Defending their election procedures, election officials denied any wrongdoing with regard to the alleged illegal removal of voters from the rolls in six swing states - Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina. This denial comes in response to a newspaper report that said tens of thousands of eligible voters have been removed from the rolls or kept from registering in these states.

The New York Times says it based its findings on reviews of state records and Social Security data, and found apparent problems. The newspaper also added that the voters appear to have been purged by mistake, and not by any intentional violations or coordinated efforts by any party.

Standing by its story, The Times’ spokeswoman, Catherine Mathis, quoting the case of Michigan compared an August 5 snapshot of registered voters with a September 5 snapshot. She said the Times explained its methodology to Michigan elections director, Chris Thomas on Thursday, “and he said he could not explain the discrepancy between our figures and Michigan’s official numbers.”

Thomas said his state removed only people who had died, or who had notified authorities that they had moved - or people who were declared unfit to vote. Adding that the removal was well within the parameters of the law, Thomas said that there was “no illegal purging going on.” He further said only 11,000 voters were removed from Michigan rolls in August - not 33,000, as per the Times’ report.

Elections officials in other states also disputed that any voters were illegally removed from rolls, countering the allegation that they have improperly used Social Security data to verify new voters’ registration applications, or that they have broken rules that govern removing voters from the rolls within 90 days of a federal election. They said that they have been trying to follow the Help America Vote Act of 2002 by removing the names of voters who should no longer be listed.

Under the Help America Vote Act, many states have an agreement with the Social Security Administration requiring them to submit the last four digits of a new voter’s Social Security number for verification if the person does not have a valid state-issued ID, such as a license. Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue sent a letter to officials in some states seeking to verify that the checks were run only on new voters who do not have acceptable identification. States have said the increase in checks is due partly to a stream of new voters coming in to register.