Alleged Votes by Dead Dallas County Voters Refuted

Names of dead Dallas County voters that an Internet blog said may have been used to cast improper ballots, in fact, were not used, according to a newspaper report.
 
In a report headlined "Dead voters cast ballots in Dallas County, the Texas Watchdog news Web site had reported on its Web site just before Election Day that that 48 names of dead voters on the county's rolls appeared to have been used to vote.
 
Texas Watchdog compiled the list of 48 names by comparing federal death records with Dallas County's election rolls, said the blog's deputy editor, Jennifer Peebles.
 
"When you show up at a voting place, you don't necessarily have to show photo ID. Identification can be as little as a utility bill," she said.
 
A study of those 48 names by The Dallas Morning News, however, found that 47 of the names were not associated with questionable votes.
 
The newspaper reported that its review found that the mistakes generally resulted when a poll worker stamped the wrong name in the poll book or the bar code associated with the wrong name was scanned. No ballots were cast for those names, the newspaper reported.
 
"When you have human beings doing a process, it's impossible not to have some errors," said Bruce Sherbet, the elections administrator in Dallas County, which has 1.2 million registered voters.
 
In 12 cases, the voters pointed out by the blog as dead were, in fact, different people who shared the same name and birthday as the dead voter.
 
The 48th name was purged and was not available for review, the newspaper reported in Sunday's editions.
 
When contacted with the newspaper's findings, Peebles said the blog's article emphasized that there was only a potential for vote fraud, not an actual occurrence.
 
Nevertheless, "If no dead voters cast ballots in Dallas County, that is inaccurate and we have the headline wrong," she said.