I'm NC voter since 1984 and just learned my name, registered two weeks ago, is purged

[zazen]

Heads up for everyone to check and re-check.

I had changed my address and submitted all of the correct forms a few weeks ago. However, no information about me shows up on the database, which I do check in advance of every election (and had checked last month before I mailed in my change of address due to moving within Cary. My entire voting history and profile was in the system then.)

And the Wake County Board of Elections is closed today so I can't do anything about it until Monday.

Related to this, my "change of address" with my daughters' College Foundation Educational Savings Accounts two weeks ago was apparently an unalterable barrier to my liquidating their accounts until yesterday afternoon, of which they DID NOT inform me when I changed their addresses a few weeks ago. Although I had intended to put their money in strong CDs at the NC Credit Union on Monday, seeing the market as going downhill fast, I was prevented from touching it due to a policy of which I was not informed (and they ADMITTED as such on the phone) until Friday, watching helplessly as the value of their meagre college savings decreased by thousands each day.

There's something weird here--that changing a local address that's literally five minutes down the road would, within the span of a week, cost me thousands of dollars and purge me from the voter rolls. Maybe it's more the flawed, inflexible world of ubiquitous computing that resulted in these nasty little happenings, but I wonder if hundreds of thousands of people are being disempowered each day with new rules and regulations that require more work to understand and entail hours and hours of time to remedy systemic problems.

I know it's minor compared to being put on a terrorist watch list--which isn't an impossibility given some of the activists with whom I've hung out over the past few years--but it seems like this blind creeping totalitarianism. They "say" this is all to prevent fraud--not being able to access chunks of money without being double checked for crime--but it's really intrusive.

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

1. Call the Wake County Board of Elections first thing Monday morning:

And check here: http://www.sboe.state.nc.us/VoterLookup.aspx?Feature=voterinfo

[zazen]

3. that's where I checked and where I no longer exist in their database n/t

[zazen]

2. more succinctly--our travel/moving within and out of our country is a lot more regulated than it was

In addition to my plea for everyone to please doublecheck their registrations and maybe even PRINT IT OUT TO TAKE TO THE POLLS WITH YOU, this is the point I wanted to make.

[tismyself]

4. I second that

I am planning on printing mine out to take with me. I don't have any real reasons except for 100% of the government agencies I have to deal with acting like they are BATSHIT - but I don't completely trust the voting situation.

Well, that is not altogether true. If it has anything to do with local, state, or federal government anything, I have no trust at all, none. No faith, no trust.

[Jane Eyre]

5. Vote Early

Early voting starts this Thursday October 16. You can do same-day voter registration and voting at the same time, but only during the early vote period. That means that you can change your address information on your voter registration during early vote as well. Bring your driver's license with the correct address with you.

The issue with the address change on the financial accounts is a Patriot Act issue as well as a safety issue. Banks and financial institutions are required to verify the address for account applicants. It is also a safety issue because financial institutions are leary of sending checks out on accounts where the address was recently changed. They want to make sure they are sending the money to the rightful account owner and not some scam artist who just changed the address on your account in an attempt to get a check sent to them.

[kick-ass-bob]

6. And here is more info:

http://www.sboe.state.nc.us/content.aspx?id=17

[KatieB]

7. How did your story end?

As you know, the Social Security Dept has been complaining about NC BOE asking for historical levels of SS# confirmations. They advise not using their database because it's full or errors. NC Bd of elections has been using SS# as a basis to purge voter registrations. If there is any conflict with SS database, they drop the registration. I've been reading up on the STATE purging of files and will post my conclusions, but preliminary examination appears as follows
1)the law does not allow purging 90 days before the election;
2) does not allow the use of SS# unless the there is no drivers' license number;
3) NC BOE's own press release implies they have been purging their files within the 90 day deadine, that they have been and have the authority to continue to use SS# to purge files on those where they have the DL# and won't change that practice until next year. But the law is crystal clear on this. They cannot use SS# to purge a registered voter if they have the DL#.
Someone with some authority needs to contact THE BOE and ask some questions.

[KatieB]

8. NC Board of Elections is not following state or federal voter registration laws

NC law does not have a provision preventing "purging" prior to 90 days before the election. But it is as clear as a bell that the State BOE is inappropriately removing names from the polling books by using social security number checks to invalidate registration. Under state and federal law, the NC BOE can only use a valid drivers license OR a social security number to verify eligibility. Not both. (This is under state AND federal law) Yet, NC's Director of its Board Of Elections admitted to an AP reporter in an article on October 10, 2008 that they are using BOTH when the voter provides both (Any normal person would provide both as "insurance"). This means that if the voter has a valid drivers license, but his social security information clashes with that held by the SSA, the voter is pulled from the poll books in North Carolina.
By his own admission, NC's BOE Director says that 1/2 of all the new registrations (400,000 out of 800,000) have been sent to the Social Security Administration for validation, even though the Social Security Administration has warned that its database should not be relied on for voter registration validations (i.e., inaccurate information, not updated etc.) The SSA also is reported in the October 9, 2008 New YOrk Times article that it sent a letter to NC's BOE encouraging them to "follow the law," in response to such a large volume of validation requests. NC's BOE director claimed the NYTimes never contacted his office prior to the article. Probably not -- but the Social Security Administration sure did.

[Triana]

9. Is this obstinate BOE director Republican perchance?

Just wondering.

Laziness, apathy, the desire to purge as many Dems/poor/minorities and whoever else they can toss from the rolls is no excuse for violating the law.

I read that the FEC is for the most part, impotent right now - closed, non- or understaffed and therefore are not policing elections or whether election law is being followed this voting season. Haven't heard a peep from them on anything. It seems the voters are left hanging out to try in a very disenfranchised and un-Democratic wind by these agenda-ridden BOE's.

What recourse do voters and those who want the law followed have to get these obstinate Democracy-despising BOE officials to DO THEIR JOBS right?

:mad:

[bertman]

10. Thanks for posting this. I checked. I'm good.