Ellen Goodman’s latest column describes Democratic jitters about losing again.
There are hard-core Democrats so hunkered down against hope that if you told them the only way McCain could win is by personally bringing Osama bin Laden home in chains, they’d respond: “SEEE! I told you! That’s the October Surprise!” (………)
Do you remember when the Obama rallying cry was “Yes we can”? Now we are in the scary season and here’s the new mantra: The only thing we have to fear is hope itself.
Considering Kerry’s early departure from Missouri in ’04 and how the polls here show Obama and McCain straining to run through the tape first, Missouri Democrats have a right to some heebie jeebies. One activist recently sent out an e-mail with a link to a troubling article in the Utne Reader. Here’s the critical sentence:
States have purged some 13 million voters from the voter rolls since 2004, Joe Rothstein reports for U.S. Politics Today. According to Rothstein, 17 percent of registered voters in the vital swing state of Colorado have been dropped from the rolls, and 10 percent of voters have been dropped in Missouri.
Rothstein claims that:
At least 13 million voters have been purged from the rolls since 2004. That’s 10% of the 120 million votes cast in 2004 and twice as many voters than have just been added through massive registration drives.
(boldface mine)
I don’t know about that, but I did call the Secretary of State’s office and asked what the process is for removing voters from the registrations rolls.
The communications person I spoke with, Ryan Hobart, told me that the National Voter Registration Act that was passed in the nineties requires states to take steps to remove inactive voters, and here’s how Missouri goes about it.
Local boards of election send a postcard to every registered voter before each election. (We got ours yesterday.) If that postcard is returned as undeliverable, the voter is flagged as inactive. If he does not vote in the next two federal elections, then his name is removed from the rolls. If he does, he is reactivated.
As a further step to keep the rolls accurate, Missouri created a statewide voter data base in 2006. If a voter’s information turns up at two addresses–that is, if his name, date of birth, Social Security number and signature match–then he is removed from the voter rolls at the older address.
Not only do those steps sound reasonable, but in fact, Mr. Hobart assured me, Missouri has, because of the registration drives this year, more voters on the rolls than it did in 2004. We have a record number of registered voters. So Rothstein’s assertion that twice as many voters have been purged as added in the last four years is not for us to worry about, because it isn’t true in Missouri.
The state also takes steps to remove deceased voters from the rolls. Each month, the Department of Health and Senior Services sends a list to local election boards of voters who have died. The state also sends out a list of felons who are ineligible to vote.
So you can scratch this one off your angst list. Worry if you want to, but focus your fretting somewhere else.
Clark said:
I could care less about that. While I do hold out hope that Obama would win the day in Missouri for a variety of reasons, it’s not essential to win the presidency, nor is it necessary for some of those downticket victories.
genepool said:
if Obama wins the Presidency without the backing of Missouri voters. That would mean that there are actually a majority of voting age Missourians who were ignorant enough to vote for Bush McSame. I will be embarassed to admit to friends in other states that I chose to live in Missouri.
Ricklm said:
Luckily, Dem SoS Carnahan has not use the statewide voter database to heavily purge voters. But this tactic is being used in Indiana & many other states to purge young, poor, voters without drivers license, or those that have moved or are homeless. Fortunately, the Repubs voter ID law was thrown out in MO court cases but voters in other states haven’t been so lucky. Vote suppression lawsuits will quickly increase if any election is close this Nov. Several recent elections have been won by only a few hundred votes so even 10,000 statewide could have an impact.
Remember, it’s a long ballot and slow voting process so expect long waits but please wait and vote the entire ballot including down ballot candidates. Please also VOTE PAPER (optical scan) ballots, which can be hand recounted if necessary in a contested race or because of machine malfunction.