The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer explores the creation and development of “The Voter-Fraud Myth” in this profile of the creator and architect of the national vote suppression movement, Hans von Spakovsky.
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I am Tom Freeland,
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Adventures in Vote SuppressionOctober 22, 2012, 12:01 pm | Tags: Hans von Spakovsky, voting fraud | Category: Random Firings |
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Training poll workers is a complete impossibility. Americans today just cannot follow instructions, and the voting laws are so complex that the task is impossible. Plus, nobody wants to work the polls these days – it doesn’t pay enough.
I have examined the boxes in dozens of election, and not one single time -
Not ONE SINGLE TIME –
Have I ever come across a “challenged ballot” that was handled according to law.
Not once.
And the SOS and the Election Commissioners train and train, and they give out simple to follow checklists.
Nevertheless, not one single time, have I ever come across a Challenged Ballot that was handled according to the law.
Last election, at the polling place with the best trained, most experienced workers in the county, the poll workers started out the day by going through the absentee ballots and marking those names as voted on the poll book – they did it to save time at the end of the day.
Except that, by law, they are required to mark the absentee ballot voters AFTER the polls close, and AFTER the ballot has been determined to be valid, and just before it is opened.
The reason it HAS TO BE DONE AFTER the polls close is because, by law, a person can cast an absentee ballot, and then appear in person on election day and vote in person.
This actually happened TO ME last November. I cast an absentee ballot in the hospital, then I got out, and on election day, I went to vote in person.
The poll worker told me I couldn’t vote because I already had voted by absentee. Wearily, I told her to call my election commissioner, and she set them straight.
The legal requirements for marking the pollbooks for absentee voters is not followed in many precincts, even though it’s pretty important.
In another election that I investigated, a candidate won by ONE vote. I discovered that an absentee voter had shown up and voted in person, AND THE POLLWORKERS COUNTED HIS ABSENTEE BALLOT AS WELL!
It was possible to determine that his absentee vote WAS THE ONE VOTE that gave the winner his one vote margin. The race was tossed by the court.
The real problem is, we cannot train the election commissioners.
This year, as usual, our election commission chairman did not have absentee ballots ready by the September 22 deadline. I had to call the SOS to get them to force the Election Commission to print the ballots, and that didn’t happen until October 4th or 5th.
He’s been chairman for 15+ years, and he cannot get the ballot set by the ample deadline.
Every election he fails to get it done.
He’s running unopposed this year. Nobody could beat him if they tried.
Quite interesting. JPH has some interesting and enlightening experience. They sound like war stories I have heard for many years but I have not pressed for specifics.
In summary, voter fraud generally is real. In-person fraud is real. Voter ID and poll worker education appear to be the solutions offered. If there is another solution, I haven’t heard it.
The solution to the problem is exacerbated by the feds and the states apparently turning a deaf ear to complaints.
By the way, did anyone else read that an agency of the UN is sending several dozen observes to the USA in November to monitor our elections. I have never heard of this occurring in the US. This strikes me as uncalled for. We are a free nation and a global entity wants to monitor us??? I cannot help but believe this would not happen under any other president but Obama’s love for all things global and UN is probably allowing this. I know of no authority the UN has to do this otherwise.
Pb pike, we as a society have let “constitutional rights” become clouded by a lack of common sense. A pathetic excuse.
I agree that all forms of voter fraud are real, are largely undetected, and should be combatted more thoroughly, and though I support Voter ID, I don’t think it will fix the problem of impersonation.
As for UN monitors – bring ‘em on. Monitors rarely do any good – they’re usually looking for the wrong things, and are poorly educated about the way elections are supposed to operate.
But the United States approves of sending monitors into our own elections (federal monitors) and into other country’s elections, so why not have some from the UN?
The same judgment we judge against others must be permitted to be brought against ourselves, otherwise we’re shown to be hypocrites. Somebody taught that in a Holy Book somewhere….
Constitutional rights are “a pathetic excuse,” huh? You and I have completely opposing ideas of what this country is and ought to be, then, JTF. Good for you we no longer have literacy tests or you’d be invoking your own “pathetic excuses” at the top of your lungs.
JTF, that may be the stupidest, most narrow-minded, ignorant, selfish, unreasonably angry, know-nothing remark I’ve ever seen on this blog.
JPH – Have you written up your experiences and personal conclusions anywhere? That would be an interesting thing to read in a non-comment thread format.
WOW, WOW, WOW. Just saw this. There’s a guy named James O’Keefe who apparently likes to secretly videotape fraud and expose it. Just saw a tape of the son of a Congressman in VA running for reelection who is caught on tape discussing voter fraud. He is planning on rounding up people in a van and taking them to polls using names of 100 registered voters but who do not regularly vote. The son is Pat Moran.
