I am going to run quality tests on state voter files to debunk attacks on ACORN in FL&OH.

[ddeclue]

Attention DU (and the rest of the world):

I AM TIRED of listening to the no-nothing right wing talking heads on TV and the radio spreading stories about which they have no real first hand knowledge and reporters who just accept what they say on faith without any investigation.

I actually have access to the data and have the skills to determine the truth first hand for myself:

I am a software engineer who has helped out Democratic candidates here in Florida since late 2003 using my database skills to help them target voters from the supervisor of elections voter list for contact in elections and I have spent a great deal of time over the years (hundreds if not thousands of hours) familiarizing myself with the files and how to check them for various data quality issues including the infamous "Mickey Mouse" issue where a fictitious name is placed into the voter file.

There is a great deal of hyperbole that Mickey Mouse is being filed as a valid voter in various states around the country by ACORN workers.

I ACTUALLY have written SQL queries (database checks) to compare the Orange County voter file (where I do most of my GOTV consulting) against a large list (500+) of fictional and famous names in the past and have determined that a few of these names actually DO exist but that they were placed there by the Supervisor of Elections office because they have the OCSOE street address for the voter.

I have created queries to check for:

1) Famous / fictitious voters like Mickey Mouse, Superman, Luke Skywalker, James T. Kirk, etc. ( I use a list of over 500 but I'm always open to new character names to check for.)

2) Double registered voters.

3) Voters with only one name in the file.

4) Voters with bad birthdates.

5) Voters with bad registration dates.

6) Voters whose birthdates are not valid when compared to their registration dates.

There are other tests that can be done on the data but most are not conclusive and/or they require access to expensive or publicly unavailable (such as DL or SSA) data.

I have access to a recent copy of the FVRS (Florida Voter Registration System) voter file and can expand my test to a statewide test for such voter registrations.

I intend to do so this weekend and make the results known to the media and the State of Florida if they are interested so as to debunk the rampant right wing hyperbole about this.

I also discovered today that Ohio, another swing state, also makes its voter files publicly available.

If I can manage it, I will also make results available to the State of Ohio and media there as well.

Want to know the REAL problem with the voter files?

DOUBLE REGISTRATION

The REAL problem with voter registration files is DOUBLE registration. Again this is the fault of SOE's not ACORN because they fail to remove the old registration when a new one is submitted. This is a TRIVIAL query to perform but apparently it is not being done.

The check requires doing what is known as a GROUP BY query to look for two or more voter records having the same name and birthdate Odds are strong in these cases that one of the two registrations is a duplicate of the same voter.

Right now I have run this double register query for Orange County Florida but I would like to run it across the entire 67 county list in Florida to look for inter-county double registers and then I would in fact like to combine the OH and FL lists to check for cross registers between these two states.

If anyone knows of other states which offer free voter file publicly available records to anyone, please let me know ASAP - I can start adding these into such a system also to perform these tests on them as well.


Thanks,

Doug De Clue
GOTV Consultant and Democratic Activist,
Orlando, FL / Fort Lauderdale, FL
[e-mail]