Baltimore City not purging voter rolls, election critic says

Collins said he discovered the problem in 2004, when he was going door-to-door to campaign for his son, Joe, during Joe?s bid for the city?s 10th district seat.

J. Michael Collins obtained a list of so-called “super-voters” from the state Board of Elections ? residents who have cast ballots in the last three elections. He said he was sure when he mailed them letters that he would get through to these residents.

But the post office started returning the letters ? hundreds of them. Many times, Collins went to houses to follow up, only to find the addresses led to abandoned houses.

“Nobody was living there,” Collins said. “These are the super-voters? Why are they still in the voter rolls?”

In all, about 500 of the 3,000 letters Collins sent to super-voters were returned because the post office said no one by that name lived at that address.

Collins attempted to contact local and state election officials about the problem, but said he never got his message across.

One reason Collins encountered so many vacant houses is city residents move often, said Armstead B. C. Jones, president of the Baltimore City Board of Elections.

He said he can?t rely on a resident such as Collins for information. He needs official documents, such as death records, to eliminate someone from the voter rolls.

Officials attempted to meet with Collins about his discovery, but could never find an agreeable time to hear his concerns, said Donna Duncan, director with the state Board of Elections.

“As far as we know, Baltimore City follows all list maintenance procedures spelled out in the code,” she said. “If Mr. Collins still has information, we?re of course more than willing to take that information.”

Part of the Baltimore Examiner’s 2006 Election Coverage

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