I talked to an AP guy. He told me the story was a truncated version of a NYT story. Here's the SS problem: BOE's verifying via federal SS sources first without first trying to verify via state info like driver's licenses where SS was reported, but I can see why they've done that (state searches can turn up false negatives):
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/us/politics/09voting.html?_r=1&oref=sloginPertinent part:
Under federal law, election officials are supposed to use the Social Security database to check a registration application only as a last resort, if no record of the applicant is found on state databases, like those for driver’s licenses or identification cards.
The requirement exists because using the federal database is less reliable than the state lists, and is more likely to incorrectly flag applications as invalid. Many state officials seem to be using the Social Security lists first.
In the year ending Sept. 30, election officials in Nevada, for example, used the Social Security database more than 740,000 times to check voter files or registration applications and found more than 715,000 nonmatches, federal records show. Election officials in Georgia ran more than 1.9 million checks on voter files or voter registration applications and found more than 260,000 nonmatches.
Officials of the Social Security Administration, presented with those numbers, said they were far too high to be cases where names were not in state databases. They said the data seem to represent a violation of federal law and the contract the states signed with the agency to use the database.