Database cleanup removes 141 dead voters from Sedgwick County rolls

The Sedgwick County election office went through the records of every active and inactive voter in Sedgwick County. Using several tools and databases, they found information that led to the verification of the Social Security numbers and Kansas driver’s licenses of over 98.75% of their active voters. Duplicate records were also discovered on the voter rolls, and 66 were merged. In addition, correct dates of birth were found for 375 individuals whose dates of birth were 1/1/1900 in the system. Now, not a single active voter is listed without a correct date of birth, and only 4 inactive voters still have the generic 1/1/1900 listed as their date of birth.

“This is a tremendous initiative by Sedgwick County. Every deceased voter that remains on Kansas’ voter rolls creates the risk of a fraudulent vote being cast,” said Kobach. “The photo ID requirement of the 2011 Secure and Fair Elections Act will make such voter fraud more difficult to commit, but it is important that we take every precaution that we can. I strongly encourage the remaining 104 counties to follow the lead of Sedgwick County to proactively search for and correct discrepancies in voter registrations.”