Now, I am not being sarcastic when I ask this but surely those posters who were dismissing this as a non-issue must admit this occurrence is not a new one in elections across the USA. I ask/mention this because of the mantra about “no evidence” voter ID is needed because there is not a problem. Remember my earlier post about the election folks who told me that. Criticize the secret video but this is damning evidence inmy opinion. I don’t know if this link will work but this is what I saw.
http://blogs.cbn.com/thebrodyfile/archive/2012/10/24/new-undercover-video-did-congressmans-son-commit-voter-fraud.aspx
PBS pike I did not say constitutional rights are a pathetic excuse. Way to spin that one. What I did say is people with good, legal intentions let a lack of common sense cloud judgement at times. Literacy test? Wow. I think even a child could see the difference between a “literacy test” and proving who you say you are. I think you are the one who is unreasonably angry, ignorant, narrow minded….. Hence your personal attack on me for sharing my opinion on a blog…
I’m with JPH all the way on the foreign monitors thing. He reports that one Mississippi county is incapable of conducting an honest election; I trust that the same things happening or not happening in Leflore County are happening or not happening in the other 81 counties of Mississippi. Honest voting has never been our métier. Let’s put some bright spotlights on the points of corruption and get these messes squared away.
Anyone who opposes election observers is really saying, “I don’t want my tricks and unfair advantages revealed.”
The UN has no reason to monitor our elections. We should do that ourselves.
I’m changing the subject, but only as to address the issue that election officials often don’t know how to conduct an election. Back in the 1950s there was an election in Marshall County and the ballot clerk was a little confused as to her duties. In addition to initialing each ballot as it was handed out she numbered it to correspond to the voter’s number as they signed in to vote. This was discovered after 84 people had voted.
Needless to say all of the candidates perused those ballots very carefully. A few candidates found out that their “friends” had not voted for them. Some friendships cooled quite a bit after that.
Hootie, is Pat Moran a democrat?
Coincidentally, 11 term Representative Moran is a Democrat. His son has reportedly been fired. 26 minute video that is totally conclusive. This link has a short article with it if you don’t have the heart to watch the whole thing.
http://www.examiner.com/article/video-son-of-democratic-congressman-conspires-to-commit-voter-fraud
The Moran video is amazing. Obviously Moran believes people are voting under false names, even if the Democrats on this board don’t. He’s willing to lend them his aid and support.
It’s virtually impossible to catch someone doing this and that’s why people can claim it’s a “non-problem.” It’s a problem.
I’ve noted before that there are ways around this, such as requiring a fingerprint and photograph of anyone without an ID. Everybody votes, but anybody who cheats gets caught.
Threatening letters sent to FL voters believed to be Romeny voters, a Dem. congressman’s son trying to fake IDs at the polling booth. I wonder if the Republicans will talk about this later when pushing voter ID measures. I wonder if the Dems and folks like the author the subject of this post will still claim voter ID is a solution looking for a problem.
Chuck Todd just mentioned the scandal on PMSNBC. He identified the investigative reporters as a “conservative group”. That was the best spin he could offer.
With NMC’s and other’s intense concern for the voter ID debate, I will be interested to see the response when NMC and others post this Moran story.
Oh, wait, he was only joking, so I blame conservatives.
“In reference to the ‘O’Keefe’ video, at no point have I, or will I ever endorse any sort of illegal or unethical behavior. At no point did I take this person seriously. He struck me as being unstable and joking, and for only that reason did I humor him.”
If the “I was joking” fails then he will be forgiven as his intentions were good. After all, he was trying to help elect Democrats and the end justifies the means. Democrats/Liberals are morally superior so it’s ok.
It’s kind of like when an attorney falsifies an affidavit in order to prevent a death sentence from being carried out. That person becomes a hero in the anti-capital punishment clique even though the act was unlawful and legally unethical, to say the least. The end justifies the means, I guess.
I see the son has been booted from the campaign. It remains to be seen how the democrats will respond, if at all, to this debacle. They would be wise to use this as an opportunity to show support for fair elections, etc. and take the stage from republicans. however, I suspect the GOP will not make a hue and cry about this, thereby allowing the matter to fade away rather quietly.
The left does not have to respond to bad acts in their midst when the right does not seize the opportunity seeking an investigation or whatever may be appropriate to the incident in question.
Fortunately the sting artist didn’t ask the guy to speculate on how to marry one’s sister, or else it would now be taken as gospel that Democrats support incest.
I’m pretty cautious about believing O’Keefe’s videos until there’s been time for any fallout to take place.
