VOTING NUMBERS DON'T ADD UP!
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Robert Kando, executive director of the Board of Elections, attributed the
discrepancies to errors in how voter tracking information was entered into the
secretary of state's computer system. "I don't have the slightest inclination there was
ballot stuffing."
In one instance in Bristol, a voter signed the poll book twice, in two different
boxes. Town Clerk Louis P. Cirillo said he does not believe the voter was given two
ballots, but conceded he has no way to confirm that. The problem in Bristol was that
Angelo C. Stanzione III and Angelo C. Stanzione both were registered to vote from
addresses on State Street. Cirillo said it appears that Angelo III mistakenly signed
the box for the older Angelo, then signed his own box without his first signature being
crossed out. Although he was registered to vote in the last election, the older
Angelo did not go to the polls because he's dead. He died in 1992.
The city's Board of Canvassers has sent a letter to Cabral's son, Marcellino J.
Cabral Jr., who goes by Butch, asking whether he can explain who has been voting
in his father's name. Laurence K. Flynn, the board's executive secretary, said Butch
Cabral has never been registered to vote in Providence. He said, depending on
Cabral's response, the matter may be turned over to the state police.
Full Text (1463 words)
Copyright Providence Journal/Evening Bulletin May 2, 2007
The Board of Elections has one number, while the secretary of state's office has
others.
* * *
How many people voted in the statewide elections last November?
A. 387,952
B. 390,340
C. 392,884
If you don't know the answer, don't feel bad; neither do state election officials.
The Board of Elections - which oversees the counting of votes - says 392,884 voters
cast ballots in the Nov. 7 general election.
The secretary of state's Elections Division - which oversees the state's Central Voter
Registration System and tracks who voted in which elections - counted 387,952
voters in the same election as of Jan. 16. In a new tally Monday, that number had
risen to 390,340.
That leaves 4,932 ballots that were cast without a voter voting - or 2,544, depending
on which number you use from the secretary of state.
The Providence Journal began examining the results of the November election this
spring, after reporting last fall that the names of nearly 5,000 registered voters in
Rhode Island appear on a federal list of dead people. The Journal sought to find out
whether any of those dead people voted.
The newspaper's review found no evidence of systematic fraud by people casting
ballots in the names of voters who had died. But it did find a voter tracking system
susceptible to error that could throw into doubt the results of close elections.
As an example, East Providence Mayor Joseph Larisa Jr. lost his at-large council
seat to Isadore Ramos by less than 20 votes. But, the Board of Elections tallied
more than 100 ballots that did not have a corresponding voter in the secretary of
state's count, either in January or on Monday.
Robert Kando, executive director of the Board of Elections, attributed the
discrepancies to errors in how voter tracking information was entered into the
secretary of state's computer system. "I don't have the slightest inclination there was
ballot stuffing."
Kando said that comparing the number of votes cast to the number of voters who
checked in at each precinct is not part of the process of declaring the results of an
election. "We certify winners without doing that. That doesn't mean we don't validate
our system by examining that."
The process of tracking voters starts when they check in at the polls.
Before they receive a ballot, voters sign a poll book next to their name, address, date
of birth and a unique bar code, like those used at checkout registers, that identifies
the voters. After the election, canvassing clerks in each of Rhode Island's 39 cities
and towns use a scanner to register the bar code of each person who signed the poll
book. The result of the scanning is a voter history file, which records the date and
type of election and the precinct in which a voter votes, plus whether the vote was in
person or by mail.
If a clerk skips bar codes - individually or even a whole page of the poll book at a
time - voters will not get credit for voting. Similarly, if a clerk scans the barcode next
to a blank signature line, someone who did not vote will get credit for voting.
November's election was the first general election for which the poll book scanning
system was used.
"This is really the first time out of the box," Kando said. "I believe there are still some
bugs in the system, but that's to be expected."
Even so, Kando said he was disappointed to hear that the discrepancy between the
Board of Elections and secretary of state is more than 2,000 voters.
