Needed Update for Voter Rolls

Secretary of State Bill Jones and county election officials have done a commendable job of removing the deadwood from California’s voter registration files under recent state legislation. Jones says more than 500,000 names were deleted from rolls because people had moved and failed to re-register, had died or were registered in more than one place.

Political party officials have complained in the past that legitimate voters might be denied their franchise through such voter “purges.” And the U.S. Department of Justice is challenging California under a federal law that prohibits election officials from striking people from the rolls merely for failing to vote. The Justice Department appears to be off base in its contention. As Jones argues, nonvoting alone does not disqualify anyone in California from voting but merely triggers a search to determine whether the registration is accurate.

Postcards are sent to find whether voters still live at their recorded addresses and to ask whether they wish to remain registered. Those who don’t respond are put into an inactive file but are not stricken from the voter list unless they fail to vote in two subsequent elections.

Success has been spectacular in San Bernardino County, where the records of 113,710 former voters--22% of total registration--were either updated or put on inactive status.

The procedure saves tax dollars because fewer election workers are needed to staff the polls. Candidates benefit by not having to mail campaign materials to ineligible voters. And the potential for voter fraud--as alleged in the 1996 Orange County congressional victory of Loretta Sanchez--is reduced by having more accurate registration records. Another benefit is that officials get a truer reading of voter turnout. The 1996 San Bernardino County turnout would have been nearly 70% with the updated list rather than the 57% reported at the time.

The rolls are not just diminishing, either; they are being replenished with active voters. Jones also reported that 767,000 people had registered or re-registered since February under the new National Voter Registration Act, the motor voter law. The system in California is working well and fairly, a fact the Justice Department should recognize.