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17-Feb-10 – With a ballot application from Chicago’s Board of Election Commissioners waiting for him, there was only one thing keeping Berry T. Stevens from voting in the February 2 primary. The highly regarded long-time Marina City resident had passed away one year earlier.
It happens in each election, surprising family members and reminding the nation of chronic suspicion that many votes cast in the 1960 presidential election were done fraudulently, using names of deceased voters – although evidence of such fraud is elusive.
It’s not just in Illinois. In 2004, the Chicago Tribune found more than 186,000 registered but deceased voters on rolls in New Mexico, Florida, Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, and Minnesota.
In Chicago’s tiny 27th precinct, which is mostly Marina City, at least two deceased voters were still registered on February 2.
“It happens in any election authority,” says Jim Allen, spokesperson for the Board of Election Commissioners. “People die.”
They are not immediately taken off voter rolls, however, because the process to determine someone no longer eligible to vote will err on the side of caution.
“Before we take them off, we want to verify that we’re taking off the right person. There are a lot of people with the same name. We want to go through the steps to verify. The last thing we want is a voter showing up and being…told, ‘No, you’re dead.’ Because obviously they’re not.”
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(Left) Application for ballot issued in 2010 to Chicago voter Berry T. Stevens (1927-2008). |
Allen says the Board of Election Commissioners would prefer to get death certificate information from the Cook County Clerk’s Office. He says they have asked for an electronic file that goes back several years to compare with registered voters, but have yet to receive it.
Family members or other representatives can request a name removed from voter rolls, as long as they have a copy of the death certificate.
“When we get access to death certificate information,” says Allen, “and we’re able to match the date of birth and other information about that person, absolutely, they come off.”
Anyone wanting to remove a name should contact the Board of Election Commissioners if the deceased was registered to vote in the City of Chicago. For voters who lived in suburban Cook County, the Cook County Clerk’s Office should be contacted.
Voters that move away get benefit of doubt
Even when election officials receive notice from the postal service that a voter has moved, explains Allen, “they still remain on the voter rolls for two federal election cycles and they’re able to come back and prove that…they still live at [their old address].”
This change in federal law resulted from the 2000 election, in which many controversies arose related to voter registration.
The Board of Election Commissioners is less patient with dead voters. Says Allen, “Once we determine a voter is deceased, the registration’s canceled.”
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