Problems detected in motor voter registrations

? Some Kansans who say they recently registered to vote when they got their driver’s license are finding that their registration wasn’t recorded, officials said Friday.

The extent of the problem is not known. Kansas Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh said he was aware of approximately 90 cases concentrated in Johnson, Shawnee and Butler counties during advance voting.

But Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew also said approximately 50 people there who have shown up to vote early say they registered to vote while getting their driver’s license, but their name did not show on the list of registered voters.

In all instances, the people were given provisional ballots, and whether their votes will be counted will be determined after the election, officials said.

Early voting is expected to make up about 25 percent of the total ballots cast, so the glitch over registration could affect 200 or so ballots in Douglas County alone.

Shew said all the people who say they registered at the Department of Motor Vehicles, but whose names weren’t on the rolls, said they registered in September.

Thornburgh said the voter registrations are not showing up because of either errors by the clerks at the DMV or the person is simply mistaken that they applied to register to vote. He said he didn’t think it was an error in the computer software.

Thornburgh said, “We will work with counties and DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) to establish the qualifications. If we can establish that they attempted to register to vote we will recommend to the counties that their ballot be counted.

“If we can prove that that person did not perform a transaction with DMV … then we will recommend to the counties that they not count those particular ballots,” he said.