Democrats don't cheat

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Oncle Boris
What's this thing, giving a party affiliation when you register for vote?

You don't have to but you have the option.

I left it blank.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by MrFun
My mommy taught me to never take advice from a commie.

You shouldn't bring your mother into this. It's only an open invitation for someone to say something rude. You don't know how hard it was not to bite.

[Fake Boris]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara


It's so you can vote in party primaries. They don't want Dem's picking the Repug nominees or vice versa.

Personally, I think only actual members of the parties should have any say in selecting candidates and that the state shouldn't be involved in anyway. Why should I be forced to pay for the campaigns of other politicians if I'm supporting a completely different party?

Yeah, that's why it surprises me. In Canada only party members get to vote for party leaders. Now I understand why the campaign to choose the presidential candidate of each party is that important.

[notyoueither]

You mean like when you all blamed the Repugs for throwing away voter registrations, when it wasn't the Repug party that did that?

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by notyoueither
You mean like when you all blamed the Repugs for throwing away voter registrations, when it wasn't the Repug party that did that?

It was people hired by the Repugs. And Repug pols then turned around and told those people, so sorry, too bad, the deadline for registering has passed. You can't vote against us.

AFAIK, ACORN hasn't been hired by anyone.

[notyoueither]

Yeah, right. Not hired. Demorats none the less.

[Jaguar]

As an Apolyton conservative, I think I speak for the vast majority of us when I say we disown ML.

[Fake Boris]

Originally posted by Jaguar
As an Apolyton conservative, I think I speak for the vast majority of us when I say we disown ML.

At least he remembers us that Ned isn't that bad.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by notyoueither
Yeah, right. Not hired. Demorats none the less.

Actually, no. ACORN is substantially to the left of the DP. Hence my post early in this thread mentioning that little fact. Anyway, as that thread also mentioned, exactly what harm has this done to any voter? Say I was registered to vote three times. How many times could I vote? Exactly once. So, how do three registration forms impact the election? Answer, they don't.

On the other hand, say I registered to vote with some of these folks hired by the Repugs. I go in to vote on Nov 2, and find that I can't, because they threw my form away. Now, not only have my rights been violated, but the entire election has been affected?

So, one group is commiting fraud. The other group is committing electoral fraud. Both are crimes, but one is for money and the other is for votes. Both concern me, but one can be fixed after the fact. The other can't. People who get elected by electoral fraud are still in office unless impeached and removed by the legislature, and that only happens if there is evidence they participated directly in the fraud. As fatr as our election goes, what the Repugs have done is substantially worse.

[Fake Boris]

So it seems like I was dead wrong. My first reaction after reading this is that they could have done this on purpose, to draw attention on the fact that detainees can't vote. AFAIK most civilized countries don't do that.

[notyoueither]

Not my links. I'll just save him the trouble...

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-pglitch23oct23,0,3825651,print.story?coll=sfla-news-palm

Early voting brings cries of bullying



By Brittany Wallman
Staff Writer

October 23, 2004

On Election Day, voters will be protected from campaign pressures by a 50-foot cone, an invisible barrier that campaign workers cannot breach. Not so for early voters.

While the Voter's Bill of Rights in state law says they have a right to "vote free from coercion or intimidation by elections officers or any other person," a glitch in the newer early voting law does not include the same 50-foot guarantee.

As a result, with early voting taking place in busy public places like City Halls and libraries, voters are voicing complaints of being blocked by political mobs, or being singled out for their political views. Others say they have been grabbed, screamed at and cursed by political partisans of all stripes.

Republican Rep. Tom Feeney of Oviedo said the antagonizers are "Kerry thugs" out to harass Bush voters.

"If you ask me whether I believe there is an organized effort to intimidate Republican voters, the answer is absolutely yes," said Feeney.

The Republican Party is calling on the secretary of state's office for help, asking that early voting rules be clarified.

The secretary of state's office has not yet responded.

"Significant numbers of people have already been deterred from voting," wrote Republican Party Chairwoman Carole Jean Jordan to Secretary of State Glenda Hood, "and this will continue until corrective measures are taken."

Democratic Party officials in Tallahassee said they've had some complaints, too.

"We have had incidents as well," said Christine Anderson, spokeswoman for the Kerry campaign. "We've had quite a few."

She said the party hasn't taken affidavits from voters and found it shocking the Republicans were so focused on the issue rather than working to make sure people can vote.

"It's just absurd they would try to accuse us of intimidation efforts," said Anderson.

Permits in Palm Beach County show that the SEIU union and other Democratic groups have been holding rallies at early voting locations, where they have a captive audience of voters standing in line. Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore said the lines are long because voters are brought in by the busload.

