http://www.dispatch.com/election/election-...1024-A1-00.html
Long gone but still registered
Ohio’s Election Day rolls include people who couldn’t—and shouldn’t—vote
Sunday, October 24, 2004
Jon Craig
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Ohio’s voter-registration rolls are dirty, containing more than 122,000 apparent duplicates as well as the names of people who moved out of state in the 1990s, a local murder victim and even a pair of accused terrorists.
Among supposedly eligible voters in Franklin County are suspected terrorists arrested for alleged plots to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge and a local shopping mall. As an imprisoned felon, one is ineligible to vote. The other, from Somalia, is not a U.S. citizen and thus broke state and federal laws when he registered in 1999, officials said.
Also on the voter rolls is an Upper Arlington man who moved to Washington state in the late 1990s, registered there, later moved to New York and now is registered there.
And the list includes a Columbus man’s adult children who moved out of state in 1997 and 1993 — despite the father’s attempt to get them removed.
"That’s really disturbing," said Ohio State University law professor Terri Enns. "There certainly are potential problems, but there are a lot of (Election Day) safeguards to keep it from swaying the election."
Accused terrorists Nuradin Abdi, 32, and Iyman Faris, 35, are registered to vote in Ohio. An indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court in June said Somali immigrant Abdi and admitted al-Qaida member Faris plotted with a third Columbus man to attack a mall.
Fred Alverson, a spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department, said Abdi’s false registration may violate state and federal law. In fact, the application he signed — swearing he is a U.S. citizen — notes that election falsification is punishable by up to six months in prison, a fine of $1,000 or both.
Faris, a Columbus truck driver, is serving a 20-year sentence after admitting that he scouted the Brooklyn Bridge in New York and other potential targets for al-Qaida as recently as March 2003. As an incarcerated felon, he will not be allowed to vote. Faris, from Kashmir, became a naturalized citizen in 1999.
A Dispatch computer analysis of current voter-registration rolls for all 88 counties identified at least 60 Ohio voters whose names have been registered three or more times.
Part of the problem stems from the names of inactive voters that clog registration lists.
Franklin County has more than 227,000 inactive voters — about a quarter of the county’s registered voters.
Voters are labeled "inactive" once they have failed to vote in two federal-election cycles and don’t respond to confirmation cards. Almost 1.9 million of Ohio’s more than 8.5 million registered voters haven’t cast a ballot since at least 1999, the Dispatch analysis found.
The inactives are a key reason the number of registered voters in at least seven Ohio counties — including Franklin, Cuyahoga and Licking — exceeds the estimated votingage population. Franklin County tops the list, with at least 30,000 more registered voters than residents who are at least 18 years old.
Franklin County elections officials blame a computer glitch caused by conversions made to guard against the Y2K bug for 94,000 of the inactive voters.
Matthew Damschroder, county elections director, said a database containing the names of people who were mailed confirmation letters was lost after the county installed faulty Y2K software in 1999.
Instead of purging the names of those voters, Damschroder said a decision was made to restart the four- to eight-year clock for removing their names. "We decided to err on the side of the voters," he said.
Damschroder and Carlo Lo-Paro, spokesman for Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, said there are procedures in place to assure people don’t vote under the names of inactive voters Nov. 2.
"The poll book is the first line of defense," LoParo said.
The books are marked reminding poll workers to ask inactive voters to verbally verify their addresses.
Also, if a signature doesn’t match the one on record, poll workers can ask further questions. Ultimately, a voter can be asked to present a driver’s license or utility bill to prove residency.
Michael Vu, director of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, said the goal is to prevent fraud, not drive people from the polls.
Franklin County’s voter list included the name of Brian C. Muha, an 18-year-old Westerville man murdered in Steubenville on Memorial Day 1999. His mother, Rachel, vaguely recalled getting his voterconfirmation card in the mail.
"It seems to me we received a card a few years ago telling us where Brian could vote," she said last week. "I suppose I should have called the board of elections. We haven’t received (a reminder) for this election."
Jerome R. Schindler, 61, of Columbus, said he notified poll workers, several times, that two of his children moved out of Ohio in the 1990s, "and they supposedly reported it to the board of elections. I have very little confidence in the way it’s run."
The county registration list still includes Anne Schindler, 33, who moved to Wilmington, N.C., in 1993 and her brother, Mark, 35, who moved to Minneapolis in 1997.
