Tuesday Links

MM and Pete,

Reading through the list, you will find that there were no less than 3 convictions and two admissions of guilt, the rest consisted of indictments which indicate enough evidence for a grand jury and prosecutor to consider illegal. It’s not my fault justice is slow, give it a couple of years and then see how many of those indictments turn to convictions, my guess would be at least half.
You will also notice that the list spans the entire nation, adding credence to my claim of widespread voter fraud and a pattern of election related illegality. How much evidence can you read through before you admit to yourself that there may be something to this claim? You know for a fact, that if this was a list of allegations against some Rush Limbaugh PAC, you would conclude that the PAC was rife with a systematic/institutional fraud. Be honest with yourselves. If this was a list of “accusations” against your neighbor for instances of say racism, you would not be trusting your neighbor.
Next, Pete suggests that voter “suppression” leads to better results for Democrats. First off, I do not consider asking someone to produce a valid ID, to be suppression. If you cannot get your life together enough to have a valid ID or some proof of residence/citizenship, why should you have a vote? Sorry, but you have to set the bar at some level. We ask people to produce an ID to ride a plane or to enter a bar or to see a doctor, why is it too much to ask for an ID to vote for goodness sakes?
Second, a recent Pew or Zogby poll revealed that an overwhelmingly larger percentage of Americans identified themselves as conservatives as opposed to liberals (40% vs. 20% across all 50 states), why would conservatives need to suppress anyone to do well? Remember that famous map from 2006 which showed the entire country awash in red with only three small areas of blue in LA, Chicago and NYC, that was the vote broken down by county. The Zogby poll reveals what everyone already knows, the 40% undecided are the ones determining the result. It is patently impossible to suppress the undecided because they are not identified as a single voter block, independents, unaffiliated, democrats, republicans or first time voters.
Finally, the implication that Republicans are attempting to mitigate the increased participation by minorities is false. We just don’t believe in pandering to groups just to get the vote. You may be surprised to learn that there are many, many republican african americans, hispanic americans, asian americans and women to mention a few groups. I myself am hispanic and can honestly say that nobody in my family has ever been “suppressed” or “harassed” or blocked from voting in any way. Then again, we always followed the simple rules for voting and we never voted more than once in any election.

Legion, if someone, including an ACORN worker, is convicted of voter fraud, then the job is done, and the system works. Until then, I see a long list of alleged offenses, some backed up with dubious observations taken as gospel “I think it’s safe to say forgery was widespread”. REALLY? Most of the cases you cite say that the fraudulent voter forms were discovered in the follow-up process that all voting districts follow, and the bogus entries were caught, and discarded. Therefore, there is no real “voter fraud”, as no one unqualified actually was able to cast votes and skew the results of an election.

Of course, I am not advocating that all of this mischief is correct, and doesn’t waste time and money better spent elsewhere. It’s wrong, and should be stopped. BUT, to act as if this is akin to ballot stuffing, or a page out of a Middle Eastern election book, is making a mountain out of a molehill. I’d like to see the same hue and cry made over my above mentioned Jim Crow tactics.

bxgrl,
I have no doubt that various unsrupulous GOP party affiliates have participated in undermining tactics and if there is evidence of widespread fraud, by all means, expose it.
My voter fraud comments ,thus far, have been directed at ACORN/WFP because they are the ones being questioned in this regard, repeatedly over the past few years.
That being said, I am a big supporter of a national ID card, if only for the sake of national security. Arguments of right to privacy, are moot to me because, as I’ve stated in the past; privacy is an illusion in this computer age where every cellphone has a camera and every camera is connected to the internet. Wait until the already mandated Electronic Medical Record becomes an everyday reality.
If everyone has a national ID, we can account for everyone’s vote and the possibility of fraud declines in direct proportion to the power of the numbers crunching supercomputer that will tally the vote.

MM,

At some point, the overwhelming weight of evidence must be acknowledged. Not even poverty is an excuse. Read on please.

