Stronger controls are needed to minimize duplicate voter registrations in Los Angeles County, according to a review by the county’s auditor-controller.
Supervisor Michael Antonovich called for a review on Nov. 5 of an allegation by NBC4 that at least 442 and perhaps as many as 52,000 county residents were registered to vote more than once.
The Department of Auditor-Controller checked a sample of 50 of the 442 individual registrations and found that 45 voters, or 90 percent of those sampled, did have two separate registrations on file. A sample of 50 of the larger potential pool of 52,000 voters found eight voters with duplicate registrations.
However, none of the individuals in either sample had voted twice in the past three major elections, the report stated.
Antonovich still found the results “alarming,” he told the Los Angeles Times.
“Those who are registering twice could be testing the system for a future election,” he told the newspaper.
Most of the duplications — which had been outstanding for an average of three years — were corrected before the auditors’ review, though in many cases those corrections weren’t made before last November’s election.
The other concern raised by the NBC4 investigation was that voters had failed to include a date of birth in their registration to prove they were of voting age. Some of that missing information had gone unnoticed for 12 years, according to the auditor-controller’s report.
The Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office said that federal law doesn’t require that a date of birth, because individuals registering to vote declare under penalty of perjury that they will be 18 years or older by the next election.
However, voters who do not supply a date of birth do not receive vote by mail ballots, a practice that would seem to follow state law that requires a date of birth on the registration form.
The report suggested that management should resolve the discrepancy between state and federal law.
The Registrar-Record/County Clerk manages more than 4.8 million voting records and regularly updates them to reflect residents who move or die based on notifications from the Department of Motor Vehicles and other agencies.
Responding to the auditor-controller’s review, the department said it began an extensive analysis and clean-up of voter records in June and that work was ongoing.
Chief Deputy Registrar Debbie Martin told the auditor-controller that the office is committed to clearing out duplications, but not at the risk of inadvertently dropping eligible voters from the rolls.
“Our core mission (is) to ensure that all citizens who have registered and wish to exercise their right to vote are afforded the opportunity to do so,” Martin stated in her written response to the audit.
— City News Service