Posted on 10/19/2004 4:36:31 PM PDT by Dan from Michigan
Federal judge says Michigan must count provisional ballots in wrong precincts
10/19/2004, 6:15 p.m. ET
By DAVID EGGERT
The Associated Press
LANSING, Mich. (AP) Michigan voters who cast ballots in the wrong polling precinct but are in the right city, township or village on Nov. 2 must have their votes for president and Congress counted, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge David Lawson nullified the state's decision to not count provisional ballots unless voters show up in the correct precinct despite objections from Republican Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land and the U.S. Justice Department.
Provisional, or backup, ballots are used when voters say they are properly registered but their names are not on the registration rolls.
"The public interest is served when citizens can look with confidence at an election process that insures that all votes cast by qualified voters are counted," Lawson wrote in his order.
The state plans to appeal to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The ruling affects only votes for federal offices and not those for ballot initiatives, state lawmakers and other elected officials.
Michigan Democrats, the NAACP and voter-rights groups sued Land and state Bureau of Elections Director Chris Thomas last month. They said Thomas's instructions to 1,500 local election clerks to not count provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct violated federal law and would disenfranchise thousands of voters.
The state should accommodate voters who mistakenly appear at the wrong polling precinct or who show up at the right place but are sent elsewhere especially those who vote toward the end of the day and cannot get to another precinct in time, the groups said.
"It's a victory for the right to vote," Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer said Tuesday.
State officials, however, said the ruling seriously disrupts election planning just two weeks before Election Day.
"This makes it very, very difficult for us," Secretary of State spokeswoman Kelly Chesney said. "This runs contrary to Michigan's law. We've operated on a precinct-based system for decades."
The state argues that the Help America Vote Act, passed by Congress in 2002, declares that provisional ballots should be counted according to state law. Michigan law does not give citizens the right to vote in a precinct where they do not live, the state says.
Election workers have been given instructions to help voters find where they are supposed to be voting if they turn up at the wrong polling places.
It is unclear how many provisional ballots could be cast on Nov. 2. But Democrats estimate that thousands of eligible voters went to the wrong polling place in 2000 because of changes in the polling location, confusion or forgetting where they were supposed to vote.
Provisional ballots are not counted on Election Day. They are reviewed within a six-day period after the election. If officials can verify that a voter is registered and has shown proper ID, the ballot is counted.
The state says allowing voters to cast ballots outside their home precinct could cause confusion and possibly encourage fraud. It also believes jurisdictions do not have the technology to separate and count votes solely for federal offices.
But Lawson, who was nominated by former President Bill Clinton, disagreed. He said the state already has a plan in place to count provisional ballots at the municipal level.
While training precinct-level officials to count the ballots is "no small task," Lawson wrote, the number of provisional ballots cast statewide should be manageable. In a separate issue, Lawson rejected challenges to rules concerning ID requirement for first-time voters who registered by mail.
Disagreements over provisional ballots also are being taken to court in other states.
An Ohio federal judge last week blocked a directive requiring poll workers to send voters to their correct precinct, ruling that Ohio voters can cast provisional ballots as long as they are in the county where they are registered. Ohio's secretary of state is appealing.
Courts in Missouri and Florida, however, upheld those states' plans to not count provisional ballots unless they are cast in the right precinct.
One word -- IMPEACHMENT! Why don't we make an example of one of these activist judges? Plenty of places to start.
Bottom line: Unregistered voters (or already registered and already voted under another name) will show up at precincts and be allowed to vote even though they're not on the rolls. This isn't what the law intends, nor even what the thieves are claiming to want, but mark my words: It is exactly what will happen.
This is far, far, far more serious than it appears on the surface. We're witnessing the breakdown of the rule of law, the breakdown of the most basic tenets of our democratic republic, and that's no exaggeration. It has become crystal clear that if Democrats can't win by election, they intend it to take it by judicial coup. And if history is any predictor, they'll get away with it. Bush and Ashcroft had four years to crack down on this kind of crap and prepare; they did nothing.
MM
""It's a victory for the right to vote," Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer said Tuesday""
I think Chairman Brewer meant, "It is a victory for the right to vote more than once."
Wrong ballots is a lousy idea.
