Manatee County sees a spike in voters canceling their registration. But that may not be the full story

In 2017, 250 more Manatee County residents canceled their voter registration than during the same 20-day period in 2016.

But while some speculate that it may be in response to President Donald Trump’s electoral fraud commission and its request for voter data from all 50 states, Manatee County Supervisor of Elections Mike Bennett said that’s not the case here, despite the county coming in with the second highest increase in total voter cancellations during that period in the state.

While the numbers show that 253 Manatee County voters were removed from the registration rolls from June 27 to July 17, 2017, compared to three during the same period in 2016, Bennett said this year Manatee County had to do voter maintenance, meaning they took voters off for a variety of reasons including death or they no longer live in the county.

“We do that every other year, required by law,” Bennett said, adding that they did that in around June.

Still, in 2015 — the last time Manatee County completed the required maintenance —only 22 voters were removed during that 20-day period. However, the maintenance period occurred in a different time frame that year.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, 1,715 Florida voters took themselves off the registration rolls during the period in 2017, a 117 percent increase in cancellations over the same period last year. In Florida, cancellations rose in 38 counties from June 27 to July 17.

Here in Manatee County, the numbers don’t tell the full story, according to Bennett.

“We didn’t have that many requests,” he said. “We moved that many. There is no way in the world we had that many call in.”

Of the 253 removed from the registration rolls during that period, Bennett said they had inquiries from between two to three dozen people about the electoral fraud commission’s requests, with only about a dozen actually wanting to proceed with a cancellation.

“The phone calls that we got were without a doubt driven by that,” he said, adding that for 90 percent of the callers, once they learned more, they elected not to proceed.

The information Trump’s fraud commission could get from the state of Florida is already public record, Bennett said.

“The information that isn’t public record, we aren’t giving out anyway,” he said. “I think a lot of people are just fearful.”

But even though a voter asks to cancel their registration, the information is still on the record, Bennett said.

“We can’t delete it all because it’s already a matter of public record,” he said. “I think we will post on our website exactly what is available. This information is already out there. The day they registered to vote, it became a matter of public record.”

This story was originally published August 2, 2017 at 2:53 PM with the headline "Manatee County sees a spike in voters canceling their registration. But that may not be the full story."