County acknowledges more errors
Santa Clara County officials urge voters with questions about voter registration status to call
Santa Clara County elections officials have acknowledged some additional staff errors led to some residents getting kicked off the voter rolls by mistake, but said other reports of canceled registrations either originated in other counties or were misunderstandings.
More than a dozen Santa Clara County residents in recent weeks said their voter registrations appeared to have been canceled without their knowledge — something they discovered only after noticing they hadn’t received election materials in the mail while friends or spouses did.
The registration hiccups occurred as part of a state process of implementing the VoteCal statewide voter database. The Secretary of State’s office notifies local election officials of cases where there may be multiple registrations under the same name and asks them to eliminate outdated registrations.
“Since the implementation of the VoteCal system, our office has received over 21,000 possible duplicative voter registration record matches for review,” said Eric Kurhi, spokesman for the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters. He couldn’t say how many of those were duplicates.
The Santa Clara County registrar last week said a staff error caused voter Nancy Kops’ registration to be canceled, but that the office needed time to research other reports.
This week the Santa Clara County registrar said staff errors resulted in two additional voters’ registrations being canceled, while another staff error caused two voters’ registered addresses to be incorrectly switched. All voters’ registrations have been corrected.
Two other Santa Clara
County voters who thought their registrations were canceled were mistaken — their voter materials just arrived late.
“We at the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters are here to assist any of our voters, and voters can contact our office to confirm that they are registered to vote or if they have any questions,” Kurhi said. “If voters have received a state pamphlet, a county voter information guide, or a vote by mail ballot, they are registered
voters. If they expected one, but did not receive one, they should contact our office.”
The Santa Clara County registrar said two Santa Clara County voters’ registrations were canceled by Solano County, and a third by Los Angeles County.
The Secretary of State’s office last week said that the state only notifies local elections officials of possible duplicate registrations and does not cancel any, leaving it up to local officials.
Los Angeles County’s elections office had no immediate response.
But Solano County Assistant Registrar of Voters John Gardner said Tuesday that in cases where the state indicates a “high confidence” that a voter registration on record with the county is no longer correct or valid, that record is automatically canceled by the local computer system. He said his staff only gets involved with cases that are
less certain to be invalid.
Still, the number of erroneous de-registrations in Solano County were “in the single digits,” Gardner said.
You can check your registration status online on the statewide database at voterstatus.sos.ca.gov. Just type in your name, driver’s license number, last four digits of your Social Security number and date of birth to confirm you are registered — and where to vote. Anyone with questions about voter registration may also call their county registrar:
Santa Clara County (408) 299-8683 (VOTE)
Alameda County (510) 272-6973
Contra Costa County (925) 335-7800
San Mateo County (800) 345-8683 (VOTE)
San Francisco (415) 5544375
Santa Cruz County (831) 454-2060