They already kind of did:
November 2010: the municipality of Balen receives a report about the occupants of a rented house along Langvennenstraat. A couple and their three children, then aged 2, 3 and 7, have been living there since 2008. But the mother no longer lives there, it sounds. It is not clear exactly who came to tell. Was it the mother herself, i.e. Heidi De Schepper, who came to report her departure? Was it her partner who said she had left home? Or someone else after all?
‘Those records are only kept for five years,’ said Sofie Leysen (CD&V), the mayor of Balen. ‘We can only find out that this notification came to our services and that it led to Heidi De Schepper's official removal in November 2010. Unfortunately, we can no longer see who exactly requested this.’
This is also confirmed by the public prosecutor's office in Antwerp. An official report was indeed drawn up in 2010 in response to that report. But that also does not say through whom exactly that information came. It does say that the woman can effectively no longer be found at the address where she was previously registered. So the police effectively visited the place, but did not notice anything disturbing. It is then ultimately the College of Mayor and Aldermen that has Heidi De Schepper removed ex officio on the basis of that official report.
[...]
Those who are deregistered ex officio, however, can still apply later to overturn it. For instance, if he or she did find a permanent address and wants to reclaim all rights. In Heidi De Schepper's case, however, this never happened. She no longer reported anywhere, neither in our country nor abroad. And there is simply no system in place to follow up on people who have been deregistered ex officio.
Daarom verliep haar identiteitskaart niet en moest ze niet gaan stemmen: politie liet Heidi De Schepper (26) in 2010 ‘ambtshalve’ schrappen
