After this election, North Carolina will stop using Social Security numbers to verify new voters.
On Thursday, The New York Times named the state as one of several using Social Security numbers despite federal laws requiring that the numbers be checked only if no state-issued identification is available.
The Social Security database is plagued with errors which could force some qualified voters to provide additional identification — adding an unnecessary barrier to voting.
The need for more identification could cause confusion Nov. 4, an Election Day expected to bring unprecedented numbers to the polls. State officials say that by Election Day they expect to have registered more than 800,000 new North Carolina voters this year.
About 218,000 were also taken off the rolls, so the net gain would be about 600,000 voters.
Since last October, 400,000 Social Security numbers have been checked, and State Board of Elections Director Gary Bartlett said that typically more than 40 percent are kicked back. (N&O)
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Social Security and Voter Registration
This post as well as the print edition story that appeared today (and the front page story yesterday) are just plain wrong.
The Help American Vote Act of 2002 REQUIRES each state to ask voters for their drivers license number and last four digits of the social security number. If the first number matches the state DMV database, or the second number matches the federal SSN database, then everything is done with. If neither matches, then the voters MUST present positive ID at the polls the first time voting.
Many voters list both their DL and SSN, so the state checks both. Again, a match on one is enough. If only one is listed, the state can only check one. If neither is listed, there is an automatic ID requirement.
If the State stopped asking for SSNs (besides being a violation of federal law), this would not make it EASIER for voters, it would make it harder. If there are problems with the federal database so 40% show a false negative, this does not disenfranchise anyone. A false negative does not stop anyone from voting. For the 60% it works for it eliminates the need for ID at the polls.
Your readers might favor universal ID at the polls for everyone, I'm not arguing for or against that. But the headline in yesterday's N&O that the state had violated some law was totally and completely false, and the lead in this post and in today's print edition that the State is going to stop checking SSNs after this election is not correct either. What the state is going to stop doing is checking both numbers if the voter lists both. What the state will do is check the DL number, and if that does not match, then it will check the SSN. If the voter JUST lists the SSN, that will be checked. Why all the fuss from Washington? Because the Social Security Administration is mad that the huge voter registration this year all across the country has strained their computer system.
The idea that matching against a federal database is designed to make it harder to vote by making people show ID at the polls is total malarkey. It is to make it EASIER by making (as allowed by federal law) people who match the federal database to AVOID showing ID.