Champaign County Clerk Mark Shelden has written another very informative post on his blog (and they've finally gotten an RSS feed!), this time covering why some voter registrations are rejected.
Using methods like those I have listed above, we have been able to prevent thousands of registrations from being rejected by going the extra mile to obtain or confirm information that should have been provided in the original registration application.
Nevertheless, despite our best efforts, last fall, 717 registrations were rejected for a variety of reasons.
194 rejections were rejected because the registrations were for addresses out of Champaign County. Those registrations are forwarded to the correct county.
57 were rejected because the person did not sign the registration form. This is mandated by state law.
149 were because the person did not check the box on the form indicating that the voter is a U.S. Citizen. This is required under the Help America Vote Act. HAVA specifically required that registration forms contain the citizenship question and that forms returned without that information must be rejected.
230 were rejected because the applicant failed to provide a valid ID number with the registration. This is mandated by state and federal law.
33 were rejected because the registrants submitted a change of address but were not previously registered.
The remainder were rejected for assorted other reasons such as failure to provide a birth date or failure to provide an address, or for providing a non-residential address.
Of the 717 registrants that were rejected, 281 re-registered with a new registration form.
Whenever we reject a registrant's application, we mail them a card informing them that their registration has been rejected. They are told the specific reason for the rejection and what they must do in order to correct the problem and to be registered.
It's a long article, but interesting, and you should go check it out.
