Illusion vs. Reality: The Rampant Voter Fraud Myth

[phoenyx]

Here is a good summation of minor issue that voter fraud is:...

The Democratic Party Ward Bosses have been engaging in rampant voter fraud since the early 1800s

I did a little investigating and have realized that the definition of voter fraud is not nearly as clear as I thought it was. I have never argued that there hasn't been a lot of -Electoral- fraud, but now I've come to realize that there is no clear distinction between "Party Ward Bosses" committing electoral fraud and the guy who tries to vote twice in a voting booth. There is -certainly- a lot of evidence for the former, but very little of the latter. There is certainly a -massive- amount of evidence of voter disenfranchisement:
Voter Disenfranchisement

No wonder you are so wrong in the OP, you don't even have a firm understanding of the definition of voter fraud. Just like you naively think showing ID to vote is voter suppression.

Let's not continue to muddy the waters here- I've now made my position clear- there are very few cases of run of a typical voter committing voter fraud. There is a -lot- of evidence of -electoral- fraud, as well as evidence for voter disenfranchisement, much of which has been caused by voter id laws.

 

[Google]

Showing ID is voter suppression? Let us all review all of the other things that blacks and Latinos are being suppressed from:

• Applying for welfare
• Obtaining unemployment or a job
• Picking up a prescription
• Attending the DNC convention
• Buying alcohol
• Renting a house/applying for a mortgage
• Adopt a pet
• Getting married
• Getting on an airplane
• Driving a car
• Apply for Medicaid/Social Security
• Apply for a permit to hold a public rally
• Donating blood
• Watch a R rated movie
• Purchase certain cold medicines

All of these things, by the absolutely disingenuous and laughable logic of the left, blacks and Latinos are being suppressed from taking part in. At least you don't try saying 'minorities', because there are plenty of minorities that don't have a problem doing something that every adult should do.

 

[phoenyx]

Here is a good summation of minor issue that voter fraud is:
**In August, Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola University Law School, detailed for Wonkblog 31 instances of documented, in-person voter fraud that would have been prevented by stricter rules around identification at the polling place. The most severe instance Levitt outlined involved as many as 24 voters in Brooklyn who tried to vote under assumed names.

There are almost no elections in which 24 votes makes a significant difference, particularly at the federal level. The graph below compares the vote total and the margin of victory for every race with less than a million votes in general elections since 2006.**

Source: The disconnect between voter ID laws and voter fraud

Some more points:
**
Here are some selections from our reporting on the voter fraud myth and the impact of anti-voter-fraud laws:

• The rate of fraud in US elections is close to zero.
• UFO sightings are more common than voter fraud.
• So is getting struck by lightning.
• Florida’s aggressive efforts to root out voter fraud before the 2000 election erroneously purged 12,000 names from the voter rolls—of the 12,000, 44 percent, more than 4,700 voters—were African American. That was more than enough votes to change the outcome of that year's presidential election.
• Native Americans are fighting a slew of high-stakes legal battles over voting rights; many of the lawsuits are linked to rules that were designed to prevent voting fraud.
• Voter ID laws are among a host of hurdles that minorities face when they cast a ballot.
• A national voter ID card could end the debate on voter fraud, but both parties hate that idea.
• GOP presidential contender Ted Cruz's Iowa chairman spent $250,000 to stop people from voting.
• Interestingly, a conservative activist inadvertently demonstrated how hard it is to commit voter fraud.**

Source: 9 facts that blow up the voter fraud myth

I'm interested in hearing constructive views as to the validity of these sources.

I've already been discussing voter fraud in my introduction thread, so I'll be moving my responses to points there into this thread...

Thankfully the democratic party always makes sure that democracy works in the most transparent possible way. Rigging elections in favor of one candidate would be something they would absolutely never do...

Don't get me started on Hillary and the DNC -.- Pretty sure Bernie would have won without certain shenanigans. The point I'm trying to make here, however, is that your typical voter is -not- committing electoral fraud. The same can't be said for those higher up the food chain. There is little need for voter id laws, but if they're going to be instituted, the government should foot the bill for people of modest means to get them. Otherwise, it's just one more way of suppressing the voices of the poor.

 

[Norman]

Here is a good summation of minor issue that voter fraud is:
**In August, Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola University Law School, detailed for Wonkblog 31 instances of documented, in-person voter fraud that would have been prevented by stricter rules around identification at the polling place. The most severe instance Levitt outlined involved as many as 24 voters in Brooklyn who tried to vote under assumed names.

There are almost no elections in which 24 votes makes a significant difference, particularly at the federal level. The graph below compares the vote total and the margin of victory for every race with less than a million votes in general elections since 2006.**

Source: The disconnect between voter ID laws and voter fraud

Some more points:
**
Here are some selections from our reporting on the voter fraud myth and the impact of anti-voter-fraud laws:

• The rate of fraud in US elections is close to zero.
• UFO sightings are more common than voter fraud.
• So is getting struck by lightning.
• Florida’s aggressive efforts to root out voter fraud before the 2000 election erroneously purged 12,000 names from the voter rolls—of the 12,000, 44 percent, more than 4,700 voters—were African American. That was more than enough votes to change the outcome of that year's presidential election.
• Native Americans are fighting a slew of high-stakes legal battles over voting rights; many of the lawsuits are linked to rules that were designed to prevent voting fraud.
• Voter ID laws are among a host of hurdles that minorities face when they cast a ballot.
• A national voter ID card could end the debate on voter fraud, but both parties hate that idea.
• GOP presidential contender Ted Cruz's Iowa chairman spent $250,000 to stop people from voting.
• Interestingly, a conservative activist inadvertently demonstrated how hard it is to commit voter fraud.**

Source: 9 facts that blow up the voter fraud myth

I'm interested in hearing constructive views as to the validity of these sources.

I've already been discussing voter fraud in my introduction thread, so I'll be moving my responses to points there into this thread...

Thankfully the democratic party always makes sure that democracy works in the most transparent possible way. Rigging elections in favor of one candidate would be something they would absolutely never do...

Don't get me started on Hillary and the DNC -.- Pretty sure Bernie would have won without certain shenanigans. The point I'm trying to make here, however, is that your typical voter is -not- committing electoral fraud. The same can't be said for those higher up the food chain. There is little need for voter id laws, but if they're going to be instituted, the government should foot the bill for people of modest means to get them. Otherwise, it's just one more way of suppressing the voices of the poor.

The typical person is also not a thief... therefore why bother with security systems?

Because there is that 1%...

 

[phoenyx]

Showing ID is voter suppression?

No, but requiring people to -have- voter ids to simply be allowed to vote, in conjunction with making it difficult if not impossible for poor people to get it is.

 

[Google]

Here is a good summation of minor issue that voter fraud is:...

The Democratic Party Ward Bosses have been engaging in rampant voter fraud since the early 1800s

I did a little investigating and have realized that the definition of voter fraud is not nearly as clear as I thought it was. I have never argued that there hasn't been a lot of -Electoral- fraud, but now I've come to realize that there is no clear distinction between "Party Ward Bosses" committing electoral fraud and the guy who tries to vote twice in a voting booth. There is -certainly- a lot of evidence for the former, but very little of the latter. There is certainly a -massive- amount of evidence of voter disenfranchisement:
Voter Disenfranchisement

No wonder you are so wrong in the OP, you don't even have a firm understanding of the definition of voter fraud. Just like you naively think showing ID to vote is voter suppression.

Let's not continue to muddy the waters here- I've now made my position clear- there are very few cases of run of a typical voter committing voter fraud. There is a -lot- of evidence of -electoral- fraud, as well as evidence for voter disenfranchisement, much of which has been caused by voter id laws.

31 states have voter ID laws. 15 have had voter ID laws dating back to the 60's.

 

[Google]

Showing ID is voter suppression?

No, but requiring people to -have- voter ids to simply be allowed to vote, in conjunction with making it difficult if not impossible for poor people to get it is.

Show me the cases where it was impossible to difficult to obtain an ID. Why has this not been the case in the 15 states that have had these requirements for decades.

 

[phoenyx]

Here is a good summation of minor issue that voter fraud is:
**In August, Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola University Law School, detailed for Wonkblog 31 instances of documented, in-person voter fraud that would have been prevented by stricter rules around identification at the polling place. The most severe instance Levitt outlined involved as many as 24 voters in Brooklyn who tried to vote under assumed names.

There are almost no elections in which 24 votes makes a significant difference, particularly at the federal level. The graph below compares the vote total and the margin of victory for every race with less than a million votes in general elections since 2006.**

Source: The disconnect between voter ID laws and voter fraud

Some more points:
**
Here are some selections from our reporting on the voter fraud myth and the impact of anti-voter-fraud laws:

• The rate of fraud in US elections is close to zero.
• UFO sightings are more common than voter fraud.
• So is getting struck by lightning.
• Florida’s aggressive efforts to root out voter fraud before the 2000 election erroneously purged 12,000 names from the voter rolls—of the 12,000, 44 percent, more than 4,700 voters—were African American. That was more than enough votes to change the outcome of that year's presidential election.
• Native Americans are fighting a slew of high-stakes legal battles over voting rights; many of the lawsuits are linked to rules that were designed to prevent voting fraud.
• Voter ID laws are among a host of hurdles that minorities face when they cast a ballot.
• A national voter ID card could end the debate on voter fraud, but both parties hate that idea.
• GOP presidential contender Ted Cruz's Iowa chairman spent $250,000 to stop people from voting.
• Interestingly, a conservative activist inadvertently demonstrated how hard it is to commit voter fraud.**

Source: 9 facts that blow up the voter fraud myth

I'm interested in hearing constructive views as to the validity of these sources.

I've already been discussing voter fraud in my introduction thread, so I'll be moving my responses to points there into this thread...

Thankfully the democratic party always makes sure that democracy works in the most transparent possible way. Rigging elections in favor of one candidate would be something they would absolutely never do...

Don't get me started on Hillary and the DNC -.- Pretty sure Bernie would have won without certain shenanigans. The point I'm trying to make here, however, is that your typical voter is -not- committing electoral fraud. The same can't be said for those higher up the food chain. There is little need for voter id laws, but if they're going to be instituted, the government should foot the bill for people of modest means to get them. Otherwise, it's just one more way of suppressing the voices of the poor.

The typical person is also not a thief... therefore why bother with security systems?

Because there is that 1%...

"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?"

Some points to consider:
**

• The rate of fraud in US elections is close to zero.
• UFO sightings are more common than voter fraud.
• So is getting struck by lightning.
• Florida’s aggressive efforts to root out voter fraud before the 2000 election erroneously purged 12,000 names from the voter rolls—of the 12,000, 44 percent, more than 4,700 voters—were African American. That was more than enough votes to change the outcome of that year's presidential election.
• Native Americans are fighting a slew of high-stakes legal battles over voting rights; many of the lawsuits are linked to rules that were designed to prevent voting fraud.
• Voter ID laws are among a host of hurdles that minorities face when they cast a ballot.
• A national voter ID card could end the debate on voter fraud, but both parties hate that idea.
• GOP presidential contender Ted Cruz's Iowa chairman spent $250,000 to stop people from voting.
• Interestingly, a conservative activist inadvertently demonstrated how hard it is to commit voter fraud.**

Source: 9 facts that blow up the voter fraud myth

 

[phoenyx]

Showing ID is voter suppression?

No, but requiring people to -have- voter ids to simply be allowed to vote, in conjunction with making it difficult if not impossible for poor people to get it is.

Show me the cases where it was impossible to difficult to obtain an ID.

Here:
Getting a photo ID so you can vote is easy. Unless you’re poor, black, Latino or elderly.

Here as well:
Alabama DMV closings draw call for federal voting rights probe

 

[Google]

No the first thing they ask you for is........wait for it.........money, which they don't have.

Nope they ask for your ID. Even at the bank I have multiple accounts at and everybody who works there knows me, I have to show ID to open an account. They don't make me show it at the window to cash the checks, but for the account opening part they have to have it to scan into the system.

Of course they do, but the main reason people can't cash checks for free at the bank is because they don't have a bank account. Poor people can't leave their small amount of money in a bank. It's needed before they get their next check.

Okay, keep grasping. At my bank you have to have $50 to open an account, and after that you only have to keep $1 in it to keep it open. If you can't open an account with $50 and take $49 out in a couple weeks how can you afford to keep paying places to cash your check every month?

Just another example of how it costs poor people more to live than people with money. There are lots of ways that poor people are preyed on that others don't even know about. If you have money in your pocket you can get that needed loan at a reasonable interest rate. Without that, you have to use payday lenders who charge multiple times the interest. Everybody doesn't live in a secure middle class world. The plight of the poor is worse than you think.

I doubt it is worse than I think and I don't disagree that the poor get preyed upon, but enabling them to not have ID so they can continue to be preyed upon in this regard certainly doesn't help them. It helps the democratic party, which is all they really want, but it certainly doesn't help the poor.

That is what the left does masterfully. In the name of good intentions they perpetuate poverty.

 

[Manonthestreet]

Pundit Press: Good News: Obama Won County in Ohio with 108% Voter Registration

BREAKING: Madison, Wisconsin Turnout Over 100% This one they ad a lie to excuse the fraud

 

[Norman]

Here is a good summation of minor issue that voter fraud is:
**In August, Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola University Law School, detailed for Wonkblog 31 instances of documented, in-person voter fraud that would have been prevented by stricter rules around identification at the polling place. The most severe instance Levitt outlined involved as many as 24 voters in Brooklyn who tried to vote under assumed names.

There are almost no elections in which 24 votes makes a significant difference, particularly at the federal level. The graph below compares the vote total and the margin of victory for every race with less than a million votes in general elections since 2006.**

Source: The disconnect between voter ID laws and voter fraud

Some more points:
**
Here are some selections from our reporting on the voter fraud myth and the impact of anti-voter-fraud laws:

• The rate of fraud in US elections is close to zero.
• UFO sightings are more common than voter fraud.
• So is getting struck by lightning.
• Florida’s aggressive efforts to root out voter fraud before the 2000 election erroneously purged 12,000 names from the voter rolls—of the 12,000, 44 percent, more than 4,700 voters—were African American. That was more than enough votes to change the outcome of that year's presidential election.
• Native Americans are fighting a slew of high-stakes legal battles over voting rights; many of the lawsuits are linked to rules that were designed to prevent voting fraud.
• Voter ID laws are among a host of hurdles that minorities face when they cast a ballot.
• A national voter ID card could end the debate on voter fraud, but both parties hate that idea.
• GOP presidential contender Ted Cruz's Iowa chairman spent $250,000 to stop people from voting.
• Interestingly, a conservative activist inadvertently demonstrated how hard it is to commit voter fraud.**

Source: 9 facts that blow up the voter fraud myth

I'm interested in hearing constructive views as to the validity of these sources.

I've already been discussing voter fraud in my introduction thread, so I'll be moving my responses to points there into this thread...

Thankfully the democratic party always makes sure that democracy works in the most transparent possible way. Rigging elections in favor of one candidate would be something they would absolutely never do...

Don't get me started on Hillary and the DNC -.- Pretty sure Bernie would have won without certain shenanigans. The point I'm trying to make here, however, is that your typical voter is -not- committing electoral fraud. The same can't be said for those higher up the food chain. There is little need for voter id laws, but if they're going to be instituted, the government should foot the bill for people of modest means to get them. Otherwise, it's just one more way of suppressing the voices of the poor.

The typical person is also not a thief... therefore why bother with security systems?

Because there is that 1%...

"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?"

Some points to consider:
**

• The rate of fraud in US elections is close to zero.
• UFO sightings are more common than voter fraud.
• So is getting struck by lightning.
• Florida’s aggressive efforts to root out voter fraud before the 2000 election erroneously purged 12,000 names from the voter rolls—of the 12,000, 44 percent, more than 4,700 voters—were African American. That was more than enough votes to change the outcome of that year's presidential election.
• Native Americans are fighting a slew of high-stakes legal battles over voting rights; many of the lawsuits are linked to rules that were designed to prevent voting fraud.
• Voter ID laws are among a host of hurdles that minorities face when they cast a ballot.
• A national voter ID card could end the debate on voter fraud, but both parties hate that idea.
• GOP presidential contender Ted Cruz's Iowa chairman spent $250,000 to stop people from voting.
• Interestingly, a conservative activist inadvertently demonstrated how hard it is to commit voter fraud.**

Source: 9 facts that blow up the voter fraud myth

So there is no voter fraud.

That means the security measures are working properly.

Great news!

Also according to the post above it's very easy to obtain the credentials needed. Great news again. Unless you want to commit fraud that is... which absolutely no one would consider committing... that's why they rail about the issue so much.

 

[Dekster]

Nope they ask for your ID. Even at the bank I have multiple accounts at and everybody who works there knows me, I have to show ID to open an account. They don't make me show it at the window to cash the checks, but for the account opening part they have to have it to scan into the system.

Of course they do, but the main reason people can't cash checks for free at the bank is because they don't have a bank account. Poor people can't leave their small amount of money in a bank. It's needed before they get their next check.

Okay, keep grasping. At my bank you have to have $50 to open an account, and after that you only have to keep $1 in it to keep it open. If you can't open an account with $50 and take $49 out in a couple weeks how can you afford to keep paying places to cash your check every month?

Just another example of how it costs poor people more to live than people with money. There are lots of ways that poor people are preyed on that others don't even know about. If you have money in your pocket you can get that needed loan at a reasonable interest rate. Without that, you have to use payday lenders who charge multiple times the interest. Everybody doesn't live in a secure middle class world. The plight of the poor is worse than you think.

