[VoteRescue] TODAY IS LAST DAY TO CHECK VOTER REGISTRATION!

[Karen Renick]

TODAY, Monday, October 6, 2008 is the LAST DAY in Texas to register to 
vote, make changes to your registration in case you have moved (even if 
you have moved within your county) or to just make sure your 
registration is correct so that you will be able to vote on Nov. 4, 2008 
or during Early Voting which occurs October 20 - 31.  Don't take for 
granted you are correctly registered this year. See article below.
CALL YOUR COUNTY ELECTIONS OR TAX ACCESSORS / VOTER REGISTRATION OFFICE NOW!


Active Voters Purged Incorrectly by Suspended Voter Rules

By Mike Conwell

People with questions can write mike at mikeconwell.com 
<mailto:mike at mikeconwell.com>

There's a process in Texas intended to identify voters that have moved 
out of their political jurisdictions (counties) and to purge them from 
the voter rolls.   Unfortunately, problems have been identified that 
result in the erroneous removal voters who should not be caught in this 
process, as many as 1-2% of active voters.

 
*Suspended Voter Process*

The process begins at the beginning of each federal election cycle which 
can be simplified to January 1st of each even numbered year.

A Voter Registration Card (VRC) is mailed to the mailing address of 
every voter.  The card cannot be forwarded, and the Post Office is 
instructed to return every card that cannot be delivered directly.

Upon receiving a returned VRC, a voter's record is flagged with a 
suspense indicator.   A second mailer is sent to the voter at the same 
address.  This may be forwarded.  If the voter receives this, completes 
the card and returns it by mail it SHOULD remove the Suspense flag from 
the record and will correct the mailing address, if appropriate.

If no response is received, a third mailer is sent to the voter with the 
same expectations as the second mailer.

The voter remains on the voting rolls and CAN vote through the end of 
the second election cycle.  This translates to roughly three years for most.

The voter can vote and when she/he appears at the polls to vote, they 
should be asked to complete a Statement of Residence (SOR) Affidavit 
that allows them the opportunity to correct their address or affirm that 
their current address is the correct address.

The County Tax Assessor's office or the entity that maintains Voter 
Registration for that county receives the SOR, corrects the address and 
removes the flag from that voter.  The voter is now in Active status.

At the end of each election cycle, on or after November 30th of each 
even numbered year, a list of voters is compiled that includes voter 
records in Suspense status that have a Last Activity date that lies in 
the prior election cycle.  This list of voters is documented and purged 
from the voter rolls. 

For example:  A voter whose card bounces back in January of 2006, has a 
second mailer sent in February March and a third mailer sent in April or 
May of 2006, faces being removed from the rolls November 30th of 2008.  
The last activity date for that record is May of 2006.

*Shortcomings *

A very important point of failure regards the Counties and US Postal 
Service and their handling of the Voter Registration cards and 
subsequent two reminders, but that will be left out of this analysis.  
I'll be addressing what I call, the "Active Voters" who participate in 
elections during their term of suspension.

There are three identified points of failure for Active Voters and one 
very important shortcoming in the process.  

The shortcoming involves the fact that there is no way for the voter to 
be aware that they are in suspense status, and its implications as the 
process exists now, short of calling their voter registrar and 
specifically inquiring about their status.  

The two reminder cards sent at the beginning of the suspension process 
hint at this, but the language often results in inaction by the voter 
since many of them have not moved from their listed address.

*Points of Failure*

1)      Pollworkers and Election Judges failing to collect SOR's

a)      Fail to identify voter as Suspended during voter check-in

b)      Fail to collect SOR because address on record is voters current 
address and poll worker may believe this only affects voters who have moved.

c)       Pollworkers and Election Judges are not aware of implications 
for not collecting a Statement of Record.

d)      Tainted Pollworkers and Election Judges may choose not to 
collect Statements of Residence

e)      SOR's collected may be mishandled and not delivered to the 
County in correct envelopes.

2)      Election Division handling of SOR's

a)      Election Divisions are generally not responsible for the voter 
registration rolls and SOR's are simply forwarded to Tax Assessor's or 
correct party without any audit process, i.e., one for one match of 
Suspended Voter voting with a SOR turned in.

b)      SOR's lost or misplaced before being conveyed to Voter Registration

3)      Voter Registration/Tax Assessor's office

a)      A SOR that lists the same address for the voter may not  be used 
to remove the Suspended Flag from the voters record

b)      SOR may be applied to the wrong voter

c)       SOR may be used to create a new voter, but not clear the flag 
from the old voter.  New duplicate voter record may be purged later as a 
duplicate while old record is purged through Suspense process.

d)      A SOR is not applied to a voters record at all

e)      A SOR is lost or misplaced.

*The Result -- Casualties*

This process has gone on unnoticed for years.   County Clerk/Election 
Division staff that I have talked to had no idea that an active voter 
could be purged or SOR's not collected on this large of a scale.   Tax 
Assessor/Voter Registration Division staff are just doing their job and 
obeying law without regard to the affect on the voter.

The voter typically learns of their removal only when they appear to 
vote at their traditional polling place and told "I'm sorry, you're not 
registered to vote."   

Anecdotal evidence collected in Travis County concludes that less than 
one third of these voters attempt to vote using the Provisional Voter 
process, and those that due are denied one hundred percent thus far.  
The remaining two thirds either leave or complete a new Voter 
Registration Application while they are at the polls and then leave 
having not voted.

Over 20,000 voters have been identified in Harris County that had been 
purged in the Nov 00, 02, 04 and 06 purges.   5,000+ in the 04 and 06 
purges may find out during this election that they are not on the list.  
Harris County is unable to locate voting records for 27,000 people who 
voted in November 2000 so these numbers may be larger.

In Travis County, the numbers are smaller but proportionate to the 
Harris County numbers.  Travis County 2,234 active voters were purged in 
the Nov 04 and 06 purges.

*A Remedy*

There are many holes in this process, but there's one action that can at 
least prevent a voter from being purged based on problems at the County 
level, completely outside of the voter's control.

If a Voter is found to still be in suspense status after having voted in 
an election, the State of Texas should allow the voter to remain in 
suspense status, but the "Last Action" date will be moved forward to the 
date of the last election they participated in.  This way they will not 
be included in the upcoming purge and there will still be a way for them 
to update their record in subsequent elections.   A mailed Statement of 
Residence to their address would also be appropriate at this time.

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