NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee has 9,800 dead people still registered to vote.

Secretary of State Tre Hargett said a comparison of the state voter registration database with a national death master list provided by the Social Security Administration revealed the problem.

Now he is redoubling efforts to remove the dead people from voter registration rolls around the state.

Hargett's office wants to avoid a repeat of a 2005 special state Senate election in Memphis in which the Democratic winner received two votes on behalf of dead people.

The next big vote in Tennessee will be for governor in 2010.