With projections of close presidential races in some battleground states, it’s especially disturbing that the election could be tossed into chaos by the votes of dead people, felons or other ineligible voters.

Voter fraud is a problem — and a rarely prosecuted felony — in all election years. In a year when voters will be electing a new president, the issue of up-to-date, accurate voter registrations should draw extra scrutiny from election officials.

Related Story: Philly Democrats agitated over allegations of impending voter fraud

Polls at various times have placed presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in a statistical dead heat in some states. As such, there should be no post-Election Day surprises if recounts turn up cohorts of ineligible voters.

The Voter Registration Act was passed by Congress in 1994 with the goal of increasing voter registration, maintaining the integrity of the electoral process and ensuring that accurate and current voter registration rolls are maintained. But a recent report by the Public Interest Legal Foundation found thousands of ineligible voters — noncitizens and felons — registered to vote and cast ballots in Philadelphia alone. State and county officials have since assured that voter fraud hasn’t been a problem in the past.

Still, reports of illegal voters “emphasize the need for officials to investigate, charge and remove ineligible voters from the rolls, not to ignore the problem and refuse to enforce the law against wrongdoers,” write Jennifer Matthes and Hans von Spakovsky for The Daily Signal.

A duly concerned public expects no less.

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