Theodore Hallett Nordlander, 32, is still registered to vote in Upper Arlington, but voter information in Washington state and New York shows Nordlander voted in Seattle in 2000 and 2001 and in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 2002. He could not be reached for comment last week.
The Dispatch computer analysis used a 67-county voter-registration list from the secretary of state (5,752,140 records as of Oct. 14) and a voter-registration list from the Franklin County Board of Elections (816,639 records as of Sept. 24). The remaining 20 counties came from the secretary of state as of May 2004 (1,223,920 records).
The file was sorted into two files to identify duplicates. Further analysis included calculating multiple occurrences of the same name and date of birth in the duplicates file as well as a county and ZIP code crosstabulation.
Dispatch researchers Jim Hunter and Linda Deitch contributed to this story.
Full Version: Ohio’s Election Day rolls include people who could
Common Ground Common Sense > Issues that Affect Our Lives > Civil Rights and Civil Liberties > Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Archive
QUOTE(JasonATexan @ Nov 20 2004, 08:33 PM)
http://www.dispatch.com/election/election-...1024-A1-00.html
Long gone but still registered
Ohio’s Election Day rolls include people who couldn’t—and shouldn’t—vote
Sunday, October 24, 2004
Jon Craig
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Ohio’s voter-registration rolls are dirty, containing more than 122,000 apparent duplicates as well as the names of people who moved out of state in the 1990s, a local murder victim and even a pair of accused terrorists.
Among supposedly eligible voters in Franklin County are suspected terrorists arrested for alleged plots to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge and a local shopping mall. As an imprisoned felon, one is ineligible to vote. The other, from Somalia, is not a U.S. citizen and thus broke state and federal laws when he registered in 1999, officials said.
Also on the voter rolls is an Upper Arlington man who moved to Washington state in the late 1990s, registered there, later moved to New York and now is registered there.
And the list includes a Columbus man’s adult children who moved out of state in 1997 and 1993 — despite the father’s attempt to get them removed.
"That’s really disturbing," said Ohio State University law professor Terri Enns. "There certainly are potential problems, but there are a lot of (Election Day) safeguards to keep it from swaying the election."
Accused terrorists Nuradin Abdi, 32, and Iyman Faris, 35, are registered to vote in Ohio. An indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court in June said Somali immigrant Abdi and admitted al-Qaida member Faris plotted with a third Columbus man to attack a mall.
Fred Alverson, a spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department, said Abdi’s false registration may violate state and federal law. In fact, the application he signed — swearing he is a U.S. citizen — notes that election falsification is punishable by up to six months in prison, a fine of $1,000 or both.
Faris, a Columbus truck driver, is serving a 20-year sentence after admitting that he scouted the Brooklyn Bridge in New York and other potential targets for al-Qaida as recently as March 2003. As an incarcerated felon, he will not be allowed to vote. Faris, from Kashmir, became a naturalized citizen in 1999.
A Dispatch computer analysis of current voter-registration rolls for all 88 counties identified at least 60 Ohio voters whose names have been registered three or more times.
Part of the problem stems from the names of inactive voters that clog registration lists.
Franklin County has more than 227,000 inactive voters — about a quarter of the county’s registered voters.
Voters are labeled "inactive" once they have failed to vote in two federal-election cycles and don’t respond to confirmation cards. Almost 1.9 million of Ohio’s more than 8.5 million registered voters haven’t cast a ballot since at least 1999, the Dispatch analysis found.
The inactives are a key reason the number of registered voters in at least seven Ohio counties — including Franklin, Cuyahoga and Licking — exceeds the estimated votingage population. Franklin County tops the list, with at least 30,000 more registered voters than residents who are at least 18 years old.
Franklin County elections officials blame a computer glitch caused by conversions made to guard against the Y2K bug for 94,000 of the inactive voters.
Matthew Damschroder, county elections director, said a database containing the names of people who were mailed confirmation letters was lost after the county installed faulty Y2K software in 1999.
Instead of purging the names of those voters, Damschroder said a decision was made to restart the four- to eight-year clock for removing their names. "We decided to err on the side of the voters," he said.
Damschroder and Carlo Lo-Paro, spokesman for Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, said there are procedures in place to assure people don’t vote under the names of inactive voters Nov. 2.
"The poll book is the first line of defense," LoParo said.
The books are marked reminding poll workers to ask inactive voters to verbally verify their addresses.
