States warned about failing to comply with federal election law

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio officials are scrambling to respond to a federal warning that the state hasn’t complied with part of the Help America Vote Act, a measure packed with election mandates states must have in place this year.

Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell said he is confident his office can satisfy the concerns that the Justice Department expressed in its March 31 letter. His office must respond to the Justice Department by Friday.

“We don’t have any indication that we should be worried about their throwing us into noncompliance,” said Blackwell, a Republican gubernatorial hopeful.

John Tanner, chief of the Justice Department’s voting rights division, indicated in the letter that Ohio and 29 other states had yet to sign the required agreements with the Social Security Administration to match the last four digits of voters’ Social Security numbers against federal records. Under HAVA, the numbers will be used to verify the identity of voters.

SSA spokesman Mark Lassiter in Washington said Ohio has signed the agreement but doesn’t have the system up and running. Ohio’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles is already matching voter records against a different Social Security database, Blackwell spokesman James Lee said.

Lassiter said agreements between the SSA and state motor vehicle agencies are being signed at a steady pace. Ohio was supposed to have its in place Jan. 1.

“In October, we were at about 15 states, now we’re up to 38 states. So, clearly, we’ve made a lot of progress since then,” Lassiter said.

Other states got the same warning letter.

Maine expects to have a computerized voter registration system operational later this year, Deputy Secretary of State Doug Dunbar said. Alabama Secretary of State Nancy Worley says she has a conference call scheduled with Justice Department officials later this month to explain that the state is still working to link driver’s license records to federal records. Missouri expects to have its driver’s license system fully compatible with SSA records by the end of the month, said Stacie Temple, a spokeswoman for the Secretary of State’s Office.

Minnesota, like Ohio, has an agreement with the SSA in place but hasn’t yet brought the system online. It will be operational in time for the next statewide election, the Sept. 12 primary, said Kent Kaiser, a spokesman for Minnesota Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer.