But imagine how you'd feel if, while making arrangements for the funeral of a loved one, the funeral home director said, "Oh, by the way, here's one more form that the legislature has encouraged us to give you. It's a form to remove your loved one from the voting rolls."
Here's the text of the new provision:
"§
90‑210.25C. Notification forms for deceased voters.
(a) At
the time funeral arrangements are made, a funeral director or funeral service licensee
is
encouraged to make available
to near relatives of the deceased a form upon which the near relative may
report the status of the deceased voter to the board of elections of the county
in which the deceased was a registered voter.
(b) A
funeral director or funeral service licensee may
obtain forms for reporting the status of deceased voters from the county board
of elections."
This "encouragement" strikes me as inappropriate at best and callous at worst. There is a time and place for everything, and in my opinion, a funeral home is not the place to be discussing removing a voter from the rolls, any more than you would discuss closing bank accounts or canceling credit cards there.
Dead voters are already removed from the rolls monthly, when each county BOE receives a list of the recently deceased from the Department of Health and Human Services. This list is based on information supplied by death certificates which it received in the previous month. Once the county BOE staff finds an exact name and date of birth match, the name is removed from the rolls.
Actually this passed the House by a 111-0 vote after 30 minutes of discussion in committee when problems with the current system were extensively discussed (voters dying in different counties than they are registered etc) and this was seen as a good way to make the voter rolls safer without removing people by mistake. In any case the blogger says this is as bad an idea as funeral director suggesting the heirs help close bank accounts etc which she also thinks inappropriate. The last three visits I had with funeral directors for deceased relatives they all helpfully suggested winding up financial affairs, applying for benefits, etc
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