Almost a dozen registration forms may have been fraudulently filled out

The El Paso County Clerk and Recorder's office said it has found almost a dozen claims of voter registration fraud.

Bob Balink, County Clerk and Recorder, said the forms came from several voting registration drives and were submitted with fictitious addresses and drivers' license numbers. Now the investigation has been turned over to the district attorney's office.

Although Balink admits he does not believe the problem is widespread, he did say, "If there's one case of voter fraud, that's too many for me because it cancels your vote."

According to Balink detecting voter fraud is very difficult, largely because laws do not require or allow election officials to require voters to provide proof of their identity or citizenship. "You can make up a number because we have no way of checking what you put on that form. You may make up a new name, Mary Smith at this address, and it could be your home address and you could get two ballots," explained Balink.

Seeing this type of fraud at registration drives triggered other registration worries for Balink.

"In some of the cases a couple years ago, these drives were paying people, volunteers basically, but paying them and often they would only pay you if you turn in registration forms for this party or that party," claimed Balink. "So what our primary concern is now, is making sure that everybody who filled out a registration form to vote, not only believes they are registered, but actually are registered with our office."

Voters who would like to confirm their registration with the County can contact the Election Department at 575-VOTE (8683) or visit the Clerk & Recorder's office.