Also, if a signature doesn’t match the one on record, poll workers can ask further questions. Ultimately, a voter can be asked to present a driver’s license or utility bill to prove residency.
Michael Vu, director of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, said the goal is to prevent fraud, not drive people from the polls.
Franklin County’s voter list included the name of Brian C. Muha, an 18-year-old Westerville man murdered in Steubenville on Memorial Day 1999. His mother, Rachel, vaguely recalled getting his voterconfirmation card in the mail.
"It seems to me we received a card a few years ago telling us where Brian could vote," she said last week. "I suppose I should have called the board of elections. We haven’t received (a reminder) for this election."
Jerome R. Schindler, 61, of Columbus, said he notified poll workers, several times, that two of his children moved out of Ohio in the 1990s, "and they supposedly reported it to the board of elections. I have very little confidence in the way it’s run."
The county registration list still includes Anne Schindler, 33, who moved to Wilmington, N.C., in 1993 and her brother, Mark, 35, who moved to Minneapolis in 1997.
Theodore Hallett Nordlander, 32, is still registered to vote in Upper Arlington, but voter information in Washington state and New York shows Nordlander voted in Seattle in 2000 and 2001 and in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 2002. He could not be reached for comment last week.
The Dispatch computer analysis used a 67-county voter-registration list from the secretary of state (5,752,140 records as of Oct. 14) and a voter-registration list from the Franklin County Board of Elections (816,639 records as of Sept. 24). The remaining 20 counties came from the secretary of state as of May 2004 (1,223,920 records).
The file was sorted into two files to identify duplicates. Further analysis included calculating multiple occurrences of the same name and date of birth in the duplicates file as well as a county and ZIP code crosstabulation.
Dispatch researchers Jim Hunter and Linda Deitch contributed to this story.
Long gone but still registered
Ohio’s Election Day rolls include people who couldn’t—and shouldn’t—vote
Sunday, October 24, 2004
Jon Craig
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Ohio’s voter-registration rolls are dirty, containing more than 122,000 apparent duplicates as well as the names of people who moved out of state in the 1990s, a local murder victim and even a pair of accused terrorists.
Among supposedly eligible voters in Franklin County are suspected terrorists arrested for alleged plots to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge and a local shopping mall. As an imprisoned felon, one is ineligible to vote. The other, from Somalia, is not a U.S. citizen and thus broke state and federal laws when he registered in 1999, officials said.
Also on the voter rolls is an Upper Arlington man who moved to Washington state in the late 1990s, registered there, later moved to New York and now is registered there.
And the list includes a Columbus man’s adult children who moved out of state in 1997 and 1993 — despite the father’s attempt to get them removed.
"That’s really disturbing," said Ohio State University law professor Terri Enns. "There certainly are potential problems, but there are a lot of (Election Day) safeguards to keep it from swaying the election."
Accused terrorists Nuradin Abdi, 32, and Iyman Faris, 35, are registered to vote in Ohio. An indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court in June said Somali immigrant Abdi and admitted al-Qaida member Faris plotted with a third Columbus man to attack a mall.
Fred Alverson, a spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department, said Abdi’s false registration may violate state and federal law. In fact, the application he signed — swearing he is a U.S. citizen — notes that election falsification is punishable by up to six months in prison, a fine of $1,000 or both.
Faris, a Columbus truck driver, is serving a 20-year sentence after admitting that he scouted the Brooklyn Bridge in New York and other potential targets for al-Qaida as recently as March 2003. As an incarcerated felon, he will not be allowed to vote. Faris, from Kashmir, became a naturalized citizen in 1999.
A Dispatch computer analysis of current voter-registration rolls for all 88 counties identified at least 60 Ohio voters whose names have been registered three or more times.
Part of the problem stems from the names of inactive voters that clog registration lists.
Franklin County has more than 227,000 inactive voters — about a quarter of the county’s registered voters.
Voters are labeled "inactive" once they have failed to vote in two federal-election cycles and don’t respond to confirmation cards. Almost 1.9 million of Ohio’s more than 8.5 million registered voters haven’t cast a ballot since at least 1999, the Dispatch analysis found.
The inactives are a key reason the number of registered voters in at least seven Ohio counties — including Franklin, Cuyahoga and Licking — exceeds the estimated votingage population. Franklin County tops the list, with at least 30,000 more registered voters than residents who are at least 18 years old.
