Tens of thousands of Florida voters are also registered to vote in a second state, and more than 1,600 may have cast ballots in Florida and one of two other states in recent elections, taking advantage of an absence of safeguards to prevent illegal double voting. An Orlando Sentinel examination of voting records from Florida, Georgia and North Carolina found more than 68,000 cases in which voters with the same names and dates of birth were registered in two states. In 1,650 cases, records indicate those voters cast ballots in Florida and another state in the 2000 or 2002 elections.
The study focused on Georgia and North Carolina because, among states with voting databases that are public record, they have the largest populations of Florida-registered voters. The potential number of double voters in Florida could be in the thousands, enough to have affected Florida's 2000 election, which George W. Bush won by 537 votes.
It is a felony for voters to cast ballots in two states in the same election. But those who double vote face little chance of being caught, because election officials seldom check whether voters are registered or voting in another state. Election officials and voting experts said they've long known that some voters flouted the law to cast extra ballots. "For years there's been speculation about how much of it goes on," said David Cardwell, a Windermere attorney specializing in election law and the former director of the Florida Division of Elections. |