"Special interest groups are trying to whip everybody into a frenzy and get everybody upset," she said. "Campaigns and their observers are confronting the workers and the voters. Things have gotten nasty and ugly."

LePore said the county has an ordinance that forbids interference in county business in the building and they are citing that law to the campaigners. Her attorney has told her that an area at each polling place can be set aside for solicitation so she planned to do so.

LePore said campaign workers followed voters into polling places and handed out literature next to the voting machines. Other voters standing in line were told the machines don't work and that they should vote absentee.

Gisela Salas, deputy elections supervisor in Broward County, said even though early voting "doesn't have that voter solicitation rule, so to speak," her office has posted signs saying "no campaigning beyond this point" and have had cooperation for the most part. Still, there were complaints in Broward.

Florida Senate Minority Leader Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, one of the co-sponsors of the early voting law, said it's a shame that everything must be spelled out.

"I wish people would use common sense in terms of how they approached these things," said Klein. "It's a new law. Certainly there's a few things we need to go back in the legislation and fix. We are going to have to go back and put more specific rules in about how early voting should work."

State Rep. Irv Slosberg, a Democrat from Boca Raton, said he wasn't happy with the early voting, either, because the rules changed daily.

"Someone from the elections office has to come out rather than relying on the county library to make these decisions," said Slosberg. "That's what's happening. It's up to the library people. ... Every day's a new game."

Republican Party senior adviser Mindy Tucker Fletcher said she had more than a dozen affidavits from voters around the state that would be forwarded to Hood's office.

According to the affidavits Fletcher released:

One woman who voted early in Boca Raton, at the Southwest County Regional Library, complained that as she stood in line, two men behind her were "trashing our president," Fletcher said, declining to identify the woman. She tried to ignore them. Then the man touched her arm and said, "Who are you voting for?"

"I said, `I don't think that's an appropriate question,'" the woman said she responded.

"Uh oh! We have a Bush supporter here," screamed the man behind her.

For the 2 1/2 hours she had to wait in line, she was heckled by the man. As they neared the voting room, someone in the rear of the line yelled, "I sure hope everyone here is voting for Kerry!" she reported.

That's when the man behind her held his hand over her head and screamed, "We have a Republican right here!" There were "boos and jeers" from the crowd.

"I felt intimidated, harassed and threatened!" the woman wrote in her complaint to the Republican Party.

Elaine Fandino complained to the Republican Party that she took her mother to vote on South Military Trail in Palm Beach County and was confronted by 25 people supporting John Kerry for president. The crowd was "very angry and used foul language," she reported. She said the man next to her said, "Where's my shotgun?"

In Broward County, at the regional library in Pembroke Pines, a voter complained that Kerry supporters used abusive language about President Bush and had signs and banners within 50 feet of the entrance.

Kerry supporters were "shoving anti-Bush propaganda at us," complained the voter, who said he shouted back "Vote President Bush!"

A woman who voted in Plantation at the West Regional Courthouse said she was offended to see five or six people with "huge stick on badges" for Kerry/Edwards, standing near the voting machines.

"Never in all the years of voting do we remember being allowed to show a badge or poster or literature while inside the area where the voters are standing ready to cast their vote," she wrote.

Juan D'Arce of Miami complained to the Republicans that he tried early voting in downtown Miami. He was wearing a Bush pin, but he couldn't stand the taunting, so he turned away and did not vote.

Howard Sherman complained about his voting experience at North Shore Branch Library in Miami-Dade County. He found a crowd of Kerry supporters blocking the door.

"They were positioned directly in front of the entrance to the library in such a manner that it would be impossible to avoid them while entering the polling place," he reported.

Sherman said he tried to slip through the thinnest part of the crowd, but a woman in a Kerry T-shirt grabbed his arm and asked if he was voting for Kerry.

"I seem to recall from civics class that this sort of electioneering is illegal," Sherman complained to the Republicans.

Republican Lawrence Gottfried, who became a poll watcher in Delray Beach after what he thought was inappropriate behavior at the polls, said the things he saw upset him.

Gottfried said that while working at the Delray poll, actor Danny DeVito and his wife, actress Rhea Perlman, showed up. Gottfried is a fan, but he didn't ask for an autograph.

"I said, `Look Mr. DeVito, I'm a big fan of yours and Rhea's, but you are blocking the entrance. You're campaigning, you've got a Kerry-Edwards button on, and it's not appropriate."

Gottfried, who used to be a Democrat, said the things he saw were "ridiculous."

"There is a time for partisanship and it's OK to have a different point of view, but don't violate the sanctity of the polling area," he said.

