Cleaning up voter rolls

Cleaning up voter rolls

Herald-Dispatch, Huntington, W.Va.: News reports about voting fraud in recent years have been a painful reminder to West Virginians that the election system is less than perfect. However, there may be even a bigger problem with the election system, not only in West Virginia but throughout the nation.

A report released by the Pew Center on the States said about 24 million voter registrations in the nation contain significant errors. For example, the study estimates the nation’s voter rolls contain names of 1.8 million dead people. Other problems involve people being registered in multiple states and out-of-date or inaccurate addresses for voters.

The study didn’t find evidence of widespread election fraud, but such a volume of inaccuracies is reason to rattle people’s confidence in the election system.

The main culprits behind all those inaccuracies, the Pew Center report said, are outdated registration systems that aren’t reflecting the most basic changes in people’s lives.

Among the possible remedies is using newer technology to create electronic databases of registered voters, including allowing people to register or update information online. In fact, eight states are working on a centralized data system to help identify people whose registrations may be out of date. The Pew Center believes a centralized system and online voter registrations will help save money by eliminating the need to print millions of forms, enter data by hand or send mail to outdated or incorrect addresses.

Doing all this in the short term will cost significant amounts of money. But updating the methods by which voter registration is conducted and monitored could save money in the long run and provide more accurate registration rolls.