"Despite our best efforts, we periodically make a mistake," he said. "There aren't
going to be any perfect elections."
Kando and Janet L. Ruggiero, executive director of the secretary of state's Elections
Division, said some local clerks may still be entering voter information six months
after the election. That accounts for why the secretary of state's tally of voters rose
between Jan. 16 and this week.
Kando conceded that, six months after the election, all of the voter information
should have been entered.
The Journal's search for dead voters revealed several other ways that errors wind up
in the voter history file:
Voters inadvertently sign on the line for someone else with a similar name.
Voters sign on the line above or below the one on which they are supposed to sign.
In one instance in Bristol, a voter signed the poll book twice, in two different boxes.
Town Clerk Louis P. Cirillo said he does not believe the voter was given two ballots,
but conceded he has no way to confirm that. The problem in Bristol was that Angelo
C. Stanzione III and Angelo C. Stanzione both were registered to vote from
addresses on State Street. Cirillo said it appears that Angelo III mistakenly signed
the box for the older Angelo, then signed his own box without his first signature being
crossed out. Although he was registered to vote in the last election, the older Angelo
did not go to the polls because he's dead. He died in 1992.
In one precinct in Providence, the poll book - the only physical record of who voted
- was lost before it could be scanned.
In that precinct, the state Board of Elections ruled that all 1,506 voters eligible to
vote should be credited with voting, even though only 466 ballots were counted
there. That means the secretary of state's count on Monday of how many people
voted is artificially high because more than 1,000 people who didn't vote are
recorded as having voted.
Kando said all the voters were given credit so that people who voted would not be
declared inactive, a first step toward being removed from the voting list.
In its search for dead voters, The Journal compared the Death Master File from the
U.S. Social Security Administration with the voter history file from the secretary of
state's office. The Journal initially found 24 matches between the two files. Then, a
reporter went to the cities and towns involved and examined the poll books for
precincts in question.
A match was defined as a person's first name, last name and date of birth being
identical on both lists. Plus, if a middle name was used on both lists, they had to be
identical. If the middle name was missing on one or both lists, it would still be
considered a match if the other parts matched.
In 10 of the 24 cases, the match was the result of dead voters being scanned, even
though no one signed the poll book for that person.
Another five dead voters got credit for showing up at the polls because a legitimate
voter signed in the wrong box.
Four of the 24 cases were false matches, where a live person with a common name -
such as Mary Leonard - shared a birth date with someone who had died.
Another three initial matches were the result of people being erroneously included on
the Social Security list.
That left a single instance, in Providence, where someone voted in place of a dead
person.
Marcellino J. Cabral, who went by Popeye, died of cancer in 1989 at the age
of 61. But someone voted in his name in November 2004 and November
2006, according to Providence records.
The city's Board of Canvassers has sent a letter to Cabral's son, Marcellino J.
Cabral Jr., who goes by Butch, asking whether he can explain who has been voting
in his father's name. Laurence K. Flynn, the board's executive secretary, said Butch
Cabral has never been registered to vote in Providence. He said, depending on
Cabral's response, the matter may be turned over to the state police.
The Journal left a telephone message for Cabral with a woman who identified herself
as his mother-in-law. He did not return the call.
Ruggiero said the secretary of state's office will spearhead an effort to remove dead
people from the voting rolls.
When The Journal first reported that nearly 5,000 names on the Social Security
death list are registered to vote in Rhode Island, a spokesman for then-Secretary of
State Matthew A. Brown said the secretary would obtain a copy of the list, and
disseminate it to the cities and towns.
But Ruggiero said that has not happened. She cited the cost of the list; the federal
government charges $1,725 for the file.
Ruggiero said her office will, instead, obtain a list of dead Rhode Islanders from the
state Health Department as far back as computer records go, and update it on a
monthly basis. Her office will make a similar effort to coordinate with the Department
of Corrections to remove felons from the voting list.
pparker@projo.com / (401) 277-7360
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