LAWRENCE COUNTY Election board to address problems

The board saw problems with the lists while doing surveys last summer.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- The Lawrence County Election Board was expected to meet in special session today to address concerns by the county Bush-Cheney committee, which found about 70 dead people still registered to vote in the county.
Committee representative Diane Marcella said the group has other voter registration concerns, including questions about people who have moved, are listed twice, or a listed by both married and previous names. They have also found people who are not U.S. citizens.
The committee contacted the elections office by letter Monday. County commissioners, who are the county election board, called today's special meeting to learn more about those concerns, said Commissioner Dan Vogler.
Marcella said she started seeing problems last summer when she started conducting telephone surveys for the Bush-Cheney campaign with voter lists supplied by the campaign. She said they made about 5,000 calls, finding 70 dead people.
Other problems
She did not compile the numbers of people who have moved or are listed twice with previous and married names or are not citizens. She said those called were both Republicans and Democrats.
"I've mentioned it to people and they said this goes on all the time," she said.
Marcella said she hopes that these practices can change and better registration lists can be compiled. She said they did compare lists of the dead with voter registration. It showed some voting activity for about 18 of the 70 people in the last few years, according to a print out made by the group.
Marlene Gabriel, Lawrence County elections director, said the county receives notification from the state health department to purge its records of the dead. They also scour local newspapers for obituaries. She said that practice was suspended a few years ago by the state, but later reinstated.
Not easy
Gabriel said they are aware of problems with voter registration in every county. She said there is no easy way to purge lists and sometimes it takes up to six months for the health department to notify her office of a death.
She said there also is no easy way to take someone off the list who may have moved or changed their name due to marriage.
"That's the biggest complaint of election directors," she said.
While there are problems, Gabriel said she doesn't believe there is voter fraud.
She noted that the poll workers and judges of elections are all residents of those precincts and often know the voters personally.
She said the election workers are often diligent enough to pull out absentee ballots of those who voted, but died before election day.
Bush-Cheney supporters say they just want to ensure there are no problems Tuesday. Marcella said they will have people watching polls that may have been identified as problem areas.
"We just want a legitimate, fair vote," said Jan Farrington, one of the campaign volunteers.
cioffi@vindy.com