Posted on 10/10/2008 11:12:58 AM PDT by mattfromva
Click2Houston.com Related To Story
UPDATED: 9:08 am CDT October 10, 2008
HOUSTON -- Note: The following story is a verbatim transcript of an Investigators story that aired on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2008, on KPRC Local 2 at 10 p.m.
Local 2 investigates dead voters.
The push to register voters for this year's presidential election is breaking records.
More than 1.9 million people are registered to vote in Harris County alone.
But how many of the people listed on the voter roll are actually eligible to cast a ballot?
Investigative reporter Amy Davis shows you how hundreds of voters could sway this year's election -- voters who are not even alive.
"All-in-all, a great person, a great woman, just a wonderful person" is how Alexis Guidry described her mother to Local 2 Investigates.
"As far back as I can remember, they've always voted in the election," Guidry said of her parents.
The March 2008 Primary was no exception. Voting records show Alexis' mom, Gloria Guidry, cast her ballot in person near her South Houston home.
"It was just very shocking, a little unsettling," said Alexis Guidry.
It's unsettling because Gloria Guidry died of cancer 10 months before the March Primary.
"She'd be very upset," Guidry said when asked what her mom would think.
Trent Seibert, of Texas Watchdog, says you should be too.
"This is really disquieting. It's concerning. It's worrisome," said Seibert.
He heads up the non-partisan news group on the web.
Texas Watchdog compared Harris County's voter registration roll with the Social Security death index and found more than 4,000 matches -- registered voters that, it appears, are already dead.
Some of them, like Henderson Hill's late wife Linda, voted postmortem.
"I would like to know who did it, myself," Hill told Davis.
We don't know who used Linda Hill's or Gloria Guidry's IDs to vote, but we do know if their names had been purged from voter rolls after they died, using their IDs wouldn't have worked.
"This is a red flag. No matter where you are, this should set off alarm bells," Seibert said. "Someone needs to take a look at this."
Local 2 Investigates took the information to the Harris County Voter Registrar.
"We just kind of work with the systems that we're allowed to," explained George Hammerlein, the director of Harris County Voter Registration.
The county's system for culling deceased voters from the roll seems painfully primitive.
We watched employees clip obituaries from the newspaper and sort through probate records for names matching those on the roll. But, Hammerlein says while fraud is a concern, for his office, disenfranchising voters is a bigger one.
"We do all we can, but you know we'd rather err on the side of leaving people on the roll instead of taking them off inadvertently," he said.
But could that cautious "better safe than sorry" standard sway an election some say will be a close one?
Texas Watchdog found 4,462 registered voters who appear to be deceased.
In 2000, George Bush won the presidential election by a mere 537 votes in Florida.
"We've never had any evidence there's a concerted attempt at fraud," Hammerlein told Local 2.
But there is evidence the state agency in charge of ensuring only eligible voters can vote is not.
The State Auditor's Office conducted an audit of the voter registration system at the Secretary of State's Office last November.
Auditors identified 49,049 registered voters state-wide who may have been ineligible to vote. Approximately 23,576 may have been deceased and another 23,114 were possible felons. And they found more than 2,359 duplicate records.
The auditor did not find any instances in which potentially ineligible voters actually voted, but they wrote, "Although the Secretary of State's office has processes to identify many ineligible voters and remove them from the State's voter registration list, improvements can be made."
Almost a year after this audit, we wanted to know if the Secretary of State has made any improvements. Have they added any safeguards to the process?
No one from that office would talk to us on camera, but the Director of Elections told us, "We'd rather err in leaving someone on the roll than taking someone off."
"If there's something wrong here, if there's something amiss, this is the worst election to have that happen, "Seibert warned.
And Guidry agrees.
"I don't think it's a matter that she would take lightly," she said of her mom.
In what she calls an historic election, Guidry says her mother wouldn't want anyone speaking for her.
"I think she would definitely do all that she could just to make sure things were on the up and up."
We sent the information we showed you to the Director of Elections in Austin. She said her office refers any credible allegation of election fraud to the Attorney General for investigation.
She said the cases we presented would be felony violations.
Visit www.texaswatchdog.org for more information about how Texas Watchdog found dead voters on the rolls.