I doubt it is worse than I think and I don't disagree that the poor get preyed upon, but enabling them to not have ID so they can continue to be preyed upon in this regard certainly doesn't help them. It helps the democratic party, which is all they really want, but it certainly doesn't help the poor.

That is what the left does masterfully. In the name of good intentions they perpetuate poverty.

Yep. Democrats don't get it when I say democrats aren't progressives. They are too brainwashed by their party looking for their own advantage to see that advantage very often is detrimental to the causes they supposedly support.

 

[Google]

Showing ID is voter suppression?

No, but requiring people to -have- voter ids to simply be allowed to vote, in conjunction with making it difficult if not impossible for poor people to get it is.

Show me the cases where it was impossible to difficult to obtain an ID.

Here:
Getting a photo ID so you can vote is easy. Unless you’re poor, black, Latino or elderly.

Here as well:
Alabama DMV closings draw call for federal voting rights probe

So why isn't there an outrage that those same people are being prevented from:

• Applying for welfare
• Obtaining unemployment or a job
• Picking up a prescription
• Attending the DNC convention
• Buying alcohol
• Renting a house/applying for a mortgage
• Adopt a pet
• Getting married
• Getting on an airplane
• Driving a car
• Apply for Medicaid/Social Security
• Apply for a permit to hold a public rally
• Donating blood
• Watch a R rated movie
• Purchase certain cold medicines

And those articles cite a handful of examples. In most there are legitimate reasons why they are having trouble. Not having a birth certificate? No shit you are going to have a difficult time getting an ID.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

The myth of voter ‘fraud’ is an article of religious faith most conservatives and republicans will blindly adhere to, remaining willfully ignorant of the facts.

 

[Google]

August 22, 2004: Voter-Registration Fraud in New York and Florida

Voting twice in an election is punishable by up to five years in prison. Some 46,000 New Yorkers are registered to vote in both the city [New York] and Florida, a shocking finding that exposes both states to potential abuses that could alter the outcome of elections, a Daily News investigation shows. Registering in two places is illegal in both states, but the massive snowbird scandal goes undetected because election officials don't check rolls across state lines. The finding is even more stunning given the pivotal role Florida played in the 2000 presidential election, when a margin there of 537 votes tipped a victory to George W. Bush.

Computer records analyzed by The News don't allow for an exact count of how many people vote in both places, because millions of names are regularly purged between elections. But The News found that between 400 and 1,000 registered voters have voted twice in at least one election, a federal offense punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. (Source)

Autumn 2004: Voter-Registration Fraud in Michigan

Barely a day has gone by in the run-up to the 2004 election without another outrageous story hitting the headlines. In Lansing, Michigan, the City Clerk's office complained in late September about 5,000 to 8,000 fraudulent voter-registration forms that had recently come in—courtesy, election officials believed, of the Public Interest Research Group, a liberal advocacy outfit. (Source)

Autumn 2004: Voter Fraud in California

Among the many abuses it has spawned, the Motor Voter law seems to have enabled illegal aliens to vote—for Democrats, evidence suggests. A 1996 INS investigation into alleged Motor Voter fraud in California's 46th Congressional district discovered that "4,023 illegal voters possibly cast ballots in the disputed election between Republican Robert Dornan and Democrat Loretta Sanchez." Dornan lost by fewer than 1,000 votes. (Source)

Autumn 2004: Voter-Registration Fraud in Missouri

In the 2000 election, as the Missouri Secretary of State later discovered, 56,000 St. Louis-area voters held multiple voter registrations. No one knows how much actual fraud took place, but it may have played a role in the Democratic defeats of incumbent Republican Senator John Ashcroft, who lost his seat by 49,000 votes, and gubernatorial candidate Jim Talent, who lost by 21,000 votes. (Source)

February 10, 2005: Voter-Registration Fraud in St. Louis

Nonaresa Montgomery was found guilty by a jury late today of perjury in a trial in St. Louis Circuit Court in the St. Louis vote fraud trial. She was found not guilty of evidence tampering. Nonaresa Montgomery, a paid worker who ran Operation Big Vote during the run-up to 2001 mayoral primary, was on trial this week in St. Louis Circuit Court on charges of perjury and tampering with evidence. Big Vote was part of a national campaign — promoted by Democrats — to register more black voters and get them to vote in the November elections.

Montgomery is accused of hiring about 30 workers to do fraudulent voter-registration canvassing. They were supposed to have canvassed black neighborhoods and recorded names of potential voters to be contacted later to vote in the Nov. 7 election. And they were paid by the number of cards they filled out. Instead of knocking on doors, however, they sat down at a fast-food restaurant and wrote out names and information from an outdated voter list.

The charges stem from about 1,500 fraudulent voter registration cards that were turned in to the St. Louis Board of Elections on Feb. 7, 2001, the deadline for registering for the mayoral primary. Board employees realized that there was a serious problem with some of the cards when they spotted the name of longtime Alderman Albert “Red” Villa, who died in 1990. (Source)

 

[Google]

2006: United States Election Assistance Commission Report on Outcomes of Court Cases of Voter Fraud

This document contains 197 pages detailing the facts of voter-fraud cases across the United States. (Source)

June 2006: Report of the Investigation into the November 2, 2004 General Election in the City of Milwaukee [Wisconsin]

This 67-page report examines evidence of widespread voter fraud in Milwaukee. (Source)

October 29, 2006: Voter Fraud in the Names of Dead People on Voter Rolls in New York and Chicago

The new [New York] statewide database of registered voters contains as many as 77,000 dead people on its rolls, and as many as 2,600 of them have cast votes from the grave. The [Poughkeepsie] Journal identified dead people on the voter rolls in all 62 counties and people in as many as 45 counties who had votes recorded after they had died.

One address in the Bronx was listed as the home for as many as 191 registered voters who had died. The address is 5901 Palisade Ave., site of the Hebrew Home for the Aged.

