Nevadans won't be denied right to vote

Contrary to a New York Times story this week, the secretary of state's office says no eligible Nevada voters will be prevented from voting because their identification couldn't be matched with Department of Motor Vehicle or Social Security records.

The story said thousands of eligible voters in swing states, including Nevada, have been removed from the rolls in apparent violation of federal law.

But Matt Griffin, elections deputy for Secretary of State Ross Miller, said Nevada is different from most of those states in that voters whose names, addresses and identification numbers don't check out properly don't lose their voter registration.

"You are not purged in Nevada," he said. "You're not denied the right to vote."

Griffin said many times in Nevada, a name is "flagged" because the voter's data was entered incorrectly. He said a common mistake is putting the Social Security number in the driver's license number box on the form or putting in a post office box instead of a street address.

He said those kinds of errors cause a voter's name to be "flagged." He said Nevada also has early voting so voters with a problem can come back the next day or on Election Day and participate.

"All you've got to do is show an ID and you can still vote," he said.

Miller said when a voter's registration application can't be matched with the state's DMV database, the state uses the Social Security Administration database. But he, too, said all the voter has to do is show proper ID at the polling place.

"I want to assure Nevadans that any suggestion that eligible voters will be denied their right to participate in this election on Nov. 4 is false," said Miller.

The other states mentioned in the story are Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and North Carolina.

- Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.