AR 1998 A contractor with ACORN-affiliated Project Vote was arrested for falsifying about 400 voter registration cards.
CO 2005 Two ex-ACORN employees were convicted in Denver of perjury for submitting false voter registrations.
2004 An ACORN employee admitted to forging signatures and registering three of her friends to vote 40 times.
CT 2008 The New York Post reported that ACORN submitted a voter registration card for a 7-year-old Bridgeport girl. Another 8,000 cards from the same city will be scrutinized for possible fraud.
FL 2009 In September, 11 ACORN workers were accused of forging voter registration applications in Miami-Dade County during the last election. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the state attorney’s office scoured hundreds of suspicious applications provided by ACORN and found 197 of 260 contained personal ID information that did not match any living person.
2008 Election officials in Brevard County have given prosecutors more than 23 suspect registrations from ACORN. The state’s Division of Elections is also investigating complaints in Orange and Broward Counties.
2004 A Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokesman said ACORN was “singled out” among suspected voter registration groups for a 2004 wage initiative because it was “the common thread” in the agency’s fraud investigations.
IN 2008 Election officials in Indiana have thrown out more than 4,000 ACORN-submitted voter registrations after finding they had identical handwriting and included the names of many deceased Indianans, and even the name of a fast food restaurant.
MI 2008 Clerks in Detroit found a “sizeable number of duplicate and fraudulent [voter] applications” from the Michigan branch of ACORN. Those applications have been turned over to the U.S. Attorney’s office for investigation.
2004 The Detroit Free Press reported that “overzealous or unscrupulous campaign workers in several Michigan counties are under investigation for voter-registration fraud, suspected of attempting to register nonexistent people or forging applications for already-registered voters.” ACORN-affiliate Project Vote was one of two groups suspected of turning in the documents.
MO 2008 Nearly 400 ACORN-submitted registrations in Kansas City have been rejected due to duplication or fake information.
2007 Four ACORN employees were indicted in Kansas City for charges including identity theft and filing false registrations during the 2006 election.
2006 Eight ACORN employees in St. Louis were indicted on federal election fraud charges. Each of the eight faces up to five years in prison for forging signatures and submitting false information.
2003 Of 5,379 voter registration cards ACORN submitted in St. Louis, only 2,013 of those appeared to be valid. At least 1,000 are believed to be attempts to register voters illegally.
MN 2004 During a traffic stop, police found more than 300 voter registration cards in the trunk of a former ACORN employee, who had violated a legal requirements that registration cards be submitted to the Secretary of State within 10 days of being filled out and signed.
NC 2008 County elections officials have sent suspicious voter registration applications to the state Board of Elections. Many of the applications had similar or identical names, but with different addresses or dates of birth.
2004 North Carolina officials investigated ACORN for submitting fake voter registration cards.
NM 2008 Prosecutors are investigating more than 1,100 ACORN-submitted voter registration cards after a county clerk found them to be fraudulent. Many of the cards included duplicate names and slightly altered personal information.
2005 Four ACORN employees submitted as many as 3,000 potentially fraudulent signatures on the group’s Albuquerque ballot initiative. A local sheriff added: “It’s safe to say the forgery was widespread.”
2004 An ACORN employee registered a 13-year-old boy to vote. Citing this and other examples, New Mexico State Representative Joe Thompson stated that ACORN was “manufacturing voters” throughout New Mexico.
NV 2009 Nevada authorities indicted ACORN on 26 counts of voter registration fraud and 13 counts of illegally compensating canvassers. ACORN provided a bonus compensation program called “Blackjack” or “21+” for any canvasser who registered more than 20 voters per shift, which is illegal under Nevada law.
2008 Nevada state authorities raided ACORN’s Las Vegas headquarters as part of a task force investigation of election fraud. Fraudulent registrations included players from the Dallas Cowboys.
OH 2008 ACORN activists gave Ohio residents cash and cigarettes in exchange for filling out voter registration card, according to the New York Post. Some voters claim to have registered dozens of times, and one man says he signed up on 72 cards.
2007 A man in Reynoldsburg was indicted on two felony counts of illegal voting and false registration, after being registered by ACORN to vote in two separate counties.
2004 A grand jury indicted a Columbus ACORN worker for submitting a false signature and false voter registration form. In Franklin County, two ACORN workers submitted what the director of the board of election supervisors called “blatantly false” forms. In Cuyahoga County, ACORN and its affiliate Project Vote submitted registration cards that had the highest rate of errors for any voter registration group.
PA 2009 Seven ACORN workers in the Pittsburgh area were indicted for submitting falsified voter registration forms. Six of the seven were also indicted for registering voters under an illegal quota system.
2008 State election officials have thrown out 57,435 voter registrations, the majority of which were submitted by ACORN. The registrations were thrown out after officials found “clearly fraudulent” signatures, vacant lots listed as addresses, and other signs of fraud.
2008 An ACORN employee in West Reading, PA, was sentenced to up to 23 months in prison for identity theft and tampering with records. A second ACORN worker pleaded not guilty to the same charges and is free on $10,000 bail.
2004 Reading’s Director of Elections received calls from numerous individuals complaining that ACORN employees deliberately put inaccurate information on their voter registration forms. The Berks County director of elections said voter

1.)A couple of people indicted for voter fraud, the first example given, citing 2 incidences each, hardly constitutes mass fraud. 2) Indicted is not convicted. No one has been proved to have done anything. Remember that innocence until proven guilty caveat? 3)Registering people, even fraudulently, doesn’t mean that they get to vote. Voting is what counts, not just signing up. Desperately poor people registering Porky Pig and their dead relatives, in order to make some bucks, does not massive voter fraud make. As Pete said, much ado about nothing.

I’d like to see the huge outcry of outrage over all of the people legally and duly registered, often for years, who were not allowed to vote due to absurd, draconian, and massively illegal, Jim Crow era tactics of asking obscure civics questions, or for forms of id never asked for before. Funny how almost ALL of these tactics took place in minority districts which had a traditional Democratic voting base. That is more of a subversion of the American reverence for democracy and the vote that some schlub making $20 by registering Darth Vader in Nevada.