Midland County Voter Mystery   (TX)

Beau Berman   CBS 7 News    22 October 2008

Thousands of Midland County residents have cast their ballots in early voting but one woman's vote isn't going to count.

Imagine showing up to vote, providing your identification but being told your vote won't count. Greenwood's Crystal Kennedy experienced just that.

"I've been registered, I voted last year and now it's saying I can't and this is a big election", said Kennedy.

When she went online to check for polling locations she typed in her information only to see that she was not recognized.

"It said I wasn't registered so the first thing I did was call the annex building and I said we have a problem here", said Kennedy.

Crystal says she voted in the presidential election in 2004 and local elections since then, but this time around she isn't allowed.

"We show that she was canceled in the year 2000. We have no record of her ever having registered in Midland", said Midland Elections Administrator Ruth Sloan.

But Kennedy has had the same name and lived at the same address in Greenwood since 1992. She claims to have voted twice since her alleged cancelation in 2000.

"I'm not saying that we're infallible and don't make a mistake in cancelling someone but this is the year 2000 in this case and there's no record anywhere in our old database, in the new database that she ever re-registered anywhere", said Kennedy.

Kennedy is allowed to enter a provisional ballot but it won't make a difference.

"It definitely won't count", said Sloan.

Something Kennedy did not want to hear.

"So basically they're telling me my vote didn't mean anything".

Elections administrators say Kennedy should have verified her registration earlier.

"If you really want to vote in any election you need to make sure you're registered", said Sloan.

But having voted just last year she assumed her registration and views this as the County's mistake.

"If it were a computer error my vote still ought to count".

The strangest part may be that Crystal is not alone. Both her husband Jack Kennedy and her mother are not showing up in the system and thus cannot vote this November 4th.

The family plans to contact the state in an attempt to resolve this voting mystery.