An effort to encourage voter registration by a Washington D.C. group seems to unwittingly be sending letters to pets, children and deceased Ohioans, according to a news release from Secretary of State Jon Husted’s office. The Voter Participation Center, which mails voter registration forms to those who are unregistered, has been the subject of an increasing number of complaints at boards of elections throughout the state and the secretary of state’s office, according to the release. Josh Eck, spokesman for the office, said he didn’t have an exact figure for how many complaints have been fielded, but nearly every county has reported issues with the group.
“We’ve worked hard for years to remove deceased voters and duplicate registrations from the rolls,” Husted said in the release. “Careless work by outside groups is harmful to the cause of election integrity. Raising awareness for upcoming elections and encouraging people to get registered to vote is good for democracy, but encouraging people to register deceased relatives and family pets is damaging to the credibility of future elections.”
Husted’s office sent a letter informing the group about the errors and encouraged it to update the data it uses for its mailing lists.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2016/06/17/pets-kids-and-dead-people-getting-voter-registration-forms-from-outside-group.html