Posted on 10/13/2008 11:59:43 AM PDT by WayneM
Something we fear, and often see discussed and lamented, is election fraud. We here at Free Republic, as a community of concerned vindividuals, are in a position to counter at least some of the Democrat party sponsored and encouraged voter fraud.
For the past several weeks we have seen a steady stream of reports of a massive, concerted voter fraud push by the opposition.
We complain about voter fraud, but how many of us actually do something about it?
I'm asking all of you to seriously consider contacting your local Republican party office and volunteering your services as a poll watcher or poll worker for the upcoming election.
We only get one vote (at least for those of us who are honorable), but poll watchers and workers can prevent the votes of the honest multitude from being negated by the dishonest few.
Here in my home state of Alabama, all it takes is for the Republican Party to put your name on a list of watchers. This list is then submitted to the voter registrar, and you are assigned a polling place to observe.
The Republican party provides training and you are trained in how to detect and properly report irregular voting practices, as well as how to behave yourself in the polling place.
The investment in time is relatively small - a few hours of training and a full day spent working at the polling place.
You will probably be requested show up and inspect the voting machines before the polls open in order to prevent ballot box stuffing prior to voting. You may be requested to stick around and watch as the votes are tallied. You may be requested to observe as the tallied votes are transferred from one individual to another.
The rewards, both personal and to our country, are great. I don't regret a minute of my time spent doing this work.
Many of us cannot contribute as much money to our candidates as we would like, but this work may be even more important than financial contributions.
I will be glad to answer any questions, but keep in mind things may be different here in Alabama than in your state. This is why you need to contact your local party officials.
Please note... If you live in a district where the local election officials are Democrats, they may be no opposition to all sorts of polling place tricks. As a poll watcher, you may be the only Republican or Independent present at the site. I cannot overstate the importance of this work.
Please consider volunteering for this important job.
Thanks!
I’ve got an FBI hat and shirt.
I wear them to biker parties.....:)
bttt
Scott,
Would you please write up a brief outline of the key things you learned to watch for and do?
Other comments also welcome.
Also see this thread:
Vanity: My opus on combating vote fraud
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1991953/posts
Basically I learned to keep my Republican election officiers on speed dial, because there is a lot of fishy stuff that can happen.
In one notorious precinct, a certain church minister is known to herd people in and hustle them through the voting process. This is obviously illegal. No one is allowed in the polling place except if they’re helping someone who is disabled.
Supposedly this year in Tennessee, there was no mass dumping of registrations by ACORN as there was in the last election (wherein we thankfully avoided losing another senate seat). However, ACORN can still dump fake registrations—they don’t have to say they’re ACORN, and there is no way to validate who is doing the dumping.
You can challenge any voter (not directly but through the officer at the precinct) if you see them with insufficient ID (if a driver’s license, it must be TN; heck you’re supposed to get a TN license within 30 days, so it seems reasonable). Also, a lot of students try to vote provisionally in the state, when they are not official state residents. In fact, students have often lost scholarships if they were based on their out-of-state status, i.e. the registrar of voters in their home state gets notification that they switched registration to TN, and it’s bye-bye-scholarship.
Sometimes there’s not a whole lot you can do to stop vote fraud, but you can sometimes keep the honest honest, because some folks don’t know that vote fraud is a felony, and will be deterred by knowing this (I know, felons aren’t known for their strong conscience).
The English-speaking requirement is interesting in our state, because it is required that one speak English to vote, however if the person is unable to communicate for other reasons (and how would you know?) there is some wiggle room there. This can be a factor if someone is illiterate and has a “helper” who is really an activist. The voter must positively state that he/she wants the person to help them vote, in English. This obviously can be a sticky situation because how do you know if they’re non-English speaking or merely illiterate?
Those are all the tidbits I can think of off the top of my head, but I’ll share more when I start doing early vote watching.
Bump To The Top!
I’m going to bump this post every time I see it.
Every election, I remind folks to do what I do....just in case you see something amiss; take a pen/paper for noting license plates of suspicious caravan vans, and the trusty digitil camera.
I've never seen anything at all unusual, but I'd certainly be prepared to follow a van to see it was "making the rounds"...
Give your local (county) Republican party office a call.
Explain that you are concerned about voter fraud and want to work as a watcher. You might even ask who is coordinating the poll watcher effort.
I told my office that if I was not needed in my home county, I will volunteer to work in any adjacent county.
Only if I can carry.
I’ve already done it. I am in charge of new voter registration at my poll. Of course the State of Wiscosnin has ridiculous rules for me to follow — such as I’m required to assk for the voter’s DL number. I can’t actually LOOK at the DL to check that he is giving me the right number. I just have to write down — or allow him to write dosn — whatever number he wants to give me.
It won’t be until after the election is over that anybody checks to see if it is a real number.
For instance, I could say that my DL number is D1234567 and I have to accept that as valid.
That’s why Portland always gets it’s way in elections, the county clerks in the small communities are honest and kept that way by the citizens. The people in Portland run amok with no one watching.
bookmark
Good ideas and most worthwhile post.
bumo - I’m going to look into this....
“I am a GOP poll watcher in Palm Beach county FL...”
God be with you.
Thanks!
BUMP
Bump to an important issue!
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