Some Residents Encounter Voter Registration Problems

October 15, 2004

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Election officials all over the area are swamped trying to make sure everyone who's properly registered gets to vote next month.

But KMBC's Micheal Mahoney reported that it is harder than one might think. He said stories are coming out all over America about problems with voter registration -- including some serious charges about voter registration cards being destroyed.

One of those stories prompted Terry Coffel to check hers. Coffel thought she registered in April, but she did not.

"I mean, I was flipping out. I thought it was taken care of last April. Now, why did this take so long?" Coffel asked.

Coffel was registered by one of the many groups that spent all year signing up people and sending those cards into places, like the Jackson County, Mo., election office. When officials checked Coffel, there was some unclear information.

"We sent her a letter asking her to clear up the questions. But she never responded," said Charlene Davis, of the Jackson County election board.

"I called the attorney general's office, I called Claire McCaskill, I called anybody who would listen to me," Coffel said.

"I believed her. So I made like Nancy Drew and I found it," Davis said.

Davis' office has sent out thousands of confirmation letters, another 1,700 alone on Friday. But several states reported registration abuses in places like Oregon, Nevada, Virginia and Florida, Mahoney said.

Democrats are so worried that some of their voters might be denied a ballot that they published a guide for their Election Day poll workers that says in part, "If no signs of intimidation techniques have emerged yet, launch a preemptive strike."

The top Democrat in Congress, Nancy Pelosi, had this to say:

"What I interpret that to mean is to be vigilant," Pelosi said.

Mahoney said that residents need to make sure their voting information is correct.

The voter registration deadline in Missouri has already passed. The voter registration deadline in Kansas is on Monday.

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