Study Finds Voter Rolls Are a Mess

Dead people might not vote, but a lot are registered to. A report by the Pew Center on the States found that one in eight active registrations is invalid or inaccurate. Perhaps more troubling, one in four people who are eligible to vote are not registered. There are about 1.8 million dead people listed as active voters, and 2.8 million have active registrations in more than one state. About 12 million registrations have errors that make it unlikely for ballots to reach voters. In 2008 about 2.2 million votes were lost because of registration problems, according to the report. The study warned that the errors are evidence of poor record keeping, not of fraud.