Registration issues won't be solved by ID law
Published April 8, 2014
Editorial by Rocky Mount Telegram, April 7, 2014.
A report issued last week by the N.C. State Board of Elections underscored glaring problems with voter registration in North Carolina and elsewhere. But it’s difficult to see how producing a photo ID at the polls will eliminate what might have occurred in the 2012 elections.
Executive Director Kim Strach, who compiled the report, urged caution even as she presented her findings.
A cross-check of voting rolls in 28 states uncovered 765 registered voters in North Carolina who shared the same name, same date of birth and same last four Social Security number digits of voters who were registered in another state. Strach’s investigation determined that those 765 people voted in both states.
Thousands more people who share the same names and dates of birth also were found registered in North Carolina and another state.
That’s a serious problem, to say the least. It calls for better communication between states’ election boards and more responsibility on the part of voters who move from one state to another without having their names stricken from the rolls of the state in which they previously lived.
But it’s hard to see how requiring a photo ID will help North Carolina poll workers prevent further incidents of the type that apparently occurred in 2012.
Checking a driver’s license or other acceptable form of identification will help poll workers determine whether the voter standing before them is the same one who is registered in their database in North Carolina. But without better cooperation between states, an ID won’t tell anyone whether the same voter is also registered somewhere else.
Nor will it prevent a newly relocated voter from requesting an absentee ballot from the state in which he or she previously lived.
Strach’s report uncovered serious issues with our current system of voter registration. But let’s not fool ourselves into thinking North Carolina’s new voter ID law will resolve the problem.
