http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...
Joan McCarter posted about the big increase in registrations here on Oct 2nd, and lots of media noted it. It was a headline I noticed while scrolling through my twitter feed, and thought to myself that it was empowering of the community to reject voter apathy and get involved in community organizing and politics.
However, we now learn this:
But apparently that first report was in error. There was no voter registration spike. The county elections board reversed course on Tuesday and said that, actually, only 128 people had registered to vote since the shooting.
Yamiche Alcindor of USA Today reported on the gigantic revision, attributed to an unexplained "discrepancy."
St. Louis County director of elections Rita Heard Days told TPM in a phone interview Tuesday that the county had mistakenly used a report that records all changes to a voter's registration information -- new address, change in marital status, etc. -- to get the initial 3,287 number.
Does it really seem logical that such a HUGE number of voters in a small town would be changing their address or marital status? What are the rates of such changes in other small Missouri communities? I would love to see-- and if I was a journalist I would be calling the state board of elections-- exactly what those statistics are.
All in all, a further and more complete explanation is necessary.