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Hillsborough County Narrows Unverified Voter List

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Published: October 28, 2008

TALLAHASSEE - Hillsborough County has whittled down its list of more than 800 unverified voters to about 600, elections staff said Monday, and is trying to reach everyone by Nov. 4.

Hillsborough County elections staff mailed more than 800 notifications last week to voters whose applications failed a state database check, said Kathy Harris, in-house counsel for elections supervisor Buddy Johnson. The letters - sent with self-addressed stamped envelopes - urged unverified voters to send or bring in documentation proving who they are before they cast their ballot this fall.

"We were getting a lot mailed in, but we haven't had time to open and check them all into the system yet," Harris said.

The state's "no-match, no-vote" law cross-references identifying information on voting applications against the state's database. Applications that do not match are sent back to the counties for verification. Unverified voters who fail to reconcile the problem with their registration prior to voting may cast provisional ballots - but for their vote to count, they must then reconcile their registration problem by 5 p.m. Nov. 6.

Harris said elections staff members are going to unverified voters' homes to retrieve their identifying documentation if the voter can't make it to elections office.

"We want to get everyone verified, or at least to have the conversation with everyone so that they say, 'Yes, I understand that if I don't get that information in, that I will be required to vote a provisional ballot.'"

To date, the state Division of Elections has sent 22,606 non-matching voter applications back to the counties, which must in turn contact the unverified voters and attempt to resolve the problem with their registration. Of those, the counties have been able to verify 6,212 voters so far, said Jennifer Davis, spokeswoman for Secretary of State Kurt Browning.

All told, Davis said Monday, 12,170 registrations remain unverified by the state and counties.

Reporter Catherine Dolinski can be reached at (850) 222-8382.

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