Voter registrations glitched from license stations

By Sue Morris - Staff writer

With the Oct. 28 deadline looming for voters to be registered to cast a ballot in the presidential election Nov. 7, recent registrations from the drivers license stations are getting checked for accuracy.

When the Iowa Department of Transportation upgraded their computer system at the beginning of 2000, changes affected the voter registration applications to be sent from drivers license stations. IDOT officials believe the computer system has been corrected as of early October and that all registrations have been completely transmitted.

IDOT claims that no registrations were lost. However, some phone numbers and party listings were sent as blanks. The IDOT has sent a list to each county as to how many voter registrations were affected by the computer problems. For the 99 counties there was a total of 5,789 registrations affected by the IDOT computer glitch.

The Plymouth County auditor's office has received printed records of 61 residents whose voter registrations need to be checked. Anyone who registered to vote while getting a driver's license this year might want to verify that their information is complete, by calling the auditor's office at 546-6100.

Anyone who was previously registered in Plymouth County would not be affected by this IDOT computer problem. Registrations are cancelled through deaths and through registrations as residents of another county.

The Plymouth County auditor's office in the courthouse is open regularly from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. It will be open also for voter registration on the deadline day from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28.

Absentee voting may take place at any time before the Nov. 7 election by mail or in person during weekdays with special hours in the auditor's office 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4.

The polls will be open on election day Tuesday, Nov. 7 from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Voters who have not voted by absentee ballot should go to the polls location in the precinct where they live.

College students or others who registered to vote as Plymouth County residents at drivers license stations elsewhere should call this auditor's office to make sure their registration was correctly received.

http://lemarssentinel.com/display/inn_news/news2.txt

-- Doris (reaper@pacifier.com), October 20, 2000

Answers

upgraded their computer system at the
beginning of 2000

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), October 21, 2000.