Thousands of dead Californians remain eligible to vote

An NBC Bay Area Investigation has uncovered thousands of California voters who remain on the voter rolls despite having  died several years ago. 

That discovery prompted several state and Bay Area election officials to re-examine their records, after our investigation brought this issue to light. 

NBC Bay Area used the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File to cross reference with the California state voter rolls using name, date of birth, and similar zip codes to find matches. We found over 25,000 questionable names still on the state voter rolls. 

Weir attributes most of the posthumous votes to mistaken signatures and clerical errors. However, in at least one other case NBC Bay Area uncovered, Weir suspects something else could be afoot. Though he wouldn't be specific, he referred one of the cases to the district attorney for a potential fraud investigation. 

Barry Garner serves as the registrar of Voters in Santa Clara County where NBC Bay Area found the names of 83 people who are dead and still have active voter registration files. 

“If we have found someone who has signed someone’s name fraudulently we will turn it over to the D.A.”  Garner said.

Some of the matches between the two databases appear to be a coincidence. For example, two people who were born on the exact same day, with the exact same name living in the exact same state. (MORE AT NBC4)