Hollywood has always loved making films 
about the walking dead, but in Southern 
California it appears they have a real life
 problem with “zombie” voters.
An investigation by CBSLA2 and KCAL9 
found that hundreds of deceased persons 
are still on voter registration rolls in the
 area, and that many of these names
 have been voting for years in Los Angeles.

Julita Abutin, died in 2006 but voted in 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2014.
For example, John Cenkner died in 2003, according to Social Security Administration records, yet he voted in the 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, and 2010 elections. His daughter told the station that she was “astounded” and couldn’t “understand how anybody” could get away with this.


Another voter, 
Julita Abutin, died in 2006 but voted in
 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2014. According
 to CBS, the county confirmed they have
 “signed vote-by-mail envelopes” from 
Abutin since she passed away. So either 
someone has been forging her signature 
or her ghost has quite an earthly presence.
The investigation revealed that 265 
deceased persons voted in Southern 
California, 215 of them in Los Angeles 
County. Thirty-two were repeat voters, 
with eight posthumously-cast ballots
 each. One woman who died in 1988
has been voting for 26 years, including 
in the 2014 election.
This report comes 20 years after the
 contested election of Rep. Loretta 
Sanchez, D-Calif., from this same area. 
An investigation by a U.S. House committee
 found that hundreds of illegal ballots were 
cast by noncitizens and improper absentee 
ballots.
In that 1996 election, when she defeated
 incumbent Bob Dornan, a winning margin
 of 979 votes was whittled down to only 35 
votes or fewer when that voter fraud was 
factored in. In cases like these, where 
elections are decided by only a small 
number of votes, the harmful effects of
 voter fraud are most obvious.
Yet here, two decades later, California has 
still not taken the necessary steps to
 ensure the reliability of its electoral system.
As a result of the investigation, Los 
Angeles County supervisors called for 
an investigation into the findings. Even if 
these particular zombie voters did not 
change the outcome of an election,
 each fraudulently cast ballot stole and
 diluted the vote of a legitimate voter.
Cases like these and many others show
 that voter fraud is a real phenomenon 
and a potential threat to the integrity of
 the election process.
The Los Angeles County Registrar 
pointed to the 1200 to 2000 voter 
registrations removed every month to
 update records and told reporters, “There’s
 really no way to connect a person whose
 death is recorded with a person who is 
registered to vote unless we get some
 kind of notification from the family.”
But that is plain nonsense. Other states 
do frequent comparisons between their
 voter registration lists and the death
 databases maintained by the Social 
Security Administration, and other state 
agencies consult vital records departments
 in order to remove voters who have died.
The CBS investigation shows both that 
voter fraud exists and that this type of
 fraudulent voting is detectable through 
proper investigation.
CBS reports that California is the only
 state that does not comply with the
 Help America Vote Act of 2002, 
something the Obama administration 
has basically ignored.
The Help America Vote Act establishes 
mandatory minimum standards of accuracy
 for state voter registration lists and
 requires states to engage in regular 
maintenance and updates to remove 
ineligible voters who die or move away.
California is obviously not complying 
with these requirements.