Thousands of new-voter cards in Ohio undeliverable

[Judi Lynn]

Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Thousands of new-voter cards in Ohio undeliverable


By Jim Siegel
Enquirer Columbus Bureau


COLUMBUS - Thousands of cards mailed by county election boards to newly registered voters in Hamilton County and throughout the state are being returned because the people can't be found.

John Williams, director of the Hamilton County Board of Elections, said the situation indicates that there might not be as many new voters as some expect in a state deemed crucial in the presidential election.

Ohio Republican Party Chairman Robert Bennett on Tuesday said it's a result of statewide registration fraud conducted by independent groups that support Democratic candidates.

"By most accounts, their work can only be considered sloppy, haphazard and, in some cases, downright illegal," Bennett said, noting that the state party plans to take out full-page ads in Ohio newspapers encouraging citizens to stop voter fraud.
(snip/...)

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/10/20/loc_fraud20.html

[gavodotcom]

Thanks Ralph :-)

All the more reason to believe you when you say that two party politics is baaaad for democracy.

Who do you think screwed up the Democratic response in this article; the reporter or Trevas?

[gavodotcom]

1. Dupe, I'm dumb.

I'm dumb.

[juliagoolia]

2. well they just need to make sure the folks that vote

have a card, or id with an addy on it.. simple to do that..

I can see Roves tricks.. we take Ohio and he claims fraud. Don't be surprised if he sets it up to look like we did this.

[sandnsea]

3. yes they are

There was an article here earlier about Rove and elections for judges in Alabama, I think. In 1994. It was the 2000 election, right down the line. They litigated that election for a year until the Republican finally won. The first step is to plant the seeds of voter fraud in the minds of the people. That's exactly what they're doing. Despicable.

[Bandit]

7. The seeds for voter fraud were planted in my mind long before this

I know there will be fraud. Probably from both sides but I expect it to be very heavy on the Republican side. We need to document everything we can. Everyone bring video equipment and be prepared to film. They have been planning this for a long time but they have a proven record of incompetence so they will make mistakes. We need to be there to record those mistakes.

[VolcanoJen]

4. Also, note the way BoE Chair John Williams subtly discourages new voters.

The same John Williams who was soon-to-be-former prosecutor Mike Allen's lackey?

They're trying to supress and contain the momentum. It's hard to defend a president who hasn't visited your electoral-rich state in three weeks, during the absolute apex of the campaign season.

[countmyvote4real]

5. The end of the article is very telling for the reporter's POV

It ends with an unidentified quote that might be a continuation from a quote by former Enron lobbyist and current chairman of the Republican National Committee, but who can tell?

"I'll bet you this. If Mary Poppins and Dick Tracy vote on Election Day, they'll vote for John Kerry."

Thank you, Jim Siegel, for your “unfiltered” POV. This reporter probably intends to paint Democratic registrations as fraud, but I think he prefers to believe that we aren’t real. After all, how could anybody want to seriously vote against the double speak policies of our very own, Supreme Court appointed/anointed “Dear Leader?”

Go figure and go vote otherwise.

[saracat]

8. I wrote the bastard and told him that I thought

he diminished the whole issue of election fraud through the insertion of his own partisan politcal beliefs at the end of the article!

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. It's a set up so the Repubs can scream 'fraud!' after the election.

Did some of the registration workers cheat, being paid by the number of new names they came up with? Probably. In Bush's economy, every little bit helps. Will it make a difference? No. Registrations are not votes. Undeliverable registrations are not even registrations. They don't count for shit.

These were not people registering fraudulant names, to be followed up with fraudulant votes. These were underemployed individuals in a bad economy trying to pad their checks a little. Ethical? No. Illegal? Probably. Voter fraud. Definitely not.

On the other hand, a misplaced, transposed digit on a zip code by a Republican election board worker would have a legitimate Democrat registration returned as 'Address not found', and the voter would wind up not on the voter lists. Has anyone looked to see if this has happened?

