FReepers Against Voter Fraud

Where's my cup of java?

heh heh !! I've been out all day and playin' Ketchup now. CarlsbadCaveman has STRICT orders to present you with a fresh cup upon your arisal in Da Moanin' !!

Have a cup while you FReep !

Why thank you. Don't mind if I do.

Outstanding job, sweetliberty!

Remarkable body of work. Bookmarked for reference.

Thanks for the ping, MnM.

Weyrich picked it up!!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/799344/posts?page=1

That's great. Thanks for posting. This is exactly the kind of thing we need to work on. If this is out there in the public eye and more media sources pick up on in nationally, it will be hard to continue to ignore it and harder for the Rats to pull off.

Please add me to any PING lists regarding this topic. Thanks.

Thought y'all would want to see the after FReep report from Saundra Duffy.

One-Woman FReep of Nicole Parra (Voter Fraud in CA State Assembly Race)

GREAT JOB!!!

That Saundra Duffy's one hell of a woman.

This nation's in desperate need of a few million people with such courage & conviction.
A few million more just like her would be a real nice start, alright.

Since that ain't gonna happen anytime soon?

...it'd be wise to appreciate the one we have, now.

Thanks, sweet!

SD's reports are always lively and entertaining.

She's special!

Thanks for the ping. I told Saundra she was a one person freeping army!

Didn't realize it was you that had posted this link. I just responded to your comment on that thread. Thanks for the link.

You may want to check out votefraud.org as a possible source. It looks pretty good and I didn't see it above.

http://www.votefraud.org/home.html

This was an interesting read:

I especially liked the part where Cantrell basically admits committing vote fraud, but called it an "innocent get out the vote" effort.

Voter fraud more difficult now, but boards of election must stay vigilant against it

By Asheville Citizen-Times
POSTED: Nov. 9, 2002 7:45 p.m.

In the bad old days, in some Western North Carolina counties it was not uncommon for people to return from the grave to cast a ballot or two. For the most part, that's a thing of the past.

For one thing, boards of election get death certificates, check them against their voter lists and remove the names of the deceased so no one can appropriate their identity. These days there's also a statewide voter database that allows boards to remove duplicate names when, for example, voters move from one county to another and register in a new location.

Modern procedures and data management systems have cut down on voter fraud considerably.

"It's tough to do now," says Marvin Hollifield, assistant director of the Buncombe County Board of Elections. "It's gonna come up on somebody's screen somewhere."

Still, reports that more than 30 absentee ballots were mailed to a post office box held by the brother of Madison County Clerk of Court Tim Cantrell, a Democrat, and another 20 were mailed to another Madison County resident, raise the specter of those bad old days. Federal agents are investigating to determine whether there was an attempt to commit voter fraud.

Republican Party workers checking the absentee ballot list caught the fact that an unusual number of ballots were mailed to the two post office boxes, according to Tracy Bridges, a spokesperson for the Madison County Republican Party. It's a felony under North Carolina election law for anyone to deliver an absentee ballot to a voter or return it to the county board of elections other than that voter, a near relative or a legal guardian.

About 40 of the absentee ballots mailed to the two addresses had been completed and returned.

Elections Board members had compared the signatures on voter registration cards and absentee ballot request forms against the required signatures on the ballot envelopes and found no problems, according to Mark Cody, chairman of the Madison County Board of Elections. Cody said he was confident that the intended voters filled out their own ballots.

Nonetheless, the board wisely chose to withhold 33 disputed ballots.

"We couldn't determine who actually handled those ballots. They need to be handled by the voter," Cody said.

Exactly. There are good reasons why it's illegal to deliver an absentee ballot to anyone other than the voter or a near relative. In fact, it's a serious felony. Besides the potential for outright fraud in the form of appropriating someone else's identity, there's also the possibility of coercion or bribery. Even if all the signatures match, if ballots were delivered to a third party, there's no way of knowing whether that third party offered the voter some kind of payoff or threatened the voter in some way.

Cantrell, who lost his bid for re-election to his Republican opponent, C. William Briggs, by 162 votes Tuesday, says the ballots were delivered to his brother as part of an innocent "get out the vote" effort. Election board chairman Cody says he believes those involved simply didn't know it was illegal to send ballots to an unrelated third party. He said he believes the voters chose to have their ballots mailed to the two addresses.

That may be so. But the fact that it happened is troubling nonetheless. In the first place, ignorance of the law is no excuse. It's the responsibility of those who work on behalf of candidates and of candidates themselves to find out what's legal and what's not.

