Posted on 12/12/2005 7:35:43 AM PST by LdSentinal
Election records of a September special election that put Ophelia Ford in a state Senate seat show that someone may have used the name of a man who had been dead for six weeks to vote.
Ford, a Democrat, beat Republican challenger Terry Roland by 13 votes in a race in which 8,750 ballots were cast. The election was to replace Ford's brother John Ford, who resigned in May after being indicted on bribery charges.
The name Joe L. Light was entered into the poll registration book during the Sept. 15 election at the Memphis precinct where Light was registered to vote. Light had died Aug. 6.
A Senate committee of three Democrats and three Republicans is continuing to investigate Republican complaints of voting irregularities in the election. A hearing is scheduled today in Memphis.
"There's so much question as to the whole process (of the special election), the feds should step in and look at it," said John Harvey, a volunteer who's heading the Roland campaign's investigation of the returns.
Election officials already have conceded that three convicted felons and a voter registered outside District. 29 voted improperly in the contest.
Harvey said he's found as many as 69 people, including Light, who cast ballots that shouldn't count. Most are people who don't live at addresses given in voter-registration records, he said.
Shelby County Election Commission Chairman Greg Duckett agreed the development is serious.
If a dead person voted, "then we have a major issue that we need to turn over to the district attorney," Duckett said.
Still, Duckett, a Democratic election commissioner, said he believes the incident was isolated and said he doesn't see grounds for overturning the election.
"You'd have to have a conspiracy the size of JFK" to have widespread fraud, he said.
I assume this is Harold Ford Jr.'s aunt.
You got it in one!
dead people have been voting in Chicago for years...sometimes multiple times per day..
So JFK was only 13 votes large?
I hope my fellow Tennesseans wake up and send Harold Jr. packing when he tries for the US Senate seat next year. Then again, the grave yards in TN are apparently full of Democrat voters......
Not bad for a Jersey dweller, eh?
Did anyone named Haywood vote I wonder?
Isn't it time that the Republicans use some smarts and call for a Justice Department investigation (violation of voting rights acts)?.
Is Terry Roland also black? It matters in the context of this story.
It wouldn't have to be very wide since the democrat won by only 13 votes.
Well...I'd wish someone check out some of the various elections in California ...such as the Sanchez sisters....illegals vote here along with the dead.
A sure sign of the Apocalypse. The dead shall rise and all vote Democratic. They'll be brought to the polls by four horsemen.
Fraud doesn't have to be very widespread or even very well organized to make a difference. Just a few people "encouraged" to cast fraudulent ballots, here and there, in various precincts, is enough to make a difference in a close race. And, not surprisingly, in most of them, the 'Rats somehow manage to come out ahead. Isn't that just the most amazing coinky-dink? The recent WA state governor's race is perhaps the most egregious example, but this race is another. I lived through the '84 robbery in the Indiana 8th district, so thievery by the 'Rats is an all-too unpleasant experience.
No, he's white.
Voter fraud is alive but don't fall into the trap of thinking it is not in trouble. The noose is slowly tightening around the evil donkey's neck. Things are getting better. Just a few years ago we only suspected the rat was cheating now some rats have been jailed. It will be a while until we wipe it out and get it to a low level, but it will fall.
No white, republican, very nice local business man.
Many Democrats believe that fraud is alright if done in the name of "democracy" or "the people" or the "democratic process" or "helping the downtrodden."
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