A 2012 study by the Pew Center found 1.8 million deceased Americans were still on voter lists.

  • Polk woman's grandfather died in September 2015
  • She received an absentee ballot for him during primaries
  • Supervisor of Elections explains fraud safeguards

It's an issue that could easily lead to voter fraud — at least, that's what a Polk County woman is wondering after she received an absentee ballot in the mail for her deceased grandfather.

Gerald Stephens died in September of last year. His granddaughter, Tiffiny Stephens, said she called the Polk County Supervisor of Elections to make sure they took him off the voter rolls. She was told to fax the necessary documentation.  

"She gave me a fax number, I faxed it, and I thought that was really the end of it," Tiffiny Stephens said.

Somehow though, she still received an absentee ballot (now called a vote-by-mail ballot) for her grandfather during the primary election. She wonders whether mixups like that could open the door for voter fraud.

"Elections sometimes can be only a couple of percentage points," Stephens said, "and if enough people get ballots for people who have passed away it, could really add up."

The county doesn’t have any record of getting Gerald Stephens’ death certificate, though.

According to Polk Elections Supervisor Lori Edwards, the office did receive notification from the Florida Department of State that a Gerald Stephens had died in Polk County.

"We are intentionally careful, because although we are concerned about having a deceased person on the voter rolls, it is more concerning to me if the wrong person were to be removed," Edwards said.

She said there are additional safeguards to make sure people don’t cast ballots for dead people. In Florida, you have to provide a photo identification to vote in person. And election workers check signatures on absentee ballots against the signature for the voter it already has on file.

“So again, there are safeguards in place to keep this from happening,” Edwards said.

It's not foolproof, though, and according to Edwards, there's always room for improvement.

“That would be nice,” she said. “I would be a lot happier with that situation."