- Thousands of metropolitan-area residents are illegally
registered to vote in both New York and Florida, a Post investigation has
found.
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- A review of voter registration databases turned up more
than 14,000 voters in New York City, Nassau and Suffolk counties who are
also registered to vote in Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward counties,
in South Florida. New York City has 11,642 voters with illegal dual registrations.
Nassau has 1,454; Suffolk has 1,400.
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- "Wow. That's news to me. It's illegal," state
Board of Elections spokesman Lee Daghlian said when told of the duplicate
registrations. "You are not allowed to be registered in two places
at once," said Eleanor Sciglibaglio, associate chief clerk of the
Nassau County Board of Elections. "They could face a criminal prosecution."
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- The Post compared databases from New York City, Nassau
and Suffolk to the databases of the three Florida counties, provided by
Strategic Technologies & Research of Fort Lauderdale. Dual registrations
create the possibility of voter fraud - with individuals able to vote in
each jurisdiction through use of direct and absentee balloting. It is not
known if such fraud is common.
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- Elections officials speculate that most duplicate registrations
occur when people move out of state and fail to report their prior registration.
And many New Yorkers have winter residences in Florida. "It is possible
that they didn't mean to do anything wrong," said Broward County Supervisor
of Elections Jane Carroll. "But it's also possible that they can vote
in both places."
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- Failing to disclose a prior registration is a crime punishable
by up to five years in prison in Florida, and four years in New York. "You
know, I never thought of that," said Martha Warren, who moved last
year from Oceanside, L.I., to Tamarac, Fla., where she and her husband
registered to vote without mentioning they were registered in New York.
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- Asked if she had voted in both states, Warren chuckled
and said, "No way."
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- Marvin Hellerman of Great Neck, L.I., said, "I don't
know what the hell's going on" when asked why he and his wife, Claire,
are registered in Nassau County, N.Y., and Broward County. Hellerman said
he sold his house in Fort Lauderdale years ago and registered to vote in
New York. He said he assumed he had correctly filled out the New York form.
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- Broward County's Carroll said there is no national database
officials can check to prevent duplicate registrations. Florida officials
can check if someone is registered elsewhere in the state. Naomi Bernstein,
spokeswoman for the city's Board of Elections, said there's a system is
in place to prevent double registrations in the five boroughs, but not
in the state. "In a perfect world, we'd use your Social Security number
as the identifier number" on voter rolls, Bernstein said. But privacy
advocates have opposed such a link.
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- Elections officials contacted by The Post said they would
remove voters from their rolls if told they are registered elsewhere. But
they said they do not plan to do a nationwide search to identify multiple
registrants. "We are not an investigative agency," Bernstein
said.
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- The city elections board has referred double registrants
to the district attorney's office, she said, but she did not know of any
cases that were prosecuted.
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