More Information: Audit: Voter Registration System At Texas Secretary Of State Click2Houston Politics Section
If you have a news tip or question for KPRC Local 2 Investigates, drop them an e-mail or call their tipline at (713) 223-TIPS (8477).
Copyright 2008 by Click2Houston.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Can you modify that to read “Election ight of the VOTING dead”?
Actually, I don’t think that the county clerks offices care whether or not you are deceased or have moved.
I moved from CA three years ago. I registered in my new state and notified CA. I still receive voting information, etc. from CA. I could, if I was a cheat, vote twice!
I am glad that they are finding this out now ... and not after the election..
THAT is the source of the problem: The people (entrenched, self-serving democrat/socialist bureaucrats) who are guarding the voter roles DON'T WANT to find fraud.
Finding and exposing fraud exposes only democrat corruption, democrat votes.
Didn’t the stadium referendum pass on 1% vote margin for over a billion dollars in spending? Ken Lay was thanked for his efforts in acheiving that victory (seriously).
A hundred people.
Paul Bettencourt has purged many more:
http://www.tax.co.harris.tx.us/pressreleases/2004/voter/voterpurge12-10-04.asp
100,000+ VOTERS PURGED FROM VOTER ROLL
Smallest Purge Ever Shows Tax Office Updates Working
HOUSTON – December 10, 2004 – As Harris County’s Voter Registrar, Paul Bettencourt today announced the purging of 103,695 voters, or only 5.6 percent, from the voter registration roll resulting in a new total of 1,849,748 registered voters. The old total of 1,953,443 was a Harris County record.
“Preserving the integrity of the voter roll is paramount and involves year-round efforts, including confirmation mailings to voters on the move and frequent database matches to the National Change of Address database, Department of Public Safety motor vehicle database, and the Social Security index,” said Bettencourt.”
“On Election Day, 48,749 suspended voters updated their registration record by completing a Statement of Residence Form which helped greatly by placing voters back on the voter roll where they live.”
In Texas, the voter registration purge occurs on November 30, per Election Code 16.032, but the Secretary of State office recommends all Texas counties wait until the Statement of Residence forms submitted on Election Day are first processed. Of the 48,749 Statement of Residence form updates submitted, 1,705 were outside of Harris County and therefore deleted from the voter roll.
“We’ve worked to make it easy for a voter to update their record in person or online. Purged voters who still reside in Harris County or those that return can get back on the voter roll simply by registering to vote at their current address,” added Bettencourt.
the purge should occur BEFORE the election, not afterwards.
I was working one small precinct. He's responsible for entire County.
I did what I could with what I had.
Sorry if that doesn't meet with your approval.
Best.
L
I knew Eaker was sick but this is kind of sudden !!
RIP Eeeek !
Is the Mom dating yet ?
Yuk ....... yuk......yuk!
;<)
In an effort to obtain Universe Heath Care they've been asked to cast their ballots for Osama Bin Barracks! Seig Heil!
Hey, Jeraldo said on Fox this morning that just a couple hundred thousand people wouldn’t make a difference anyway.
I agree. It is time to bypass the media and take things like this to the American people like Reagan use to do. It is time for Republicans to stand up and fight or let one who will take their place.
I bet there’s more than that. Especially since we are a sanctuary city with all the illegals. Did you read where students away at college can vote there and at home. They have really got this voting scam down to a real art.
So, if you're a dead felon, you automatically get to vote twice?
4,000 dead voters in just one city? How about pets and illegal aliens? It wouldn’t surprise me if ACORN has registered several million illegal/nonexistent voters nationwide. The election system is overwhelmed — no way the FBI or FEC can get a handle on this in such a short period (before the election).
The U.S. is very close to reaching a banana republic status. ...as far as elections are concerned, at least. And without election integrity, we (literally) have nothing — our Constitutional Republic is dead. That being the case, I’m of the rather extreme opinion that those who knowingly commit voter fraud should get the death penalty.
Unbelievable.
In Texas, a family member can swear out an affidavit to remove someone who has died, or has moved out of that area.
The RNC needs to get Hawk-like officiators in every state looking over Every single ballot!
How long do you think this has going on? Surely not just for this election! We need to take back our country and introduce new voting methods across the board... photo ID, proof of citizenship, finger dipped in ink, I don’t care how! It just needs to be fixed!
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