The Scott County Board of Supervisors has agreed to give its support in an effort to clarify suspected cases of voter fraud identified in a statewide investigation. Secretary of State Matt Schultz has revealed that his office is investigating thousands of possible cases, including 180 in Scott County. The problem is, he has not released the names of the suspicious voters from the 2010 election.
Tuesday morning, Scott County Auditor Roxanna Moritz asked for the board's help in getting more information as well as hiring a person to help. She says the county needs to act now, in order to affirm the integrity of the process going into a presidential election.
"We want to ensure the public that we are looking at all the opportunities for voter fraud--that it's not acceptable. So, we need the names that the secretary of state has acquired so that we have the time and opportunity to go out and look," Moritz said.
Moritz asked the board to help her get the 180 names, which represents about .01 percent of the registered voters in Scott County, as well as additional funding to hire a part-time worker to pull those records out of storage.
"We could narrow this down by what he (secretary of state) calls and what could be just data mistakes," Moritz added.
The board agreed to take action, if the names were not released by the end of the day. In addition, once the names of the voters in question are released, the auditor can hire more help to investigate.
Moritz says voter fraud is taken very seriously. She says they go through the rolls monthly to remove inactive voters. In addition, in 2008, she says her office identified 12 suspicious voters and turned the names over to authorities, but no charges were filed.
With 180 names, Moritz says it will require a little extra work, and that's why she asked for the board's support.
Scott Co. Auditor Roxanna Moritz
