In today's often tight elections, every vote
counts. But a Kansas City Star investigation has found that for some
people, locally and across Missouri, their vote counts double -- because
they voted twice in the same election. Some vote in Kansas, cross the
state line and vote again in Missouri. Others appear to be voting in
two different Missouri counties. The Star's investigation uncovered
more double voters, and records suggest there could be more than 300
statewide. The exact number is impossible to determine because many
counties have shredded their poll books, as allowed under state law,
and state computer files are rife with data errors. Election officials
said findings show that the voting system is vulnerable to fraud and
that it's a particularly serious threat in a time of razor-thin
election margins. Of the more than 300 potential cases of vote fraud in
2000 and 2002, The Star found about 150 in St. Louis or St. Louis
County, 60 in the Kansas City area -- including three dozen in Kansas
City itself -- and the rest scattered across the state. The total number
of cases could be even higher. Anyone registered under a slightly
different name or date of birth in two places would escape detection in
the newspaper's analysis of voter registration databases in Missouri
and Kansas. The study only flagged people registered in two places
under exactly the same names and dates of birth. [more ]
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