Here’s an interesting one: My brother moved out of state years ago, and yet he is still listed on the voter rolls (I see his name listed there every time I vote, right above my name). I assume that means that if he wanted to take the time, he could theoretically vote here as well as his home town. This is disconcerting enough, but it gets worse…Today we received a notice from the Board of Elections addressed to him. It’s a long form, in English and Spanish with a simple message on the back:

"Dear Voter:

Have you moved to a different address? The Board of Elections has received information through the post office or DMV which indicates that you have moved.

If you have moved but still live in the same county, please fill out the business reply card at the bottom of this form with your new address. Separate and mail. If you have moved to a new county, you must register to vote in that county. Please use the REGISTRATION FORM on the back side of this document for this purpose. Fill in the address of your new county board of elections, fold add postage and mail. If you have not moved, please let us know that your address has not changed."

OK, I understand that last bit, and I can assume that if he had *just* moved, then perhaps this would have been forwarded on to him. But he moved *years* ago, and he moved *out of state* which isn’t even a choice.

You would think that our system was better than this, but as far as the Board of Elections knows, my brother dropped off the face of the planet. I would have assumed (wrongly) that his social security number which left with him would be enough to track him out of state. I just assumed that there was some kind of national registration database and that his local Board of Elections would have gotten a flag that his social security number was still registered elsewhere (like the DMV can see in their database that you are a registered driver in another state). The same thing happened when my parents moved out of state, they were on the rolls for years afterward, they could easily have voted in both places if they had chosen to do so. This seems like only the tip of the iceberg in a massive problem. It should be part of the national election reform debate that we really should be participating in after the debacle of the last two national elections.