Puppy Poll: Woman Registers Dog To Vote - Plea Deal Gets $250 Fine

[The Straight Story]

Puppy Poll: Woman Registers Dog To Vote
Plea Deal Gets $250 Fine, Community Service

It may have been a quiet protest, but signing up her dog to vote still landed a 66-year-old Washington woman in court.

After facing a possible 90 days behind bars, Jane Balogh agreed to a deal to keep herself out of jail.

She registered her Australian shepherd-terrier mix, Duncan M. McDonald, to vote last year by putting her telephone bill in the dog's name and using it as ID. She said she was protesting a change in the law she believes makes it too easy for noncitizens to vote.

In November, she wrote "VOID" across the ballot and signed it with an image of a paw print.

The judge said a charge of making false of misleading statements will be removed from her record if she completes 10 hours of community service, pays a $250 fine and keeps in line with the law for a year.

http://www.local6.com/spotlight/14058659/detail.html

[SallyMander]

1. i trust my dog's judgment

more than many American voters... about 29% of 'em anyway... ;-)

[goddess40]

2. No intent to cast a real vote

what she did was illegal but since she didn't try to actually use it to cast a vote. I think they should take her point about it being too easy to register and make reasonable changes accordingly.

[silverweb]

3. That makes too much sense!

n/t

[sandnsea]

6. She broke the law and got caught

So I guess it wasn't so easy after all. If she'd voted and gotten caught, the penalties would have been even higher. Breaking the law only proves there are criminals in the world.

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. The only reason she was caught was by voluntarily exposing

the fraud. The dog was in the system. She could have just as easily voted with that ballot.

She may have been unnecessarily worried about 'illegal aliens' voting, but by the same token repukes could be voting their dogs.

$250 is a small price to pay for voting integrity. They should take her example to heart.

[sandnsea]

8. Could she?

Being registered isn't the same thing as showing up to vote. This is what the right wing says the left does in order to disenfranchise voters.

[RaleighNCDUer]

10. It would depend on what controls they have on absentee ballots.

It may well be that if it was mailed in, it would be flagged because of there being no prior voting record under that name and thus exposed; or maybe not.

I know this pales in comparison to republican vote fraud, even without getting into blackbox voting, but it does expose a potential legitimate vulnerability in the system. The republicans, of course, would fix this and claim it is ALL fixed, while using this to disenfranchise voters across the board.

It comes with the huge expansion of absentee ballots across the country. Me, I'll never vote absentee except in dire circumstances - I'll stand in line for hours just to be sure that my ballot goes into that box by my own hand -- we don't have touchscreen voting here, at least not yet.

[NV Whino]

4. I tell ya, the world is going to the dogs.

Or, given that most of the candidates are dogs, it makes perfect sense to register your canine to vote.

[MadHound]

5. Geez, government agencies no longer have a sense of humor anymore

Hell, I included my cats in the 1980 census account, and all they did was send somebody around to doublecheck and correct the file.

[Captain Hilts]

9. Serves her right if he wasn't 18. When Mr Peabody - a cat - turned 18

I told the vet the registrar of Va. Beach might call to verify his age. She said, "Hell, I'll vote for him."

[QueenOfCalifornia]

11. Which Party?

I mean -- was the dog a registered Re-PUG-lickn'



Or a Dem-O-Scratch?

:rofl:
:rofl: