A list of some 4,000 names of voters who may be dead will be reviewed, a top Harris County official for voter registration has promised. Texas Watchdog identified those names in this October report, and we followed up today with a look at the difficulty in prosecuting alleged cases of voter fraud.

Ed Johnson, who worked as a deputy official for Paul Bettencourt and now for Leo Vasquez, told me a few weeks ago the office was wrapping up a regular check of the voting records conducted after the November election.

That pollbook audit, a follow-up check on notations left by election workers, is meant to clean the rolls based on information presented at the polling places. For example, if I go in and tell workers my husband died last month, then request they remove his name from the list, a pollworker makes a note of it.

Then officials in Vasquez' office --- where voters are registered and taxes are collected --- go through those pollworker notes and follow up with letters or communication to family members as required by law.

Johnson said he was interested in reviewing the 4,000 names Texas Watchdog highlighted, but he wanted to first look at the audit list, which may contain duplicates of the names Texas Watchdog found.

We called him around noontime on Friday to see where things stood with the review. We left a message with the lady who answered the phone in Johnson's office, and we'll update the blog when we hear from him.

Contact Lee Ann O'Neal at leeann@texaswatchdog.org or 713-980-9777.

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