30K Dead Voters Registered in NC, But...

An anti-voter fraud group says it has discovered 30,000 dead folks registered to vote across North Carolina. The group collected the names by comparing death records from the past decade to voter rolls; it says the figure would have been bigger had the group had access to death records in neighboring states. But the group isn't prepared to release a figure of how many instances of voter fraud may have resulted from those names.

The Charlotte Observer notes that in many cases, an apparent vote by a dead person is just an administrative error; for instance, a man with the same name as his father might end up voting as the deceased elder man. As for why the dead remain on this list, an elections official explains that people's names can slip through the cracks when addresses on voter rolls don't match those on death records, or when women change their names after marriage. "Unless there is an exact match, we do not remove people from the voter rolls." He adds that the group's claims will be investigated. Earlier this year, similar issues were seen nationwide. (More North Carolina stories.)