I Believe I Just Witnessed Attempted Voter Registration Fraud

me | December 16, 2003 | prairiebreeze

[prairiebreeze]

Today as I was leaving my local grocery store a woman was standing at the exit doors holding a clipboard with a Dennis Kucinich sticker on it. She stated she was representing Dennis Kucinich and was asking people who were leaving the store if they were registered to vote. She stated she was registering voters.

I was very pressed for time at the particular moment as I was late for an appointment and unfortunately felt that I couldn't stop to speak with her or confront her then and there. After my appointment, about 30 minutes later I returned to the store. The woman was gone. I spoke with the store manager Mr. ***** who confirmed he had asked her to leave as that activity was against store policy inside the store. He stated that other customers had reported the woman to the customer service desk which was how he was alerted to her presence. Mr. ****** relayed that the woman stated she had been to several various stores in the area this morning trying to register voters for Kucinich and had most likely been turned out of all of them.

Interestingly the store manager indicated that store policy would have no problem with this woman standing out on their sidewalk, i.e. a public place, to conduct this activity, "like the Boy Scouts selling candy". I pointed out that there was no comparison in the two activities and that voter registration required verification of citizenship and age and needed to be done by state or county officials. (sheesh!)

Unfortunately Mr. ***** didn't get the womans name. He was a bit flustered, trying to cover his butt and wanting to make sure I wasn't mad at him or the store. I made sure I remained positive and pleasant throughout.

When I told him that the woman was registering voters for Kucinich he said, "I don't even know who Kucinich is?" I had to tell him. A fine example of the voting populace.....

[prairiebreeze]

This was just freakin' unreal. Admin Mod, please leave up for a little while so I can send some pings around and maybe get some constructive advice.

I've reported this to the RNC. Any other thoughts or recommendations as to who to tell about this?? It's too bad I don't have more specifics about her.

If this is going to be SOP, it's going to be one looooong year. We all need to be alert. Believe me, next time I'll confront the witch and just be late to my doctors appointment. Criminey!

Prariie

[prairiebreeze]

Look at what happened.

Please use your ping lists if you feel this message needs to be read by a wider audience.

I've asked admin mod to leave it in news for a little while

thanks

[ken5050]

is "terminal stupidity" a crime in your state?

[ItsOurTimeNow]

the "win at any cost" Dims are going to make November an INTERESTING month

[prairiebreeze]

Look at what happened.

Calpernia, please ping your list if you think larger numbers should be made aware of what's going on

[prairiebreeze]

Look at what happened. Please ping anybody you feel should be aware of this

[steplock]

RNC ?

They don't give a damned about us either.

[Dan from Michigan]

I've reported this to the RNC. Any other thoughts or recommendations as to who to tell about this??

County and State Party.

[So Cal Rocket]

In California, anyone can register voters... no proof of age or citizenship is required when you register - just a Driver's License number.

[mvpel]

Is that the law in Illinois? In California the prospective registrant can fill out a form that is then mailed in to the Secretary of State in Sacramento for verification.

[meyer]

This is a good reason to carry around a small digital camera - especially if it also can take small MPEG movies. If they're breaking the law, you'll have it on film.

[TheBigB]

voter registration required verification of citizenship and age and needed to be done by state or county officials.

No, it doesn't. Heck, I've done this before myself at fairs, outside stores, etc. We have forms from the local registrar's office that people fill out and give back to us, and we take them back to the office. Plenty of voter registration tables can be seen in election season, and they very rarely have actual officials manning them. You overreacted a bit, IMO.

[Dataman]

The proper authority to report the incident is the Secretary of State. If You have a Dem SOS, don't expect results. Report it to your party's leaders. If you have an R SOS, you might see results. Report the fraud to a local investigative reporter. Ask the store manager if he has the person recorded on security camera.

[NonValueAdded]

Whatcha doing, trying to disenfranchise voter fraud? </sarcasm>

It could be a legal GOTV activity if the person was collecting applications for registration and not actually registering the people. Thank you, motor voter. The best thing to do would be to immediately contact your local Supervisor of Elections or what ever other title belongs to the official in charge of voter registration and file a complaint.

[HungarianGypsy]

In Arizona there are booths set up at the fair and other events to register voters. When I re-registered for change of address I was never asked for i.d.

[Robert A Cook PE]

A few questions to make your "ping lists" more effective:

What city?

What county?

Obviously she was rabidly (and illegally) democratic, but was she actually "registering" voters, complete with forms and envelopes that may have been taken from a DMV or county office = some stack of official forms?

Do you have her name, or could you "find" her again and casually get her name and organization?

[Peach]

This, in addition to the solicitation of foreign campaign contributions by the Rats, is how they are going to try and win the election.

You did good, prairibreeze, and aside from calling the GOP, which you did, I don't have another suggestion.

[End Times Sentinel]

Not sure if that's illegal there, PB.  I know I've done this for our side, knocking on doors and standing in front of a grocery store, in fact.  I'm certainly not a state official, just a Republican Operative.

I turn the registration cards in to my Ward Leader and she turns them in to the board of voter registrations.  I'm not entirely sure what happens beyond that, maybe nothing other than sending a card out to the address provided.  You'd think they'd check it against something, but I'm really not sure.

 

 

Owl_Eagle

”Guns Before Butter.”

[Ciexyz]

I always thought that voter registration activities in public places had to be impartial, i.e., the person conducting the registration couldn't claim to be registering voters for any particular party. This his how I've seen it done.

As a former federal employee, now retired, I can relate that many federal employees went out to minority and poor areas to conduct impartial voter registrations. Those registered would most likely vote Democratic. They never went to the Republican middle-class areas, however, but they still acted within the confines of the Hatch Act.