AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Hoping to cast doubt over Maine’s Election Day voter registration law that’s been sidetracked, a conservative public policy group issued a report Wednesday that purports to show why same-day voting should not be allowed.

The Maine Heritage Policy Center’s report addresses errors and weaknesses in the voter registration system which the center said show that Election Day registration, while a laudable goal, “is not a viable practice in Maine.”

The report came out about a month before Maine voters decide whether to repeal a newly enacted, Republican-backed state law that requires registration at least two business days before an election. The law replaces a 38-year-old law that has allowed Election Day, or same-day, registration.

Protect Maine Votes/Yes on 1, the campaign seeking to restore same-day voting, dismissed the Heritage center’s report. Spokesman David Farmer said its findings “had very little to do with same-day registration.”

The report said that in three of the last 10 elections, there were more registered voters than voting-age Maine citizens. It also shows 178,000 active Maine voters who registered on Jan. 1, 1850, an 84 percent error rate in a recent investigation into voter registration fraud by the Secretary of State’s office, 1,452 active registrants listed as being 211 years old, and more than 2,200 active registrants having no street addresses.

The group based its conclusions on a review of various state records, some dating back to 1960.

Heritage center Chief Executive Officer Lance Dutson sought to link the findings with same-day registration, saying it is “a laudable goal” but should be used “only if there is some verifiable database and photo ID'” required. He said the system is now based on “an honor system” in which voters can show a bill or other document bearing a home address in order to be registered.

The center’s report also contradicts other studies showing that Election Day registration increases voter participation.

Deputy Secretary of State Julie Flynn, while acknowledging that human errors do occur in a system that has “a big human component,” said many of the findings are a result of defaults in the system that were triggered by incomplete information. For example, many voters were listed as registered in 1850, the default date used when the actual date is missing, incomplete or illegible.

Flynn said the three years in which there were more registered voters than voting-age citizens were before the state implemented the Central Voter Registration System, a statewide database in which municipal clerks share information to catch duplicate registrations and other problems. The system was implemented in May 2007.

She noted that the 1,452 voters listed as 211 years old, also due to a default in the system, actually represents a decrease from about 5,000 as the registration system’s accuracy has improved.

The report does show, Flynn said, “it is important (for clerks) to take as much time as they need with every application.”

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