Quite a few Texas voters are seeing dead people in the mirror these days when they go to brush their teeth in the morning. In Houston, high school nurse Terry Collins got a letter informing her that after 34 years of voting she was off the Harris County rolls. Sorry. “Friday of last week, I got a letter saying that my voting registration would be revoked because I’m deceased, I’m dead. I was like, ‘Oh, no I’m not!’ ” Collins says. In order to stay on the rolls, the 52-year-old nurse had to call and inform the registrar of her status among the living. She tried, but it didn’t go so well. “When I tried to call I was on hold for an hour, never got anyone,” she says. “I called three days in a row and was on hold for an hour or more.” Collins, who is black, says she noticed that in Houston, quite a few of those who got the letters seemed to be older and black. “There’s one lady here. She’s 52. She’s African-American. Her dad is 80. They both got a letter saying they’re dead,” she says.
Like all states, Texas regularly purges its rolls of voters who’ve died. Normally, this is a low-key process where the state passes along to the counties a small list of dead voters as they become available. But this massive mailing two months before the election is new. Rich Parsons, a spokesman for the Texas secretary of state, says the state is not targeting anyone but dead voters.
“We’re required by law to maintain a clean and accurate voter registration list, and we’re attempting to comply with that mandate,” he says. “I will tell you that it was our hope to have done this after the March primary but, unfortunately, redistricting litigation delayed the primary and the associated deadlines.” Parsons says none of this is a problem; voters who’ve been wrongly purged from the rolls can simply show up and vote anyway.
Full Article: Many Texans Bereaved Over ‘Dead’ Voter Purge : NPR.