Democrats who cast votes after they died outnumbered Republicans by more than a 4-to-1 margin. The reason: Most of them came from Democrat-dominated New York City, where higher population produced more matches.

Inspectors estimated as many as 1 in 10 ballots cast in Chicago during the 1982 Illinois gubernatorial election were fraudulent for various reasons, including votes by the dead. (Source)

July 27, 2007: Voter-Registration Fraud in Washington State (ACORN)

Workers accused of concocting the biggest voter-registration-fraud scheme in [Washington] state history said they were under pressure from the community-organizing group that hired them to sign up more voters, according to charging papers filed Thursday.

To boost their output, the defendants allegedly went to the downtown Seattle Public Library, where they filled out voter-registration forms using names they made up or found in phone books, newspapers and baby-naming books. One defendant "said it was hard work making up all those cards," and another "said he would often sit at home, smoke marijuana and fill out cards," according to a probable-cause statement written by King County sheriff's Detective Christopher Johnson.

Prosecutors in King and Pierce counties filed felony charges Thursday against seven employees of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, claiming they turned in more than 1,800 phony voter-registration forms, including an estimated 55 in Pierce County.

Most of the alleged fraud took place in King County, whose Elections Canvassing Board on Thursday revoked 1,762 voter registrations filled out by ACORN canvassers. Most of the registrations used the addresses of Seattle homeless shelters. (Source) and (Source)

September 29, 2008: Voter-Registration Fraud in Florida and New Mexico (ACORN)

The taxpayer-financed community group known for its fraudulent national voter registration drives has struck again, this time submitting forged applications in the key battleground state of Florida where it has signed up tens of thousands of new voters for the upcoming election.

Just last week the Chicago-based Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), which incidentally endorses Barack Obama, got busted for submitting more than 1,000 fraudulent voter registration cards in New Mexico’s most populous county (Bernalillo).

ACORN is notorious for falsifying information to register new voters and has been caught doing so in Milwaukee, Missouri, Ohio, North Carolina and Colorado to name a few. Last year the group settled the largest case of voter fraud in the history of Washington State after seven workers were caught submitting about 2,000 fake registration forms.

Its latest scam was discovered in two north Florida counties (Seminole and Orange) where ACORN staffers submitted multiple duplicate registrations on behalf of six separate voters. One individual had 21 duplicate applications, according to the Election Supervisor in Orange County. (Source) and (Source) and (Source)

October 7, 2008: Voter-Registration Fraud in Indiana (ACORN)

New voter registrations closed Monday in Lake County [Indiana] with possible record-breaking numbers and simmering allegations of fraud and racial discrimination. Elections board Director Sally LaSota said more than 12,000 voter registration forms are waiting to be processed from recent days before the county knows how many potential voters are ready to cast ballots in the Nov. 4 general election. “It may be a record,” she said. Porter County has processed at least 3,500 voter applications since the spring primary in May, officials there said. However, the large influx has brought new controversies.

LaSota said Monday representatives of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, a grassroots activist group conducting registration drives, dropped off 2,000 new voter applications last week in Lake County.

“About 1,100 are no good,” she said. LaSota said the flawed forms are incomplete or contain unreadable handwriting – similar to hundreds of other forms ACORN produced prior to this week. She said some ACORN vote canvassers apparently pulled names and addresses from telephone books and forged signatures. (Source)

October 8, 2008: Voter-Registration Fraud in Missouri (ACORN)

Officials in Missouri, a hard-fought jewel in the presidential race, are sifting through possibly hundreds of questionable or duplicate voter-registration forms submitted by an advocacy group that has been accused of election fraud in other states. Charlene Davis, co-director of the election board in Jackson County, where Kansas City is, said the fraudulent registration forms came from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. She said they were bogging down work Wednesday, the final day Missourians could register to vote.

“I don’t even know the entire scope of it because registrations are coming in so heavy,” Davis said. “We have identified about 100 duplicates, and probably 280 addresses that don’t exist, people who have driver’s license numbers that won’t verify or Social Security numbers that won’t verify. Some have no address at all.” (Source)

October 10, 2008: Voter-Registration Fraud in Indiana (ACORN)

More than 2,000 voter registration forms filed in northern Indiana's Lake County by a liberal activist group this week have turned out to be bogus, election officials said Thursday. The group – the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN – already faces allegations of filing fraudulent voter registrations in Nevada and faces investigations in other states.

And in Lake County, home to the long-depressed steel town of Gary, the bipartisan Elections Board has stopped processing a stack of about 5,000 applications delivered just before the October 6 registration deadline after the first 2,100 turned out to be phony. (Source)

October 13, 2008: Voter-Registration Fraud in 13 States (ACORN)

The Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now has compiled an irrefutable record of voter registration fraud in recent elections. The non-profit is accused of submitting fraudulent voter registration applications in 13 states this election cycle. Seven of those states have already launched investigations into ACORN’s activities.

During the 2006 election cycle, ACORN submitted false applications to election officials in Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington.

Several of their organizers have already landed in jail. Seven ACORN workers were indicted for voter registration fraud in Washington last year for submitting nearly 3,400 fraudulent forms in King and Pierce County, which included applications for “Veronica Mars” and the deceased Army Ranger and NFL player Pat Tillman. Three of the workers eventually pled guilty and ACORN was ordered to pay a $25,000 settlement fee. (Source) and (Source)

 

[Google]

The myth of voter ‘fraud’ is an article of religious faith most conservatives and republicans will blindly adhere to, remaining willfully ignorant of the facts.

November 4, 2008: Voter Fraud in Milwaukee (ACORN)

Investigators found after an eighteen-month probe that in 2004 there had been an “illegal organized attempt to influence the outcome of an election in the state of Wisconsin.” Among the problems it cited were ineligible voters casting ballots, felons not only voting but working at the polls, transient college students casting improper votes, and homeless voters possibly voting more than once.

