LAWRENCE COUNTY Elections effort satisfies team
A Republican phone survey team found dead people listed as eligible voters.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- The coordinator of a local telephone survey team for the Bush-Cheney committee is satisfied with Lawrence County elections office efforts to remove the names of deceased people from the voter registration rolls.
Diane Marcella led a small continent to a meeting Thursday of the Lawrence County Board of Elections to raise questions about the names of deceased people still listed on those rolls as well as questions about people who have moved but remain eligible to vote at their old addresses.
There are also cases of women showing up twice on the rolls, once under the maiden name and again under their married name, the group said.
Pointing out problems
Marcella said that she wasn't accusing anyone of voter fraud or any other questionable activity but that she wanted to point out problems that could lead to voter fraud.
After the meeting, she said she was "most definitely" satisfied the county is dealing with the issue.
Marcella said the problems cropped up when her phone bank of volunteers was making survey calls to both Republican and Democratic voters in the county.
She said her group came across the names of 70 dead people who were still on the rolls, and there could be more. Some have been dead as long as eight years, she added.
When board members questioned where she got the list her team was using, Marcella said it was supplied by the Bush-Cheney campaign.
Old list
Marlene Gabriel, the county's director of elections, said that was apparently an old list that doesn't necessarily match current voter registration rolls.
Marcella said the 70 names were cross-checked against the latest county data and 18 of the names still showed up on the county list.
She suggested there must be a better way to purge names.
Gabriel said counties are no longer allowed to automatically purge voters from the list if they fail to cast a vote in two years.
Now, the only way to remove them is through confirmation (normally through the Pennsylvania Department of Health) of their death or confirmation that they have moved.
It can take months for the state health department to process death notifications for the county, and the election office may never be informed that someone has moved but is still listed as eligible to vote in their old precinct, Gabriel said.
Who can act
That's something that poll workers and the voters themselves need to take care of, she said, noting most poll workers are familiar with voters in their precincts.
Explanations of how to deal with such issues are contained in the training manual the election office gives to its election workers every year at training sessions, Gabriel added.
Marcella said some poll workers told her they have reported these problems in the past but the county hasn't corrected the rolls.
Confirmation needed
Gabriel said changes are made when her office is informed of a problem. She repeated, however, that no changes can be made without proper confirmation, whether it be a death, a relocation of a voter or a woman getting married, she said.
"I think we're on target," said Dan Vogler, chairman of the county commissioners. Commissioners also serve as the elections board.
The main focus right now is to make sure Tuesday's election runs smoothly and efficiently, he said, adding that the county can then look later at what might need to be corrected in the registration process.