State identifies at least 9,800 deceased people on voter registration rolls

NASHVILLE — State Election Coordinator Mark Goins said today his office tentatively has identified at least 9,800 deceased people on voter registration rolls across Tennessee.

The office said in a news release that while county election administrators purge deceased voters on a regular basis, “sometimes names of the deceased voters aren’t caught during that process.”

The release noted the state drew “unwanted national publicity” back in 2005 when it was discovered in Shelby County that someone illegally used the names of two dead Memphians in a special state Senate contest.

Mr. Goins, a former Republican member of the House, said that when Secretary of State Tre Hargett, another former House Republican, named him coordinator of elections, they set a “goal” to remove deceased voters from voter rolls in all 95 counties.

“Secretary Hargett made it very clear to me during the interview process he wanted dead people off the voter rolls,” Mr. Goins said. “It is despicable that someone would use the names of the deceased to commit voter fraud. Dead people can’t vote. Our goal is to make sure they don’t.”

Secretary Hargett said “we owe it to properly registered Tennesseans to ensure the voter rolls include only eligible voters.”

State officials said they compared the state voter registration database to a national death master list provided by the Social Security Administration. The staff found about 9,800 cases in which a name, Social Security number and a date of birth matched on both lists.

That information was forwarded to the respective county election administrators to double check for accuracy before any names were purged.

In addition to the 9,800 “hard” matches, about 2,200 “soft” matches were identified. Soft matches include instances in which a name and Social Security number matched or a name and birth date matched, but not all three. Local election administrators have been instructed to investigate the soft matches, as well.