A woman accused by the King County Republican Party of voting twice in the November 2004 election and again in last month's primary is under a criminal investigation for double voting, a county election official said yesterday.

The Elections Section referred the case to the county prosecutor's office Aug. 31 to investigate whether she voted twice in 2004, election spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said.

The woman, who lives in a downtown Seattle apartment building, has not been charged with a crime. The Seattle Times does not generally name suspects until they are charged.

She was on a list of 16 voters identified by the Republican Party as having voted twice in the 2004 election. The Seattle woman was the only person on the list accused of voting twice in each of two recent elections.

Egan said Wednesday the woman's name appeared twice in the voter-registration database with two different dates of birth, so it seemed there might be two voters with the same name.

Egan didn't realize on Wednesday that the woman's name had been forwarded to prosecutors, she said yesterday. She said she didn't know how election officials learned she might have cast extra ballots.

The woman apparently has had two registrations since 2004, but routine computer checks for duplicate registrations didn't bring up her name because she was registered under two different birth dates, Egan said.

Republican leaders said Wednesday they had found more than 3,000 voters who appear to be registered more than once, allowing the possibility of double voting. Their investigation of voter records is continuing.

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com