Harris County elections officials plan a review of the more than 4,000 voters Texas Watchdog found may be deceased, but the review will be after the first of next year, an official said Tuesday.

In an October investigation, Texas Watchdog identified voters on the Harris County rolls whose personal information matched that of people listed as dead by the federal government.

Ed Johnson, Harris County's associate director of voter registration, said the elections department would review the voters' names after it concludes a pollbook audit based on information submitted by judges in the November election. Elections judges mark pollbooks with notations if they believe voters are no longer eligible to vote -- if a widow tells the judge her husband has died, for example, the judge would leave a note by that voter's name.

The department began processing the judges' notations Tuesday, Johnson said, and the review will take about a month.

Workers will then investigate the 4,000 voters' names flagged by Texas Watchdog, Johnson said. They'll first check to see if they were removed by the pollbook audit, then send letters to voters not previously removed.

Texas Watchdog arrived at the list of 4,000 by comparing voters' names and birthdates with the names and birthdates of deceased people from Texas. The death information is kept by the Social Security Administration.

Johnson said his office has also used the Social Security data -- with reviews "at least twice" since 2000, he said -- though workers have found numerous inaccuracies in the Social Security information.

Elections workers will compare the 4,000 names with the voters flagged in the office's previous Social Security reviews. Workers will either send voters "challenge" letters or notices that their voter registration may be placed in suspense, depending on whether the office communicated with the voters during the previous reviews, Johnson said.

Both processes result in cancellation of voter registration if no one responds to verify the voter is living and at their registered address, but the cancellation is quicker -- after just 60 days -- under the challenge letter process.

Johnson, who works in the office of Tax Assessor-Collector and Voter Registrar Paul Bettencourt, said he would also seek state officials' advice on how to proceed.

Johnson said previous reviews had shown the Social Security data to contain erroneous records.

Johnson said in looking for deceased voters, it's also possible to get wives confused with husbands. Women who register under their husbands' names, like "Mrs. Jim Smith," could get confused with their husbands in the records and could be flagged as dead if their husbands had died.