So have you ever participated in, or personally witnessed election fraud?

[Vesayen]

Two days ago a democrat running for a local town position comes to my door and rings the bell, I come out and see what looks like a petition form.... I ask him what he is running for, he looks a bit suprised I realize what he wanted. He tells me what he is running for. I sign his petition so he can run in the local election.

I sign his petition, he has a few petition forms for other democrats who are running for other petitions, after carefuly reading each one of them(which seemed to piss him off), I sign them, he leaves.

Two days later another person comes to my door.

Similar sheets of paper the other guy has... after looking at the top sheet and seeing my own signature I realize it is the EXACT same set of papers. He tells me he is collecting signatures for democratic positions for local town positions.

I told him I am pretty sure I already I already signed the petition and described the person who came 2 days prior.

He seems momentarily at loss for a words, then lets loose on the BS.

And I am quoting him: "Well would you mind signing it again, for duplication purposes?"

....

I told him that would void the entire petition, he laughs and smiles as if to say "Oh yeah, your right", obviously already aware of that fact. No one ever checks the petitions, just counts the # of signatures.

I told him that the person who came 2 days earlier got the signatures of most of my neighbors already. He thanks me for the help and walks to my neighbor... I watch from my house. He convinces me neighbor to sign a second time.

So I have now thwarted election fraud and witnessed it.

Huzzah!

Share your stories.

[Spiffor]

I have taken part in plenty elections as one of the admins of the polling booth.

The only election fraud I witnessed was when some candidate went to the nearby retirement home to lobby the old people to go voting.

[Guynemer]

Well, I voted in the Ohio Presidential Election of 2004. That probably counts.

[Vince278]

I've seen ballot boxes being stuffed in Egypt.

I worked on Pres. Ford's re-election campaign (among others) and haven't seen a single irregularity in any US election.

[DanS]

This is funny. You could do two things: (1) inform the campaigns anonymously that they ought to look at the signatures collected very closely; or (2) inform the opposing campaigns that they ought to challenge the signatures.

People have been thrown off the ballot for this stuff. F.e., in 2002, our dear mayor Williams had to run as a write-in candidate in the Dem primary. The only thing that saved him was that he ran unopposed. From Wikipedia, in pertinent part...

In 2002, Williams ran for reelection. Because D.C. is dominated by Democrats, the Democratic primary election is widely considered to be the actual deciding contest. In the 2002 primary, the mayor needed to collect signatures from voters to get his name on the ballot. The firm that he hired to do this had some irregularities with the names on petitions. Examples of faulty signatures on his petitions included Tony Blair, Billy Joel, and Robin Hood. As a result of the dodgy petitions, Williams was fined $277,700 by the District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics[1] and was kicked off the ballot, forcing him to run as a write-in candidate. His chief opponent, minister Willie Wilson, also ran as a write-in. Despite this handicap, Williams won both the Democratic and Republican primaries as a write-in candidate and went on to be reelected in the general election.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_A._Williams

[Vesayen]

Originally posted by DanS
This is funny. You could do two things: (1) inform the campaigns anonymously that they ought to look at the signatures collected very closely; or (2) inform the opposing campaigns that they ought to challenge the signatures.

People have been thrown off the ballot for this stuff. F.e., in 2002, our dear mayor Williams had to run as a write-in candidate in the Dem primary. The only thing that saved him was that he ran unopposed. From Wikipedia, in pertinent part...



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_A._Williams

I am from New York and our town is unbelivably democratic... I don't think a Republican has ever won an election here in my life time, for any position. We have a decent # of independants from time to time though.

No real reason to report the fraud.

[snoopy369]

Wow... you folks in DC have some fun mayors.

Marion Barry ...

[Ecthy]

Does voting for yourself count as fraud?

Honestly, I'd have thought this the normal thing to do, but I realize many people don't do it because they think it immoral.

[Proteus_MST]

Originally posted by DanS
This is funny. You could do two things: (1) inform the campaigns anonymously that they ought to look at the signatures collected very closely; or (2) inform the opposing campaigns that they ought to challenge the signatures.

Sounds like the best thing to do

No need to indirectly support such a fraud
by keeping silent about it.

[Drake Tungsten]

Well, I voted in the Ohio Presidential Election of 2004. That probably counts.

Luckily you guys didn't manage to steal it...

[Sir Og]

I had an opportunity to cast two votes in the last presidential election 2001. I was in the army and could have voted with my army documents and with my civilian documents (I was supposed to only have my army papers, but I had both)

I did not take advantage and only voted once. The guy I voted for lost but my extra vote wouldn't have tipped the scales in his favour.

[Ecthy]

Come on guys, how many of you have voted for themselves on any kind of elections?

[Spiffor]

I did. But it wasn't fraud, since I was a legal candidate.

[Ecthy]

Yeah, it's a cool and legit thing to do isn't it? How odd are my friends for thinking it immoral?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Ecthy
Does voting for yourself count as fraud?

Honestly, I'd have thought this the normal thing to do, but I realize many people don't do it because they think it immoral.

Where those other people (who think it's immoral) on pot at the time?