The Independent View: The Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program

The Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program, now run by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, compares Voter-Roll data State to State. It has a dual purpose: to Clean the Voter Rolls and Identify People who are Registered in multiple States, likely because they moved, and to find Voter Fraud. Crosscheck finds only Cases of Double Voting, other types of Voter Fraud include False Registrations, Forgery, and Perjury. But the Number of other kinds of Voter-Fraud Cases is far less than the Double-Voting Cases.

Here are some Details of the 30 Referrals received by the Attorney General's Office:

- Twenty resulted in Convictions. Of the others, Six Cases were turned down, One was dismissed, One Conviction was Overturned on Appeal, and Two are still active.

- Eleven Convictions were in Maricopa County, AZ.

- Nine others occurred in AZ: Pinal, Santa Cruz, Pima, Mohave, La Paz, and Graham Counties.

- The Average Fine for those Convicted was a little more than $5,000. Fines ranged from $2,500 to $13,800.

- Most of those Convicted received 100 hours of Community Service, although in Two Cases, the Defendants were ordered to Perform 200 and 300 hours.

- A few Defendants had their Records expunged after Paying the Court and completing their Hours.

- Several claimed in Court Documents that they did not Intentionally Vote Twice.

Accidental Double Voting is probably the most Common type of Voter Fraud that occurs, said David Wells, Senior Political-Science Lecturer at Arizona State University.

Intentional Voter Fraud happens, but is usually done by: Election Officials, Petition Gathers, Absentee Ballot Collectors, Poll Workers, Candidates and their Staff, and occasionally Voters.

A common Voter Fraud is Voting in Two States, the Voters currant State and there previous State. Better Voting Roll Cleaning by Election Officials of Voters Movement will remove this type of Fraud.

The Arizona Secretary of State's Office initiated the somewhat complex process of Identifying Double Votes. These are the steps:

- Arizona sends Voter Data, including an Individual's First and Last Name and Partial Social Security number, to the Crosscheck program in Kansas. According to Samantha Poetter, Director of Public Information for Kobach, 27 other States last year did the same and now 30 are Signed up to Share this Information in coming Years.

- A Computer Program compares States’ Data.

- Matches are sent to respective Secretaries of State Offices.

- At the Arizona Secretary of State's Office, Signature Comparisons begin. If it appears an Individual submitted Two Ballots, Staff Members manually compare Signatures on the Ballots and determine whether to investigate further.

- The narrowed Pool of Matches are sent to Counties, which perform their own Review. They Report their Findings to the Secretary of State.

- If there's a Hard Match, meaning the First and Last Name, Birth Date, Social Security number, and Signature match on Two Ballots, the Case is referred to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office for further review.

“It's a fairly laborious process that does take a great deal of time,” said Matt Roberts, Spokesman for Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan. “And that's why we in the past have announced cases of double voting long after the election occurred.”

In 2016, the Office received 79,331 matches, which are Classified into Four types by how strong they are, with 1 being the strongest. Roberts said the number of matches is fairly consistent year after year.

Type 1: An individual's Name, Date of Birth and Partial Social Security number are the same in both Records. In 2016, a majority of the Matches, 65,521, were Type 1.

Type 2 and 3: One State doesn’t have a Social Security number.

Type 4: Everything is the Same in both Records except the Social Security number.

Arizona requires Proof of U.S. Citizenship when Registering to Vote. With both Stringent Voter Laws and the Crosscheck program, Arizona has not found thousands, hundreds, or even dozens of Cases of Voter Fraud. Instead, the State has Convicted 20 People of Double Voting, and even fewer of Other kinds of Voter Fraud.