[EL] “Some used P.O. box as address: Is that vote fraud?”

[Doug Hess]

I know the CA SOS told me that they allow certain people (e.g., people
fleeing abusive partners) to apply for the ability to use a generic address
for their registration. Not sure how that works for celebrities, etc. I
wonder how many states or counties handle the address issue for the
homeless well.

In any event, looking into these cases as fraud instead of as a policy
problem or public misunderstanding shows how silly the which hunt has
become.

If the same amount of time from these officials went into fixing NVRA
implementation, many of voter registration lists would be MUCH cleaner now.

Douglas R. Hess, PhD
Washington, DC
ph. 202-277-6400
douglasrhess at gmail.com

Starting Aug. 2013:

Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
Grinnell College
1210 Park Street
Grinnell, IA 50112-1670



On Mon, Jun 3, 2013 at 4:03 PM, John Tanner <john.k.tanner at gmail.com> wrote:

> It always is necessary for election officials to have a voter's actual
> address so that they will know which ballot style to give the voter.
> Homeless people often are asked to specify a location - a shelter under a
> specfic bridge (wehre rich and poor have an equal right to reside), etc -
> and so have latitude.   Typically voter registration forms demand the
> residential address and also have space for a mailing address
> if different.  I don't know of the procedures for limiting access to home
> address information, but state statutes there certainly should include such
> procedures whenever there's a protective order.  But then they don't always
> work.  I recall that in Mississippi  - I think it was 1983 - when a voter
> was shot by his ex-wife at the polls on election day.
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 3, 2013 at 3:20 PM, Doug Hess <douglasrhess at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> An interesting news article from Rick's law blog (link below) with
>> examples of people using what could be problematic addresses for voter
>> registration. I think the idea for the homeless is that you use an address
>> at which you can get mail. But is that the same address for determining
>> what jurisdiction you live in? Note that the article lists other situations
>> where this problem arises (e.g., people who want to hide from dangerous
>> ex-spouses, etc.).
>>
>> I point this out because it makes the list cleaning and list checking
>> work by people searching for fraud all the more difficult (and their
>> results more likely to be off base). I.e., it's additional evidence that
>> the public would be better off if officials and advocates were helping
>> people keep their registrations up to date or informing them regarding what
>> to do in situations where their real address is problematic, instead of
>> spending so much time on fears of fraud.
>>
>> “Some used P.O. box as address: Is that vote fraud?”
>> The Cincinnati Enquirer:
>>
>> http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201306030522/NEWS/306030024&nclick_check=1
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>
>
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