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Voter rolls watched closely by officials

A recent commentary by Marly Hornik, executive director of New York Citizens Audit, in this newspaper relating to the state of voter rolls in New York state is inaccurate, not factual and a lie.

She attacked the state’s voting rolls falsely claiming they are filled with “fake names, dead people, junk data, altered votes and other felonies.”

What is Hornik’s goal with this red herring? Obvious to me she wants the public to distrust the result of all elections. She is purposely attacking our democratic election process in alignment with Donald Trump’s false claims relating to the validity of the 2020 presidential election.

The Boards of Elections in each of the 62 counties of New York State work extremely hard every day to keep the voter rolls accurate and up to date. New registrants are matched in real time to the federal Social Security and the New York State Department of Motor Vehicle databases to ensure accuracy. Duplicate registrations are cross verified to ensure voters have a single New York State voter registration. If a new voter registrant can’t be verified, the voter’s poll record is then marked requiring further identification when the voter presents themselves at the next election.

Each month the voter rolls are cross verified with state Department of Health provided information on deaths in the state. Daily in Chautauqua County obituaries are reviewed in the OBSERVER and Post-Journal for information to allow for the removal of dead voters from the rolls.

Are the rolls perfect? No.

Millions of people move around the United States and it is an impossible task to keep track of every move, every time. But the rare voter who tries to vote illegally can be assured that the long arm of the law will catch and prosecute the law breakers, as has been the history.

Norman P. Green is a retired Chautauqua County Election Commissioner.

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