in the current election cycle, access to voting remains an issue. In
general, Democrats have argued for the broadest definition of voting with the
fewest obstacles, a position that favors their core groups of poor and young
voters. Conservatives generally raise questions about whether the system is too
open to fraud.
The problems identified in the Pew report are not a question of widespread
fraud; rather, the report calls for better use of technology to update voting
registration systems. In conjunction with the report, eight states -- Colorado,
Delaware, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Virginia and Washington -- said they
are working on a centralized data system to help identify people whose
registrations may be out of date.
“Voter registration is the gateway to participating in our democracy, but
these antiquated, paper-based systems are plagued with errors and
inefficiencies,” said David Becker, director of election initiatives at the Pew
Center on the States. “These problems waste taxpayer dollars, undermine voter
confidence, and fuel partisan disputes over the integrity of our elections.”
Outdated systems are also costly, the report found. In 2008, Oregon taxpayers
spent $4.11 per active voter to process registrations. By contrast, Canada,
which uses modern technology common in the private sector, devotes less than 35
cents per voter to process registrations.
“Proven solutions and technology are already in place in many government
offices and the private sector, and states can use them to improve the accuracy,
efficiency and cost-effectiveness of their systems,” Becker said. “State leaders
from across the country and from both parties are pioneering these solutions.
Pew supports their efforts to better serve voters and ensure the integrity of
the electoral process.”
The examination of the nation’s voter rolls was commissioned by Pew and
undertaken by RTI International, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research
institute.
Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, political parties fought over who
would be allowed to vote. States separately decide their own election
eligibility rules and maintain their own voter rolls.
Barriers to voting such as race and gender fell through the decades, even as
new obstacles -- literacy tests and poll taxes -- were imposed by the ruling
elites seeking to stay in power. Those obstacles, too, fell, often with the aid
of the courts and landmark federal legislation on voting rights.
But the issue of voting access is so politically sensitive, it remains on the
national agenda even in the 21st century.
In its most recent report on voting law changes ahead of the 2012
presidential election cycle, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York
University Law School found that “a wave of legislation tightening restrictions on
voting has suddenly swept across the country. More than 5 million Americans
could be affected by the new rules already put in place this year -- a number
larger than the margin of victory in two of the last three presidential
elections.”
States that have already cut back on voting rights will provide 171 electoral
votes in 2012 -- 63% of the 270 needed to win the presidency, the center’s
report found.
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