Purge of inactive Fayette voters delayed
A purge of about 25,000 Fayette County voters who have failed to show up at the polls in five years has been delayed until after the November election. Laurie Lint, director of the Fayette County Election Bureau, said Friday that preparing and sending out letters in nine business days was too big an undertaking. On July 24, the commissioners voted to move forward with the purge with the understanding that letters had to be sent out to the voters by Aug. 6. The purge has to be initiated 90 days before an election.
At the time, Lint said she thought she could make the deadline.
But as she began to evaluate the process – which included the need for additional supplies, printing letters, folding them and stuffing them – Lint said she realized she would need additional time to make sure everything was done correctly.
“We were afraid it wasn’t going to get done right, and I didn’t want to push it through fast. We wanted to do it 100 percent right,” Lint said.
Commissioner Vincent A. Vicites said he also was disappointed that the purge was put off. At a May commissioners’ meeting, Vicites said he pushed for, and the three agreed, to direct Lint to bring a plan for purging the rolls to the June 26 meeting.
Lint did not do that, he said, noting that she waited until the July 24 meeting to address the purge. Had Lint brought the plan forward in June, Vicites said she would have weeks instead of days to complete the task.
“I specifically put this on the agenda right after the April 22 election to make sure it got done,” Vicites said. “It didn’t, and I’m not happy about it.”
He noted that this is an important election cycle because of the presidential election.
“The rolls need to be as accurate as possible, especially with this type of election, and with the larger turnout that we’re going to have,” he said.
But because the purge cannot be completed now, Vicites said he is going to continue focusing on making sure it gets done after the November election.
Commissioner Angela M. Zimmerlink said she realized when she took office in 2004 that the county’s voter records needed updated. She said she wanted to push for a purge that first year, but when she learned that the federal government was mandating that counties change voting machines, she realized the difficulty of having two such major undertakings going on at the same time.
“I really anticipated the election bureau to be prepared to do the purge by now,” Zimmerlink said, noting that at the commissioners meeting she asked for a written, detailed plan.
Zimmerlink said she did not believe that the election bureau employees would be able to complete all work associated with the purge in nine working days.
“It is more than simply mailing out letters, it also involves processing the returns and mailings, and inputting the updates to the system. This is all coupled with preparing for the Nov. 4 election, which is expected to have a high turnout,” she said.
Zimmerlink said she would like to see “a well-thought out plan” in place so that the commissioners can assist the election bureau employees in getting the purge completed.
More than one year ago, Zimmerlink said she asked Lint to develop an annual written voter removal program that complied with the election code. That policy is still not in place, she said, but the best start would be for the county to go through mailings sent out every five years through the state’s SURE system.
The Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors (SURE) is a statewide voter registration and election management system “designed to assure the accuracy and integrity of the commonwealth’s voter registration records maintained by the election authorities of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties,” according to the Department of State Web site.
The state’s voting registration system can help to confirm the number of voters, and assist in the process of sending out mailings to the voters.
Zimmerlink said the process after the mailing is very important.
“We need to have an internal procedure to receive the returned mailings and input the data into the SURE system in a timely manner so that the poll books and system were up to date so that after the two general election periods have passed, the system removes the names,” she said. “If this isn’t set up and followed using the SURE system, then the entire purge process could be compromised.”
Additionally, Zimmerlink said the county needs an annual procedure to update the information in the registration records to ensure they stay current.
Those who were to receive the letters would have until Oct. 6 to respond. Under the plan, those who don’t respond would remain on the list through two federal election cycles – or until 2010.
Commissioner Chairman Vincent Zapotosky said pushing back the purge means that voters now will be on the rolls until 2012.
While he said he is disappointed that the letters couldn’t be sent out in time, Zapotosky said he would rather wait to make sure the purge is done right.
In addition to needing supplies to complete the purge, he said that it would have put a strain on the election bureau staff.
“I’d rather do it right than do it in a hurry and wrong, but I’m disappointed,” Zapotosky said. “This was a priority.”
herald_standa477:
http://www.heraldstandard.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19901537