Election Integrity Maryland, an initiative with the goal of upholding free and fair elections, recently dropped a pres release on the fact that the State of Maryland’s Board of Elections is refusing to take “dead” voters off the voter rolls.  The press release can be found below:

 

The Maryland State Board of Elections Refuses to Take Dead Voters Off of the State Voter Rolls, Election Integrity Maryland Fights for Change to Instill Accountability in Electoral System

 

The State’s Election Board Not Complying with Section 8 of National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) Requirements, Places Election Fairness, Authenticity in Jeopardy

 

Rockville, MD – August 6, 2013 –  Election Integrity Maryland (EIM), one of the Mid-Atlantic’s leading election integrity organizations, announces today that it is continuing to push for serious attention to be paid to a staggering amount of fraudulent, inaccurate entries in current voter rolls despite continued rebuffs from the State’s Board of Elections.  In recent months, the thousands of inaccurate and fraudulent voter entries uncovered by EIM in their efforts to clean up Maryland’s voter rolls have  continually been ignored by the State’s Board of Elections, allowing these errors to continue to plague the current system and seriously affect the integrity and accuracy of political elections.

     EIM is a non-partisan, nonprofit organization modeled after the True the Vote initiative that is dedicated to the preservation of essential voter freedoms. As a key aspect of its work, EIM empowers citizen volunteers to take action and help to recognize and report fraudulent activity in the electoral system that, if left uncorrected, seriously corrupts outcomes, results, and activities at all levels of the political process across the United States. EIM’s research data is completely non-partisan and provides no details about a registrant’s race or ethnicity. Instead, the group is focused simply on the facts, and taking action to reduce as many instances of incorrect voters on the rolls as possible to effect positive change and more equitable outcomes for all Americans participating in the political process.

     Over the past two years EIM has researched more than 36,000 total voter registration records across Montgomery, Prince George’s, Baltimore, Wicomico, and Anne Arundel counties and Baltimore City, uncovering over 12,000 irregularities in the voter rolls requiring challenges be filed. Of these, more than 1,100 registered voters were deceased, many of whom were recorded as voting post-mortem. In addition, at least one voter was discovered to have registered to vote after their legally-recorded date of death. These errors were submitted to the state’s Board of Elections for review and removal, however, to-date they have been largely ignored and rebuffed and it is unknown if or to what extent they were investigated further by the State Prosecutor’s office.

Voter roll irregularities come in several forms, including:

  • Deceased voters who remain actively registered, some who appear to have cast ballots post-mortem;
  • Individuals with no history of voting activity for more than two consecutive federal cycles;
  • Registrations with incorrect or non-existent addresses;
  • Duplicate interstate and intrastate registrations; and
  • Individuals who have commercial addresses listed as their places of residence.

     All of these are well-known, documented occurrences that are continuing to plague the current voter rolls and overall system, not just in the state of Maryland, but across the country. As of yet, the Maryland State Board of Elections continues to ignore the data presented to them about current inaccuracies and voter fraud, and fails to make any concerted effort to clean up the voter rolls or make the positive changes necessary to improve the system for all voters, regardless of political party of position.  In one recent example, 26% of dead voters uncovered in the EIM’s research came from area nursing homes. In one such home, Collingwood Nursing Home in Rockville, MD, out of a total of 120 registered voters, 94 were deceased, many of them dead for a significant period of time. The Board of Elections continues to stonewall these challenges to inaccuracies in the current voter rolls, often citing the need to add further layers of bureaucracy and administrative hurdles to correcting these glaring errors.  Collingswood’s dead voters now show as inactive, but not removed for the most part.

     EIM’s President, Cathy Kelleher, is a passionate crusader for free and fair elections for all Americans. Among her beliefs and the central motto of EIM, “Election fraud strikes at the heart of our political system and threatens our freedom. When fraudulent votes cancel out legal votes, our rights as citizens, regardless of political party, are diminished.” Cathy states, “It is essential that we fight for free and fair elections across our country, as they are truly our American birthright. We encourage all Americans to join us in the cause to correct these glaring errors and help instill a culture of accountability in our electoral system.”

     A recent McClatchy-Marist Poll surveyed 1,204 adults of legal voting age by telephone in various regions across the country between July 15 and 18, 2013. Regions were surveyed in proportion to their population to reflect accurate voter sentiment around current Voter Rights Act issues. On the subject of voter ID in particular, 83% of nationwide voters polled expressed support for changes to be made to current voter laws to require individuals to present valid identification in order to vote. Other related initiatives, such as Same-Day Voter Registration, have been recently supported by the Maryland Board of Elections, however, such measures stand to further corrupt the integrity of voter rolls across the state, rather than improve them. Concerns about under-funding and lack of transparent management lead the common fears about switching to a same-day voting system in Maryland. 

About Election Integrity Maryland (EIM)

Election Integrity Maryland (EIM) is a non-partisan, non-profit citizen initiative dedicated to upholding free and fair elections. A 501 (c)(4) organization, EIM exists to promote integrity throughout the voting process in Maryland, thereby enhancing the public’s confidence in its voting franchise in local, state and federal elections.EIM seeks to support the efforts of Maryland’s various Boards of Elections in their effort to maintain voter integrity, as well as the interests of Maryland voters. For more information about EIM, please visit: www.ElectionIntegrityMaryland.com