INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Officials are trying to find out why Indiana is getting an unusually large number of Social Security number verifications linked to voter registrations.

Federal officials had asked Indiana and five other states to look into the matter. Under the Help America Vote Act of 2002, many states have an agreement with the Social Security Administration requiring them to submit the last four digits of a new voter's Social Security number for verification if the person does not have a valid state-issued ID such as a driver's license.

Most people have driver's licenses, so the number of checks on
Social Security numbers that states submit typically is very small,
but Indiana had more than 400,000 Social Security verification requests in the past year.

In Indiana, people filing a new or updated voter registration application can either submit their driver's license number or, if they don't have a license, the last four digits of their Social Security number.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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