Hey, I resemble that remark!
Posted on 10/15/2008 10:00:10 PM PDT by flattorney
TALLAHASSEE -- Breaking with the talking points of his fellow Republicans in Washington, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said he does not think voter fraud and the vote-registration group ACORN are a major problem in the Sunshine State. ''I think that there's probably less [fraud] than is being discussed. As we're coming into the closing days of any campaign, there are some who enjoy chaos,'' Crist told reporters. Crist made his comments as the Republican National Committee hosted a conference call with reporters to tie Democrat Barack Obama to suspicious voter-registration cards submitted by ACORN across the nation and in four Florida counties, including Broward.
In the Broward case, an unknown person attempted to re-register a longtime voter named Susan S. Glenckman. Broward officials caught the error in August when it was brought to their attention by ACORN. During the Wednesday Republican conference call, national party spokesman Danny Diaz focused more on a case out of Orange County, in which someone used an ACORN-stamped voter-registration card to sign up Mickey Mouse. But Crist's Republican Secretary of State, Kurt Browning, said he doesn't think ACORN is committing systematic voter fraud. And Crist said that settles the matter because ''I have enormous confidence'' in Browning. Like ACORN spokesmen, Browning says the false voter registration forms could be blamed on unethical canvassers or on citizens who themselves fill out fictitious voter cards.
REGISTERING VS. VOTING - - Elections officials point out that while voter-registration fraud is relatively easy, vote fraud is far more difficult because a criminal would have to evade multiple layers of computer-system and identity checks. They also say the system is not overwhelmed with phony registrations, as Diaz suggested during the conference call. ACORN's head Florida organizer, Brian Kettenring, went a step further, saying the group was being framed in the Mickey Mouse case -- though he wasn't sure who was behind it. ''It's reasonable to assume that there's a strong possibility this is a set-up,'' Kettenring said. ``We have a substantial reason to believe someone probably got one of our cards and submitted it to the elections office without us knowing.''
But Diaz, the national Republican spokesman, said Wednesday that there is no way ACORN is a victim, considering ''the volume'' of registration-fraud complaints and investigations in numerous states. ''When you sign the Dallas Cowboys in Nevada, Mickey Mouse in Florida, a 7-year-old girl in Connecticut,'' Diaz said, ``their argument that this is all some kind of a conspiracy is laughable on its face.'' Diaz, echoing previous statements from the party and John McCain's campaign, said Obama hasn't been honest about his links to ACORN. Obama told reporters Tuesday that Republicans are engaging in distractions. He said his campaign has nothing to do with ACORN and that ACORN is probably the victim of lazy card gatherers or card signers who make up names or fraudulently fill out registration cards. ACORN submits all registration cards -- even ones it knows are phony -- because it's illegal to destroy the cards in Florida, and Browning said the group should even turn in incomplete registration cards.
REJECTED - - Kettenring said the group has quality-control checks to alert officials of suspicious cards. Although it flagged the Glenckman problem in Broward, ACORN never saw the Mickey Mouse card, Kettenring said. So ACORN smells a rat. So did Orange election officials, who rejected it out of hand at the time. A housing, poverty and wage advocacy group, ACORN stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. It has signed up more than 150,000 new Florida voters out of the 1.3 million it registered in the past two years nationwide. The group has pointed out that before it became expedient for Republican presidential candidate John McCain to attack ACORN, he had supported and praised the group. McCain attacked the group at Wednesday's debate, and pointed out that Obama's campaign had paid an ACORN affiliate more than $830,000 for get-out-the-vote efforts.
Echoing Browning and other county elections supervisors, Mary Cooney, a spokeswoman for Broward County Election Supervisor Brenda Snipes, said the office had a good working relationship with ACORN. But Cooney said the office began tracking ACORN registrations after noticing about 10 percent of the 16,000 registration cards it submitted were returned by the post office as undeliverable. In 80 percent of those cases, she said, the elections office couldn't find the registrant. Cooney said the returned mail wasn't suspicious, but it was worthy of note. Cooney said that, if the office had suspected real fraud, it would have turned the matter over to the state attorney's office. But it didn't.
