New laws allow people to participate in what's called in-office voting. They go to a polling place and vote, but the ballot will be held like an absentee ballot, not opened until Election Night, WESH NewsChannel 2 reported. Posted on 11/01/2002 1:12:43 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
New laws allow people to participate in what's called in-office voting. They go to a polling place and vote, but the ballot will be held like an absentee ballot, not opened until Election Night, WESH NewsChannel 2 reported.
Not many voters took advantage of the chance to vote early in Daytona Beach on Sunday. Officials expected thousands, but only 82 voters turned out, officials said.
However, voters are trying to get in early in Orange County, and there are are already problems. The head of the Democratic Party said they have evidence of voter fraud as workers process absentee ballots.
At a warehouse near the Orange County supervisor of elections office, completed absentee ballots are processed in preparation for Election Day. The head of the Orange County Democratic Executive Committee, Doug Head, believes some of the absentee ballots returned are fraudulent -- the voters' signatures are thought to be forgeries.
In a sample of seven randomly chosen ballots, Head said four were possible forgeries. The ballots were pulled for review by a canvassing board.
"Some Hispanic voters may have had ballots cast for themselves that they don't even know about, and that would be a tragedy," Head said.
"In case they're a forgery, it's very disappointing for us to know something like that may be happening," Supervisor of Elections Bill Cowles said.
The discovery came in the same week the state attorney announced an investigation of potential voter fraud involving the state Senate District 19 race between Republican Tony Suarez and Democrat Gary Sipling. Both have been asked to produce a list of campaign staff members who worked at voter registration drives.
Sources close to the investigation said investigators are more interested in Suarez.
Head said he's already discovering strange statistical information: A batch of more than 400 absentee ballot requests received at the same time all from Hispanic Republicans, who are new residents with no voting history.
"Something funny is going on, but I don't know what it is yet," Head said.
The canvassing board will meet at 4 p.m. Monday to sort through ballots marked for review. Both Suarez and Sipling would not comment on the investigation.
It began a long time ago, and it won't stop until we have secure
identification cards, and most people are not willing to do this.
So we set back and wait to become a third world country.
Translation: We tried to commit fraud, but we messed up, so we have to get rid of these ballots and try again.
Well, they're consistent. (^:
Next there will be "Late Voting", where Democrats can vote for 2 weeks after election day or until they get a favorable court decision, whichever comes first.
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