BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – The Brevard County Supervisor of Elections has issued an alert about a voter registration mail campaign that’s causing confusion for residents.
Lori Scott said the mailers, which are from a third-party group, have previously resulted in voter registration applications being sent to deceased persons, children and even pets.
"We've been contacted from voters who it goes to their child who has passed away or their husband or wife who has passed away," Scott said. "It has come to their pets in their pets names."
Scott said her office has received several calls from voters already registered, which created concern.
“The issue is that they’re contacting voters who are already registered, who are then wondering why they’re getting a new voter registration application,” Scott said.
The Voter Participation Center (VPC), which is a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit, is behind the campaign, according to Scott. In July, the president of the organization told News 6 they have no way of knowing who is unregistered or dead.
“They’ve told us in the past that they get their data of who they want to contact from multiple entities,” Scott said. “Sometimes, it’s magazine subscriptions.”
Voters with questions about the mailings can call VPC directly at 877-255-6750 or by visiting the group’s website.
In the FAQ section of its website, VPC says:
“Errors are very rare, but when they occur, voters will often contact election officials to ask about our mailings. Our team checks mail against multiple data sources, including lists of registered voters, the national change of address database, and the Social Security Death Master File. We also eliminate names from our mailing that are very rare, since they usually indicate errors in underlying data, as well as names that are commonly associated with fictitious characters or pets, which usually represent people who have signed up for commercial services using those names. We also check addresses against the Coding Accuracy Support System maintained by the U.S. Postal Service and use two separate systems to accurately assign mail to the correct county when county-level officials are responsible for voter registration. We are constantly testing and improving our programming and data sources to increase the number of people we can register and reduce errors.”
Scott said voters are encouraged to keep their registration up to date and to periodically verify their information.
In Brevard County, voters can check their registration status by clicking or tapping here.