I have worked in the Palm Beach County, Florida, Supervisor of Elections Office since June 10, 1971. I was elected as Supervisor of Elections in November of 1996. During my years in the Elections Office, I have seen the number of registered voters grow from approximately 200,000 in 1971 to 531,735 in January of 1995 to 610,538 in April of 1997. As you can see, the Palm Beach County voter Registration rolls increased by almost 79,000 registered voters in just over two years, due mostly as a result of N.V.R.A.

Under Florida Law, the following items are required before the Supervisor of Elections can accept a voter registration application: NAME, RESIDENCE ADDRESS, DATE OF BIRTH and SIGNATURE. The Social Security Number and other pertinent information is optional. Florida has a prohibition on the release of the Social Security Number (if supplied by the applicant), telephone number (if supplied by the applicant), and signature.

In the recent Legislative Session, the Florida Legislature passed into Law a provision for a "central voter file" to be administered by the Florida Division of Elections which will take effect on January 1, 1998. This would not be a "real time" file, but rather a file that would be updated by all 67 Florida Counties on a periodic basis. The creation of the "central voter file" will enable the Division of Elections to try to determine if duplicate registrations exist (voters registered in more than one Florida County) as well as to cross check the Felony records, mentally incompetent records and the death records. Although not fool-proof, adding the Social Security Number on the file would assist in this process. (NOTE: In Florida, convicted Felons may not vote unless their Civil Rights have been restored and persons declared mentally incompetent by the Courts may not vote unless their Competency has been restored.)

As a county that is considered in "South Florida" where the immigrant population is on the rise, being able to verify citizenship status would be a tremendous help. Although it is understood that neither the Social Security Administration nor the Immigration and Naturalization Service has a comprehensive record of all current legal U.S. citizens, it must be noted that this system would not be fool-proof. It would, however, enable jurisdictions to make an attempt to check the status of voters and potential voters on an "as-needed" basis.

In summary, I feel that it would be beneficial to require that the Social Security Number be part of the voter's record to assist elections officials in trying to maintain accurate records. However, in light of the admittance of the Social Security Administration and the Immigration and Naturalization Service in not having comprehensive records of all current U.S. citizens, I would not want either the elections officials nor the public to be lured into a false sense of security in thinking that this will solve the "problems" of fraudulent registrations, especially with regard to non-U.S. citizens being registered. It would be virtually impossible to obtain the Social Security Number of all registered voters and match that to the S.S.A. or I.N.S. files.

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