Feds question new voter checks in 6 states

[AndyA]

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5goXdqiHHk8p0cqXGZHuUAqEI205gD93LV1FG0

ATLANTA (AP) — Federal officials have asked election officials in six states to investigate whether social security number checks are being improperly run on people registering to vote.

Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue sent a letter Friday to the secretaries of state of Alabama, Georgia and battleground states Indiana, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio. The letter noted they had submitted "extraordinarily high levels" of verification requests.

"Such a volume appears to be much greater than one would expect, given that states of comparable or larger populations have a significantly lower number of verification requests," Astrue wrote in his letter to Georgia officials.

With nearly two million requests since Oct. 1, 2007, Georgia has made far more social security number verification requests than any other state, according to the Social Security Administration. Alabama was second with about one million requests.

[nc4bo]

1. The usual suspects are being put on notice. Good! nt

[Wilms]

2. k+r n/t