Posted on 11/01/2007 4:29:36 PM PDT by LdSentinal
PITTSBURGH -- They went to the polls and their votes were counted even though they’d been dead for years.
Target 11 investigator Rick Earle pored through mounds of data and discovered that thousands of dead voters are still on the Allegheny county election rolls.
There are nearly a million people registered to vote Allegheny County, but we discovered that thousands of them aren't even living. So what's the big deal?
Well, someone could walk into a precinct and cast a ballot in that person's name and we discovered that it has already happened.
Charles Beck voted in the May primary.John O’Donnell and Patricia Deltondo cast a ballot in the general election last year, according to results from Allegheny county election board. But Target 11 discovered it was impossible for any of them to go to the polls.
Target 11 spent weeks looking through voter registration rolls, comparing them with the Social Security master death index.
There were more than a few glitches. Earle discovered more than 9,000 deceased voters were still registered to vote. Even more shocking, more than 16 of them voted in recent elections.
The disturbing part, is that election workers at the polls aren't catching the problem. Mark Wolosik, head of the Allegheny County board of elections, blames the problems on clerical errors.
Wolosik said, “With that many records sometimes you have mismatches. People make mistakes. I hate to admit it, but we do, too.”
Apparently relatives with similar names are voting for their deceased loved ones.
Wolsik said, “The important thing is only person voted.”
Maybe true -- but voting in place of a deceased family member has led to criminal charges in other states. Here in Allegheny County, these voters had no idea they had been voting for their dead relatives.
Since 2002 all of Charles Beck's votes were tallied under his grandfather's name, even though Beck said he alerted poll workers shortly after his grandfather passed away.
Charles Beck said, “I told that lady, my grandfather's deceased at this address. He's gone. So can you cancel out his voter registration and she said she would take care of it. And that was the end of that.”
Wolosik says the county is now working to remove deceased voters from the registry.
Wolsik said, “I think the thing to keep in mind is, when you look at it percentage-wise it's not a very big number.”
Marybeth Kuznik is the executive director of Vote PA. She said voters need to take their own precautions. “One of the best things we can do to combat this is if every voter would check his or her registration during the off season.”
To cut down on the potential for voter fraud, a state senator recently introduced legislation requiring voters to show a photo identification.
After Target 11 brought the mistakes to the election board, they immediately contacted the voters in question, and corrected the errors.
Yes. This is what concerns me almost more than anything, that we will do nothing.
After Target 11 brought the mistakes to the election board, they immediately contacted the voters in question, and corrected the errors.
color me confused. If they're dead , h ow do they check his or her own registration? And how do they 'contact the voters in question'" if said voters are dead?
Oh, never mind. I momentarily forgot - we're talking about dead 'democrat' voters ====always available...
But dead people are a core democRat voting block.
Good pickup...
Oh, and we are supposed to believe that “voters” are supposed to go “check themselves” (verify their OWN records before teh election) to make sure they haven’t voted as a dead person .... ???
“Apparently relatives with similar names are voting for their deceased loved ones”
Bull Ship....Serial voters vote for the dead..
This is the number one play in the libs play book, they have been doing it for years. The problem with Gore is he got caught and he didn’t like it....tough....
But Gore made a promise to Fast Eddy and now Fast Eddy is on his way to the Senate and then a run for President in the future.....
You scratch my back and I’ll scratch your....
They contacted the registered next of kin of the deceased in question. They said this still leaves 9,000 dead registrars, but "is only a small percentage..." The election board member contacted for the TV report stuttered and stammered through his lack of concern over this.
He looked like he was hiding something which, as we here know, he was.
No party affiliation of the registered dead was mentioned I wonder why.
This happened to my son-in-law during his race for mayor of his town. The absentee ballots were counted for the other candidate. The other candidate just happened to be a Dem. Recount found the error, but by then it was too late.
Why do they act like this is something new??
This kind of stuff has been going on for YEARS ... longer then I was born ... Philly has it down to an art form
Yup. It's a wonder a Pub ever gets elected state-wide.
Oh brother, here we go again.
Works for me :) Heck, I wouldn’t have a prob with a freakin’ retinal scan.
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