What kind of voter registration databases are states required
to have?
What are the advantages of centralized databases?
How will the databases work?
How can states avoid purging legitimate voters' records?
Will states be able to implement databases by the 2006 deadline?
What if they cannot?
How much will it cost to implement the databases?
What privacy concerns are raised by voter databases?
What kind of voter registration databases
are states required to have?
The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) requires every state, by January 1,
2006, to have implemented and be maintaining an official, centralized, electronic
voter registration list that contains the name and registration information
of every legally registered voter in the state and assigns a unique identifier
to every legally registered voter. The database must be accessible to all election
officials in the state and must be able to interact with the databases of other
state agencies, including the motor vehicle authority. HAVA leaves the manner
of creating, operating, and maintaining these statewide voter registration lists
up to the states.
Sources/More Information:
State-by-State
Voter Registration Database Status
(Electionline.org)
Help America Vote Act: Section
303
Proposed
Guidelines for Implementing Statewide Voter Registration Lists 
(Election Assistance Commission)
What are the advantages of centralized
databases?
With the voting population constantly on the move, lists of registered voters
become out-of-date and inaccurate quickly. Centralized databases provide solutions
to these problems by allowing election officials to:
- link to motor vehicle agency databases to keep track of voters who have
moved;
- link to databases of social services agencies to enfranchise people with
historically low voting rates;
- link to correctional databases and courts, so that felons who have had their
voting rights suspended can be taken off the lists and people who have finished
serving their time can be restored to the lists;
- link to the Department of Vital Statistics so that it is easier to identify
and remove deceased voters from the rolls; and
- more easily purge the rolls of ineligible voters, duplicate registrations,
and voters who have moved and re-registered elsewherethus making it
more difficult to commit voter fraud.
How will the databases work?
Because HAVA leaves the specifics of database implementation up to the states,
there is a good deal of variation among voter registration databases. However,
the general concept behind the database is as follows: a voter fills out a registration
form including address and driver's license number or the last four digits of
the voter's Social Security number. Then the voter sends the form either to
a local election board's office or to the state (depending on the state's system).
Once the voter's form arrives, the information is entered into the database.
Then, the computer searches the database for a previous registration, and also
searches other databases maintained by agencies such as the DMV, social services,
corrections, and others to which it has access, for a record containing matching information.
If a substantial match is found, and the voter is eligible to vote (in other
words, if the voter is a U.S. citizen, over the age of eighteen, and has not
otherwise lost the right to vote), then the voter is entered into the database
as a registered voter.
The states have interpreted the requirements of HAVA differentlysome are merely
adjusting their current database systems to become HAVA-compliant, while others
are taking the database requirements as a mandate to overhaul their entire election
records system. For example, the Pennsylvania state government is in the process
of implementing a comprehensive election management system which will mail out
voter ID cards, help election officials manage absentee ballots, and provide
statistics post-election on turnout.
Sources/More Information:
Assorted
Rolls: Statewide Voter Registration Databases under HAVA
(Electionline.org) June 2005
How can states avoid purging legitimate
voters' records?
Sometimes eligible voters are purged from the voter rolls because of
administrative or human error; these sorts of purges can be eliminated by taking
extra steps to match voter registration with existing records.
- In verifying voter registrations, records that match some but not all voter
information can be audited for transposed characters, reversed names, and
other frequent errors; states can establish "substantial match" policies so
that applicants who have a significant part of their records matched within
state databases can be verified as registered.
- Names to be purged can be double-checked by an elections official from the
state or another county who is from another party.
- Before any name is removed from the voter rolls, the state should notify
the voter and provide him or her with the opportunity to correct any errors
or omissions.
- Statewide databases can keep electronic records of all additions and removals,
including attempts to remove names.
Sources/More Information:
Proposed
Guidelines for Implementing Statewide Voter Registration Lists
(Election Assistance Commission)
Comment
on Proposed EAC Guidelines
(Assorted Voting Rights, Civil Rights, and Civic Organizations) May 2005
Testimony
on Proposed EAC Guidelines
Wendy Weiser (Brennan Center for Justice) April 26, 2005
Principles
for Centralized Voter Registration Database
(Center for Voting Integrity)
Balancing
Access and Integrity: Chapter 3
Working Group on State Implementation of Election Reform (The Century Foundation)
July 2005
Purged!
How a Patchwork of Flawed Voting Systems Could Deprive Millions of Americans
of the Right to Vote
(ACLU) October 2004
Will states be able to implement databases
by the 2006 deadline? What if they cannot?
It is unclear whether all of the states will be able to implement their databases
by the federal deadline. It is also unclear what the consequences will be for
any state that does not comply in time. The Department of Justice has authority
to take action against such a state, but has not declared whether it intends
to do this or not. It is also not known what the penalty for noncompliance might
be.
How much will it cost to implement the
databases?
Because each of the states is at a different stage in the database development
process, costs vary greatly from state to state. For example, costs can range
anywhere from under $1 million, in states like North Dakota, which does not
require voter registration and is just developing a central voter file and Utah,
which is modifying its current system to meet HAVA standards. On the other hand,
costs can rise to over $10 million for advanced election management systems
which go far beyond the basic data-sharing capabilities outlined in HAVA, as
in Pennsylvania, and systems in states where there is no current structure for
dealing with the registration information of thousands of rural municipalities,
as in Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Sources/More Information:
How
States are Spending Federal Election Reform Dollars
(National Association of Secretaries of State) November 15, 2004
What privacy concerns are raised by voter
databases?
One concern is that linking all the major government databases containing private
information will make the system as a whole much more vulnerable to security
threats or risks. If one system is affected, it may expose all the other systems
to which it is connected to the same problem.
Voting rights groups are also worried that states will sell voter registration
information, especially phone numbers, to political parties and telemarketers.
HAVA has no provisions regarding database access; according to a 2002 study
conducted by the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, 22 states have not
put any restrictions on access to voter lists.
In addition, a number of states have hired outside contractors to build their
database systems, provoking objections from voting rights groups to the idea
of allowing private companies access to voter information. 28 states have contracted
the development of their voter registration databases out to private companies,
20 states are developing or have developed their voter databases in-house, using
state staff and technology, and two states are still in the process of developing
their database plans. North Dakota does not require voter registration and is
in the process of compiling a central voting file.
Sources/More Information:
Assorted
Rolls: Statewide Voter Registration Databases under HAVA
(Electionline.org) June 2005
Principles
for Centralized Voter Registration Database
(Center for Voting Integrity)
Testimony
on Proposed Voluntary Guidance to the States on Implementing Statewide Voter
Registration Databases
Lillie Coney (Electronic Privacy Information Center) April 26, 2005
|
