The Department of Justice and the state of Connecticut have a plan for how they’ll share information about deceased voters -- an attempt to make sure voter rolls are accurate.
Secretary of the State Denise Merrill said the DOJ wants state elections officials to now coordinate with the state Department of Public Health -- which also tracks deaths. It’s another step in the process, and it’s slightly more complicated, since death certificates in Connecticut are reported to each town, not statewide.
“In other words, if someone dies in a town, that death record goes to the town clerk, who then gives it to the registrar of voters - by law - and the registrar of voters removes the name,” Merrill said. “This way, we will have to get the list that eventually arrives at the Department of Public Health and they will then forward it to us. We will then forward it back to the towns.”
President Donald Trump has made allegations of voter fraud, but Merrill said she’s not sure this effort to clean the rolls is related. That said, she admits there does seem to be a new push to ensure that the lists are correct.
“There has been, over time, all this talk about who’s on the list, how we’re purging lists, and efforts in some states to take many thousands of people off of the lists using various methodologies,” Merrill said. “I think it’s a renewed effort to make sure people are being removed from lists appropriately.”
Merrill said Connecticut has had one of the most accurate lists of all the New England states when surveyed.
