The Iowa Secretary of State’s office said Thursday it is willing to work to fix a problem that led to three northern Iowa voters having their ballots tossed out of the 2012 election. Meanwhile, officials in several county auditors’ offices said that although they think the problem experienced by the three is rare — or at least that it hadn’t happened in their jurisdictions — they recognize the statewide voter database that improperly included their names has errors. “The important thing is now that we know there was this flaw that exists, we’re going to work with the Secretary of State’s office to fix it,” said Eric Van Lancker, the Clinton County auditor who is president of the state auditor association. About 46,000 people are on the database of felons who are prohibited from voting.
The database is compiled from lists of convicted felons that, by law, are to be sent monthly by the 99 county clerks to the secretary of state’s office, as well as to their local county auditors’ offices.
In the case in Cerro Gordo County, three eligible voters were improperly included on the database, according to Ken Kline, the county auditor.
He said they had their ballots challenged during the 2012 election, and after his office confirmed with the secretary of state’s office that they were on the felon database, they did not count them.
Only later did a Division of Criminal Investigation agent, working for the secretary of state, discover they should not have been excluded, Kline said.
Full Article: Flawed databases can foul voter lists.