Something odd I got in the mail today. Is this on the up and up?

My husband and I moved to Illinois from Missouri a year and a half ago. Today I got a mailing from the McCain campaign containing an absentee ballot request form. (Addressed to my husband, who used to vote Republican but is firmly in the Obama camp this year). Envelope had our correct Illinois address, and my husband said we got a robocall to our Illinois phone number the other day saying they were mailing this.

My question is this: why would they posibly think we would need an absentee ballot for Missouri when we were contacted thru an Illinois address and phone? Is it possible that Republicans who have moved out of Missouri are able to get away with voting via absentee ballot this way, even tho they've moved elsewhere? Is it even legal for the McCain campaign to be doing this? I might add Missouri is quite lax in updating their voter registration records -- when we lived there they had the name of someone on the books who hadn't lived in Missouri for 20 years, so we'll probably still be on their rolls for another decade or two.

Sorry it took me so long to answer anyone. My computer punked out on me right after I posted last night.

Call the Democratic Headquarters and ask about this. Doesn't sound right to me.

You also may want to call the local FBI and tell them. It's election fraud and should be reported.

Turn this over to the Dems somehow.

They asked on Primary date if they could sign us up for a mail in ballot.. Now, no secret, Pugs are still quite pugnacious in Florida.. The thing that this is going to do is make the exit polling impossible to judge and mail in ballots easy to lose in sending or receiving or in mailing back in. Always up to no good.

registration as a Republican is what triggered this. It's also that boxing thing, or whatever they call it when they try to establish that voters are registered fraudulently in more than one place.

And while I don't know about Missouri, I have a friend who has been a poll worker for the past several election cycles in Kansas. A while back she forwarded an email from the Johnson County Kansas Election board saying they were expecting a very large turnout this year and were encouraging everyone possible to vote by mail so as to minimize standing in line come November.

Send back the mailing telling them politely that you have moved and are now registered in Illinois and you're quite surprised that Missouri has not yet heard from Illinois that you'd changed registration. It's up to your new place to let the old place know, even though I don't think that's actually done in a systematic manner. I can tell you, having gone door-to-door campaigning and more recently doing phone banking and seeing how often phone numbers or address information is wrong, I know that voter rolls are not properly updated. And this is complicated by the fact that every time they try to purge old voters off the rolls there's a hue and cry about how awful it is. So all too often, out of fear of dropping someone who shouldn't be dropped, voters remain on the rolls indefinitely.

In any case, your getting the mailing from the McCain campaign is truly trivial, so long as you register and vote in Illinois.

I would contact the local county clerk, your former county clerk AND the Obama camp in Chicago just to let them know that this happened. It smells to me. Especially as I think Missouri is in play this year.

Edit to add: In rereading some of the answers above, I don't its been clear that this is sent from the McCain camp.

I'm going to contact MO's secretary of state and the Obama campaign. I'll let you all know if I hear anything back from anyone.

I just checked on Missouri's online site to see if my husband and I are still registered to vote in Missouri. I, who have voted democratic since 2000, am no longer registered to vote in Missouri. My husband, who has voted Republican until this year, is still registered to vote in Missouri. We both voted in the special election this spring here in Illinois, so why he's still on MO's voter rolls and I'm not is eyebrow-raising, to say the least.

I have sent this info to the Obama campaign and also called one of my old buds in MO whose husband is a democratic state rep and am anxiously awaiting a call back or email from one or the other.

they are supposed to remove people after they miss 2 federal elections, but somehow
missed your husband OR someone else cast a ballot in his name.

We both moved together to Illinois, purchased our new home in both our names. We both registered to vote in Illinois when we got IL drivers' licenses; we both voted here already. YET, my husband is still registered in MO and I am not. The only difference is that he has voted with the republicans and I've voted with the democrats.

I know they don't normally update their lists there. We had a cousin of the same last name as ours who temporarily lived in our area 20+ years ago for about a year before he moved back to Wisconsin. His name was still on the books as a registered MO voter the last time I voted in MO back in 2006.

I have yet to hear back from anyone I contacted over the weekend. I'll update here when I do.

And he's still on the books as a registered Democrat for 2008 primaries (and caucuses).

Hawkeye-X