[notyoueither]

http://www.9news.com/acm_news.aspx?OSGNAME=KUSA&IKOBJECTID=8ac173fd-0abe-421a-011e-5ce7dfcf561e&TEMPLATEID=0c76dce6-ac1f-02d8-0047-c589c01ca7bf

I-Team investigation uncovers voter registration fraud
written by: Deborah Sherman (I-Team Reporter) and Nicole Vap (Executive Producer Investigative)
Created: - Updated:



DENVER - With just 21 days left until an election in which every vote will count, the 9News I-Team has uncovered voter registration fraud that could cause chaos on Election Day for hundreds, possibly thousands of Colorado voters.

9News has discovered a record number of fraudulent voter-registrations across the state. Secretary of State Donetta Davidson tells 9News she is concerned about what the I-Team has uncovered and wants those responsible prosecuted. "It has just gone rampant," she told reporter Deborah Sherman in an interview Monday afternoon.

Most of the fraud has come from registration drives, where people at grocery stores or on the streets ask you to sign up. 9News has learned many workers have re-registered voters multiple times by changing or making up information about them. 9News has documented 719 cases of potentially fraudulent forms at county election offices show fraudulent names, addresses, social security numbers or dates of birth in Denver, Douglas, Adams, Boulder and Lake counties. Information from other counties is still coming in.

Some voter registration application forms are completely bogus. Others belong to legitimate voters, who have had one or two facts changed that could affect their registration when they show up at the polls November 2nd. Tom Stanislawski registered to vote six years ago. But this summer, someone signed him up again and changed his party affiliation. "My concern would be I'd walk in November 2nd and be unable to vote," he said.

Some of the registration drive workers earn $2 per application or about $10 an hour. One woman admitted to forging three people's names on about 40 voter registration applications. Kym Cason says she was helping her boyfriend earn more money from a get-out-the-vote organization called ACORN or Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. ACORN works with low or moderate-income families on housing issues. Cason said her extra registrations earned her boyfriend $50.

Gerald Obi says workers pressured him to keep registering to vote so they too could earn extra cash. When asked how many times he had registered this year, Obi said, "about 35 times."

ACORN's state director said they are victims of the fraud as well and told 9News the group is cooperating with local investigators. Ross Fitzgerald says the group has fired workers for the fraud. "Our goal is to register as many people as we can," said Fitzgerald. "If they're fraudulent, that hurts our numbers."

Clerk and Recorders from several counties met Monday with Secretary of State Donetta Davidson to discuss this problem, and the problem of felons registering to vote. "I have to question whether we should be allowing people to accept money for voter registration," said Douglas County Clerk and Recorder Carole Murray.

Colorado Secretary of State Donetta Davidson agreed and said she will be looking at ways to reform the system.

[notyoueither]

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/10-13-2004/0002275937&EDATE=

ACORN Voter Registration Fraud Allegations Are Just the Tip of the Iceberg, Says Employment Policies Institute


Illegalities, Fraud and Contradictions Detailed in Report
on Lead Organizer of Florida's Amendment 5

WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- A Florida state attorney is
investigating thousands of potentially fraudulent voter registrations
associated with the leading organizer of Florida's Amendment 5 ballot
initiative. But this is just the tip of an iceberg of illegalities, fraud and
contradictions connected to the Association of Community Organizations for
Reform Now (ACORN). In recent days, ACORN has been at the epicenter of
reports on thousands of potentially fraudulent voter registrations across the
nation -- including many by ex-felons -- submitted by ACORN employees in the
presidential swing states of Ohio, Colorado, Missouri Pennsylvania, New Mexico
and Minnesota.
The Employment Policies Institute has updated and re-released its report,
"The Real ACORN: Anti-Employee, Anti-Union, Big Business" with the latest
details on ACORN's involvement in what appears to be widespread voter
registration fraud. The report includes statements from former ACORN
employees on the illegal nature of the organization's promotion of the ballot
initiative to raise Florida's minimum wage to $6.15 per hour.
"This report reveals ACORN's pattern and practice of deception and fraud,"
said EPI research director Craig Garthwaite. "The latest allegations of
widespread voter registration fraud should prove to be the last of ACORN's
nine political lives."
Former ACORN Miami-Dade field director Mac Stuart has declared an intent
to sue ACORN and has made charges of rampant voter fraud operations. Stuart
was employed and specifically tasked by ACORN to generate 103,000 new voter
registrations from Dade County. He reports that ACORN threw out Republican
registrations while paying for Democratic ones. Stuart also charges that
ACORN targeted ex-cons and that he personally set up registration tables
outside the Miami police department and Dade County jail. He went on to
state, "The voter registration project has been operating illegally since it
started."
ACORN has paid workers for every voter registration card collected -- a
felony in Florida and also illegal in Missouri and Pennsylvania. ACORN also
routinely accepted signatures for Amendment 5 from individuals who were not
currently registered to vote -- a requirement under Florida law.
Voter registration and petition fraud is just the latest chapter in
ACORN's long sordid history. The EPI report also reveals:

ACORN Involved in Union Embezzlement -- In the late 1990s, ACORN's Project
Vote was involved in an $850,000 embezzling scheme, where union funds and
kickbacks were used to illegally aid the 1996 re-election bid of then-
Teamsters President Ron Carey. A New York federal jury found the Teamsters
political director guilty of the conspiracy.

