Registrar clarifies voters’ death data
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Eighty-thousand Texans received letters recently, asking them to verify if they are alive.
A law passed during the past legislative session requires the secretary of state to purge voters from the rolls who could be dead based on data from the Social Security Administration.
The Travis County registrar sent out 2,200 such letters to voters who, according to the list, came up as 'weak' matches. As of Tuesday, Dee Lopez, the Travis County Director of Voter Registration had heard from about 150 of them.
Their first and last name and date of birth matched, but other vital information -- such as a driver's license number -- did not.
Travis County Director of Voter Registration Dee Lopez says she won't assume you're dead if she fails to hear from you within the 30-day response period.
“We can say either you’re no longer in Travis -- you may have moved to another county. You may have moved within Travis County,” she said. “So we don’t want to make the assumption that these are deceased voters. We just want to make the assumption that the person didn’t get the notice.”
Lopez says the law requires she cancel your voter record if you don't respond. By doing so, it will allow officials to reactivate your registration almost immediately if you show up on Election Day to vote.
We checked in with the Williamson County Voter Registration Office. Spokesperson Connie Watson tells us staff sent out 263 letters.
She says Williamson County initially received a larger number of voters from the Texas Secretary of State who might be dead. However, officials cross-checked the list with other records and were able to verify the status of many on the list, ultimately avoiding having to send those people letters.