Some residents have been concerned about making sure they’re registered to vote after rumors have circulated that a lot of people have been purged from voter registration rolls. With all the publicity surrounding Russian interference in the U.S. elections, it doesn’t help that the Arkansas Secretary of State’s website to check your voter registration, www.voterview.org, has some glitches that mean some voters are not getting confirmation of being registered.
Nan Johnson said she was unable to confirm her voter registration the website and had concerns it was fraudulent when the Carroll County Clerk’s office confirmed that she is registered to vote. Johnson decided to check her registration after someone told her that people were being purged from the voter registration rolls, and gave her a card with the www.voterview.org website on it check the status of her registration.
“That website seems to be giving wrong information,” Johnson said. “It told me I was not registered. But I called the county clerk in Berryville and I am registered. She said she has had a lot of calls from folks who went to this website and got wrong info. It may be a bogus website. I even gave it my driver’s license number. Perhaps it is a scam for identity theft. I will be warning others.”
This reporter also was initially unable to confirm her own voter registration at that website. Carroll County Election Coordinator Sherry Cochrane confirmed from county records that this reporter was registered, but also was unable to pull up confirmation on the www.voterview.org website.
Arkansas Secretary of State Press Secretary Chris Powell said the website is legitimate, but he’s received calls from people, including a reporter from Fayetteville, who were unable to confirm their registration at the website.
Powell was able to pull up this reporter’s voter registration information with no problem, saying the issue might be with people putting too much information in the search form.
“If people are trying to put in all the information on that form, our voter registration system doesn’t necessarily have all that information to match,” Powell said. “It might not have your driver’s license number, for example. If you put that on the voter registration form, then it will not match. That may be what is throwing errors to people. The only required fields are the name and date of birth. They may be getting false errors because they are trying to put too much information on the form.”
This reporter was able to pull up her registration information after inputting only her name, date of birth and county of residence.
Powell cautioned against any big conspiracy theories, like there has been a big purge of voter rolls.
“County clerks are the only people who can remove or add someone to the voter registration rolls,” Powell said. “The Secretary of State doesn’t have the authority to do that. The Constitution lays out the procedures. If someone has questions, their county clerk is the first line of information there. If someone dies or is a felon, their name is removed. If someone moves, they also need to move their voter registration.
“There have not been any changes due to the Russians or any sort of mass purge. We have normal procedures that are followed. There have been stories in the national press trying to get people to think certain things, but there is a lot of misinformation that goes on. We want this website to be a useful service. If the website is having issues, we will look into it. But I’m not for certain it is.”
Cochrane said she received quite a few calls this past week from people concerned they had been purged, and confirmed that www.voterview.org is a legitimate website. In addition to voter registration information, it also contains sample ballots. But, she agreed with Powell that the website can be picky about how you enter your information to confirm voter registration.
“Usually you are better off leaving off the middle initial,” Cochran said. “Just use the first and last name and date of birth,” she said.
Cochrane said there haven’t been any large purges of voter registration in Carroll County. You do have to keep your registration current such as providing a new address when you move. And if you haven’t voted in the past two federal election cycles, which is four years, your name is removed.
People are able to get voter registration applications at Sec. of State’s website, www.sos.arkansas.gov/. You can’t register online, but you can print an application and mail it to the Secretary of State’s office or deliver it to the county clerk’s office.
The website www.vote.org/registertovote/ has forms the website says can be used to register to vote online. But Powell said that is not an official website.
“It is not affiliated with us,” Powell said. “It is a non-profit organization. Some states allow online voter registration and others don’t. Arkansas does not.”
The last day to file to run in municipal elections is August 17 at noon. The last date register to vote in the general election on Nov. 6 is Oct. 8. Early voting starts October 22.