ACORN bilks AmeriCorps -- In 1996, the Inspector General of the AmeriCorps
program stripped a $1 million grant from the ACORN Housing Corporation (AHC).
When applying, AHC had denied any connections to ACORN, since the grant was
not intended for political advocacy organizations. Evidence later uncovered
by the Inspector General found that not only was AHC created by ACORN, engaged
in numerous transactions with one another, and sharing staff and office space
-- but it utilized the AmeriCorps grant to increase ACORN membership, a
violation of federal guidelines.

ACORN Union-Busts Own Workers -- On March 27, 2003 the National Labor
Relations Board (NLRB) found that ACORN had violated the National Labor
Relations Act and was required to rehire and pay restitution to employees
terminated for attempting to form a union. The NLRB ruling is just the latest
in a trend of ACORN's union-busting tactics. ACORN employees have
historically demanded higher wages, safer working conditions and more timely
contracted wages. These efforts have been repressed behind closed doors by
the hypocritical ACORN leadership, which publicly advocates higher pay and
better working conditions for private sector workers.

ACORN and Minimum Wage Hypocrisy -- Most egregiously, ACORN promotes
ballot initiatives and local ordinances to force businesses to pay higher
minimum wages, as they are currently doing with the minimum wage proposal in
Amendment 5. In 1995, however, ACORN sued the state of California to have its
employees exempted from the state minimum wage. ACORN argued that being
forced to pay higher wages would mean that they would hire fewer employees --
the very dilemma faced by businesses. Incredibly, ACORN stated that paying
its employees a lower wage would allow them to be more sympathetic to the low-
and moderate-income families they were attempting to help. ACORN argued that
abiding by the state minimum wage would limit their ability to promote their
agenda and would therefore be a violation of their First Amendment rights.
The trial court judge dismissed ACORN's suits, stating, "leaving aside the
latter argument's absurdity ... we find ACORN to be laboring under a
fundamental misconception of constitutional law."

"ACORN's history of voter registration fraud, hypocrisy, abuse of federal
grant programs, and disregard for sound economics should raise a red flag for
voters considering support for Amendment 5," Garthwaite said.
The full report is available online at http://www.EPIonline.org.

The Employment Policies Institute is a nonprofit research organization
dedicated to studying public policy issues surrounding entry-level employment.


SOURCE Employment Policies Institute

[OzzyKP]

I think I know some people in ACORN. For shame...

[notyoueither]

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041018/BREAKINGNEWS/%20%2041018011

registration-crack cocaine scheme


Chad Staton is facing felony charge.


Zoom


A Defiance County man has been arrested for allegedly filing more than 100 false voter registration forms in exchange for crack cocaine from a Toledo woman working on behalf of the NAACP’s voter registration drive.

Chad Staton, 22, of Stratton Ave., faces a fifth-degree felony charge of false registration after sheriff’s deputies said he filled out the registration forms by himself — using either fictitious names or addresses — and gave them to Georgianne Pitts, 41.

Toledo police searched Ms. Pitts’ home and discovered drug paraphernalia along with more voter registration forms. Police said that Ms. Pitts admitted to paying Mr. Staton in crack cocaine, in lieu of cash.

Ms. Pitts, working on behalf of the NAACP National Voter Fund, submitted the forms to the voter fund, which in turn submitted them to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.

Because the addresses on the forms were for the Defiance area, the Cuyahoga County elections board sent the registration forms to Defiance County’s elections board, with a note to check the signatures for fraud, said Laura Howell, the deputy director of the Defiance County elections board.

Ms. Pitts told police she had been recruited to obtain voter registration forms by Thaddeus J. Jackson II, of Cleveland, who is coordinating the Toledo area’s voter registration drive for the NAACP voter drive.

When contacted by The Blade this afternoon, Mr. Jackson said that Ms. Pitts was a “volunteer,” but said he had no knowledge of any fraudulent voter registration forms. He declined to comment further.

Citing the case, Ohio Republican Party spokesman Jason Mauk said in a statement this afternoon that there is “an effort to steal Ohio’s election” that is “being driven exclusively by interest groups working to register Democratic voters.”

Read more in tomorrow's editions of The Blade and toledoblade.com.