oters in traditionally African-American neighborhoods were disproportionately affected when Harris County officials notified 9,000 people their registrations could be cancelled unless they proved they were not deceased, according to a Chronicle analysis of data obtained from the Texas Secretary of State.

Already, 32 percent of voters who received "Are you dead?" letters across the county in September - just six weeks before the presidential elections - have confirmed they are very much alive, election officials said this week

Most likely to be tagged

Across Texas, voters named Smith, Johnson, Williams, Jones, Brown, Davis, Garcia and Rodriguez were most likely to be tagged as possibly deceased in the recent clean-up effort, the Chronicle's analysis of all 70,000 voters identified as "weak matches" shows. Some surnames are particularly common among African-Americans. About 13,000 voters listed had last names associated with Hispanic heritage, according to a list maintained by the U.S. Census bureau.