FReepers Against Voter Fraud - (Thread 2)

November 29, 2002 | sweetliberty

[TheLion]

"A democRAT is behind this action? I am shocked"

A looks like it was a nasty little critter too!

[sweetliberty]

[TheLion]

Ted Kennedy?

[sweetliberty]

Much too thin!

[sweetliberty]

I think this one might be a little more descriptive.

[TheLion]

perfect!

[Budge]

I get so very tired of being on the edge of screaming!

I know the feeling well.

I also know I'm behind reading all the newer posts here.

The reason?

It looks like we take one step forward in cutting back on voter fraud, then some liberal twists the arm of either the media or a judge and WAM! We're knocked back two steps.

I feel like I'm beating my head against a brick wall.

But hey, I have a hard head. :)

[Budge]

But Atlantic County Democratic leader Chuck Chiarello, who contends the freeholder probe is driven by politics, says the identification requirement is nothing more than voter suppression. It will make voter registration more difficult in a county already on "the road to making sure the tiniest voices aren't heard," he said.

This kind of resistance is what gets the medias attention, then they harp on "the tiniest voices" not being heard.

The brainwashing continues.

[Budge]

"If the state's Attorney General's office isn't going to enforce voting fraud misdemeanors, then it must provide the public a list of other misdemeanors it may choose not to enforce. Shoplifting? Marijuana possession? Reckless driving? Just let us know what we can get away with".

I love it! Maybe we can put this to work for us.

[Budge]

By golly, one step forward!

The 88 county databases will be merged into one, and then cross-checked with the state’s database of licensed drivers and other state-owned computer lists to help identify fraudulent registrations, state elections Director Pat Wolfe said.

[nicmarlo]

Gosh....so much to read.....and today, so little time...I'm headed to Syracuse in a couple hours for a pro-USA rally (Clinton Square, named for ex-governor of NY....how appropriate)......will be there from 12 - 3 (unless I become frostbitten....oh so coooooold.....I'll won't be able to read much today, I don't think; we'll see; hopefully the person "in charge" will post an after FReep rally report.....and hopefully, lots of people will show...

[sweetliberty]

"to help identify fraudulent registrations"

Coming soon: Democrats squalering about how such an effoty targets black voters.

[sweetliberty]

Have a great day! Looking forward to the after-FReep report. Stay warm.

[TheLion]

Good luck with the rally, hope you will give us a report!

[TheLion]

"If the state's Attorney General's office isn't going to enforce voting fraud misdemeanors, then it must provide the public a list of other misdemeanors it may choose not to enforce. Shoplifting? Marijuana possession? Reckless driving? Just let us know what we can get away with".

Definitely a keeper!

[TheLion]

The new law will give the Rats a lot of angst. Losing control of the voting process, one step at a time.

[TheLion]

"Coming soon: Democrats squalering about how such an effoty targets black voters".

Now that is definitely a Daschle Rat!

[sweetliberty]

I love RATS in angst! LOL!

[TheLion]

Florida:

Here is one Rat, in big "Angst"...got to believe these were Republican ballots....the omission from the story sort of glares out at you!

Voting office inquiry widens

By Scott Wyman
Staff writer
Posted January 26 2003

An employee in Broward County's elections office has told prosecutors that there are more uncounted absentee ballots from September's primary than those found this week in a file cabinet.

The lawyer for the employee said she discovered more than 500 unopened ballots in the office mailroom two days after the election. According to the story she laid out to prosecutors, she notified her supervisor and was told there had been a mix-up and that the votes needed to disappear.

Prosecutors are rapidly widening their investigation into Elections Supervisor Miriam Oliphant and are now being aided by the FBI. FBI agents have been looking into Oliphant's actions surrounding the purchase of the county's new ATM-style voting machines.

Oliphant on Saturday denied any knowledge of the uncounted ballots and said that she had not sought any favors from the manufacturers that bid on the $17.2 million voting machine deal. "I welcome the FBI, the FDLE, the DEA and anyone else because if anything is going on in my office about tampering with voting rights, I want to know about it," she said before ending her brief interview. "Voting rights are very important to me."

