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In
last November's election, 1.7 million votes were cast in Virginia. This
represents a turnout rate of 48.2% of registered voters" (Spencer S.
Hsu, The Washington Post, November 7, 1998).
Now, according to a legislative report by the Virginia Joint Legislative
Audit and Review Commission, it turns out 1,700 of those votes were cast
by fellons (out of 11,221 fellons on the voter registration rolls in Virginia)
and 144 of those recorded as voting were dead people (out of 1,500 dead
people registered to vote in the state)." (Craig Timberg and Peter
Pae, The Washington Post, November 10, 1998).
"Auditors compared voter lists with the Virginia State Police
database of felons; those who had had their voting rights restored by the
courts were not counted among the 11,221. The list of ballots cast under
the identity of dead people was created by comparing Social Security numbers
on the state voter list with a roster of deaths maintained by the state
Department of Health" (Craig Timberg and Peter Pae, The Washington
Post, November 10, 1998).
"'This points pretty clearly to the need for better list maintenance
by the State Board of elections and the local registrars,' said auditor
Glen Tittermary. 'Every city and county in the state had at least two felons
on the list'" (Craig Timberg and Peter Pae, The Washington Post,
November 10, 1998).
In the same election, 56% of Albemarle County, Virginia's 44,227
registered voters went to the polls. And 46% of Charlottesville, Virginia's
19,791 registered voters went to the polls (McDavid Stilwell, The Daily
Progress, November 8, 1997).
According to the JLARC report, "'Charlottesville, Virginia had
62 felons registered, 8 deceased registered, and 1 deceased voting. Albemarle
County had 65 felons registered, 8 deceased registered, and 2 deceased voting.
We do not have the felons voting by locality'" (GTittermary@leg.state.va.us,
November 10, 1998).
"Auditors blamed the problem on outdated computers and poor
management at the State Board of Elections, saying the agency should have
a system for regularly cross-checking voter rolls with lists of felons and
death records" (Craig Timberg and Peter Pae, The Washington Post,
November 10, 1998).
Auditors faulted the elections board for not doing a similar review
of its own but believed the number of dead people recorded as voting was
the result of clerical or other errors, not vote fraud (Craig Timberg
and Peter Pae, The Washington Post, November 10, 1998).
"M. Bruce Meadows, the state's embattled secretary to the State
Board of Elections, said he had advocated the computerized system for years
to prevent the kind of infractions disclosed this week by the legislature's
audit arm" (R. H. Melton, The Washington Post, November 13, 1998).
Republicans today continued their criticism of Meadows's supervision
of the office, which he plans to leave in two months after months of pressure
from the adiminstration of Gov. James S. Gilmore, III (R). Christopher J.
LaCivita, executive director of the State GOP, said, 'There's no way of
knowing the full impact on Virginia elections' of felons voting, but he
added, 'Felons don't vote Republican'" (R. H. Melton, The Washington
Post, November 13, 1998).
"Meadows disputed that conclusion, saying, 'There's no way of
knowing how they voted'" (R. H. Melton, The Washington Post, November
13, 1998).
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