Here's how the Repugs padded the Absentee Ballots!

[DoYouEverWonder]

Election chief warns of absentee scam

People posing as election officials are visiting residents of several counties and offering to take absentee ballots.


October 22, 2004

Pasco elections officials have a warning for the county's absentee voters: Don't give your ballot to a stranger claiming to be from the elections office.

They're not who they say they are.

"The people who are soliciting your ballots in this manner are not elections officials," Pasco Elections Supervisor Kurt Browning warned Thursday.

The warning came after a phone call from a west Pasco woman. Other Florida counties have gotten similar complaints.

"We've had a bunch of them - 100 at least," said Bob Sweat, elections supervisor for Manatee County. "It's probably going on all over the state of Florida."

The Pasco woman said someone came to her home to collect her absentee ballot earlier this week. She said she was led to believe they were from the elections office. The woman told the strangers she hadn't completed the ballot, but they took it anyway.

The deception is the latest sign of the lengths to which some partisans appear ready to go in this election. Elections officials worry there will be many more complaints of overly aggressive behavior in attempts to affect the outcome of the presidential race.

<snip>

In Manatee, there have been numerous complaints, and the Sheriff's Office is investigating.

Manatee Elections Supervisor Sweat said the people collecting the ballots appeared to know exactly who had absentee ballots. It is possible for political parties, candidates and political groups to get lists of voters who request the absentee ballots.


http://www.sptimes.com/2004/10/22/Pasco/Election_chief_warns_.shtml


This is the first I've heard about this scam. But according to this story it was probably happening all over the state.


Here's a link to the totals from the counties that report totals for ABS and EV ballots.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=116260

[truehawk]

1. Kick

[NVMojo]

2. it really does appear as if the angles to feck up the vote in this past

election are never ending ..

[Old and In the Way]

4. If Republicans spent 1/10 of the time working to do the people's business

as they seem to put into stealing elections....they might actually win elections on merit.

[bunny planet]

10. absof**ckinglutely!

[bunny planet]

11. Oh and

Kick.:kick:

[Paradise]

3. kick! n/t

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. Here's more - Absentee Votes Worry Officials as Nov. 2 Nears

September 13, 2004

As both major political parties intensify their efforts to promote absentee balloting as a way to lock up votes in the presidential race, election officials say they are struggling to cope with coercive tactics and fraudulent vote-gathering involving absentee ballots that have undermined local races across the country.

Some of those officials say they are worried that the brashness of the schemes and the extent to which critical swing states have allowed party operatives to involve themselves in absentee voting - from handling ballot applications to helping voters fill out their ballots - could taint the general election in November.

<snip>

"Everybody was worried about the chads in the 2000 election,'' said Damon H. Slone, a former West Virginia election fraud investigator, "when in fact by loosening up the restrictions on absentee voting they have opened up more chances for fraud to be done than what legitimate mistakes were made in Florida."



http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/13/politics/campaign/13vote.html?ex=1102482000&en=591c9f6b42ea0c32&ei=5070&oref=login&hp

[Tace]

6. It Would Seem That This "Irregularity" Can Be Investigated And Followed...

up upon.

1. Check who was mailed absentee ballots.

2. Check if they are registered as Democrat or Republican.

2. Call or visit to determine if their ballot was picked up, and if so, whom they voted for.


This should find:

1. Whose ballots were picked up (Reps or Dems).

2. Whether the ballots were trashed or cast, possibly for a different candidate.

3. Which party is favored by this tactic.

Seems pretty cut and dry. One county would be enough to start.

Upon reflection, however, the cat was out of the bag Oct. 22. I doubt the perpetrators would follow through once the MSM and Country Sheriff got involved. But, simply seeing whose ballots were picked up could show who was likely behind this.

And upon further reflection, this whole thing seems like an easy way to paint one's opponent as the fraudster. At this point, Bushco could lose a million popular votes nationwide (in certain states), hang fraud on Kerry, and still win the election.

Dang, I hate this stuff.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. kick

[DoYouEverWonder]

8. Here's more in MI & OH - Campaign workers suspected of fraud

Voter-registration problems probed

September 23, 2004

Overzealous or unscrupulous campaign workers in several Michigan counties are under investigation for voter-registration fraud, suspected of attempting to register nonexistent people or forging applications for already-registered voters, election and law enforcement officials said Wednesday.

<snip>

State Elections Director Christopher Thomas said he hoped criminal prosecutions would result. Thomas, who has held his post for more than 20 years, said the scale of voter-registration drives this year and the irregularities were like nothing he had seen before.

<snip>

Representatives from two groups whose workers have submitted apparently-fraudulent applications -- the Public Interest Research Group in Michigan (PIRGIM) and Project Vote -- downplayed the issue Wednesday, insisting that it involved only a handful of workers and a limited number of registrations.

David Leland, national director of Project Vote, said fewer than 100 of the thousands of applications his group has collected in Detroit, Pontiac and other four other urban centers had been identified as fraudulent.

<snip>

There have been scattered reports of similar voter-registration problems from around the country. The Project Vote office in Ohio fired two workers earlier this year for submitting bogus voter applications.

http://www.freep.com/news/mich/register23e_20040923.htm

[liquiduniverse]

9. Seems that the GOP was eager to push absentee ballots in Florida

Sorry the article is too old to give the full text

From the July 30, 2004 Florida Sun Sentinal

GOP APOLOGIZES OVER VOTING FLIER GLOSSY MAILER WARNS AGAINST TOUCH- SCREENS

An embarrassed state Republican Party apologized Thursday for a GOP campaign brochure that urged voters to use absentee ballots, undermining efforts by Gov. Jeb Bush and Secretary of State Glenda Hood to inspire confidence in new touch-screen voting machines.

A synopsis/opinion relating to the article can be found here - http://www.democracymeansyou.com/articles/article.php?ID=89