Of greater concern is the fact that absentee voters can choose to have their ballots sent anywhere in the world, so there's no easy way for elections officials to catch the fact that a large number of them are going to a single address controlled by one person.

In fact, there might even be a legitimate reason for that to happen. For instance, a church group traveling abroad might ask to have all their ballots sent to a church secretary who could forward them to their next stop.

One thing is certain, the best defense against voter fraud is a strong offense. Boards of election need to be on the lookout for this sort of thing and to make sure an investigation takes place if questions arise.

Modern technology helps greatly in reducing the opportunities for fraud, but vigilance and aggressive prosecution are still critical deterrents.

http://cgi.citizen-times.com/cgi-bin/story/editorial/23309

This is worth a read:

WEST TEXAS (MRT) - The United States Attorney and Federal Bureau of Investigation officials are collaborating efforts to insure the integrity of the voting process.

While the polls are open, both offices will have phone lines available for citizens to utilize in case they suspect election fraud.

"Election fraud dilutes the worth of votes honestly cast. It also corrupts the essence of our representative form of government. As a crime against both the individual and the government, it will be dealt with promptly and aggressively," said U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton.

Sutton said the phone lines are set up as a safeguard to promote "fair and honest" ballot casting.

Though there have been complaints from concerned voters in the past, there has been no need to implement an investigation on voter fraud, said Bill Vanderland, FBI senior supervisor resident agent.

Election crimes include voter bribery, voter intimidation and ballot forgery, said Sutton.

Preying on the elderly and the socially disadvantaged for "the purpose of subjugating their electoral will" is a federal offense, Sutton said.

Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the nationwide Department of Justice Voting Integrity Initiative Oct. 8 to protect voter rights and prosecute election crime. Sutton has appointed Assistant U.S. Attorney Ray Jahn as district election officer.

To report suspected voter fraud, call the U.S. Attorney's office at 686-4110 or the FBI at 570-0255.

http://www.mywesttexas.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=5949989&BRD=2288&PAG=461&dept_id=475621&rfi=6

DA opens voter fraud probe in southern Nevada Assembly race

Associated Press

11/14/2002 03:40 pm

Clark County authorities have opened a voter fraud investigation based on complaints that voters listed vacant buildings or the homes of others as residential addresses on registration forms.

District Attorney Stewart Bell said his office was investigating a complaint and evidence submitted by state Assemblyman Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, after Republican Assembly candidate Francis Allen lost a close race on Nov. 5.

Beers alleged that 21 voters listed incorrect addresses on voter-registration forms, but said the discrepancies wouldn't have changed Democratic nominee Marcus Conklin's 134-vote margin of victory.

"The point of this isn't turning this election over, but whether the law makes it too easy for fraudulent voting to take place,"Beers said told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Bell said the investigation could take a few days or a couple of weeks, and said it might help eliminate ineligible voters from registration rolls.

The district attorney said voters may have changed residences between the time they registered to vote and Election Day, but said that intentionally voting outside their precinct or using someone else's mail-in ballot can be a gross misdemeanor.

Bell said he doubted federal laws were broken, and said the FBI and postal inspectors weren't involved in the Clark County probe. The FBI is involved in an ongoing investigation of voter fraud in Nye County.

Three of the voters cited in the Clark County complaint listed as their mailing address a Las Vegas bar owned by Gary Horrocks, a politically active motorcycle enthusiast and a Republican Assembly candidate. He finished behind Allen and candidate Earlene Forsythe in the September GOP primary.

Horrocks said he helped some of his customers and association members register to vote, and said he has a pile of blank voter-registration forms and voter guides available at his bar. He said the association's registration efforts were legal.

Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said seven absentee ballots were sent to Horrocks'bar for both the primary and general elections. Five were filled out and returned for the primary, and three were returned for the general election.

"There was nothing out of the ordinary that we found,"Lomax said.

The FBI has declined comment about Nye County investigation since agents on Oct. 21 seized voter rolls and records from Nye County offices in Tonopah.

Days earlier, a Nye County District Court judge in Pahrump scratched almost 5 percent of the county's 18,667 registered voters from the voter rolls, saying they were either dead or didn't live where they said they did.

http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2002/11/14/28109.php?sp1=&sp2=&sp3=

Here's a recent one on Alabama.

Recount Law Advocated As Part Of Election Law Changes
Certified Votes Show Riley Wins By 3,120

POSTED: 5:31 p.m. CST November 20, 2002

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- State officials met Wednesday to complete the official tally from the Nov. 5 election, but that's not the last word because Democrats and Republicans hope the disputed election will prompt a complete review of Alabama's election laws.