That being said, folks in political campaigns ought not to joke about how to commit voter fraud.
Here in Leflore County, we watched a primary election get overturned late last year when it transpired that one of the candidate’s campaign workers had deliberately orchestrated taking voters to the circuit clerk’s office and have them lie about being “out of the county on election day” so they could vote by absentee.
There was a rematch, and the candidate that had the illegal ballots cast the first time still won. The incumbent was ousted.
Still, it was a black eye against the guy that won.
Kudos to Willie Perkins who represented the incumbent. He did a creditable job in court proving his case.
Busloads of UN observers. Bring ‘em. We send our observers to other nations to observe their election processes. Bring a buncha them over here. Clearly we cannot conduct honest elections … maybe fresh eyes can offer some beneficial suggestions.
Well, those UN observers will have a bit of trouble getting credentials to go up into the polling places. Mississippi election code just doesn’t have any provision for such observers, unless a candidate or party gives them credentials. Prolly they can get the Obama campaign to credential them.
Been there, done that.
Anderson!!! You’re amazing! Come on!
Ben, as far as I know, there is no authority for the UN observers to be hoisted upon the states unless a particular state permits them or, as JPH suggests, a party empowers them. Moreover, I believe it to be terrible precedence. There are some who want the US to be part of a global governance. Obama appears to think so. This is a step in that direction and a bad tactic.
The State Department’s first invitation to foreign election observers to observe — not interfere in, not tamper with, just freaking observe — American elections was extended in 2002. For the historically amnesiac among us, GW Bush was president then, and Obama was in the Illinois state legislature. This is the fifth time since then that they have been so invited. So no matter how bad you now want there to be a internationalist conspiracy to expose this president as a Kenyan-Indonesian atheist-Muslim fascist-communist bent on submitting our nation to the dark tyrannies of Ban-Ki Moon, the truth is much more banal and Republican. Sorry, but you’ll have to take solace, again, in a night of Bowman’s gin and the Sci-Fi Channel to get your fix of really scary and absurdist fiction.
Pike, the UN is sending folks not merely to observe but to monitor for voter suppression. You cite the earlier incidents as merely observing, or more bluntly “just freaking observing”. So, there appears to be a difference. I am aware that other countries have watched our elections for educational and promotional purposes but again I don’t know of any time in our country’s histroy where UN folks have monitored our elections.
Pike, I think you need to consult your Dr. regarding a dosage increase/adjustment to your current meds. That last post was…..???
Here ya’ go, Hootie … a little something to soothe your chafed nerves:
http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/19/14556980-gop-registration-worker-charged-with-voter-fraud
You say you don’t know any time in our country’s history where UN folks have monitored our elections. That’s not all you don’t know.
And this from the article cited by Ben: “Voters in Virginia do not register by party so there is no way to know whether the recovered registration forms were from Democratic or Republican voters.” Interesting. I guess the suspect just knew the eight forms were for folks who intended to vote democrat.
Consider the following:
–> Community activist Lessadolla Sowers, convicted of 10 counts of voter fraud and was sentenced to five years for each count. http://www.tunicatimes.com/index.php?view=article&id=1176 She is a democrat and a NAACP official.
–> “”U.S. Says Blacks in Mississippi Suppress White Vote,”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/11/us/politics/11voting.html?_r=0 This is the Ike Brown of Noxubee County case. Ike Brown is a democrat and a party official. Here’s the link to the district court opinion (also reported at 494 F. Supp. 2d 440):
http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/vot/sec_2/noxubee_opinion.pdf
It was affirmed by the Fifth Circuit. Opinion at:
http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/07/07-60588-CV0.wpd.pdf
–> Voter fraud in Benton County, MS http://www.ago.state.ms.us/index.php/press/releases/grand_jury_returns_indictments_in_benton_county_voter_fraud_cases/
–> ACORN voter fraud in Nevada, http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/08/10/judge-gives-maximum-and-fines-acorn-5000-for-illegal-voter-registration-scheme/
–> Here’s a dandy – Wendy Rosen, a democrat candidate for congress, had to drop out of a race in Maryland for voting in two states. Yikes! http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/maryland-politics/post/maryland-democrat-quits-congressional-race-amid-vote-fraud-allegations/2012/09/10/d0ff9b1e-fb73-11e1-b2af-1f7d12fe907a_blog.html
–> JPH’s post about his experience with voter fraud and how the fraud was always for the benefit of democrats.
–> And to top it all off, how about the Pat Moran video at:
http://blogs.cbn.com/thebrodyfile/archive/2012/10/24/new-undercover-video-did-congressmans-son-commit-voter-fraud.aspx
Now, what’s the common feature? All the offenders are democrats. I find that interesting.
