Recently, the Tea-Party affiliated group True the Vote announced that they had identified a number of voters who had “double-voted,” casting ballots in more than one state. Three of these cases, they alleged, were residents of Pasco County, Florida. “True the Vote calls on Florida, Maryland and federal officials to investigate our latest research,” the group wrote, in its press release.
So, Brian Corley, the Pasco County Supervisor of Elections, investigated these three cases, and this week he revealed the results: in reality, “none of the individuals had cast more than one ballot in any election.”
Pasco County officials rightly did not take the allegations of these voter vigilantes at face value. Private attempts at list maintenance often fail because they are often based on unreliable information and faulty matching, putting legitimate voters who have done nothing wrong in the crossfire.
Although list maintenance is necessary and important, it must be accurate and consistent with state and federal law to avoid putting legitimate voters at risk. For example, in 2012 numerous private challenges to Ohio voters, mainly students, were rejected by officials as unreliable or invalid.
Just because a person moved and may appear on two lists—and the appropriate list maintenance procedures determine the voter should be removed from one—does not mean that fraud has been committed.