"The voters want to see the system reformed. I think they are right. It ought to be reformed," Republican Attorney General Bill Pryor said.

Pryor joined Republican Secretary of State Jim Bennett and Ted Hosp, legal adviser to Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman, to sign the official canvass of the statewide returns from the election Nov. 5.

The results showed Republican Bob Riley with 672,225 votes and Siegelman with 669,105, a difference of 3,120. Libertarian John Sophocleus got 23,272 votes and write-in candidates got 2,451.

That was not the closest race. For secretary of state, Democrat Nancy Worley polled 632,852 and Republican Dave Thomas received 630,863, a difference of 1,989. Libertarian Mark Bodenhausen trailed with 25,386, and write-in candidates received 1,179.

Pryor said his office had received some complaints about potential criminal wrongdoing in the election, but none of it would be big enough to affect the outcome of any close races.

Pryor, who was re-elected, and Bennett, who is retiring, said they hope the close races and the dispute over the governor's race will prompt the Legislature to rewrite Alabama's election laws, which they described as a patchwork that sometimes doesn't fit together well.

"I think we need a comprehensive reform of the Alabama election code. It ought to include a fair, efficient, uniform recount in every close election," Pryor said.

Siegelman tried to get a county-by-county recount in the governor's race, but he didn't succeed after Pryor issued an opinion saying that sealed ballots could be opened for only limited reasons, and Siegelman's recount request was not one of them.

Pryor declined to specify what he would like to see in recount legislation because he said it must be designed in a bipartisan effort or it will never win legislative approval.

Bennett said a comprehensive rewrite of Alabama's election laws ought to include issues that have been discussed for years, such as requiring voters to show identification at the polls, restricting money transfer between political action committees, and cracking down on campaign ads that contain lies.

Pryor and Bennett aren't the only ones talking about studying election laws.

Worley, who will become the state's chief election official in January, said a "top to bottom" review is needed.

State Democratic Party Chairman Redding Pitt said Siegelman's efforts to get a recount show that Alabama needs a simple, clear recount law.

Riley spokesman David Azbell said the new governor will make election laws a priority, and he will support a recount law if it is part of a comprehensive election package and it includes safeguards against voter fraud when the sealed ballots are opened.

"Alabama has a long and storied history of voter fraud," Azbell said.

In Riley's "Plan for Change" platform, he advocates many things that should be in an election law package, including passing a voter ID law, requiring voters casting absentee ballots to include the last four digits from their Social Security number as a safeguard against fraud, increasing the penalties for voter fraud, and having poll workers from both political parties at each polling site.

http://www.nbc13.com/news/1798001/detail.html

Some Pa. News:

Election-fraud bill requires ID for first-time voters

Wednesday, November 27, 2002

The Associated Press

HARRISBURG -- First-time voters who register by mail would have to show identification at polling places as part of a fraud-fighting measure passed by the state House today and sent on to the governor.

The provision, part of a bill containing election-code changes, was approved 190-7 in the House and 48-1 in the Senate.

A spokesman for Gov. Mark S. Schweiker said he was reviewing the bill.

The bill would allow voters to show one of several forms of ID, including a driver's license, U.S. passport, current bank statement or a paycheck, to prove their authenticity at the polls.

The bill, which received bipartisan support, would enact the recommendations of county elections officials and the Department of State, the state agency that oversees elections. It also would put into effect requirements of the federal Help America Vote Act that President Bush signed last month.

Among other things, the bill would allow high-school students who are at least 17 years old to fill vacancies in certain election-day jobs under the supervision of a local judge of elections and increase the maximum allowable compensation for those jobs to as much as $200.

"The substance of this legislation will be to upgrade our election system to make it more accessible to the individual voter and more workable from the point of view of the election official," said Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, R-Dauphin, who spoke in favor of the legislation.

http://www.post-gazette.com/breaking/20021127webbillp8.asp

Thought you'd be interested in the e-mail response re RNC. (I just now checked my e-mail, it was sent on the 27th....):

Thank you for contacting the Republican National Committee. Unfortunately, much "Official RNC Information" is proprietary and is not available to the general public. However, if you call my department, we will be happy to accommodate you as best as we can. Our phone number is [redacted]. My name is [redacted], and I will be working late tonight, as well as Saturday and Sunday. Feel free to call.

P.S. By the way, I tried to call you twice, but the line was busy.

{It was busy cuz I was FReeping, oops. I'll try to call this person tomorrow.)

Some very good finds there, Lion! I will add them to my archives after (ugh) work today.