"Those voters are dead, Jim."
Posted on 02/26/2006 12:35:36 PM PST by LdSentinal
DETROIT A newspaper's review of ballots cast in the November election shows many were cast under the names of people who have died, were serving time in prison or did not live in the city.
Detroit election records say Fred Douglas Henley voted at a polling precinct Nov. 8. Henley, however, died the day before the election, and his voting address long has been vacant and boarded up, The Detroit News reported Sunday.
Blanche Credit died in 2003. But she's recorded as voting in November, too.
It is unknown whether Henley and Credit were names someone used to cast fraudulent votes or whether they simply represent clerical errors. Mistakes commonly occur when election workers record a vote under a similar name or confuse voters with their relatives. But the problems have prompted Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land to call for faulty voter rolls to be purged in virtually every jurisdiction.
Detroit's newly elected clerk, Janice Winfrey, said she has ordered her staff to purge at least 50,000 names from the voter rolls by March.
"We've got a lot of cleaning up to do," Winfrey said.
Detroit's voter rolls include as many as 20,000 dead people and roughly 100,000 wrong addresses, The newspaper said. Wrong birthdates and garbled spellings on the city's active voter list make it difficult to determine in many instances who actually voted, and thousands of properties that are abandoned or vacant have remained on the voter rolls.
Across Michigan, 132 people were listed as having voted in November's local elections although they had recently died, said Mark Grebner, whose company, Practical Political Consulting in East Lansing, analyzes voter rolls. About 26 of those were in Detroit, Grebner said.
The News' review of ballots in Detroit's Nov. 8 election found a ballot recorded as being cast by a prisoner serving a life sentence for murder. Felons can vote in Michigan, but not while serving a sentence. In another case, city records indicate a ballot was cast by someone at least 146 years old.
Keeping names of the deceased and nonresidents on the rolls allows votes to accidentally be marked in those names, Grebner said.
"It allows for mismanaged elections and for the possibility of vote fraud because the records cannot be depended on," he said.
But Land's spokeswoman, Kelly Chesney, said purging voter rolls is complicated by restrictive federal rules designed to protect voters from disenfranchisement.
Winfrey's new director of elections, Daniel Baxter, says cleaning the voter rolls is his first priority.
"We think if we can resolve the low-hanging-fruit issues, then one step at a time we can bring back the integrity of the process," Baxter said.
Although there has been no proof of fraud, Detroit's election was surrounded by suspicions, particularly regarding absentee ballots.
A Wayne County judge ordered absentee ballots to be preserved, along with records of former City Clerk Jackie Currie's "ambassador" program, in which workers were sent to help elderly people vote. And a federal investigation is under way into allegations that some votes were cast in the names of dead people.
But Detroit isn't the only city with problems. Holland, population 30,000, recorded 11 votes cast in the names of deceased people in November's local election, Grebner said.
Holland City Clerk Jennifer French said she had no idea there was such a problem.
Or Jenny 'Fee-ble.' This snake has really hoodwinked so many by the raise in 'fees' and is getting away with it. Everything from a license plate for your snowmobile or trailer, beautician's or realtor license and so forth have quadrupled or more - and she repeatedly vetoes anything pro-business.
Oh, BTW - posts on the Internet about Michigan now cost 1.25 apiece, and since you don't have a daily OR annual MI Internet posting permit, there's a 25.00 fine, and since you didn't get your MI Internet posting permit at the beginning of the year, there's a 10.00 late fee...
"Those voters are dead, Jim."
That's good news, Bones!
That pic just made me spew coffee on my screen! LOL
Next time, drink water...
No can do...need that caffeine kick early in the AM (0525 PST)
Vivarin...
I hope you're right and I'm wrong, but I see her coasting easily to reelection. If a 7 year old boy had been found dead in a ditch on Engler's watch because the State Department of Socialist Services hadn't done its oversight properly Lansing would be close to being burned down. If a filthy murderer had been allowed to slip thru the State Department of Corrections hands so he and his loser girl friend could torture and murder three innocent people, the same would apply on Engler's watch. If the state had been hemmorhaging jobs on Engler's watch, same thing. Clueless blames Engler, Bush, corporate leaders and the people to eat it up. Where the heck is DeVos, looking for his nads? You can't play nice with the Michigan democrap party and the Republicans ought to know that. MeMeMeCain, Clueless, and Stabemall continue to win here.
I'll wager you a five pounds of really good coffee (beans, not ground) on the outcome--you pick the coffee. The UAW and education aristocracts will combine with the africanhyphenamericans and AA limp wrists to assure her return. That big hug for mayor hip hop during the processional to the state of the state wasn't for nothing. Anyway, I'm headed up north for a few days to snowmobile and listen to the closet democraps up there blame all their problems on me and Bush.
Have fun up north, I was in Lewiston last week, tons of snow.
I think the guv race is simply going to mock the '04 national election on a state level. It will depend on how many 'dependent' blue staters show up at the polls as opposed to those not dependent on govt. Classic red vs. blue.
I like Kona.
BTTT
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.