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News Release
Issued: February 01, 2006
OLYMPIA...For the first time, the state of Washington is scrubbing a single database with nearly 3.4 million active voter registrations to improve the accuracy of elections and prevent opportunity for fraud. The database also includes more than 400,000 inactive registrations of people who have not voted recently.
January 1, election administrators consolidated 39 separate county voter registration lists into one and began searching for duplicates and names of the deceased.
"County election administrators have done a remarkable job," said Secretary of State Sam Reed. "This is an enormous undertaking that began while the majority of the state was preparing for the February Special Elections."
The giant database can store up to 2000 gigabytes of information, runs on 54 servers and links to several public offices allowing election workers to quickly obtain voter information like names of the deceased and changed addresses.
Results in the first official report generated by the new database are a mixed bag.
"Without question, we can tell you that this database will improve the integrity of this state's voting process one registration at a time," said Reed. "But we've got more work ahead. And we're not satisfied yet."
As of January 31, 2006, the database caught and flagged less than one percent of the voter registration records on file as potential problems.
To date, 3,387 duplicate registrations and 5244 registrations of the deceased have been fully investigated and cancelled.
Other cases remain under investigation. For both active and inactive voters, these cases include:
- 32,383 computerized "potential" matches for voters with duplicate records;
- 5156 computerized "potential" matches for records of the deceased.
Duplicate registrations are most often created when voters move across county lines and forget to notify their local election offices. They re-register as new voters while their outdated registration records remain on file.
"These voters are not casting two ballots," said Reed. "In the vast majority of cases they simply forget to cancel their old registrations. This database enables us to track the moving public better and more quickly because all election workers rely on the same list of voters."
Reed clarified that the number of registration records for deceased voters is high because this is the first time election administrators have been able to track voters who died in other states through the Social Security Master Death Index.
"The numbers generated by this database January 31st are a snapshot," cautioned Reed. "They will change tomorrow. And the list of registered voters will never be perfect. People will always move. Occasionally someone may lose the right to vote and we must continually check for names of the deceased."
In addition, the accuracy of Washington's database depends on the accuracy of the information it exchanges with other public offices like the Washington State Patrol, the Administrator of the Courts, the Department of Health and the Social Security Master Death Index.
To protect the integrity of the database itself, the Secretary of State's Office has adopted the most trusted security procedures available today. The database is housed in two undisclosed locations. It's monitored by staff and local police stations at all times and is in no way connected to the Internet. Passwords change frequently and a disaster recovery plan is firmly in place.
Election workers will begin screening the database for felons in March.
To order a current copy of the State's list of registered voters, go to https://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/vrdb_order.aspx or call (360) 902-4151.
Background
Under Reed's leadership, a law was passed in 2002 clearing the way for a statewide voter registration database. The database later became a federal mandate required in every state to address issues raised by the 2000 election debacle in Florida.
» VRDB Background
» Scheduled Maintenance Checks
» Voter Registration Data - January 2006
