Cheat Sheet Q&A: How many voters are registered in multiple states & what the fix should be:
Today's entry: Brian, I heard your piece the other day on the need for voter registration reform. I certainly agree that we need voter registration reform so that people are not registered to vote in multiple states – especially if they no longer live in one of the states. You cited yourself as an example. However, I don't understand why you didn't comment on reality of people actually doing that - voting in multiple states.
It would be nice to know exactly how many total people actually have dual voter registration across the country. So to see if they all voted multiple times, how much could that truly or actually influence election results? You seem to have statistics for everything else – why not that? And (to have reforms to ensure that) we know without doubt, that 100% of these dual voting registration people are not going to vote more then once. I enjoy your research and your statistics on most stories, but please cover both sides of the story with statistics.
Bottom Line: The recent stories and research I've shared on voter fraud and irregularities have proven to be the most popular in terms of feedback and questions I've received since the election. I have addressed the number of duel registrations during the course of my coverage on the subject (according to the Pew Research Center it's at least 2.75 million). The duplicated voter hasn't been the focus of any particular related story I've presented, so perhaps that's why it wasn't more evident when I've presented it...What we don't know is how many actually do vote in two states unless there's an investigation that specifically reveals that it has occurred because there's no national database to reconcile those records. That's part of what I believe needs to be reformed and where I wanted to advance this conversation. Through my research it's clear that there are real needs standardize certain elements of voting systems for federal elections. There are two clear reforms that can take place that'd remove a significant amount of the opportunity for voter fraud.
I propose that we need an national voter database that should be integrated across all 50 states. The states would still be able to retain the right to conduct elections as they see fit but voter registration wouldn't be held at the state level alone. By there being a federal database, your voter registration would have to move with you, just as your address for Social Security, Medicare, etc. already do. This would prevent the ability for duplicated voters as one state's registration would be canceled as another's is initiated. The second reform this would fix would be with regard to deceased voters. With a national voter database being maintained, your voter registration would also die along with you as well. This would eliminate the opportunity for fraud of the 1.8 million deceased Americans who are also still active on voter roles according to Pew.
It's my hope that President Trump does conduct a voter fraud investigation and real reforms along the lines of what I just described take place.
If you have a topic or question you'd like me to address email me: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com