Posted on 09/28/2004 4:36:42 AM PDT by tdadams
About 200 "citizens" who don't exist registered to vote in Davidson County for the Nov. 2 presidential election and now the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is investigating the person who submitted those forms on behalf of Tennessee Citizen Action (TCA).
The false cards are believed to be the work of a temporary employee hired by Tennessee Citizen Action, a consumer advocacy group working to push voter registration. Voter registration fraud is a felony.
TBI spokesperson Jennifer Johnson confirmed Monday that District Attorney General Torry Johnson asked her department last week to investigate the incident and that investigation is ongoing.
"Believe it or not, we work [voter fraud] cases all of the time," Johnson said. "Every single one is different but even since I have been here, in the last month and a half, we have worked other voter fraud cases in other towns.
"Sometimes it is as simple as somebody thinking that a ballot box has been contaminated to something more elaborate."
The TCA employee in question, whose name has not been released, was fired immediately after Metro Election Commission staff members discovered the false cards. The person was being paid by the hour and not per registration.
State Elections Coordinator Brook Thompson received the false forms from the Election Commission and forwarded them to District Attorney General Torry Johnson, who asked the TBI to investigate the case.
"After the TBI submits its report, our office will consider whether the facts and evidence warrant a criminal prosecution," Johnson wrote in a letter detailing the investigation.
Persons who have viewed the cards, including Thompson and Metro Interim Administrator of Elections Ray Barrett, said it appears the names, addresses and Social Security numbers were all made up. Barrett said it looks as if they had been filled out with the same ink pen and the signatures also looked alike.
"The people across the hall that enter all of this stuff … there was one group in here that was bringing them in, it seemed like, one big box at a time," Barrett said.
"It looked like the big group was the same ink, the same date, the same handwriting. That's when they showed me and, of course, I'm not a handwriting expert but I took them up to [Thompson] and he took it from there … somebody said it was around 200 [forms], I didn't think it was 200 but it was quite a few."
Barrett also noted that all of the cards, which were submitted following the registration deadline in July, were carefully scrutinized to make sure no legitimate voter registrations were removed. None of the false cards made their way onto official voting lists.
Barrett and Thompson both said TCA has been effective in registering voters in the past and stricter safeguards have been put in place by the organization.
If you're not aware of it, you should be. Otherwise, come to grips with saying "President Kerry".
This is getting very frightening.
I am not sure what we can even do about it all.
ping
Gee.
Another PAID voter registration fraud ...
I wonder who PAID this felon?
Gee. It doesn't say.
Must be another instance of the vast Republican effort to "steal" this election. [/sarcasm]
Require hard identification for registration and for voting. Get a fingerprint at the polls.
And prosecute violations agressively.
Absolutely. I get so steaming mad at the rent-a-mob political shills who argue, with plenty of assistance from the leftist press, that asking voters for ID is somehow intimidation or a violation of their civil rights.
You know what, I've shown ID in every election I've ever voted in. I've never thought anything of it, but then I'm not a felon or hiding from the law. So, I wonder who these voters are who would be intimidated by showing ID, and I wonder WHY they would be intimidated.
Bet same thing is going on in Memphis and Knoxville too. Has Gill or Valentine said anything about this?
Right out of the playbook! The leftist press covering for their RAT allies. If it was a pubbie, t'would be in the headline, associated with "steal", "fraud", "corruption", or some such. To them, one of the worst mass-murderers in history was "Uncle Joe". Truly evil. Truly pathetic. They hate us for "outing them".
Attny Gen Ashcoroft is taking steps this cycle to nail voter fraud. There are currently more than 700 investigations going on throughout the country. Hey DU Troll go confess and they'll go easier on you.
Voter fraud should be a felony and have a manditory prison term of not less than 10 years per offense.
It is a felony in TN, but it's rarely pursued through to prosecution.
Would it be considered "Voter Intimidation" if I carried a sign on election day that proclaimed:
"VOTER FRAUD is a FELONY!"
Arkansas communist legislature passed a law last year in an attempt to block conservative poll watchers by making it illegal to "intimidate" a voter. The word "intimidate" was left to the voter to decide and the "intimidator" would be left at the jail until after the polls were closed.
Talking about words .....
WHEN did "Voting Booths" become "POLLS" and when did "Voting" become a dirty word in our country??
Maryland should do this kind of check of registrations BEFORE the election. Illegals and the dead vote early and often here in the DPRM.
Vigilance, and never underestimate the power of stubborn facts + prayer.
Remember election 2002 - "the revenge of the Florida Democrat voter still outraged by election 2000."
They voted, all right - fair and square, again - as any major undertaking can be with people of good will. Case closed.
(Bush won, again.)
To these DUmmies, the end(s) justifies the means, breaking a few eggs to make an omelet is acceptable. They are above stoopid moral constraints because they know what's best. They are evil for a higher purpose. Their purpose is good.
You can bet that voter fraud is going on in Memphis. With Harold Ford Jr.'s family running a funeral home business, I am sure that the dead rise every election day.
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