Many US voter identities don't match SSA data
Many new voters submit personal information that doesn't match Social Security's records, agency report. What does it mean?
The majority of new voters in California, Arizona, Nevada and New Jersey who registered with identity documents other than driver’s licenses provided personal data that did not match their records held by the Social Security Administration, according to new SSA data released on its open government Web page on May 19.
In California, 90 percent of new voters who registered in the first five months of 2011 without a license provided identity documents with either a name, birth date or four digits of their Social Security number that did not match their records at the SSA. That comprised 119,858 no-matches among 131,523 new voters who provided such data.
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In Nevada, 74 percent were a no-match; in Colorado, 70 percent; and in New Jersey, 63 percent, the SSA’s records show.
Nationwide, 39 percent, or roughly 389,000, of the 1 million voters who registered without driver’s licenses this year offered identification that did not match their official records at the SSA.
The SSA assembled the data under the Help America Vote Act of 2002, which requires states to verify with SSA the identity information of certain newly registered voters for federal elections. The system covers only prospective voters who lack driver’s licenses.
Each state must establish a computerized voter registration list and verify the new voter’s driver’s license number with the state’s motor vehicle administration. If the voter does not have a driver’s license, the prospective voter is asked to provide the last four digits of his or her Social Security number.
Forty-three states currently use the Help America Vote system.
No-match rates between Social Security numbers and other types of identity documents have been a concern in other national identification programs as well, including the Homeland Security Department’s E-Verify program for employment verification. Under E-Verify, which is voluntary for most employers and required for large federal contractors, the employers submit a prospective new worker’s Social Security number to verify the person’s identity before the hiring can be authorized. If there is a no-match, there are further procedures for adjudication. A research study in 2010 indicated that E-Verify was not able to detect half of unauthorized workers.