Dallas County elections officials are gearing up for a review of the 6,000 voters that Texas Watchdog found may be deceased but still listed on the rolls.

In the meantime, the elections department says clerical errors explain many of the 81 instances Texas Watchdog found of people recorded as voting after death.

"It's not an exact science," voting official Danny Clayton said of the process workers undertake to enter voting records.

For its analysis, Texas Watchdog had used a computerized database based on hard-copy poll books, which are stamped by poll workers as people show up at their polling places. It cross-referenced the voter database with another database of federal death records from Texas.

Having dead voters on the rolls creates the potential for voter fraud to occur. In Texas, a person can legally vote with as little identification as a utility bill; a photo ID is not necessary.

The Elections Department keeps hard-copy poll books for some time after each election, and also keeps voters' signature records.

Texas Watchdog reviewed Dallas County poll books and signature records Friday under a public records request. The review showed:

-- In 42 instances, Social Security numbers of people flagged by Texas Watchdog as voting after death don't match Social Security numbers found in the death records. The electronic database of Dallas County voters provided to Texas Watchdog did not include the voters' Social Security numbers, which are confidential under state law.

-- In seven other cases, records show workers scanned in the wrong voter. Poll books don't reflect a vote by those people, even though Dallas County's electronic database does show they voted.

-- Eighteen instances where poll books are stamped by the dead voters' names but where no one signed their names. Elections workers believe this means poll workers stamped the wrong voter's name.-- Three instances where records are missing.

-- Six instances where poll books show stamps by the dead voters' names and someone signed in under their names.

-- In the remaining instances, Dallas County elections officials had discarded the original hard-copy poll books due to their age, making it impossible to determine what happened.

Clayton said the department has discussed buying machines that would help cut down on clerical errors in scanning.

One thing holding them back: They're not required by law to keep records of voting histories, he said.

"We try to do it as a service," he said. Clayton said the office will finish a scheduled cleaning of the voter rolls, then look at the 6,000 names flagged by Texas Watchdog sometime after Nov. 30.

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