Even if they work that day, the precinct signs go up a couple days before the election...there's ample time to drive by and make sure that you're going to the right place. If the sign doesn't match the precinct listed on your voter registration card...pick up the phone and call, for crying out loud.
If you're too uninterested, lazy, or stupid to do that, I'm not sure you're responsible enough to make such an important decision.
What do you call a lawyer with an I.Q. of 40?
"Your Honor."
Ask what you can personally do.
I AGREE!
Bottom line: Unregistered voters (or already registered and already voted under another name) will show up at precincts and be allowed to vote even though they're not on the rolls. This isn't what the law intends, nor even what the thieves are claiming to want, but mark my words: It is exactly what will happen.
It has nothing to do with being "ignorant", it has to do with Leftists in the large cities (liberal bastions such as Flint, Detroit) being allowed to vote over and over and over and over, first in one precinct, then another, and another...
I wish they had stiff fines for repeat voters when discovered or jail terms. I think the whole think STINKS.
People have plenty of time to get an absentee ballot.
This is planned for Wayne and Genessee Counties more than Bay County.
SOURCE: http://www.conservativeaction.org/resources.php3?nameid=votefraud
How Democrats Steal Elections - Top 10 Methods of Liberal Vote Fraud
1. Over-Voting. In Democrat strongholds like St. Louis, Philadelphia and Detroit, some precincts had 100% of their registered voters voting, with 99% of the ballots going to Gore. Clearly, multiple voting resulted in extra tallies for Gore in the 2000 election. (New York Post, 12/09/00).
2. Dead Voters. This classic Democratic method of vote fraud goes all the way back to 1960 in Chicago and Dallas. The 2000 election was no exception. In Miami-Dade County, for example, some of the 144 ineligible votes (those which officials actually admitted to) were cast by dead people, including a Haitian-American who's been deceased since 1977 (Miami-Herald, 12/24/00).
3. Mystery Voters. These "voters" cast votes anyway but are not even registered to vote. In heavily Democratic Broward County, for example, more than 400 ballots were cast by non-registered voters. (Miami-Herald 1/09/01)
4. Military ballots. Many of these votes were disqualified for the most mundane and trivial reasons. At least 1,527 valid military ballots were discarded in Florida by Democratic vote counters (Drudge Report, 11/19/00).
5. Criminals. Felons are a natural Democratic voter and they're protected on voter rolls across the country. In Florida at least 445 ex-convicts - including rapists and murderers -- voted illegally on November 7th. Nearly all of them were registered Democrats. (Miami-Herald 12/01/00)
6. Illegal aliens. These voters have long been a core liberal constituency, especially in California. In Orange County in 1996, Rep. Bob Dornan had his congressional seat stolen from him when thousands of illegal aliens voted for Loretta Sanchez (Christian Science Monitor, 9/2/97).
7. Vote-buying. Purchasing votes has long been a traditional scheme by Democrats, and not just with money. In the 2000 election in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Democratic workers initiate a "smokes-for-votes" campaign in which they paid dozens of homeless men with cigarettes if they cast ballots for Al Gore (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, 11/14/00).
8. Phantom Voters. These voters don't really exist, but their ballots do. In the 1996 Lousiana Senate race, GOP candidate Woody Jenkins had the election stolen from him when he discovered that 7,454 actual votes were cast but had no paper trail to authenticate them (Behind the Headlines, F.R. Duplantier, 4/27/97).
9. Dimpled chads. Those infamous punch-cards were a ballot bonanza for Al Gore. Democratic poll workers in Palm Beach, Dade and Broward counties tampered and manipulated thousands of ineligible ballots and counted them for Gore, even though no clear vote could be discerned. (NewsMax.com 11/27, 12/22, 11/18, 11/19/00).
10. Absentee ballots. Normally it's assumed that Republicans benefit from absentee ballots. But in the case of Miami's 1997 mayoral election, hundreds of absentee ballots were made for sale or sent out to non-Miami residents. Fraud was so extensive in the race that the final results were overturned in court (FL Dept. of Law Enforcement Report, 1/5/98)."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=votefraud
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=electionfraud
WE MUST FIGHT VOTE FRAUD!
I urge all freepers to call their local Republican office and ask how you personally can help them combat voter fraud.
There WILL be a job for you. They need the help.
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