Clerks say task of updating voter rolls should remain responsibity of counties

Area county clerks believe their voter rolls are accurate and up-to-date despite a federal lawsuit alleging that many Missouri counties aren't doing a good job.

The lawsuit, filed against the Missouri Secretary of State, charges that some counties have more registered voters than voting age residents and that some counties don't check for voters who have moved or died.

Clerks in the area said they make a massive effort every two years to identify people who shouldn't be on the rolls. And tracking deaths is a constant chore, they said.

In Scott County, for example, County Clerk Rita Milam said she has two full-time employees working on voter registration lists. They check newspapers for area obituaries and follow up that data with monthly lists from the state Department of Health and Senior Services.

"It is just a never-ending thing," Milam said.

Data on total registered voters shows that Cape Girardeau, Scott, Bollinger and Perry counties had fluctuating voter rolls over the past seven years. For example, Cape Girardeau County had 47,943 registered voters in 2000. That number fell to 42,017 for 2002 and rose again to 48,654 in 2004. Scott County voter rolls were highest in 1998, with 26,597 voters. The number fell to 25,016 for the 2004 presidential election.

Clerks keep up with voter registrations by sending a new voter identification card every two years to everyone on the list. If the card comes back because the voter has moved, the name is moved to an inactive list, Cape Girardeau County Clerk Rodney Miller said.

The voters placed on the inactive list can report their new address at any time, even election day, and still vote as long as they did not move to a different county, Miller said. Voter rolls drop when names are purged after a voter misses two federal elections, he said.

Call for state control

The federal lawsuit wants the state to take more control over keeping voter rolls updated. Clerks said a new statewide electronic monitoring program will help tremendously to avoid dual registrations.

Currently county clerks rely on newly registered voters to tell them where they previously lived. The computer system will attempt to match names, birthdates and the last four digits of a Social Security number in a statewide database, said Randy Taylor, Perry County clerk.

"The minute you register in Perry County, it will send a message to Cape County that we have taken you," Taylor said.

Taylor said he understands how some counties can get behind in their work on voter lists. "There is quite a bit of expense in the two-year canvass," he said.

The area clerks were unanimous in their opposition to statewide control of voter rolls. The counties are the best place to handle the matters, they said.

"I don't know how you are going to handle that in Jefferson City in one office," Taylor said. "We feel we are keeping up without any problems."

Keeping up with deaths is relatively easy, Miller said. Keeping up with people who have moved is the big chore, he said.

Thousands of people move between each election, Miller noted. "Realistically, a voter has the responsibility to get their address changed, but sometimes they don't do that," he said. Keeping voters in the correct precinct is important because political subdivisions overlap and voters in one precinct may not vote on everything their neighbors in the next block see on the ballot.

The computer system should be running in January, according to the Secretary of State's office.