Times story on voter databases gets it wrong on North Carolina

Times story on voter databases gets it wrong on North Carolina
Rumor control. New York Times article misleading. The NY Times yesterday ran a thinly researched article on voter purges in several states including North Carolina, “States’ Actions to Block Voters Appear Illegal” (10/08/08) . It uses lots of vague talk like “seems,” “appears,” or “may have . . .,” without much elaboration or direct reporting. The NY Times reporter did not cite comments from any North Carolina election officials or any local advocacy groups.

The NY Times reporter even seems to clear North Carolina in his response to my email asking what was going on.

The NY Times reporter even seems to clear North Carolina in his response to my email asking what was going on. Read it here:

From: Ian Urbina
To: joyce mccloy
Subject: RE: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/us/politics/09voting.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin
Date: Oct 9, 2008 9:03 AM

From what we can see in the data, NC does not seem to have any major redflags. Best we can tell, it looks like the number of people coming off therolls would roughly correspond with the number of people leaving the stateor dying during that period (both of which are legitimate reasons to removepeople within 90 days before an election).

Ian

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