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Voter Beware: Texas Spending More on Voter Cancellation Than Registration

(Lise Olsen, Houston Chronicle)
Walter Pinkston, a Friendswood retiree and faithful Harris County voter, got a letter in late March asking his family to confirm that he was dead – which he was not – and warning that he was about to be purged from Texas voter rolls.

Retired Houston Baptist University Professor Trilla Pando received a similar notice of her death from voter registration officials in 2010. Even Sylvia Garcia, a former Harris County commissioner, got suspended – not because anyone thought she was dead – but because county officials questioned the validity of a P.O. Box the Houston native had used on her voting card for years.

More than 300,000 valid voters were notified they could be removed from Texas rolls from November 2008 to November 2010 – often because they were mistaken for someone else or failed to receive or respond to generic form letters, according to Houston Chronicle interviews and analysis of voter registration data.

…Statewide, more than 1.5 million voters could be on the path to cancellation if they fail to vote or to update their records for two consecutive federal elections: One out of every 10 Texas voters’ registration is currently suspended. Among voters under 30, the figure is about one in five.

Texas voter registration rates are among the lowest in the nation, but Texas pays nearly twice as much to cancel voters – 40 cents per cancellation – as it does to register new ones at 25 cents.

State and federal laws require the nation’s voter rolls be regularly reviewed and cleaned to remove duplicates and eliminate voters who moved away or died. But across Texas, such “removals” rely on outdated computer programs, faulty procedures and voter responses to generic form letters, often resulting in the wrong people being sent cancellation notices, including new homeowners, college students, Texans who work abroad and folks with common names, a Chronicle review of cancellations shows.
(Read the full story at the Houston Chronicle)

OTHER HEADLINES:

OPINION ON THE HEADLINES:
Helping Hispanics Achieve and Contribute

  • We Must Stem The Hispanic Dropout Rate
    (Editorial, Houston Chronicle)
    An individual’s decision to drop out, to be a “leaver” or to simply disappear from our public education system, has an impact that extends across this region’s fast-growing Hispanic community and thus, the entire community.
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    Young immigrant advocates, through an inspiring series of protests, marches and other lobbying efforts, have built a strong case for both temporary protection and legalization.