More voter registration fraud.
Stories about voter registration fraud and looming problems with the election process are all over the press and TV this week. For most of us it’s an eye-opener, because little is different from four years ago, or for that matter any election in the past, except that this time it is getting a lot of attention.
Procedures for registration, provisonal ballots, absentee voting, early voting, etc., can be quite different from state to state. But SG has become aware of a potential fraud that appears to have been overlooked by the media. Locally the “voter registration drive agents” have offered to help voters complete an absentee ballot request, which will be turned in to the county clerk’s office in person. In such cases it is very easy for the “agent” to determine the voter’s political leanings, so it must be tempting to “lose” the absentee ballot forms which are likely to result in the wrong vote.
Or the agent might coach you on how to fill out the form, encouraging you to make a mistake that will invalidate the application (this is evidently being done with voter registrations, too).
The voter won’t know there’s a problem until the absentee ballot DOESN’T ARRIVE, which might be too late to do anything about it.
The biggest scandals in terms of numbers seem to revolve around the creation of false voter registration forms, especially by “agents” who are paid on a per-signature basis. And there has been at least one suggestion that those who are not being paid are exercising some discretion about which forms they turn in.
Could there be enough of this kind of fraud to actually change the outcome of an election? Should you really be worried? SG thinks so– after all, it has happened before.
Voting should be very important to every American– so important that NO PART of the process should be left to someone else. If you let someone else turn in your voter registration form, or your request for an absentee ballot, you might as well go ahead and let them cast your vote while they’re at it.
–SG
What do you think? Please enter a comment below.
October 18th, 2004 at 11:47 am
Absentee ballots are being received now in our county, and the envelope bears a somewhat worrisome caution. In big black print it says “This may not be your ony ballot. Other elections may be held by other political subdivisions by mail or by polling place.”
Oh Noooooooo! The county controls the voter registrations, tells you what precinct you are in, runs the polling places, sends out the ballot papers, and they’re telling you this “may not be your only ballot?” Are they so far out of touch with “other political jurisdictions” in their own county that they don’t know if there are some other elections going on? Give us a break! The notice does nothing but confuse the voter. Unless…. Oh, we get it now. The county clerk has covered his-or-her ass just in case something got “left off” the ballot.
Too bad we’re not electing the county clerk this time around.