Registration glitch found in N. Iowa during July

By JOHN SKIPPER, Of The Globe-Gazette

MASON CITY - Cerro Gordo County Auditor Ken Kline said Tuesday he noticed in July that there was a problem with voter registrations and notified the secretary of state's office.

That was three months before state officials announced last week that a computer glitch eliminated the names of about 5,600 people statewide who registered to vote at Department of Transportation drivers license stations this summer.

"We stumbled across it in July when were canvassing the returns of the Clear Lake swimming pool referendum," said Kline. "There were seven or eight challenged ballots - which is unusually high in an election of that size."

One reason for challenged ballots is someone showing up to vote and the poll worker has no record that the person is registered. The person is allowed to vote but the ballot is challenged.

Because there were so many challenged ballots in the Clear Lake election, the auditor's office did some research. "We found that most of the challenged ballots were from people who had registered at a DOT driver's license station but whose registration had never been recorded," Kline said.

The secretary of state's office was notified about the problem.

All of the challenged ballots in July were counted in the final tally in the Clear Lake pool election, Kline said.

"We just happened to come across this because we thought we had an unusual problem. But it seems like there's an election going on almost every Tuesday somewhere in Iowa and this could easily go undetected," he said. "You just wonder how often it has gone on in other elections around the state."

The problem began in January, when the state DOT implemented a new computer software system to issue driver's licenses. For several months, some applications for voter registration cards didn't get transferred to the Secretary of State and subsequently to county auditor's offices. Others came through only in part.

The secretary of state's office has notified Cerro Gordo County that 67 county registrations were eliminated.

"We're checking and cross-checking our records just in case there's more," said Kline.

http://www.globegazette.com/local/Ni2.shtml

-- Doris (reaper@pacifier.com), October 11, 2000

Answers

The problem began in January, when the state
DOT implemented a new computer software system
to issue driver's licenses.

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), October 11, 2000.