Conservative watchdog group questions counties with too many voters

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Sixteen small counties across Texas appear to have more registered voters on their rolls as of 2010 than qualified citizens of voting age - a phenomenon prompting conservative Washington, D.C., watchdog group to question whether the "overcounts" could raise the potential for election fraud.

The Chronicle reviewed public records for all Texas counties and found evidence of surplus registered voters in rural Texas counties scattered statewide, including East Texas counties like Chambers, Trinity, and Polk, as well as border counties like Presidio in Big Bend country and Maverick County surrounding the border at Eagle Pass.

Tom Fitton, president of nonprofit Judicial Watch, told the Chronicle his group plans to ask the Texas Secretary of State to examine all Texas counties with oversized voter rolls. The group has demanded probes in other states as the result of its own nationwide comparisons of 2010 voter registration and census data.

"One bad vote is a vote that can ruin an election and so it's important that every county no matter how small have the procedures in place to make sure their rolls are up to date and clean and ultimately, under federal law, the state is responsible for this," Fitton said in an interview. "Not only does it affect federal elections but in the case of Texas, state and local elections would be impacted as well."

Census figures used

The newspaper found the overages by comparing the county's registered voters in January 2010 to the number the U.S. Census reported of citizens considered eligible to register to vote in that same year.

In Chambers County, a coastal county east of Houston, the 2010 voter rolls showed a surplus of about 580 voters over census estimates.

"We definitely want it to be clean - we don't want a Florida type of thing," said Sharon Lucas, chief deputy voter registrar in Chambers County.

Fitton said he wants to make sure that all counties have done their best to clean and scrutinize voter rolls for upcoming elections to prevent fraud even in the smallest and most remote places.

Loving County, the sprawling arid ranchlands in Southwest Texas that are said to be the least populated of all U.S. counties, reported 105 registered voters in January 2010, though the census found only 40 people of voting age.

Large extended families - mostly related to office holders - come back to vote, said Sheriff Billy B. Hopper, who also serves as voter registrar.

Other rural counties with surplus voters have been the site of more recent election or voter fraud investigations by the Office of the Attorney General, records show. But spokesman Jerry Strickland had no comment about the voter registration figures.

Rich Parsons, a spokesman for the Secretary of State's office, said the office has a policy of not commenting on any outsiders' analysis of voter rolls. But he said that having more registered voters than citizens over the voting age in rural counties is not unexpected. It could be explained by various factors, including retiree and campus voters, who might vote in Texas but be counted as residents of other counties or other states in the census, as well as voters who moved away from rural counties but failed to cancel old registrations.

PV A&M may be factor

The state's largest voter surplus showed up in Waller County, northeast of Houston, which had about 29,500 registered voters and only about 26,330 residents of voting age. But Waller is home to Prairie View A&M University whose student voters often get counted by census workers elsewhere but can legally register to vote at their campus homes.

Polk County, which includes the city of Livingston, has about 1,500 surplus voters but also hosts a large RV camper community called the "Escapees" where about 10,500 "Winter Texans," who mostly own homes elsewhere, have registered to vote on the camp's "Rainbow Drive", said Marion A. "Bid" Smith, who supervises voter registration as county tax assessor and collector.

The Texas Secretary of State maintains a central database and provides technical assistance to all Texas counties. Still, rural county election officials contacted by the Chronicle about the over-registrations said they rely on voters to update their own registration records, and lack the time and manpower to do extra research to confirm whether a voter died, moved away or married and re-registered under a different name.

Lindy Madden Warren, tax-assessor collector in Trinity County, said she works "diligently every day to get these as correct as we have them."

"But our voter's list is only as good as the information the voter provides us," said Madden Warren, whose county had about 200 more registered voters in 2010 than citizens of voting age as counted by the census. "You can get in more trouble for removing them than you can from leaving them on the list ... And of course, we know just about everybody around here -and there's not dead people coming from the grave voting."

An earlier comparison

More than a decade ago, the Secretary of State did its own comparison of census data and voter registration. It found 23 of Texas' counties seemingly had more than 100 percent voter registration in 1999 -a problem blamed on the slow method used to purge voters who died or moved away. (Those voters often end up on a so-called suspense list and eventually get cancelled after failing to vote in two consecutive federal elections.)

State Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Plano who served on the election committee back then said progress has been made, but added, "It's really important that we have good voter rolls. They've had trouble cleaning them up … A continued emphasis on that is extremely important."

lise.olsen@chron.com