State prosecutors began their investigation in mid-December after a county audit documented widespread abuse of tax money and rumors began swirling at high levels of county government about missing votes. With concerns about Oliphant's ability to oversee her office growing daily, investigators stepped up their work over the past week.

The attorney for the employee said the absentee ballots she saw were postmarked before the Sept. 10 primary. She told prosecutors it was significant that she saw them in the mailroom two days after the election because no one from the office picked up the mail on Election Day. Under state law, any absentee ballots received by the end of business on Election Day must be counted.

"She was sickened by it," her lawyer said. "She's a smart girl, and people have fought wars for the right to vote." Neither he nor his client, who is worried about retaliation, wanted to be identified by name.

On discovering the mail trays of ballots, his client immediately notified Carol Hill, Oliphant's assistant supervisor in charge of absentee ballots. The lawyer quotes Hill as saying the ballots needed to disappear and said his client discovered later in the day that they were no longer in the mailroom.

Time for counting

According to the lawyer, the employee told prosecutors that when she asked Hill what happened to the ballots, Hill denied ever seeing any ballots or discussing them with her.

State Attorney Mike Satz's spokesman could not be reached for comment. Hill declined to comment and said she has hired a lawyer, whom she wouldn't name.

Hill had been a registrar at Shorter College in Atlanta making $34,000 a year when she was hired by Oliphant last March. Among her references was Art Kennedy, U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings' chief aide.

As an assistant supervisor, Hill is one of Oliphant's highest paid employees, making $60,257, according to pay records. Her job application contains no mention of prior election experience.

If Oliphant and her staff had brought the ballots to the canvassing board, there still would have been time to count them. The results of the primary were not certified until the next Tuesday because of trouble downloading all the votes from the touch-screen voting machines.

"It's very disturbing," Palm Beach County's Theresa LePore said of the possibility of uncounted ballots. LePore led a team of elections supervisors from counties around the state who met with Oliphant and her staff last week to determine what needs to be done to ensure future elections go smoothly.

"If something like that had happened, the first thing do is bring it to the attention of the canvassing board," said Lepore, who is also president of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Election. "You don't try to hide something like that, if it's true."

County Judge Jay Spechler, chairman of the canvassing board, said the elections office should have brought the ballots to the board so it could determine if they had been received in time and should be counted. He said that did not happen.

The employee's story was the source of the concerns that led Spechler to ask Sheriff Ken Jenne for help ensuring that the absentee ballots were picked up for the Nov. 5 general election.

Bob Wills, Public Defender Al Schreiber's top aide, said the woman's lawyer told him what she knew shortly after the primary and that he went to Spechler and Lori Parrish, who was the chairwoman of the County Commission at the time. Both Spechler and Parrish have confirmed they knew about the woman's story and were alarmed. They and Wills wanted to ensure no votes went uncounted in the November election with its high-profile contest between Gov. Jeb Bush and Tampa lawyer Bill McBride.

The lawyer said his client was interviewed by prosecutors several weeks ago and does not believe the ballots found last week are the same as the ones she saw.

The ballots that prosecutors found last week were in a file cabinet at the back of Oliphant's front office and totaled more than 100. Like those that the employee saw in the mailroom, the ones in the file cabinet were postmarked before Election Day.

Prosecutors ordered Oliphant's office to turn over any ballots in the file cabinet late Tuesday after interviewing several other office employees.

Sources have told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that they are now looking for more uncounted ballots in boxes and files through Oliphant's office.

While state prosecutors search for the votes, the FBI has asked questions about Oliphant's handling of the contract with Election Systems and Software, the voting machine manufacturer.

Legal experts were not surprised by the FBI's entry into the investigation.

The agency can investigate local officials for corruption, bribery, extortion and voter fraud and the scope of the inquiry may be overwhelming to local prosecutors, they said. FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said she could not comment.

A source with direct knowledge of the investigation told the Sun-Sentinel that an employee of ES&S has been interviewed about whether Oliphant pressured the company for favors in exchange for her support. Oliphant, along with eight county commissioners, was a member of the negotiating committee that chose which manufacturer won the deal in late 2001.

