An analysis of voter records by the Chicago Tribune newspaper suggests that more than 181,000 dead people were listed on the rolls in the six swing states in last month’s US election.
According to the report, published on Sunday, thousands more voters were registered to vote in two places, which could have allowed them to cast more than one ballot.
However it is not known whether any people registered in two places voted more than once.
But observers agree that this election was a vast improvement over the 2000 vote.
Legislation passed after that election was designed to fix some of the problems by requiring states to maintain better data of deceased people on the rolls, but the requirements take effect in 2006.
The newspaper said data on which voters cast ballots in the November election is not available in some key states as they await county compilations, so it is impossible to tell whether ballots were cast in the names of deceased voters.
“The problem of bloated registration rolls is a serious problem,” said Dan Seligson, editor of electionline.org, a voting reform clearinghouse.
The Tribune’s analysis of voter records in New Mexico suggested that more than 5,000 dead people were on the rolls, and therefore were able to vote on election day, November 2.
The resulting George W Bush win in that state was decided by less than 6,000 votes.
New Mexico health officials each month supply a list of recently deceased residents that officials use to scrub the voter rolls each month.
But an example provided by the Tribune showed that a man who died in France had not been removed from the roll.
New Mexico is not alone. The review of voter data there and in five other key states — Florida, Iowa, Ohio, Michigan and Minnesota — showed widespread flaws in the integrity of the voter rolls.
An analysis of Iowa, a major swing state, suggests 4,900 voters had died but remained on the rolls.
Mr Bush won Iowa by 10,000 votes.
Phyllis Peters, spokeswoman for the Iowa secretary of state’s office, said her agency conducts a monthly purge of voters whose death certificates have been filed with the state vital statistics agency.
But she said the procedure can be complex when people die in other places.
Data-entry errors can create problems too, for example with a man listed as being female on the rolls, but his death certificate says he was male, so computers did not remove him from eligibility.
Among the states, Florida led the way with 64,889 registered voters who were also listed in a database of Social Security Administration death claims.
Next was Michigan, with 50,051.
Despite the number of questionable registrations and Mr Bush’s thin margin of victory, Ms Peters said she is confident in the election’s outcome, particularly with the 10,000-strong contingent of election workers on the lookout for fraud.
“We really believe there’s a lot of integrity at the local precinct level,” said Ms Peters.
In Ohio, civil rights leader Jesse Jackson is demanding a review of the election, saying too many questions have been raised to let Mr Bush’s win stand without further examination.
“We can live with winning and losing. We cannot live with fraud and stealing,” Jackson said last week at Mt Hermon Baptist Church in Columbus, Ohio, the state that tipped the election in the Republicans’ favour.
Voting complaints in Ohio focused on the use of antiquated punch-card voting machines, the same type of machines that led to thousands of hanging chads in Florida four years ago.
Third-party candidates, joined by Senator John Kerry’s campaign organization, have requested a recount in Ohio, which would begin after the election results are certified, which must happen by Monday.
A hearing on the recount request was held in federal court in Columbus on Friday.
Ohio’s so-called spoilage rate, ballots cast without a discernable vote for president, was lower than Florida’s in the 2000 election.
But the number of discarded ballots, 92,000, represents a significant number given that Mr Bush’s margin of victory was about 119,000.
A spokesman for Ohio’s Democratic Party, Dan Trevas, said his organization is watching for the potential of a recount carefully.
