See this story at BrooklynDaily.com.
By Will Bredderman
Brooklyn Daily
Brooklyn’s late bishop has found eternal life — on the New York state voter rolls.
Former Diocese of Brooklyn Bishop Francis Mugavero died in 1991, but according to the Board of Elections he remains an active voter — despite the church’s efforts to get his registration cancelled.
Both city and state records have the deceased Catholic leader registered as “active” — meaning his name appears in the poll book each Election Day — even though records show he last cast a ballot in 1989.
Church officials say they continue to receive Board of Elections mail for the Bishop at his former Clinton Hill residence — despite having sent letters and a copy of Mugavero’s death certificate to the state agency.
“We get the material, and we keep saying ‘he’s dead,’ ” said Brooklyn Diocese spokesman Kieran Harrington, who now lives at the bishop’s former home. “And every year I go to vote, his signature’s still there on the roll.”
Harrington said that this year Board of Elections even sent updated polling site information to Mugavero — but not to him.
“I found out where I was supposed to vote from his mail,” he said.
Harrington said he found the failure to remove Mugavero from the rolls disturbing, especially since the state law only requires voters to reproduce a signature beneath the one in the register.
“When people who are deceased are on the voter rolls for over 20 years, it indicates there’s a problem,” Father Harrington said. “This is one of the fundamentals of our democracy, and it’s clearly not maintained.”
A Board of Elections spokesman said that it would have sent Mugavero a notice asking him to confirm his residence after he failed to vote in two consecutive federal election cycles — and would continue to list him as an active voter unless the postal service returned the notice having marked it undeliverable.