[saracat]

9. My Email to Seigel and My Reponse from Seigel

Dear Mr. Siegel,
I am extremely offended that you were unable to suppress your own point of view in the reporting of your article on election fraud. Your tasteless remark about Mary Poppins or Dick Tracy voting Democratic on election day lends doubt to the veracity of your reporting. Election fraud may well be one of the most crucial issues facing this country and for you to diminish its importance through the insertion of your own partisan beliefs in a report concerning this issue is deplorable.





I'm sorry you feel that way, but I assure you, I take very seriously the issue of election fraud regardless of who is making the claim. I did not come up with the remark about Mary Poppins and Dick Tracy. Those were false names actually submitted in Defiance County, and the quote you referred to is from Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie. His point was that if people are going to try to vote under false names, they are probably going to be Kerry supporters.

Jim

P. S. You will notice he never denies his partisan viewoint!

[leesa]

10. I would suspect this is another Republican tactic to

generate the old "they do it too" defense. This works very well for them. I don't believe for a second that it was the Dems doing it. The Republicans are simply dirty fighters and this is more of the same. Don't be fooled. In a few days it will come out that it was RNC based.

[yardwork]

11. The Ohio Secretary of State is a rat-fink

This is the second or third attempt in Ohio to suppress new voter registrations. A month ago he tried the "your registration isn't valid unless it is on the right kind of paper" approach.

[bagnana]

12. this is crapola

(1) The dems in Ohio signed up, I understand, over 100,000 new registrants. It is statistically probable there would be a number of address errors when such an effort is made.

(2) also, it is statistically probable that a number of the addresses provided would be inaccurate as people might have moved and failed to provide a forwarding address.

(3) also, the comment re: Dick Tracey or Mary Poppins is bullshit. Paying someone based upon the number of registration forms they submit and ending up with fake names is very different from allowing fake people to vote. If dems paid people for registrations and ended up with fake ones then the dems got snookered, period. You will need an id to vote and if Dick Tracey or Mary Poppins show up then chances are that is their real freaking names!

Is this the same Jim Seigle from "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me?" If so then I have news for him as well: "YOUR SHOW SUCKS!"

[donkeyotay]

13. Being fairly unbalanced has become completely normal

Buried deeply and sandwiched in the GOP message that dems (as they continue to call us) are furtive, untrustworthy, vote-stealing crooks we find:

Tim Burke, chairman of the Hamilton County Democratic Party and the county elections board, said an updated number of cards returned is 5,808 out of 150,000 mailed not only to new voters, but also to those changing addresses, for a return rate of less than 4 percent.

Burke said fraud makes up a small percentage of the hundreds of thousands of newly registered voters in Ohio.

"I think Republicans are attempting to justify what they intend to do on Election Day by raising questions of voter fraud and overplaying this," he said.


It hardly surprises me that people desperate for a buck would take part in this opportunity. The fact that there was some opportunism in the land of opportunity doesn't mean the sky is falling.

[coreystone]

14. I guess I am assuming that the cards were sent

out First Class Mail via the USPS.

"Newly registered voters in Hamilton County are mailed a card telling them where to vote and what political districts they live in. But thousands of those cards were returned because the people, or the addresses listed on voter registration forms, couldn't be found.

"There is quite a number," Williams said, noting that not every returned card is a suspected case of fraud. 'People do actually move.' "

Within the Postal Service there are different types of what are called "Ancillary Endorsements". If none of these endorsements were printed on the cards which were sent, any of "addresses" of those cards with a valid "Change of Address" would be forwarded to that addressee. If the endorsement "Address Service Requested" was used, the card would be "forwarded" to the addressee, and, a notification of the given change would be returned to the "sender". If the endorsement "Change Service Requested" was printed on the card, then the card would not be forwarded, and, returned to the sender with the new address information which had been filed by the addressee with the USPS. There are others, but, these seems to be the most relevant for any of the cards which were sent to people who had moved; "Williams said.......'People do actually move.' "

The point being, that if someone legitamately registered, then moved (even within the same "voting district") they may not even be aware that there could be a possibility that upon election day that they would be denied to vote.

So! How were the cards sent??