http://www.detnews.com/2002/politics/0210/29/a01-
625516.htm
Detroit's voter
rolls in question
Mayor's office says total too high by 150,000; dispute could skew
count, prompt challenges
By Darci McConnell / The Detroit
News
DETROIT --
Despite having died eight years ago, Kathe
Beddow still retains one mortal privilege: The right to vote.
The city Elections
Department in July sent Beddow a voter
registration card, even though she hasn't voted in more than a decade.
She is also still listed as a registered voter with the Secretary of
State's Office.
Behind such simple mistakes lies a massive disagreement over the
number of registered voters in Detroit that could become a pivotal
issue in next week's election.
The credibility
of the registered-voter rolls came into question last
month, in a controversial memo tied to Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
The memo, drafted by Kilpatrick aides and addressed but never
delivered to Democrat gubernatorial candidate Jennifer Granholm,
claims that the city's total of registered voters -- listed by elections
and state officials as topping 600,000 -- is off by more than 150,000
people.
In a potentially
close gubernatorial race, faulty voter rolls in Detroit
can serve as fertile ground for election challenges, especially if
antiquated records result in a voter card going to the wrong home.
Inaccurate voter
rolls also could add a new issue to an already
troubled election process in the city.
Past problems include
insufficient staffing of polling places on
Election Day, delayed vote counts and a fight with state officials over
how the city reviews spoiled ballots.
Detroit election
officials say those problems that have surfaced in
recent years have been corrected, although some residents doubt it.
Frustrated by eight
years of faulty mailings, the man who bought
Beddow's home in 1994 took the card to his polling site for the Aug.
6 primary. But workers told Detroiter Steve Ogden that they couldn't
take it back, and that he'd have to follow up with the City Clerk's
Office.
"It's frustrating
with all the get-out-the-vote efforts that occur during
each primary and general election," said Ogden, 39. "There could be
a lot of wasted effort by soliciting people that should be purged from
the records for several years now."
Spokesmen for Democrat
Jennifer Granholm and Republican Dick
Posthumus said they're hoping for a trouble-free election in Detroit.
But Ogden's angst over the city's registration lists was reflected in the
Kilpatrick memo.
"It has been
said that there are 650,000 registered voters in the city of
Detroit. We all understand that this is a false number," the memo
reads. "... I believe that number will fall somewhere around 450,000
registered voters."
Reinforced Kilpatrick
spokesman Jamaine Dickens: "We believe that
the (650,000) number is inaccurate."
When Southfield
attorney Geoffrey Fieger ran for governor in 1998,
he targeted 300,000 voters, instead of the more than 600,000 that the
city says are registered. Fieger, who went on to win 87 percent of the
votes that year with 196,624, said he believed the number of
registered voters recorded in city and state records was wrong.
"I believe
that the true number (of registered voters) is somewhere
around 400,000," Fieger said. "It was never my understanding that it
was 600,000 voters."
But Detroit Elections
Director Gloria Williams maintains there are
611,321 registered voters in the city. This summer, the city spent
$143,363 to mail registration cards. "That's way wrong," Williams
said of the 450,000 figure in Kilpatrick's memo.
Detroit figures
higher
With the 2000 U.S.
Census recording the city as having a population
of 655,561 people of voting age, Williams' count would mean that 93
percent of the city's residents who can vote are registered.
Nationwide, 70 percent of eligible citizens have signed up to cast
ballots.
"That's 93
percent of the people who responded to the Census, so
considering that maybe 10 percent didn't respond, then you could
probably add another 10,000 to that," Williams countered.
She credited efforts by City Clerk Jackie Currie's office with helping
to bolster the number of registered voters. Those efforts included
signing up high school seniors and a door-to-door campaign in areas
with low voter turnout.
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Detroit's figures
are higher than some neighboring cities. In Livonia,
90 percent of voting-age adults are registered to vote; while 87
percent of Warren's population has signed up.
Flawed registration
numbers
In 1998, Michigan
created the Qualified Voter File, an initiative to
electronically link local election officials around the state with a
centralized voter-registration database. The system was mandated by
the U.S. National Voter Registration Act of 1994.
Since then, the
state has eliminated 25,000 duplicate or flawed
records for the city of Detroit and some 600,000 statewide. That was
done by deleting names that were registered in more than one city by
matching driver's licenses, or through notification that came from city
clerks and other states.
The city of Detroit
also uses death records received from local and
state health officials to eliminate bad voter information. But
notification of deaths that occur out of state is less consistent.
Case in point:
The city's Health Department death records from 1994
don't list Beddow's death, a check by The Detroit News found. She is
listed in National Ancestry death records, however.
Both Williams and State Elections Director Chris Thomas say their
efforts are hindered by federal laws saying that even when a voter is
suspected to no longer be at an address, that person's record can't be
purged until after two federal election cycles. After its summer
mailing, the city got back 63,000 voter registration cards bearing bad
addresses. The earliest those voters can be taken off the rolls is 2004,
Williams said. State election laws also require one voting booth for
every 300 voters at polling sites, a total based on the number of
registered voters. That means flawed registration numbers could
result in the city paying more to run an election than is needed.
Despite touting
the state-run system as having quashed such
problems, Thomas acknowledged this week that "there is some
deadwood" in the qualified voter file. "We're aware that many
communities brought quite a bit of deadwood into the system with
them," Thomas said, referring to registration lists turned over to the
state by local communities in 1997. "The recent mailing of voter ID
cards will be one method of sorting out a good chunk of that
deadwood. I would not agree with the memo that the actual real
registration (in Detroit) is 450,000. I think it's considerably higher."
Governor race tightens
The dispute over
the number of registered voters in Detroit comes as
the gubernatorial race tightens.
A poll by Mitchell
Research & Communications last week for The
Detroit News showed Granholm leading Posthumus by eight points,
with 12 percent undecided. Granholm's lead is a decline from the 12-
point margin two weeks ago.
"I'm not aware
of any (Detroit Election Day) concerns we have at this
point," said Chris DeWitt, Granholm's spokesman. "We would hope
the election is run as fair as possible, and that it's done above board."
Sage Eastman, a
spokesman for Posthumus, said that he's hopeful
that the process runs smoothly.
"Every election
it's a concern, not just in the city, but across the
state," Eastman said. "But we expect that the election officials will
keep a close tab on it and will make sure only those registered to vote,
who are lawfully registered to vote, will do so."
You can reach
Darci McConnell at (313)222-2073 or by e-mail at
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.
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