Nothing is wrong with cleaning up the voter rolls and making regulations for accuracy…even if it has an obvious political motivation. We need to revolutionize our election system so the major parties don’t divvy up the congressional or legislative districts among themselves. The arrogance of the major political parties has created a rigid system that increases citizen apathy. Proportional voting systems create more political freedom and a healthy democratic ferment.
If there is a substantive difference between “observe” and “monitor” in this context, I don’t know what it is. Am I supposed to accept that a foreign group’s finding of voter suppression would be less credible than the same finding from an American — and more likely partisan — group? Am I supposed to believe too that if these nefarious observer-monitors come away saying they see no evidence of voter suppression that the pro-ID faction of this blog will not hoot and holler about that finding like they wanted these people here all along? And that if they do report evidence of suppression they’ll be denounced as agents of the global conspiracy to replace the U.S. Constitution with the UN Charter, with which Barack Obama sympathizes, if not actively enables? All the opinions and reactions of people who gulp down these right-wing fantasies of oppression are pre-determined. I should have my head checked for even arguing against it.
The group that is supposedly coming to observe/monitor this election is not a subsidiary or agency of the UN, not that it should make any difference.
JTF, Hootie D. had no problem responding coherently to my post, so don’t go blaming your poor reading comprehension skills on me or my medicine cabinet.
Pike I’ll admit my last remark was a little off the cuff. The moderator must have been asleep because I immediately asked for it to be removed. Let’s just stick to gentlemens rules and argue the facts and not personally attack when there is no defending the obvious.
Pike is right on the foreign observers thing. The observers are coming from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), an organization affiliated with the UN, but they’re not coming from the UN. The task and purpose of the observers is no different than on prior visits. That is, they’re not going to be policing polling sites. Might they be exposed to ballot challenge procedures and the like? Perhaps. Will they be reporting back to the UN as if the UN has anything to do with our election procedures? No. They’re looking for best practices in order to export those practices with security sector reform activities in less developed countries. Frankly, I doubt the observers will be very sympathetic to the voter ID = suppression argument.
Thank you, John. Thank you, Pike. It was fun dropping hot clinkers down a few tightly wadded sets of drawers. They still don’t get it. Or don’t admit getting it.
Whoa. Stop the presses. Or restart the presses. Just when you think we’ve flogged this topic like a rented mule, along comes this:
http://www.ukprogressive.co.uk/breaking-retired-nsa-analyst-proves-gop-is-stealing-elections/article20598.html#.UImSAgo5KH8.twitter
Now we gotta start all over again. Again.
Hootie up. JTF up. JPH up. What will we do? What will we do?
“President Obama won by such a huge margin in 2008 that even with this anomaly built into the system, he cruised to victory. This year the election is much closer. Can American democracy afford yet another election crisis placing three of the four last national Presidential election results in question or worse: The outcome was stolen, the outcome a victim of election theft?”
I think not!
Good catch, Ben! I have been wondering how we were doing that.
Funny thing about the UKProgressive article about vote machine rigging is that they didn’t seem to have done the proper statistical analysis of the data.
As you add more data into a set of averages, you expect bigger batches to bring the data closer to the final average, so their little charts aren’t really surprising, and don’t prove anything.
If you sort the data the opposite way, larger to smaller precincts (I did), you get exactly the opposite effect: it “shows” that, in the smaller precincts, people were stealing votes from Romney and giving them to the other candidates!
The proper statistical analysis that needs to be done is to analyze the percentage votes for each candidate as a function of precinct size, to see if they are randomly distributed, or whether any candidate’s percent count depends upon the precinct size. You could do this with an Analysis of Variance or Co-varience, and develop a multi-linear regression model of the data as a function of precinct size, and see what the correlation factors are.
The article doesn’t indicate that they did this.
But even if you proved that Republicans perform better in large precinct, what would you have shown? You’d need to adjust for a host of other factors first, before you could conclude it was due to vote rigging.
Voting machines can certainly be hacked – that’s been very well proven. As a software developer, I opposed them from the get-go. We should count paper ballots – of course, they can be stuffed as well!
But the problem with electronic machines is that nobody is allowed to inspect the mechanism. That removes the ability to audit the outcome.
I think it much more likely that smaller local races will be stolen by hacked voting machines than that it will happen on a state-wide or national scale.
In answer to the shallow quip “If you have nothing to hide then why worry?” or its variants see: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=998565
“The deeper problem with the nothing to hide argument is that it myopically views privacy as a form of concealment or secrecy.”
Nature Lover