Thread by @LeaveCrosscheck

Thread on #Crosscheck Status in Alabama (revised):

#AlabamaSpecialElection

Alabama is one of 8 states the use both #Crosscheck and the widely respected Electronic Registration Information System (ERIC). /2

It is worth reading about ERIC at ericstates.org if you aren't familiar; here is a key part of their Membership Agreement: /3

/4

ERIC member states engage in a continuous process (every 60 days) of removing verified duplicates and outdated registrations /5

in addition to the critical effort of contacting eligible but unregistered voters. (This is not a feature of #Crosscheck). This outreach/5

requirement of ERIC may help blunt the effect of any registrations canceled because of #Crosscheck. /6

Turning to how #Crosscheck is managed in Alabama, I received this yesterday via FOIA: /7

Alabama "accepted only those records where...the last four digits of the social security number were perfect matches." VA, ME, and SC /8

all do similar processing to remove obvious false positives before acting on #crosscheck data. This mitigates the risk of inappropriate /9

purge for those who should have been excluded from the list by #Crosscheck itself due to missing or mismatched SSN4. /10

In 2016, #crosscheck sent Alabama 220,247 pairs of "possible duplicate registrants"; we aren't provided complete enough information to /11

calculate the % of false positives but analysis of other states suggests 60-90% of the file would contain mismatch SSN4 &/or middle name /12

AL found 37,511 pairs w/matching SSN4 AND most recent registration outside of AL which they forwarded to each county for further review /13

and removal. After review, they removed 33,414 of these registrations having verified them as double registered. We are not provided /14

information about voting history for these registrations (i.e., whether most recent vote cast was in AL or the other state). Goel et al /15

argue, in paper titled One Person, One Vote, that the practice of deleting older registrations impedes more valid votes than /16

potential double votes prevented by a factor of 200:1. scholar.harvard.edu/morse/publicat… /17

We don't know why the remaining 4,097 verified doubly registered voters were not removed. (Will update if that ? is answered). /18

Alabama also clarified that processing of 2017 #Crosscheck records has been suspended due to upcoming federal election. /19

To recap, there is some risk of impeded votes due to Alabama's policy of deleting the AL record if a verified duplicate registrant was /20

more recently registered in a different state. This risk may be mitigated by Alabama's use of ERIC which requires outreach to eligible /21

but unregistered voters. Alabama's reported practice of rejecting #crosscheck records lacking a confirmed match on SSN4 reduces the /22

risk of wrongful urge for voters who are matched w/another voter of the same name and birthday but missing or mismatched SSN4. /23

Despite what appears to be judicious use of #crosscheck, I remain concerned about the decision to delete voter record if AL was the /24

older registration as this risks an impeded vote. /25

I continue to call on Alabama (and all other states) to #LeaveCrosscheck. That Alabama has to remove records with *mismatched* SSN4 /26

drives home two points. First, many of the "pairs" were two voters whose SSN4s have been sent to other states for no reason, & now risk /27

purge. Second, every #crosscheck state must either separately (and wastefully) process the data to remove false positives, or send the /28

entire list to local jurisdictions, exposing voter SSN4 once again and putting voters at risk for wrongful purge. Combined with the /29

recently uncovered security lapses, it is clear #crosscheck is too careless to be entrusted w/100 million voter records from 28 states /30

We call on all member states to #LeaveCrosscheck. We call on Kansas to #EndCrosscheck /end

PS getting voters registered b4 special election is one great way to fight back against #crosscheck. Another is to join me in the fight./x

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