10,000 Dead Virginia Voters

The Virginia State Board of Elections provides an example of how states should be conducting election administration. While many U.S. counties have over 100 percent of living adults registered to vote, Virginia has none.  Even better, Virginia has purchased the Social Security Death Index database so state election officials can run computerized matches against Virginia voter rolls.

The new policy of the Virginia State Board has paid off.

Virginia’s initial sweep has yielded 10,000 dead voters who were never before removed from the rolls.  These zombies won’t be able to vote, through a criminal impersonator of course, in the 2012 presidential election.  Elected and appointed officials in Virgina deserve the praise of Virginia voters who don’t want their vote diluted in November. True the Vote, the nation’s leading election integrity watchdog, has issued this statement:

“This will go a long way to improve faith in our voting system and set a good example for others to follow,” True The Vote President Catherine Engelbrecht said. “The Commonwealth of Virginia’s recent decision to purchase the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File is the optimal tool necessary to affirm that the deceased will not have ballots waiting for them on November 6th. Every legal action that state and local authorities can take to improve our election system builds confidence in the process – voter list maintenance is the keystone to election integrity.”

The troubling part is that Virginia is one of the few states that have taken this step.  In many jurisdictions, election officials still scan obituaries for indications that someone has died.