GOP’s Claim of Voter Fraud Disputed

* The article (“GOP Alleges Fraud in Voter Registration Push,” Sept. 9) in which the GOP alleges the 69th Assembly District has fallen victim to illegal voter registration programs by the Democrats is not justifiable. The inefficiency of the system is to blame for two reasons.

First, duplicate registrations are very common and easy to create. For example, if one re-registers and fails to mark the box indicating he or she has registered before, a new voter file will be created. Even if (registrants) indicate they have registered before but do not fill out the new registration form with their name identical to their prior registration, a new file will be generated. In addition, human error by either the registrar or the voter can generate a new file if one digit in the birth date is inaccurate.

Second, voter files are deactivated only at the voters’ request or when voters complete a new registration form with their name identical to the prior form and mark the box indicating they have registered before. Otherwise, California does not purge its voter roll of registered voters, allowing duplicates to linger in the system.

Essentially, the 69th Assembly District is not the exception in California. It is very common to have registered voters with similar names and birth dates that are either identical or off by a digit listed at the same address. It has been estimated that 8% to 12% of California’s registered voters are duplicates, costing the state millions of dollars in printing and mailing of duplicate forms every election.

Therefore, if the GOP is looking for someone to blame, it should blame the system for allowing duplicates to linger in our registered voter files.

JOE PENAFLOR

Los Angeles

Joe Penaflor is a legislative intern for the California Senate Select Committee on Voting Practices and Procedures.