[Magdalen] Kim Davis ordered to jail.

[Roger Stokes]

On 04/09/2015 08:51, Sibyl Smirl wrote:
> On 9/3/15 10:21 PM, Charles Wohlers wrote:
>> We're talking about two different things. Town clerks have nothing to do
>> with the Courts, which are typically county-based. Town or city clerks
>> (at least in New England) register marriages, which is not the
>> responsibility of the court system.
>
> Here in Kansas, I'd go to the County Clerk's Office in the Courthouse 
> for a marriage license, for a car license, to pay my property tax, to 
> vote early (including federal voting, though my Precinct would be open 
> for it on election day), to register to vote, all kinds of things.  
> The County Clerk also runs the elections-- that's all done out of that 
> office, including the town precincts. 

That in itself strikes me as a reason why the County Clerk should not be 
an elected position - they are responsible for elections in which they 
are a candidate.  Talk about conflict of interest.

> The County Commissioners are his/her bosses, but the County Clerk is a 
> Very Important Person so far as anything below the state level is 
> concerned.  That's rural Kansas, of course: I don't know how they do 
> things in big places like Kansas City and its suburbs, or Wichita and 
> its suburbs.
>
> Right now our County Clerk has a problem, because in my county we seem 
> to have quite a few more people registered to vote than we have 
> population of voting age, according to the most recent census. It's 
> fairly certain that it has to do with people dying or moving away and 
> not being eliminated from the rolls, but apparently there's no good 
> system for keeping track of that. They're supposed to be purged if 
> they haven't voted in the last two general elections, but the pure 
> numbers should balance out with people who never bothered to register 
> in the first place, whether coming of age or moving here, or are 
> convicted felons and not eligible, etc.

Purging the records is a problem, and probably not just in your county.  
Over here the Electoral Register is compiled each year, starting with a 
form sent to each household.  The system has changed in the past couple 
of years but not that significantly as far as I can tell, at least for 
the initial stage.  The head of household signs to say who living there 
is entitled to vote and returns the form in a pre-paid envelope - or 
does it on line as I did last week.

The form includes the names of those on the previous register so if 
there are no changes then that is simple.  If someone has died or moved 
out then their details are removed and new voters' details are added.

Roger