Posted on 10/15/2008 7:42:15 AM PDT by EBH
Washington -- Two prominent former U.S. senators who support John McCain warned this morning of "a potential nightmare" on Election Day and afterward if measures aren't taken to monitor precincts in battleground states including Ohio.
John Danforth, a former senator from Missouri and a former United Nations ambassador, said he is deeply concerned "that this election night and the days that follow will be a rerun of 2000, and even worse than 2000."
It could be worse than the hanging chad controversy and recounts in Florida, and lead to political accusations and court fights that could delay the country from knowing the election's true outcome.
"We believe that this is a potential nightmare," Danforth said this morning at a news conference at the National Press Club. He and Warren Rudman, a former senator from New Hampshire, chair McCain's "Honest and Open Elections Committee."
Rudman described the committee as mostly lawyers who have a lot of experience with elections. The committee proposed that Barack Obama's campaign as well as McCain's identify potentially troublesome precincts in battleground states. Then the campaigns could task volunteers to monitor voting in those precincts.
The controversy goes to revelations in recent days that canvassers for ACORN, a community organizing group, have turned in large numbers of fraudulent voter registration forms, including some where a potential voter has registered multiple times. Others include the names of cartoon characters and the Dallas Cowboys football team. The Republican Party and supporters of McCain say that Obama has several ties to ACORN, whose acronym stands for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.
Rudman said that he and Danforth are not accusing ACORN's leaders of wrong-doing. In Cuyahoga County and elsewhere, the problem has been blamed largely on people paid by ACORN to register new voters. With quotas to fill, they have used such tactics as offering money and cigarettes to people who signed multiple registration cards, according to testimony in Cleveland yesterday.
Obama should ask ACORN to stop employing people with criminal records, the pro-McCain former senators said today.
Democrats and some voting officials have said that systems already exist to catch fraudulent voters, including requirements for voters to show identification. But Danforth and Rudman said the systems rely on human judgment.
The fraudulent registrations, they said, create potential for people voting who should not; for people voting more than once, and for election officials to have to spend so much time on this that they cannot prepare properly for an orderly election on Nov. 4. The spread of absentee voting in this election makes the chances of fraudulent voting greater, they said.
"When you swamp a system with many, many fraudulent names, you're creating a problem," Danforth said.
I am blaming Barack Obama and all the leaders.
ACORN is a CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE that SPECIALIZES in VOTE FRAUD!! And WE PAY FOR THIS!!!
I will despair if this doesn’t come up tonight.
This why Republicans are going to get their asses handed to them next month. They are spinless cowards.
worse than 2000?!? no kidding.
they do not even seem to consider the republic itself may be lost.
fools.
Exactly. I mean, it wasn't Al Capone that was murdering people, extorting people, and bribing people.
It was just people in his organization that were going beyond what he approved of.
Northeast Ohio PING, please! :-)
Indeed, that’s where the blame belongs.
Hopefully, the Ohio State legislature (in GOP hands) will tighten up the law.
This is news to the GOP? The dims have been stealing elections through vote fraud at least since 1960 when Kennedy go 100,000 fraudulent votes in the Chicago area. They should've learned in 2000 that the dims would stop at nothing to steal an election, yet they sit back, do next to nothing, and then act surprised when zerobama get's his proxies in ACORN to go get fraudulent votes!
This is a win-win for the Socialists. If it works, they get extra votes and victory. If it creates a 2000 style chaos environment, that helps them also. They thrive on chaos,and they will browbeat submissive Americans into thinking it’s a white man scam to deny The Black Messiah his rightful place.
I requested the day off from work and volunteered with the GOP to be an observer.
No,
This is exactly why its time for a federal voter I.D. system! Fiascos like this ACORN crap have to stop!
Bingo! ACORN's leaders know exactly what's going on. It's their plan!
MM (in TX)
I just e-mailed by great (and I don’t say that lightly) State Senator asking him if there was something constitutional that the State Legislature can do. I urge my fellow Ohioans to do the same. Thanks.
Demonrats need to be held accountable for this criminal enterprise they’ve got going on with these radical groups that are so obviously breaking laws and literally attempting a coup. Republicans should not sit back and let these thugs continue to destroy this country. This election is important on so many levels and this is going to show you what the Demonrats are about. There is just so much there that shows how evil these people are. And, yes, I will use that word.
The GOP ticket is upside-down.
Make this election about a future Sarah Palin administration, Senator McCain.
Start tonight at the debate. Rock the debate. Make it clear, a vote for you, is a vote for a future Palin administration. Be a real maverick.
Country First!!
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