Franklin County elections officials blame a computer glitch caused by conversions made to guard against the Y2K bug for 94,000 of the inactive voters.
Matthew Damschroder, county elections director, said a database containing the names of people who were mailed confirmation letters was lost after the county installed faulty Y2K software in 1999.
Instead of purging the names of those voters, Damschroder said a decision was made to restart the four- to eight-year clock for removing their names. "We decided to err on the side of the voters," he said.
Damschroder and Carlo Lo-Paro, spokesman for Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, said there are procedures in place to assure people don’t vote under the names of inactive voters Nov. 2.
"The poll book is the first line of defense," LoParo said.
The books are marked reminding poll workers to ask inactive voters to verbally verify their addresses.
Also, if a signature doesn’t match the one on record, poll workers can ask further questions. Ultimately, a voter can be asked to present a driver’s license or utility bill to prove residency.
Michael Vu, director of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, said the goal is to prevent fraud, not drive people from the polls.
Franklin County’s voter list included the name of Brian C. Muha, an 18-year-old Westerville man murdered in Steubenville on Memorial Day 1999. His mother, Rachel, vaguely recalled getting his voterconfirmation card in the mail.
"It seems to me we received a card a few years ago telling us where Brian could vote," she said last week. "I suppose I should have called the board of elections. We haven’t received (a reminder) for this election."
Jerome R. Schindler, 61, of Columbus, said he notified poll workers, several times, that two of his children moved out of Ohio in the 1990s, "and they supposedly reported it to the board of elections. I have very little confidence in the way it’s run."
The county registration list still includes Anne Schindler, 33, who moved to Wilmington, N.C., in 1993 and her brother, Mark, 35, who moved to Minneapolis in 1997.
Theodore Hallett Nordlander, 32, is still registered to vote in Upper Arlington, but voter information in Washington state and New York shows Nordlander voted in Seattle in 2000 and 2001 and in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 2002. He could not be reached for comment last week.
The Dispatch computer analysis used a 67-county voter-registration list from the secretary of state (5,752,140 records as of Oct. 14) and a voter-registration list from the Franklin County Board of Elections (816,639 records as of Sept. 24). The remaining 20 counties came from the secretary of state as of May 2004 (1,223,920 records).
The file was sorted into two files to identify duplicates. Further analysis included calculating multiple occurrences of the same name and date of birth in the duplicates file as well as a county and ZIP code crosstabulation.
Dispatch researchers Jim Hunter and Linda Deitch contributed to this story.
There was no safeguards!!!! So the bogus vote records/felon lists rigged the whole election!!!! Hacked our democracy blind.
wonder who they voted for???
The article was written before the election...
The article was written before the election...
Another thing the republicans accomplished this election was have republicans in nursing homes vote by absentee ballot. Many of whom had Alzheimer’s and weren’t capable of making decisions. I also heard they were coached on who to vote for.
Now, let me say this, I feel everyone should vote, but those who aren’t capable of making decisions shouldn’t. This was a very desperate measure taken by the republican party. It appears they knew they were losing and grabbed at any straw they could find. I look for more of the same in the elections to come.
Now, let me say this, I feel everyone should vote, but those who aren’t capable of making decisions shouldn’t. This was a very desperate measure taken by the republican party. It appears they knew they were losing and grabbed at any straw they could find. I look for more of the same in the elections to come.
QUOTE(BrokeInOhio @ Nov 20 2004, 09:39 PM)
Another thing the republicans accomplished this election was have republicans in nursing homes vote by absentee ballot. Many of whom had Alzheimer’s and weren’t capable of making decisions. I also heard they were coached on who to vote for.
Now, let me say this, I feel everyone should vote, but those who aren’t capable of making decisions shouldn’t. This was a very desperate measure taken by the republican party. It appears they knew they were losing and grabbed at any straw they could find. I look for more of the same in the elections to come.
Now, let me say this, I feel everyone should vote, but those who aren’t capable of making decisions shouldn’t. This was a very desperate measure taken by the republican party. It appears they knew they were losing and grabbed at any straw they could find. I look for more of the same in the elections to come.
Actually, it is probably fitting that they voted for one of their own.
if there are too many irregularities then the election should be run again after all the lists have been scrutinized!
I thought the problem was there were more votes than registered voters. Now we learn there are more registered voters than people who are voting age. So doesn't that mean there are WAY more votes than registered voters now?
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