Election Crime

A bunch of election fraud blogs have popped up in individual states. Here's a great one from Iowa with a great story. In this case, fraudulent voter registration led to an absentee ballot being sent to one of the fake people ... in Rome:

A concerned citizen from Sioux City, IA made a trip to her auditor's office last week to inquire into some political mailings her family kept receiving. She discovered that several individuals unknown to her or her family had registered to vote using their address in 2004. Even more concerning is the fact that one of these folks, (Iowans love this word) Mr. David Loepp, had already requested and recieved his 2008 absentee ballot via international mail in ROME. Voter fraud in Iowa? Never!

Note that this fake person who doesn't exist signed an request form for the ballot. Click through to see the application and see the signature.

So we know that fake people are registering to vote, via the AP:

The stories are almost comical: Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, registered to vote on Nov. 4. The entire starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys football team, signed up to go the polls — in Nevada.

We know that sometimes, fake people vote fraudulently (note that it was by absentee. Hard to vote as Mickey Mouse in person, but it is really easy by absentee):

Republicans released details for 10 of those votes. The registration cards that were filled out had no social security numbers, drivers license numbers or birthdates for the voters.

We know that sometimes, fake people give to campaigns fraudulently.

Two thoughts. The first is that there should be accountability for this. As Patrick  just noted, Barack Obama raised $150m last month, and only half of that money is disclosed. Now, I seriously doubt that Obama's campaign is engaged in fraud. But they seem  uninterested in identifying it.

They should, like the McCain campaign, put all that information online, regardless of how much was given, including all the information about address, employer, etc. It's not that hard. They have the technology to do it. When he is getting $75m in a month from sources that are not publically identified, that's a problem. In theory, these are all different people, but given the possibility for fraud (temporary credit card numbers can make it even harder to check), this does create yet another kind of crisis of legitimacy surrounding this election.

Second,  Obama has destroyed the public financing system, handing conservatives a win on the policy, even if a substantial loss on the politics. Democrats said Republicans would do it, but they did. This is a good thing, long-term, and it should be replaced by full-disclosure of contributions within 24 hours of receipt of the donation. The easiest thing in the world with today's technology. And it would allow individuals, groups, and the press to address the legitimacy issues in Obama's donations (and others in the future).

Fox is covering the voting issues in OH:

Transcript after the jump:

Given the things going on in Ohio over the next couple of days, perhaps Barack Obama shouldn't be comparing the Ohio election process to the Chicago machine:

Transcript:

SUPPORTER 5: i would like to know what you can say to reassure us that this election will not be rigged or stolen? [applause] -- or stolen? [applause]

SEN. OBAMA: it helps in Ohio that we have democrats in charge of the machines.  but, look, i come from chicago. some want to be honest, it is not as if it is just republicans who have monkeyed around with elections in the past. sometimes democrats have, too.

Turns out that there's even some overlap between the Chicago and Ohio machines:

"Who are you voting for?" I asked another homeless man. "Baraaaack," he replied. "I want him to do his thang, you know, do his THUG THIZZLE, you know..."

As I started interviewing the homeless men, it became clear that their "buddies" who drove them to the polls were pushing quite an agenda. The homeless guys were being bribed with rides, food, and who-knows-what to go "vote."

My new THUG-THIZZLE friend told me that he wasn't even from Ohio and that he was getting on a Greyhound to go back to Chicago. Yet he was voting in one of the key battleground states? How was that fair?

And how was he going to get to the Greyhound station? His "friend" that had brought him to the poll promised to take him wherever he wanted... the only problem was, his friend appeared to be long gone.

At this point, I was disgusted that the organizations seemed to be exploiting the homeless. But I was even more disgusted when they flat out admitted it.

Early voting is taking place in Ohio. Through the end of the week, people can register and vote on the same day. The Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner argues that they are merely "casting their ballot" rather than "voting" so the fact that Ohio statute requires 30 days between registering and voting would not interfere.

 So here is what is happening today. People are showing up to register and vote. There is no affirmative evidence that these people have not registered or voted somewhere else. There is no control. Normally in an election, partisan election monitors are allowed into polling places so that they can police each other. But not in two counties, Franklin and Montgomery, in Ohio. Brunner also issued an advisory opinion to counties saying that they are not required to allow election monitors. Watch an election observer be turned away.

Now if you want to see what is actually happening on the ground? This video shows interviews with people who are voting in Franklin County, where Republican election monitors are not being allowed into polling places.

 My favorite is the quote:

It's a perfect opportunity for them to come in, register at a temporary address like a homeless shelter or a YMCA or something like that. They can register at that address because they don't know where they're going to be tomorrow or next week."

The registrar also doesn't know where they will be. And there is nothing stopping that person from registering at a different location tomorrow (or later today).

Note that Brunner cannot be said to be simply trying to protect the franchise. After all, she directed county officials to discard absentee ballot applications. These are just partisan hacks interested in winning elections. If that means stealing votes... I wonder how much that bothers her?

Election Journal is building up to be one of the great success stories of the online right. It documents how elections actually take place on the ground, the reality of which many liberals deny. Yesterday, they went to Atlantic City. They documented a Democratic Ward leader who was physically assaulted by a Democratic operative, had absentee ballots stolen from his hands by another Democratic operative, and impersonated. Having grown up in Chicago adn seen Philadelphia elections up close, I can assure you that there is the standard modus operandi in many cities. Watch the story here:

Only by documenting these things will we ever stop Democratic election crime (violence, bribery, etc.) This is exactly the sort of things that we need to be doing more of.