The disenfranchisement of thousands of registered voters was one of the more shameful aspects of the Florida vote. It affected mostly minority citizens who were turned away at the polls because their names were on a grossly inaccurate list of 173,000 people believed to be ineligible to vote. The list had been compiled by a private contractor for the State of Florida. A company official says the state was warned that the list needed further refinement. Democrats have accused the state of diluting the minority vote with a knowingly inflated list of ineligible voters, a charge that is vehemently denied.
Local jurisdictions have similar problems.
Most of these people are presumably honest, and simply have not been taken off one list after moving. But such lax registration practices allow for fraud. A grand jury in that same city is investigating 3,800 suspect voter registration cards, including some for dead aldermen, turned in shortly before the deadline to register for last month's mayoral race. While most other democracies have national voter registration systems, this country does not, and only a few states have centralized rolls. The rest, including New York, leave registration up to localities.