Examples of incompetence included the fact that between 4,600 and 5,300 more ballots were cast than voters who were recorded as having shown up at the polls in Milwaukee. More than 1,300 registration cards filled out at the polls were declared “un-enterable” or invalid by election officials.

The report directly implicated the John Kerry campaign and allied get-out-the-vote organizations in widespread illegal voting committed by their campaign workers, many of whom came from out-of-state. The most common method they used was to abuse the state’s same-day voter registration law, which allowed anyone to show up at the polls, register and then cast a ballot. Local election officials who asked for proof of residence from these Kerry campaign staff members were often stymied when “other staff members who were registered voters vouched for them by corroborating their residency. More alarmingly, other staff members who were deputy registrars for this election simply registered these individuals as Milwaukee residents, bypassing Election officials altogether. The actions of the listed campaign and 527 staff members appear to be violations of State of Wisconsin law….”

The [Milwaukee Police Department’s Special Investigation Unit’s] report went on at length to detail how these paid, professional workers violated the law. Case #4 was an attorney who had lived in Washington, D.C., since 1999 but came to Wisconsin to help with the campaign and voted using an address in Milwaukee. Case #6 involved another attorney who was living in England before the 2004 election. After coming to work on the Kerry campaign in Milwaukee, the person registered and voted in the 2004 election using a Milwaukee address. The owner of that address was interviewed by investigators and “stated that #6′s sole purpose in coming to the state of Wisconsin was to work on the presidential campaign” and that the person returned to England after the election.

Investigators found that “two persons who had entered guilty pleas to misdemeanor charges of Election Fraud within one year of the November General Election also were employed as Election Inspectors” when voting took place on November 2, 2004. A total of eighteen convicted felons were sworn in as deputy registrars in 2004. Of the fifteen felons who listed a sponsoring organization, eight named ACORN as their sponsor.

The investigators believed that at least sixteen workers from all levels of the Kerry campaign and the two get out-the vote groups “committed felony crimes.” But no prosecutors chose to pursue them, the report noted.

The police report found that Milwaukee had no system to prevent felons, who are blocked from casting a ballot under Wisconsin law, from voting, due to the same-day registration system: It determined that at least 220 ineligible felons voted in 2004. Because it listed someone as ineligible only if it found an exact match between a voter and an ineligible felon, the report noted “there is a strong probability that the number of felons illegally voting in November 2004 is higher.”

Milwaukee police also remarked that the city has a sad history of abusing homeless voters, with the most famous incident being the “Smokes for Votes” scandal in which a Park Avenue heiress flew in from New York in 2000 to offer cigarettes to the homeless if they voted for Al Gore. (Source)



March 2009: Voter Fraud in Milwaukee

In February 2008, the Milwaukee [Wisconsin] Police Department's Special Investigation Unit released a stunning report that should silence skeptics who say vote fraud is not an issue in Wisconsin. The investigators found after an 18-month probe that in 2004 there had been an "illegal organized attempt to influence the outcome of an election in the state of Wisconsin."

Among the problems cited were ineligible voters casting ballots, felons not only voting but working at the polls, transient college students casting improper votes, and homeless voters possibly voting more than once. The report said the problem was compounded by incompetence resulting from abysmal record-keeping and inadequately trained poll workers.

One investigator, after examining Milwaukee's election system, was quoted as saying: "I know I voted in the election, but I can't be certain it counted."

Examples of incompetence included the fact that between 4,600 and 5,300 more ballots were cast than actual voters recorded as having shown up at the polls. Election officials declared more than 1,300 registration cards filled out at the polls were "un-enterable" or invalid....

The Milwaukee Police Department's report minced no words about what should be done to prevent future scandals: The state should end its policy of allowing people to show up at the polls on Election Day, register to vote and then immediately cast a ballot. (Source)

May 7, 2009: Voter-Registration Fraud in Nevada (ACORN)

Three members of ACORN in Nevada have been indicted for voter fraud. Along with those three members of ACORN, one of which was a regional director-type person, ACORN itself was indicted. The amount of fraudulent voter registrations for these three people is astronomical. The New York Times, hardly a conservative newspaper, reported out of 91,002 voter registration forms for Clark County, Nevada, only 23,186 turned out to be valid. That means barely over one out of four forms in a single county in Nevada was legitimate. (Source)

April 24, 2010: Voter Fraud in Wisconsin

Wisconsin's story shows how high the stakes are. Late in March, a 72-page bill was suddenly introduced and rushed forward with only abbreviated hearings. The bill would have given "nationally recognized" community organizing groups access to the state driver's license database to encourage voter turnout. After the infamous registration scandals involving ACORN in 2008, this was clearly a strange priority. Requests for an absentee ballot in a single election would also become permanent (without requiring a legitimate reason, such as infirmity), and the ballots would be automatically mailed out in future elections.

Coercion and chicanery are made much easier by the excessive use of absentee ballots. Most of the elections thrown out by courts—Miami, Florida's mayoral election in 1998, the East Chicago, Indiana's mayor's race in 2005—involved fraudulent absentee votes.

Three decades ago absentee and early ballots were only 5% of all votes cast nationwide. In 2008, they exceeded 25%. Wisconsin's bill would also have allowed voters to register on the Internet without supplying a signature—thus removing a valuable protection against identity theft and election fraud.

In 2004, John Kerry won Wisconsin over George W. Bush by 11,380 votes out of 2.5 million cast. After allegations of fraud surfaced, the Milwaukee police department's Special Investigative Unit conducted a probe. Its February 2008 report found that from 4,600 to 5,300 more votes were counted in Milwaukee than the number of voters recorded as having cast ballots. Absentee ballots were cast by people living elsewhere; ineligible felons not only voted but worked at the polls; transient college students cast improper votes; and homeless voters possibly voted more than once. Much of the problem resulted from Wisconsin's same-day voter law, which allows anyone to show up at the polls, register and then cast a ballot. ID requirements are minimal. The report found that in 2004 a total of 1,305 "same day" voters were invalid. The report was largely ignored, and just before the 2008 election the police department's Special Investigative Unit was ordered by superiors not to send anyone to polling places on Election Day.