Competition

The source said that Oliphant asked the company to give her more than $500,000 for her voter outreach program in exchange for her support. The company rejected her suggestion, according to the source. ES&S won the contract over Oliphant's objections.

ES&S was competing with three other firms for the lucrative deal and was the firm favored by county staff in an analysis they did of the machinery. Instead of putting large amounts of money into voter outreach to meet the minority set-aside goal required in county contracts, ES&S subcontracted out parts of its manufacturing process to minority companies.

Russ Klenet, ES&S's lobbyist on the deal and its local spokesman, said the company would cooperate with any investigation.

"It would be better for everyone to be interviewed quickly and this be wrapped up because it isn't good for the county," he said. "We will speak to anyone who asks and are comfortable with the role we played."

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-cvote26jan26,0,2045795.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

[TheLion]

Kentucky:

Posted on Fri, Jan. 24, 2003

FORMS LEFT IN FILING CABINET AT UK
By Linda B. Blackford
HERALD-LEADER EDUCATION LEADER

In December 2001, University of Kentucky Student Government President Tim Robinson threatened city council members with 800 new voter registration cards -- symbols of the students who would vote out supporters of a plan to curb UK partying.

But at least 749 of those cards never made it to the county clerk's office.

Someone apparently forgot to turn them in, says one student representative. They were found earlier this week in a cabinet in the student government office.

But simple oversight to some could be election fraud to others, according to Fayette County Clerk Don Blevins. The case of the missing cards is now being investigated, he said.

Blevins said "it's my understanding" the missing registration cards had been handed out last year during a student campaign to defeat Councilman Dick DeCamp, who represents the area around UK and supported the party plan.

DeCamp beat challenger Don Pratt by fewer than 400 votes in the 3rd District council race. DeCamp said he'd heard there had been some voter registration problems, but didn't know there was an ongoing investigation.

Blevins said he received a complaint from a UK student shortly after the November election, and referred the matter to the Commonwealth Attorney's Office as part of the annual election report sent to the grand jury.

Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Larson would not comment on whether the UK incident was included in the report because the grand jury is currently meeting.

The UK registration campaign was largely directed by Student Government President Tim Robinson, who did not return repeated phone messages yesterday.

"The law requires somebody to turn those cards in. It's considered a violation of election law," said Blevins, who didn't know how many students had been turned away at the voting booth.

UK officials declined to comment, citing the pending investigation.

Student government representative David Harris said he and several others had been interviewed by investigators yesterday.

"No one knew how it happened; it wasn't specifically assigned to someone," Harris said. "When the investigators were here earlier, we found 749 cards in the cabinet."

Harris said Robinson was interviewed earlier in the week. They had not been subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury, Harris said.

"Tim doesn't deal with the nuts and bolts of everything," Harris said.

One of the missing registration cards belonged to sophomore Rebecca Liford. She and some friends went to a basketball ticket lottery at Memorial Coliseum last year, where Robinson was handing out the cards.

She filled one out and turned it in. But when she later wanted to change the registration back to her home county of Knox, the Fayette clerk's office told her she wasn't in the computer. Her card had never been turned in.

She was able to register the day before the deadline.

"I had just turned 18 so registering was a really big deal for me," she said. "I was really excited about it, and it almost didn't happen.

"There's a lot of people who probably didn't make the deadline and weren't able to vote at all. That's really inconvenient for a bunch of them."

UK sophomore Erik Tuttle, a friend of Liford's, also filled out a card. But when he tried to change his birthdate with the county clerk's office, he was also informed that he had never been registered.

"I just assumed it was never turned in," said Tuttle, who re-registered himself before the November election.

Lexington attorney Gatewood Galbraith, who was on the November ballot running for Congress, said he had filed a complaint with Blevins after a young woman asked him what she should do if she'd filled out a card, but wasn't actually registered. Galbraith said the woman showed up to vote on Election Day and was turned away.

Blevins said the case was a first for him.

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/news/local/5019708.htm