BEXAR COUNTY -- Counties throughout Texas are cleaning up their voter-rolls by sending letters to tens of thousands of residents, asking them to verify that they are not dead.
Some voters who have received the letters complain the process is confusing and are concerned that some residents may not be able to vote if they never receive and return the letter of verification.
The Secretary of State identified 72,000 names on the Social Security Administration's death master file that also appear on the Texas voter-roll. Each county is responsible for verifying their own residents who appear on the list.
Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen said she had originally received a list of about 6,000 names to verify, however, her office was able to dwindle that number down to about 600.
"Most of those were weak matches," Callanen said. "Well, a weak match means it may be someone with the same name."
Residents who receive a letter will have 30 days to send the form back in. However, should they procrastinate and fail to do so, they will still be able to vote in the Nov. 6 elections.
Callanen said those voters will have to cast a provisional ballot that they will sign with their signature. Callanen's office will then verify the signature by checking the signature they have on file.
"We are here to ensure that every voter that chooses to go out and cast a ballot has that right," she said. "I have a staff here that works diligently to make sure those records are correct."
Bexar County has 890,000 registered voters. It boasted 903,000 registered voters during the last major election in 2008.
Oct. 9 is the last day to register to vote. Early voting begins Oct. 22.