The Milwaukee Police Department's report on the 2004 election concluded "the one thing that could eliminate a large percentage of the fraud" would be to end same-day registration. Today, eight other states have some form of Election Day voter registration: Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Wyoming. Montana began Election Day voter registration in 2006, North Carolina in 2007, and Iowa in 2008.

But Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold, a Democrat, has introduced federal legislation to mandate same-day registration in every state, claiming the system has worked well in his state. Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York is readying a bill to override the election laws of all 50 states and require universal voter registration—which would automatically register anyone on key government lists. This is a move guaranteed to create duplicate registrations, register some illegal aliens, and sow confusion. (Source)

September 25, 2010: Voter-Registration Fraud in Texas

Two weeks ago the Harris County [Texas] voter registrar took [True The Vote's] work and the findings of his own investigation and handed them over to both the Texas Secretary of State’s office and the Harris County district attorney. Most of the findings focused on a group called Houston Votes, a voter registration group headed by Sean Caddle, who also worked for the Service Employees International Union before coming to Houston. Among the findings were that only 1,793 of the 25,000 registrations the group submitted appeared to be valid.


The other registrations included one of a woman who registered six times in the same day; registrations of non-citizens; so many applications from one Houston Voters collector in one day that it was deemed to be beyond human capability; and 1,597 registrations that named the same person multiple times, often with different signatures. (Source)

October 22, 2010: Voter-Registration Fraud in Arizona

Yesterday, the Yuma Sun reported that two organizations, Mi Familia Vota and One Vote Arizona, submitted more than 3,000 voter registrations in Yuma County [Arizona] right before the deadline for registering voters. The groups submitted over 20,000 registrations statewide. Even more, they have signed up 43,000 people statewide for the permanent early voter list.

What the Yuma Sun did not tell you is that over 65% of these last minute registrations were invalid due to the registrant not being a citizen, a wrong/invalid address, or a false signature. What they didn’t tell you is that voter fraud on a massive scale could be taking place, ostensibly to help Raul Grijalva keep the Congressional seat he holds by stealing the election.

These 3000 voter registration forms were all dropped off at once by the one group on the deadline to turn in voter registration forms. Almost all of the registrations were for the Democratic Party, a statistical improbability at best.

The Yuma Recorder’s office is checking the voter registration forms and have found that already more than 65% of them are invalid due to the registrant not being a citizen, wrong/invalid address, false signature, etc. (Source)

November 12, 2010: Suspected Voter Fraud in Pennsylvania

Late last week, the Bucks County [Pennsylvania] Republican Committee made the sensible decision to withdraw its challenges to over 1,600 absentee ballot applications. The GOP's action was the right thing to do, since the ballots can't change the results of Tuesday's election. That should hardly end the matter, however. Any allegation of voter fraud must be taken seriously. Although the votes cast via absentee ballot no longer matter in this case, the integrity of the process has come under fire. (Source)

 

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January 12, 2011: Voter Fraud in Nevada and Other States (ACORN)

A Las Vegas [Nevada] judge has spared senior ACORN executive Amy Adele Busefink jail time for her role in a notorious voter fraud conspiracy. Judge Donald Mosley sentenced Busefink to two years imprisonment but suspended the jail time provided that she abides by the terms of her probation. She was also fined a total of $4,000 and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service. Prosecutors had argued for a fine of just $1,000. Voter fraud, sometimes called electoral fraud, is a blanket term encompassing a host of election-related improprieties.

This isn’t the first time Busefink was involved in shady electoral dealings. Even while under indictment in Nevada she ran the 2010 national voter drive for Project Vote, which was President Obama’s employer in 1992. Project Vote and ACORN have long been indistinguishable. Project Vote still operates out of ACORN’s offices in Washington, D.C.

Busefink also ran ACORN’s fraud-ridden 2008 voter registration drive. In that drive, officials chucked an astounding 400,000 bogus registrations. (Source)

March 31, 2011: Voter Fraud and Voter-Registration Fraud in Colorado

Republicans on the House Administration Committee want to shore up voter registration rules in the wake of a Colorado study that found as many as 5,000 non-citizens in the state took part in last year’s election.

Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler, a Republican, told the panel that his department’s study identified nearly 12,000 people who were not citizens but were still registered to vote in Colorado.

Of those non-citizen registered voters, nearly 5,000 took part in the 2010 general election in which Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet narrowly defeated Republican Ken Buck.

Colorado conducted the study by comparing the state’s voter registration database with driver’s license records. (Source)

June 11, 2011: Voter Fraud in New Mexico

New Mexico State Police will review a staggering 64,000 voter cases to determine if any fraud has occurred in recent elections.

Public Safety Director Gorden Eden outlined the scope of the investigation during an interview last week. He said the voter files were turned over to state police by Secretary of State Dianna Duran. Duran, a Republican, publicly told legislators in March that her staff had uncovered 37 instances of possible voter fraud, though she said her investigation had only begun. That small stack of what Duran called "questionable" cases has turned into a mountain of files for police to pore over. Duran said her staff had flagged tens of thousands of voter records that needed "further review" by criminal investigators.

New Mexico has about 1.16 million registered voters, so the cases Duran has sent to police could account for more than 5 percent of the total. (Source)

August 10, 2011: Voter-Registration Fraud in Nevada (ACORN)

A Nevada judge on Wednesday gave ACORN, the defunct grass-roots community organization, the maximum fine for its illegal voter-registration scheme in that state. District Court Judge Donald Mosley was blunt and unsparing in his criticism of the discredited activist group. Citing the long history of voter registration fraud allegations that engulfed ACORN across the country, he slapped the group with a $5,000 fine for violating Nevada election law during the 2008 presidential election.

