[StBernard] Lee Zurik Investigation: St. Bernard voter rolls still a mess

[Westley Annis]

Lee Zurik Investigation: St. Bernard voter rolls still a mess

Reported by: Lee Zurik, Anchor/Chief Investigative Reporter Email:
lzurik at fox8tv.net
			
Published: 11/23 8:53 pm Share Updated: 11/23 8:56 pm 
Chalmette -- 13,000 voters cast a ballot in St. Bernard Parish. But one
voter with an odd address caught our attention.

Records show Ashley Allen registered to vote at 8201 West Judge Perez Drive.
According to the records, she's claiming that as her residence.

But 8201 West Judge Perez Drive is not a house, not an apartment complex.
It's the government building where the parish president, council, even the
Registrar of Voters work.

We did speak to Ashley Allen Wednesday. She says she's not sure why her
registration address comes up as 8201 West Judge Perez. Allen did say that
she is a Chalmette resident.

Two other people have registered to vote out of the government complex --
neither voted in this fall's election.

For the past nine days, we've been documenting people who vote in St.
Bernard parish, but live and have homestead exemptions elsewhere.

But the case of Ashley Allen raises more questions about the accuracy of the
voting rolls in St. Bernard Parish, more than six years after Katrina.

State leaders have been critical of St. Bernard Registrar of Voters Velma
Bourg.

The state does have laws on the books that allow the registrar to be
proactive in cleaning up the rolls.

"There is a particular statute that deals with the registrar of voters,"
says state Rep. Helena Morena, representing Orleans Parish. "If he or she
finds that certain voters should not be eligible to vote, there are steps
the registrar of voters can take, and take immediately."

In an email sent to us Wednesday, Velma Bourg says she will take some steps.

The Wayne Landry campaign challenged 55 of the votes in Saturday's election,
providing evidence that the voters have homestead exemptions in other
parishes.

Bourg says these voters were mailed a challenge letter two days ago.

But left off that challenge list by the Landry campaign were dozens, maybe
hundreds of St. Bernard voters who don't reside in the parish.

For instance, the Landry campaign didn't challenge the vote of Richard
Baumy, the third-in-charge of the St. Bernard Sheriff's Office, who's had a
homestead exemption in St. Tammany Parish for more than a decade.

Nor did the Landry campaign challenge the vote of Jacqueline McConnell and
her husband. McConnell works for Clerk of Court Lena Torres, and registered
to vote out of Torres' home. McConnell has a homestead exemption on the
North Shore.

We asked Mike Bayham of the St. Bernard Board of Election Supervisors,
"Shouldn't the Registrar of Voters be more proactive, going beyond the 55
[votes challenged in Saturday's election]?"

"That's up to her," Bayham replied. "I believe we need to be very thorough
in this, because you had a hundred-percent displacement in St. Bernard, due
to Hurricane Katrina. This is going to be more of a problem, a more common
problem, here in St. Bernard than in other communities."

The registrar of voters told us that voters she suspects are domiciled
elsewhere will receive a challenge letter soon. She didn't explain how many
voters or even who would be receiving those letters.

Every time we go through St. Bernard's voting rolls, we find more
questionable registration addresses. 

Nine people registered to vote at the Pak Wrap mail center at 7301 West
Judge Perez -- no one appears to live there, but Pak Wrap mail center does
have private mail box rentals. The state says registering to vote at a mail
or P.O. box is illegal.

And hundreds of voters registered to vote at properties that no longer
exist. We compared the St. Bernard Parish list of demolished homes to the
voter list, and found hundreds of voters registered at an empty lot, a slab.

One member of the St. Bernard Board of Election Supervisors wants the parish
and state to be more aggressive in cleaning up the rolls.

"I will ask the Registrar of Voters and the Secretary of State's office to
take action, to notify people that this is an issue," said Mike Bayham. "I
had an idea that people should be mailed, explaining what the law is, very
clearly."

The law clearly states, you shall vote where you reside, where you have a
homestead exemption. But every day we go through the voting rolls, we find
dozens of St. Bernard residents who may be breaking the law - many of them,
without even realizing it.