Posted on 10/22/2004 8:00:23 PM PDT by Diva Betsy Ross
Posted on Thu, Oct. 21, 2004
Three charged in voting fraud
By GREGORY S. REEVES
The Kansas City Star
U.S. Attorneys Todd Graves of Western Missouri and Eric Melgren of Kansas announced federal vote-fraud charges today against three Kansas City area residents:
• James D. Scherzer, 68, an attorney, who acknowledged in an interview with The Kansas City Star last month that he cast ballots in Kansas City and Kansas City, Kan., in four elections since August 2000.
• Lorraine Goodrich, 39, a Johnson County businesswoman who told The Star she crossed the state line to vote in Kansas City for Bartle Hall improvements in 2002.
• Leslie McIntosh, 67, a retired railroad worker and owner of a barber shop/pool hall, who told The Star he owned property in Kansas City and Kansas City, Kan., and therefore had the right to vote in both places.
The three were charged under federal voting-rights enforcement laws with providing false information about their residences. The offense is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.
McIntosh was charged in Kansas because he was a Missouri resident who registered to vote illegally in Kansas, Melgren said. Scherzer and Goodrich were charged in Missouri because they lived in Kansas, but voted illegally in Missouri, Graves said.
“Election fraud and voting rights abuses dilute the worth of votes honestly cast,” Melgren said. He urged anyone who sees possible vote fraud to report it.
Kansas Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh, who also appeared at today's news conference, said election officials face a challenge in preventing fraud without making security so tight it hampers voting.
“We have to make sure we find that accurate balance,” Thornburgh said.
The FBI investigated the three who were charged after The Star uncovered several hundred cases of apparent double-voting in an analysis of Missouri and Kansas statewide voter registration databases.
Many of those cases, however, turned out to be errors in the state databases. The rest — about 50 cases — occurred in St. Louis, where election officials are still examining those records at the newspaper's request.
Also appearing at today's news conference were Attorney General Phill Kline, and election commissioners Pat Rahija of Wyandotte County and Connie Schmidt of Johnson County.
For more on this story read tomorrow's Star.
To reach Gregory S. Reeves, call (816)234-4366 or send e-mail to greeves@kcstar.com
"The rest — about 50 cases — occurred in St. Louis"
in chicago it is dead people electing a democrat. in 2000 in st louis, it looks more and more like it was democrats electing a dead person.
Well, no one has every accused the Dems of being intelligent...
And they probably would argue the accusation anyway if it were made by a Repubican...THAT's how partisan they are!
BTTT
"Leslie McIntosh, 67, a retired railroad worker and owner of a barber shop/pool hall, who told The Star he owned property in Kansas City and Kansas City, Kan., and therefore had the right to vote in both places."
let's make him pay taxes twice, too.
Great post & comment. I hope they all get the max. A little of that would go a long way to deterrence of this crime.
Bush needs to open the extra-large family sized can of whoop-*ss this go 'round. The Dems are truly willing to sacrifice our entire civilization on their wanton quest for political power. May God Almighty forbid they get it.
Simple to solve. An encoded electronic voting card. Vote anywhere but only vote once. Lose the card -- tough until after the election is over. Have none of the genuises we elected in either party been able to figure this out?
Simple to solve?
In less than a day, the cards would be hacked, and in two days conterfeits would be available. In 2 more days, machines would be produced to re-energize the card for another go round...
Worse yet, the card could be made to crash the reader. What then? What if the readers crashed in an entire precinct? How secure is the network that will maintain the database?
I'll bet the judge was either a Zell Miller Democrat or a Republian who sliped though the Borking process for appointment.
I am afraid that will never happen even though it should. Too many on the left would scream that it creates a "barrier" to voters by (insert trumped up reason here) and too many on the right would scream about privacy...I am personally not opposed to the idea as I have nothing to hide, yet.... But I feel certain that there HAS to be a way to maintain the secrecy of the ballot AND the integrety of the balloting...I mean we can send people to the moon for crying out loud - surely the technology exists to do something about this that would maintain privacy and restrict fraud....
Dem voter fraud whole bunches of it:
They shouldn't have voted twice, but he has a reasonable argument. I think only land owners should be able to vote.
At least only taxpayers. People who don't have a vested interest in this country, those that don't contribute shouldn't have a say in how my money is spent.
ping
If they were Republican or Democrat they should be thrown in jail and heavily fined...never allowed to exercise the right to vote again! Our right to vote should never be jeopardized by idiots.
Yeah right! And that probably gets enforced just like the "6 months mandatory revocation of one's driver's license in NYS" which went into effect years ago but which anyone can EASILY get off on with even a bad attorney!
At some point the judicial system must think that people aren't very observant.
A lib judge will sentence them to 200 hours of community service! Who are these people trying to kid. That kid that went streaking at his graduation ceremony will have gotten worse.
The last report I saw showed 67,000 NYers dual registered in Fla. Yes, thousand, not hundred.
Good! Nice to know they eventually catch these guys. Just think, they thought they got away with it. Surprise! 5 years in jail is too little for what they've done.
You would totally destroy the dimocRat party. The dims stay in power only because of the cradle to grave gimmee faction. I would add only citizens should vote - actually, just enforce the law would take care of that. Oh well,,,,,
If John Kerry is elected he will pardon them.
Yes, it does deter...however only for about 3-4 weeks after the capital punishment it done. So my suggestion is to use it for about 3 weeks before the election and then it won't matter for four more years.
A few headline with the consequences listed a week or two before the election...A couple of names in the paper....would probably stop a lot of it......If people know someone is looking and that some have been punished, they usually think twice.
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