Mosley, reading the pre-sentence report, listed a series of voter registration fraud allegations against ACORN workers. He said that if the claims have been true, then "It is making a mockery of our election process. If I had an individual in this courtroom...who was responsible for this kind of thing, I would put that person in prison for 10 years, hard time, and not think twice about it," he said. "To me this is reprehensible. This is the kind of thing you see in some banana republic, Uruguay or someplace, not in the United States."

In Nevada, ACORN pleaded guilty to one felony count of unlawful compensation for registration of voters, stemming from an illegal voter registration scheme in its Las Vegas office during in the 2008 race.

The group paid a bonus to workers to sign up 21 or more voters per shift, calling the program "21," or "Blackjack." It is illegal in Nevada to pay bonuses to register voters.

The case was the first and so far only prosecution of ACORN itself. The previous ACORN cases that made headlines nationwide, included numerous convictions of ACORN employees for voter registration fraud.

Allegations ranged from trying to register dead people and making up fictitious voters, to plucking names out of the phone book. (Source) and (Source)

October 16, 2011: Voter Fraud in Minnesota

A group that monitors elections in Minnesota and roots out fraudulent votes is warning ballot fraud is on the rise across the nation, and if unchecked, the ultimate consequences would be an electorate that simply doesn’t believe the system works and refuses to participate – “a total breakdown in the cohesion of American society.” That’s from spokesman Dan McGrath of the Minnesota Majority, which advocates for traditional values in state and federal public policy through grassroots activism. The group also contributes to the work of ElectionIntegrityWatch.com to focus specifically on elections and voter fraud.

Minnesota Majority reported that its investigations of fraud allegations arising from the 2008 general election in the state so far have resulted in 113 convictions. Another 200 or so cases are being processed or are pending but might not be completed because the statute of limitations expires next month, three years after the election.

And a stunning 2,800 or more cases cannot be prosecuted because of the wording in the state law that essentially requires voter fraud participants to admit they knew what they were doing was illegal in order for a conviction to be obtained, the organization said.

The organization’s report on voter fraud said the convictions appear to be the highest number since a scheme in Jackson County, Mo., in 1936 resulted in 259 individuals convicted of voter fraud.

A more recent effort by the U.S. Department of Justice that encompassed five years resulted in just 53 convictions, the group said. (Source) and (Source) and (Source)

 

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January 12, 2012: Voter Fraud in South Carolina

[South Carolina] State officials are calling for an investigation after records determined that more than 900 people listed as deceased also have recently voted, calling into question the integrity of the state's election system.

What is unclear from the analysis released Wednesday to a House Judiciary Committee panel from the state Department of Motor Vehicles is whether voter fraud was committed by people assuming the identities of the deceased, or if poor record keeping has resulted in South Carolina residents being classified as deceased. (Source)

January 17, 2012: [Thousands of] Unverifiable Voters in Minnesota’s Elections
(Source) and (Source)

January 30, 2012: Voter Fraud in West Virginia

Lincoln County [West Virginia] Sheriff Jerry Bowman and Clerk Donald Whitten will plead guilty to charges that they attempted to flood the 2010 Democratic primary with fraudulent absentee ballots, becoming the latest southern West Virginia officeholders ensnared by an investigation into election fraud, federal and state officials announced Monday.

Bowman has agreed to plead guilty to a federal conspiracy charge. He is accused of trying to stuff the ballot box in his favor while running for circuit clerk, U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin and Secretary of State Natalie Tennant said. Whitten will plead guilty to lying to a retired FBI agent hired by Tennant to investigate the influx of absentee ballots in that primary.

A judge later threw out more than 300 contested absentee ballots, reversing Bowman's initial victory and securing the nomination for incumbent Circuit Clerk Charles Brumfield. Bowman and Whitten have agreed to resign by the time of their plea hearing, which are not yet scheduled, and have already begun cooperating with investigators. Their plea agreements, filed Monday, mention but do not identify co-conspirators. (Source)

February 14, 2012: Almost 2 Million Dead People Registered to Vote

A new report by the Pew Center on the States finds that more than 1.8 million dead people are currently registered to vote. And 24 million registrations are either invalid or inaccurate. The Pew study found that almost 3 million people are registered to vote in more than one state. (Source) and (Source) and (Source) and (Source)

February 16, 2012: Voter-Registration Fraud in Maryland

An analysis of 7,000 Montgomery County [Maryland] voter registrations found that 5,400 registrations contained irregularities. (Source)

February 29, 2012: Fraudulent Recall Petition Signatures in Wisconsin

"True the Vote," in conjunction with the "Verify the Recall" volunteers, recently completed its data input and analysis of [Governor Scott] Walker Recall Petition signatures. (The link to actual data can be found at:http://www.truethevote.org/reports/walker-exec-summary.pdf.) Here's a brief breakdown of the numbers:

* Total number of signatures submitted was approximately 800,000.
* Number of pages (of recall petitions) submitted: 152,508
* Number of records processed: 1,382,058
* Blank lines (on petition pages): 557,469
* Unique records: 819,233
* Incomplete/undecipherable records: 36,127
* Signed w/date out of range: 14,763
* Out of state: 4,718
* Duplicate signatures: 5,356
* TOTAL INELIGIBLE SIGNATURES: 55,606
* TOTAL SIGNATURES FOR FURTHER INVESTIGATION: 228,940 (These signatures were partially marked through, illegible, possibly false, mismatched, or otherwise compromised.)
* TOTAL ELIGIBLE SIGNATURES based on data available: 534,685 (Source)

March 9, 2009: Voter Fraud in Iowa

Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz said Friday he is pursuing a number of cases of voter fraud, proving the need for his now-stalled voter ID bill. Following an appearance at Cafe Diem in Ames, Schultz said there could be “hundreds” of such cases but he could not elaborate on specific cases.“Because they are at the investigation level, and those cases were specifically referred to county attorneys, once the county attorneys have determined whether they can prosecute then it will be public,” Schultz said. Schultz also said the number of cases is an estimate. “We’re not sure (how many cases there are),” he said. “We’ve got to verify that information.” (Source)