JEFFERSON CITY -- With election day a short five days away, the lists of registered voters are being gathered to be sent to county polling places for the big day. But how do election authorities make sure those lists are kept clean, free from duplicate names, the deceased, or people who no longer live in the county. KRCG's Mallory McGowin gets the answer in this FactFinder Report. 

"Right now I'd say our database is very well clean," said Cole County Clerk Marvin Register.

Register says Cole County's voter rolls are clean thanks to the Missouri Secretary of State's new database, launched in 2006. It's called the Missouri Centralized Voter Registration database, or MCVR. All 116 Missouri election authorities enter voter registrations, including a voter's a birthdate, address, and last four digits of their social security number.

"When the local election authority enters that information into MCVR, its automatically going to check and see if you're anywhere else in the system," said Missouri Secretary of State Communications Director Laura Egerdal. "Now if there's a perfect match that comes up...if your social security number matches, your birthdate matches, and your signature matches, you're obviously the same person. They're going to let that other election authority know, yeah, go ahead and take this person off the rolls."

You could also be taken off the rolls if you become an inactive voter. That means you have not voted in two federal elections.

"That means the local election authority is going to attempt to contact you...see if you still live at that address and see if you're still a resident of the county," said Egerdal. "If they're not able to verify you through this canvassing process, only then can they remove you from the rolls."

Since the MCVR can only track duplicate voter registration information within Missouri, it's a little more difficult to scrub the voter rolls of people who have moved out of state.

But, Missouri does have an agreement with five other states to compare voter rolls to try to identify any duplicates. Those states include Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and South Dakota.

Out of state voters would also be identified during those attempts to locate inactive voters. 

Friday KRCG will dig deeper into voting issues and let you know what happens to your voting rights when you commit a crime.

We also urge you to email us with any questions or concerns when it comes to voting or the upcoming election. Click here to submit your question.