Election-Campaign Law

Computer error causes high number of Georgia SSA voter reg checks?

By Michael Alvarez

There’s been some mention in recent discussions of statewide voter registration systems regarding variance across states in the number of SSA checks that states are conducting. Here’s a story from Georgia, about what appeared to be a high rate (perhaps as much as 2 million) of SSA voter registration verification requests set by Georgia to SSA:

The commissioner of the Social Security Administration had asked Handel earlier this month why Georgia had sent 2 million voter registration verification requests to his office in the past year. The number was higher than any other state.

Handel wrote to Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue last week saying that her office did not request ?anywhere near? 2 million checks.

The exact number was 747,106. The Georgia Department of Drivers Services, however, resent many requests that resulted in duplicates and the high, but erroneous, figure of 1,956,464 Social Security checks, Handel?s office said.

?It is clear that the number of records cited previously by the Social Security Administration was inaccurate,? said deputy Secretary of State Robert Simms.

Still, the state is only supposed to send Social Security those voters who don?t have a license or a state ID card, the Social Security Administration said.

The 747,106 checks that were sent to the Social Security Administration from Georgia would still be the second-most in the nation, and about 10 percent of the national total, according to data from the Social Security Administration. Only Alabama, with 1.04 million checks, sent more.

I’ll try to keep up with this story, as well as the explanations from other states with high rates of SSA identity verification requests.

Full post as published by Election Updates on October 24, 2008 (boomark / email).