Problem: Tulsa World Finds Dead Voters

Louise Marie Chitwood, a Bennington woman born in 1922, voted on Nov. 4 of last year, according to records.

Perhaps it was no surprise to some. Chitwood voted 15 times since 2000, Oklahoma State Election Board data show. And she had volunteered at Bennington’s voting booths for about 20 years, said Harold Chitwood, Chitwood’s husband.

But Chitwood died in 2006, two years before the election board showed her final ballot was cast. Since 2004, as many as 10 Oklahomans apparently voted after their death, a Tulsa World investigation found. Half of those votes were cast during last year’s elections.

None were made in Tulsa County.

The World also found as many as 429 dead Oklahomans are still registered as voters throughout the state.

Typically, state and county boards of elections remove the deceased from voter rolls as soon as possible.

Read the complete story in Sunday's Tulsa World.

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