‘Deadwood’ Is Clogging the Figures of San Diego’s Actual Eligible Voters

Nearly 30% of San Diego County’s 1 million registered voters actually may be names of individuals who are dead or whose registration is invalid because they have moved, officials told a state legislative committee Friday.

At the hearing in San Diego, held to evaluate the reasons for the exceptionally low voter turnout statewide last November, some legislators and election officials argued that registration figures throughout the state are grossly inaccurate and may be inflated by as much as 43% in some counties because of inaccurate procedures for “purging” invalid registrations.

The turnout in San Diego and statewide, therefore, may not have been as low as it has been described, the officials said at a joint meeting of the Assembly and Senate elections committees held at the County Administration Center.

“Before you can solve the problem, you’ve got to know what the problem is--and right now, we’re dealing with a problem based on phantom numbers,” said Assemblyman Richard Mountjoy (R-Arcadia). “If you eliminate the invalid registrations, the turnout may not be as bad as we thought.”

Last year, the League of Women Voters and Secretary of State March Fong Eu’s office conducted “Project Deadwood,” a name-by-name check of registration rolls in 13 counties to determine their accuracy.

That study found an average registration inaccuracy of 24%, ranging from about 11% in several counties to a high of 43% in Sonoma County, Mountjoy noted. The estimated inaccuracy figure for San Diego County, based on a detailed analysis of registrations in the Grossmont area, was 30.4%.

San Diego’s 53.2% turnout among its 1.1 million registered voters last November was the lowest of any county in the state, while the statewide 59.4% figure was the lowest in more than 40 years. However, if the suspected “deadwood” is eliminated from the registration figures, both the local and statewide turnout would have exceeded 70%, election officials emphasized.

“Low turnout is a problem, but it looks worse than it really is because the (registration) numbers aren’t as accurate as they could be,” said Keith Boyer, acting San Diego County voter registrar. “We know that some inaccurate registrations slip through the process.”

The 30% local inaccuracy estimate, Boyer added, “sounds fairly accurate.” That would mean that more than 300,000 of the county’s current 1,028,094 registered voters should be stricken from the rolls, or at least updated to reflect new addresses.

The major explanation behind the inaccurate voter registration data, many election officials argue, is that the state no longer conducts a “positive purge” of the registration lists after each election, as it did until 1974.

Under that process, registered voters who did not cast ballots in a general election were contacted by postcard and, if they failed to respond, were eliminated from registration rosters.

During the mid-1970s, however, state Democratic leaders pushed through legislation ending the “positive purge”--partly because of an overall effort to make registration easier but also because most of the non-voters whose names were stricken were registered Democrats that party officials hoped would vote in future elections.

Voter registration officials throughout California now use a “negative purge” system in which, in every January of odd-numbered years, registered voters who did not go to the polls the previous November are mailed a postcard. If mail carriers return the card as undeliverable at that address, or if someone now living at the address sends back the card, indicating that the registered voter no longer lives there, that name is dropped from the rolls.

However, the name of a non-voter remains on the registration lists if the card is not returned. That procedure, election officials contend, seriously undermines the effectiveness of the “negative purge,” because most new residents who receive the card probably throw it away as junk mail rather than return it to the registrar’s office.

“The problem is that you’re depending on someone to take the time to send back a card inquiring about someone they probably don’t even know,” Boyer explained. “It’s definitely a flaw in the system.”

Eu and county registrar officials throughout the state have called for reinstatement of the “positive purge,” arguing that it would produce more accurate registration lists. Mountjoy has introduced legislation to restore that method of biennial purge. Hearings on the bill, similar to one the failed last year, are scheduled for next month.

Even if the registration rolls are updated, though, many speakers who testified before the panel on Friday emphasized that voter turnout and overall political participation in California is substantially lower than that in many other states.

“In California, democracy is falling short because the majority of its citizens who are eligible to vote are choosing not to go to the polls,” said Assemblyman Pete Chacon (D-San Diego), who chaired the meeting. Chacon pointed out, for example, that only 43% of California citizens eligible to vote actually did so last November.

The witnesses offered a litany of explanations as to why so many adults do not bother to register, and why many of those who register do not vote. Their testimony included frequent complaints that expensive, impersonal media campaigns, negative campaign tactics and lopsided legislative districts that all but preordain elections’ outcomes have disenchanted many voters and reinforced individuals’ feelings that their single vote is insignificant.

Voter registration and turnout could be improved, they suggested, through increased grass-roots campaigning by candidates to stimulate interest in their races and by adopting procedures to make registration and voting easier. Among other things, speakers proposed that individuals be allowed to register and then immediately vote on election day, that more polling sites be located in work places and that all public employees actively solicit registrations in their day-to-day activities.