CAPE COUNTY CORRECTING VOTER ROLLS

JACKSON, Mo. -- Cape Girardeau County has about 1,400 voters on its rolls who the Missouri secretary of state's office says also may be registered elsewhere in the state.

But it is up to the county clerk's office to go through all the names and determine which voters have moved away and should be removed from the voter rolls.

Sherri Lomedico of the county clerk's office in Jackson sorts through the list. She estimated Wednesday that about 430 of the county's 48,000 registered voters might be removed from the Cape Girardeau County rolls after all the names have been checked on the current list, which was received in January.

Lomedico said the county receives a duplicate registration list by e-mail from the secretary of state's office every six months. But the list has some flaws, she said.

The list comes from a computer search of voter registration records statewide. A search singles out those voters who have the same first and last names and birth dates -- even if their middle initials and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers don't match, a clear indication they aren't the same individuals, Lomedico said.

The result, she said, is that some of the individuals listed aren't actually registered in more than one county.

Years ago, voters' birth dates weren't listed on registration records and Social Security numbers weren't listed, making today's computer matches even more difficult. In the past two or three years, the last four digits of Social Security numbers have been recorded to better identify voters.

A spokesman for Secretary of State Matt Blunt said Blunt hopes eventually to provide better records for local election authorities to weed out duplicate registrations.

"We definitely want to improve the system," Spence Jackson said. "We want to get the data out more quickly and efficiently."

Reducing the number of duplicate registrations around the state should increase voter confidence in the election process, he said.

Lomedico said the secretary of state's office, then headed by Bekki Cook, began sending duplicate registration lists to the Cape County clerk's office in July 1998.

Each e-mailed list, when printed out, amounts to about 87 pages of names, she said. Lomedico estimated that each time, about 400 names are removed from the county's voter registration rolls.

College students on list

Where there is actual duplication, the list reflects voters who have moved into the county or to another county or the city of St. Louis and re-registered. College students are among those who often register in their home county and end up registering again when they go away to school. Her list shows several voters registered here and in Boone County, home of the University of Missouri in Columbia, and Greene County, home of Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield.

The staff of U.S. Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo., has been studying duplicate voter registrations because of concern about possible vote fraud in the St. Louis area in the Nov. 7 election.

Bond's staff has reviewed duplicate registration lists of St. Louis city and county. Bond spokesman Ernie Blazar said the senator's staff reviewed 10 percent of the names and found that four voters had moved from Cape Girardeau County to the city of St. Louis.

Bond's aides have reviewed 2,438 of the duplicate St. Louis registrations. Almost 75 percent have moved in the past five years and registered to vote elsewhere in the state, the senator's office reported.

Cape Girardeau County's Lomedico said the lists from the secretary of state's office help local election officials update their voter registration records and avoid unnecessary mailing of voter cards to people who no longer live in that jurisdiction.

"It saves time and money," said Lomedico.

She said the lists involving Cape Girardeau County voter registrations haven't uncovered any voter fraud.