OFFICIALS TRY TO KEEP VOTING RECORDS UP TO DATE

Serious problems with voter registration and voting procedures in St. Louis are getting considerable scrutiny. The U.S. Justice Department is investigating the problems even as a federal grand jury examines claims of phony voter registrations, sloppy record-keeping and confusion at polling places.

While the possibility of serious illegal voting fraud certainly needs to be identified and corrected, there is an ever-present problem with voter registrations across Missouri that is also being addressed, thanks to computer-generated lists prepared by the secretary of state's office and shared with county clerks.

Since 1996, when Bekki Cook was secretary of state, lists showing the possibility of multiple voter registrations by the same person have been sent to county election officials, who then have the task of determining if there really is a problem.

For example, the most recent list sent to Cape Girardeau County officials by Secretary of State Matt Blunt shows about 1,400 questionable names. But county officials say the actual number of duplicate registrations is likely to be closer to 400 names.

There are various reasons for the duplication. For example, college students who register at age 18 often register again wherever they go off to school. As a result, there are names that match Cape Girardeau County voters who are also registered in Boone County, home of the University of Missouri-Columbia, and Greene County, home of Southwest Missouri State University.

Other duplication occurs when voters move from one county to another. These mobile Missourians do the right thing by registering to vote in their new county, but their names stay on registration records in the county they left.

For the most part, these duplicate registrations don't involve deliberate fraud or attempts to illegally vote in more than one county at a given election. But that is a very real possibility, and it certainly appears to be a real likelihood in St. Louis, where names on lists of new registered voters appear to be the names of dead people or prison inmates.

With computers, it would seem to be a simple task to match names -- including middle initials -- with Social Security numbers and other pertinent information. But voters who registered several years ago weren't required to provide such detailed information. However, the secretary of state's office is pursuing ways to make the lists of duplicate voters more accurate and timely.

At the same time, the focus should be on finding out if anyone is voting more than once in an election. That fraud would be significantly more onerous than Missourians who register to vote every time they move.