Fair Elections in 2008

A story that ran in the Walla Walla UB back in march quoted Dino Rossi. as saying,"Since the “debacle” of the 2004 election, Rossi said Secretary of State Sam Reed has wiped 400,000 names of ineligible or deceased voters off the rolls and instituted other changes...."

Hmmm? This is interesting, so does Sam Reed's campaign web site. Stated under his 'accomplishments' in election reform:

"This state-of-the-art database now holds all of Washington's more than 3 million voter registration records. Since its activation, it has improved accuracy and helped to prevent opportunity for fraud in the state's elections. In fact, in just two years more than 400,000 improper voter registrations have been removed from Washington's voter rolls including duplicates, deceased voters, and felons."

The state-of-the-art database was launched in 2006 due to the requirements of HAVA. According to the states electons web page, voter registration data shows:

444,477 Inactive Registrations

But what is more alarming is the graph shown near the bottom of the page. It dosen't add up.

Where are the rest and why were they removed? If you add up the,duplicates, deceased voters, and felons, the tally is 148,473 voters. In the second line of the graph shows transactions that inactivate a registration, but what was the transaction? That is 411,981 voters since 2006. Where did they go and why?

While I do think a database is a modern tool needed by the state and purging a database is always warranted to keep vital records current. As long as the purged records are kept separate and can be verified.

I do see a great pitfall to having only one centralized database however without a back-up. As anyone in the tech industry knows, never put all your eggs in one basket and never,never ever have only one fox guarding the hen house.

Moral of this post: Check to make sure you are really registered to vote!