Absolutely. Voter registration organizations like ACORN often incentivize employees on a per-registration basis, so there is incentive to create fake voters. These people don't vote, but they help the $10/hr person make more money. It's a terrible incentive structure that creates extra registrants but no extra votes.
Damn the freepers are trying their little hearts out to make this non-issue into the next faux outrage story... but it just keeps on failing.
samfisher explained the difficulty of actually having someone cast these fraudulant votes in a previous thread. I'm searching for it. post 152 So this would require the transient guy off the street making up fake names for $5 a name to not only send in a bunch of fake names and fake addresses, but to have his friends in other states obtain a number of post office boxes. Then he would have to set up fake absentee balloting requests, by getting online and having his fake voter registration cards, sent to previous fake addresses - which would require other fake PO boxes, and entering in the information. Then he has to have the fake cards either sent back to him or filled out in the other state in the proper fashion and mailed back. he would do this all at his own expense with no tangible immediate benefit to himself. This of course presumes that the "suspicious name" pile of ballots turned in by ACORn as they are required to do under many state laws be accepted by the state in which it's registered. And it also presumes that he fake applications for Absentee ballots be approved and sent out. Please provide some evidence of this kind of scam occurring. I do know that the DOJ, under the direction of the wingnut morons in the Bush administration, investigated this exact issue for 6 years and found nothing.
but existent people may show up to vote second time, w/ fake names. are you suggesting this doesn't happen?
Yes, I am. It pretty much almost never happens. The reasons being are thus: First, If you are suggesting it is commonplace, why can't you provide a single example? Second, in the Michigan case - this would require them to either have a fake ID with the fake name, or fill out an affidavit with the clerk, which would require people to visit different precincts to avoid filling out the same affidavits with the same clerk (or go in disguise so they can fill out affidavits as different people). This would require a substantial degree of organization - whic does not exist. Third, it's completely illogical. Why would you subject yourself to felony criminal liability - for the sake of one vote? It's mathematically the equivalent of commiting an armed robbery to steal a single lottery card. Ask the professionals: /end lesson.
And we're talking about one vote in an area that, as the blog even points out, votes 90+ % dem anyway. But I guess people just need to keep coming up with excuses as to why their guy lost. The fact that he wasn't the better candidate hasn't occurred to them yet.
Funny pictures are one thing, but has anyone actually called John McCain's campaign to let him know? This is real folks.
the data predates the McCain campaign, and in any case, id on't think any one is claiming a fraudulent vote or 200,00 would make that big of a difference in Detroit. Michigan, perhaps. Minnesota, certainly, upstate new york- yeah, there too. and what of florida? odd that you're all so blase about it.
There's no evidence of any voter fraud, and there is plenty of indication that there has not been voter fraud. Honestly it's odd (although predictable) that anybody thinks this is a major story.
Unlike voter fraud, voter suppression is real and documented. The wingers have to think the Dems are just as bad so they can justify their own actions. This thread is nothing more than a Psych 101 case study.
Maybe that is because there are other explanations for it: 1. Registration drive worker fudging to make more money. 2. Bad voter rolls that have not taken out the deceased. 3. People who lived in Detroit, registered to vote, later moved elsewhere and have not registered. Since you are making the claim, you bear the burden of proof. You have offered none. I certainly hope that things like this are not what the Republican party is hinging its future hopes on. If it is, then it will be a long time before I have a good election night.
Texas's attempt to purge voter rolls AUSTIN — Alegria Arce Hibbetts of Austin got a letter in late March saying that she might be dead. Or more specifically, the Texas secretary of state’s Texas Election Administration Management system indicated she was a “possible deceased voter.” She had 30 days to prove otherwise, and she wasn’t sure how to do that — the response form allowed only for a family member to sign off on her death. There was nowhere to check “I’m alive,” said Hibbetts, 74, who lives just north of the University of Texas. “I don’t know where they got that information.” The letter was one of thousands sent to voters across Texas as part of a new effort by the secretary of state’s office to remove dead people from the voter rolls. Two weeks ago, the state sent a list of the possibly deceased to each county, leaving local officials to find out who was still living. While some county officials did further research on the names, Travis County simply mailed out letters to all 140 people the state listed as “possible deceased voter.” The county learned of the error last week after Hibbetts complained and the voter registrar’s office realized more information was included on the state list. It sent out apology letters April 1. The renewed push to purge voter rolls of dead voters comes as state legislators debate proposed voter ID legislation and illustrates the lengths to which state officials already go to ensure the integrity of the ballot box, starting with maintaining accurate lists of registered voters. It’s a process county with which officials are still wrestling. “There’s always that balance with someone’s right to vote,” said Randall Dillard, director of communications for the secretary of state’s office. “But our responsibility is to keep the rolls as clean as possible.” The latest problem began when the secretary of state, at the state auditor’s urging, cross-checked its database of 12.8 million registered voters against a list of all Texans who have died since 1964, the farthest complete records go back, Dillard said. State and county offices update voter rolls daily, adding new registrations and removing the ineligible, but this was the first time the state did a complete sweep for the deceased. If a computer matched a full name, last four digits of a Social Security number and date of birth with those of someone who died, the system automatically purged that voter from the rolls, Dillard said. But if the computer could match only the last four digits of the Social Security number and date of birth, that voter was flagged as a “weak match,” and the name was forwarded to the county. The secretary of state’s office sent 9,932 “weak matches” to county voter registrars. There were 140 in Travis County, including some duplicates, but only 47 of those people were actually dead, said Dolores Lopez, director of elections for Travis County. Although the county checked the information given by the state, it only verified the criteria that created the match in the first place. Officials did not go name by name down the list because they didn’t realize the electronic spreadsheet contained names for comparison, Lopez said. “We’re not trying to take anyone off the voter roles,” said Nelda Wells Spears, tax assessor and voter registrar for Travis County. “We want to keep them on.” Many of the larger counties in Texas keep their own voter databases and did additional fact-checking on the weak matches presented by the state. They include the state’s two largest counties, Harris and Dallas. “I’m always kind of dubious of matches,” said George Hammerlein, director of elections for Harris County. “I know mine are good, but ... I’d rather be yelled at for leaving a few dead people on the rolls than taking a few living people off.” As for the “dear family” letters, as Hammerlein calls them, those could use some tweaking too, Lopez said. Counties send the state-prescribed letters in English and Spanish, and the registrar’s phone number is listed on the letter, but as Hibbetts noted, the response form assumes the voter is dead. “It’s not a friendly form. I will say that,” Lopez said. “When we have a little bit of time, we want to go back to the secretary of state. We want to make it a little easier to respond.” Hibbetts, who received her apology letter last week, said she’s just happy to be alive. “I think I’m a little sensitive about being dead,” she said. “I just think what would happen to people that would be scared by that.”
While I have voted for more Dems and Repubs, I agree with you entirely. The health of the country needs two robust and sensible parties, and I would argue we don't even have one.