Obama had downplayed his ties to ACORN on his ''fight the smears'' website, saying that his most extensive work with ACORN was when he represented the group along with the U.S. Justice Department in a lawsuit. Turns out, he also trained some ACORN community organizers at a seminar, so Obama's website was changed to reflect that he was never ''hired'' as a trainer. McCain campaign manager Rick Davis made much of that in a conference call last week, urging reporters to ask Obama: ``What were you teaching them? Were you teaching them how to evade the law?'' Davis also said anyone who believes ACORN isn't up to something bad is ``naive.'' But the day before, when Gov. Crist was asked if he had any suspicions or evidence that ACORN was up to anything illegal or unethical, he gave a quick and brief reply: ``No.''
Posted by TAB for FlA
ACORN is using this Florida statute section on a very literal basis. Several of the top State “powers” do not want to take them on this late in the election cycle, which I/we fully disagree. - FlA
2008 Florida Statutes, 97.0575 - Third-party voter registrations
(3) A third-party voter registration organization that collects voter registration applications serves as a fiduciary to the applicant, ensuring that any voter registration application entrusted to the third-party voter registration organization, irrespective of party affiliation, race, ethnicity, or gender shall be promptly delivered to the division or the supervisor of elections. If a voter registration application collected by any third-party voter registration organization is not promptly delivered to the division or supervisor of elections, the third-party voter registration organization shall be liable for the following fines:
(a) A fine in the amount of $50 for each application received by the division or the supervisor of elections more than 10 days after the applicant delivered the completed voter registration application to the third-party voter registration organization or any person, entity, or agent acting on its behalf. A fine in the amount of $250 for each application received if the third-party registration organization or person, entity, or agency acting on its behalf acted willfully.
(b) A fine in the amount of $100 for each application collected by a third-party voter registration organization or any person, entity, or agent acting on its behalf, prior to book closing for any given election for federal or state office and received by the division or the supervisor of elections after the book closing deadline for such election. A fine in the amount of $500 for each application received if the third-party registration organization or person, entity, or agency acting on its behalf acted willfully.
(c) A fine in the amount of $500 for each application collected by a third-party voter registration organization or any person, entity, or agent acting on its behalf, which is not submitted to the division or supervisor of elections. A fine in the amount of $1,000 for any application not submitted if the third-party registration organization or person, entity, or agency acting on its behalf acted willfully.
The aggregate fine pursuant to this subsection which may be assessed against a third-party voter registration organization, including affiliate organizations, for violations committed in a calendar year shall be $1,000. The fines provided in this subsection shall be reduced by three-fourths in cases in which the third-party voter registration organization has complied with subsection (1). The secretary shall waive the fines described in this subsection upon a showing that the failure to deliver the voter registration application promptly is based upon force majeure or impossibility of performance.
Leave it up to Republicans to stray from an effective message just to be different. I just wish they knew how to shut up if they can’t contribute to the defeat of liberals.
All it takes is one to cancel out my vote. That's one too damn many for me.
I volunteer to shut them up
TAB
Christ is a Rino. Period.
What a moron.
Just wait till they count the vote. If the State goes to Obama, it will be Crist’s cross to bear.
I'm not usually one for conspiracy theories, but this one really makes sense.
Mark
We all know that when it comes to voting, Florida really has its ...act together. Those people can really vote!
He HAS to say this. WHat’s he gonna say, “Florida is a screwed up mess again under my watch”.
ping
Has Crist been hanging around Frank lately?
Really, he needs to go back in the closet.
And thank God McCain didn’t pick him as his running mate.
You just watch, if McCain wins, all those extra registrations that no one used to vote with will become the basis for screams of “vote supression.”
lol Sorry but it pisses me off. Do these guys really like to be favored poster children for the liberal media? Is that what they are running for? They should look at how John McCain is being treated now and see what they have to look forward to.
But a corrupt judge could EASILY vote FOR that person. That's why the corruption almost ALWAYS HAPPENS in precincts where there are only judges from ONE party.
Believe me, I'm from Chicago. This is how it works. Hold back reporting the vote until you know what is required, then vote the unused registrations.
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