[WL-law]

LePore has said she might also refer Palm Beach Post reporter Lou Salome's name to the State Attorney's Office for possible criminal charges regarding attempted double-voting, a third-degree felony that carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Salome did not sign or fill out a provisional ballot. Instead, he signed a voter roll list to get a card for electronic voting after he already had voted absentee to verify the county's procedures for stopping someone from voting twice. He notified precinct officials of the flaw in the system and returned the card without attempting to vote on the touch-screen machine.

So HERE'S the real story --- the person the election officials really want to get tough on is -- get this! -- the person who was not committing 'fraud' but rather DEMONSTRATING, in investigative journalistic fashion, and then REPORTING, how easy it is to commit fraud undetected.

So the REPORTER is the person they want to punish. Seems to me, IMHO, that he could bring an action against the election officials under a whistle-blower statute.

Meanwhile, later in the story it is dutifully reported that we had "unprecedented" numbers of absentee ballots. So -- connecting the dots -- not only is the abilty for fraud provable, but the inference is THAT IS WAS BEING COMMITTED ON A LARGE SCALE.

so they attack the messenger instead of the problem.

[lepton]

bookmark bump

[Goldwater Girl]

You are so right- the real story is NOT the fools who voted absentee and then asked for provisional ballots- it's the ones who, like this reporter, voted absentee- went to the polls where the roll apparently did not show they had already voted, and then voted again. The reporter didn't vote twice- he stopped before he cast a vote, and alerted the poll watchers.

The voter rolls must not have shown the absentee/early votes cast, or they would have stopped him.

This flaw in the early voting record keeping needs to be corrected by the legislature- to prevent widespread fraud in 2004.