DES MOINES – A study released Wednesday said “improper implementation” of statewide voter databases could lead to thousands of voters in Iowa being left off the rolls heading into an intense election season.

The study, issued by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University Law School, said the practice of using Department of Motor Vehicle and Social Security databases to verify information on voter registration forms could result in up to 20 percent of eligible voters being left off the rolls.

“Databases compiled at different times and for different purposes record information differently,” said Wendy Weiser, one of the authors of the study. She said issues like a married name not matching a maiden name or a different listing for a first name could lead to a voter being disqualified.

Weiser pointed to a study in New York where officials sought to match 15,000 voters with the state vehicle database, finding that one in five failed to match because of typos and other glitches.

“The lesson from New York is that a strictly applied no-match, no-vote policy would disenfranchise an astounding percentage of Iowa’s voters,” said Justin Levitt, an attorney for the center and another author of the study.

The study found seven states using policies which match voter registration information against other databases, policies the study says “could create severe barriers to the right to vote.” They are Pennsylvania, Maryland, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Iowa.

A spokesman for Iowa Secretary of State Chet Culver, the state’s top election official, rejected the study’s findings.

“Our sense is that the number of affected voters is much smaller than the report indicates,” said spokesman John Hedgecoth.

He said election officials reviewed the state’s voter registration database in response to the report and found only 115 out of 2,098,778 existing registrations couldn’t be verified, just 0.005 of a percent.

That number includes registrations that are maintained by election officials, even for people who may no longer live in the state or are actively registered. The records are maintained indefinitely unless state election officials are notified that a person has died, moved from the state or been convicted of a felony.

“It’s a good system,” Hedgecoth said.

If there are any questions about a registration, the voter is contacted to make sure it’s correct, he said.

“If we can’t get a match we contact the voter,” Hedgecoth said.

Requiring verification of the voter registration information with another database is designed to head off voter fraud, while still making it easy for voters to register and cast ballots, Hedgecoth said.

“We think that this strikes the right balance,” Hedgecoth said.