Originally Posted By Darkbeer <a href="http://www.myeyewitnessnews.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=0cf8658d-0f3f-41e5-8efc-de22466dd22d" target="_blank">http://www.myeyewitnessnews.co m/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=0cf8658d-0f3f-41e5-8efc-de22466dd22d</a> >>Investigators with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the Tunica County Sheriff's Department are trying to determine who is responsible for illegally mailing several fraudulent absentee ballots for elections held Tuesday, August 7, 2007. Officials say of the 301 absentee ballots about 30% are a fraudulent. The sheriff's department investigation revealed many of the ballots in question had the names of people who were deceased or no longer living in the county. Investigators with the MBI Crime Lab tested the questionable ballots for fingerprints and other DNA, at the Tunica County Justice Courthouse, in hopes of matching their results to the person responsible for mailing those absentee ballots. Officials say they don't know if the person who did it was trying to influence a particular race in the election. Tunica County Sheriff K.C. Hamp says the next step will be to send the absentee ballots to a state crime lab for analysis. << Time to clean up the voter rools, and require ID's to prove who you are to vote. Also switch from absentee ballots to early voting at selected locations, such as Shopping malls, community centers, etc to help cut down on fraud and being able to sell your ballot to someone else.
Originally Posted By Darkbeer More reasons why Absentee Ballots should be the ballot of LAST resort, instead of one of the most popular ways to vote... <a href="http://www.votelaw.com/blog/archives/005377.html" target="_blank">http://www.votelaw.com/blog/ar chives/005377.html</a> >>Alabama: candidate arrested for absentee voter fraud The Mobile Press Register reports: Darren Lee Flott, a one-time candidate for Alabama House District 98, and Angie Corine Green, an activities director for a nursing home, were both arrested and charged with voter fraud Thursday, Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson Jr. announced. The pair exploited a host of nursing-home patients, Tyson alleged in a news conference held in his offices at Mobile Government Plaza. Those taken advantage of were elderly and infirm men and women, who, at the time the ballots were cast in their names, were either "comatose" or "otherwise unable to communicate" their voting preferences, Tyson said. ... The charges stem from a July 2006 Democratic runoff election, in which Flott was first announced the winner of the Prichard area House seat. But that was voided after the results were protested by now-sitting Rep. James Gordon.<<
Originally Posted By Darkbeer <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2136776/" target="_blank">http://www.slate.com/id/213677 6/</a> >>There is also plenty of evidence of absentee-ballot fraud. Consider the facts of United States v. McCranie, a case in which supporters of opposing candidates for sheriff in Dodge County, Ga., "actually set up tables inside the courthouse at opposite ends of the hall, where supporters on both sides openly bid against each other to buy absentee votes." But most voter-identification laws do not require proof of identity when casting an absentee ballot, either.<<
Originally Posted By Darkbeer <a href="http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/Publications/voter_fraud.asp" target="_blank">http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/Pu blications/voter_fraud.asp</a> >>MIAMI, November, 1997, Mayoral Elections. This case is still active and details of the investigation cannot be revealed. However, the basic allegations of election misconduct are known and can be generally discussed. The primary allegation is that absentee ballots were being made available for sale and that absentee ballots were being purchased by person(s) supporting one or more candidates in the election. By reason of the investigation into the specific allegations that surfaced, FDLE determined there appeared to be widespread absentee ballot voter fraud in the City elections. The types of absentee ballot voter fraud alleged to have occurred include: Someone voting on behalf of someone else. The purchasing or selling of absentee ballots or another's vote. Non-City of Miami residents voting. Changing of ballots. False statements or information being provided with regard to address information or changes of addresses on voter registrations. Possible use of certain addresses within the City limits as the "new address" for persons not residing within the City; done with the apparent sole purpose of permitting voting in the municipal election. Voting by absentee ballots under the name of deceased persons. Voting in the election by non-U.S. citizens.<<
Originally Posted By Darkbeer <a href="http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n11_v48/ai_18399432" target="_blank">http://findarticles.com/p/arti cles/mi_m1282/is_n11_v48/ai_18399432</a> >>Vote fraud used to be a crude tool ofmachine politicos. Now it is skillfully engineered by liberal reformers. ON ELECTION day, five men show up at a post office carrying luggage. Their bags are stuffed with 1,100 ballots, which will constitute 20 per cent of the vote cast that day. Some of the ballots have probably been filled out by the men themselves; others have been wrung from voters under the threat that they will lose their government benefits if they don't go along. The fraudulent ballots will help maintain in power a corrupt elite that regularly manipulates elections to its advantage no matter how people vote at the polls. Is the scene Guatemala? Honduras? Almost. In destitute Greene County, Alabama, democracy is practiced strictly Third World - style by the local black Democratic machine. ''Races are being stolen here, there's no two ways about it,'' says Leewanna Parker, editor of the local Greene County Independent. Absentee ballots should, according to the Alabama Secretary of State, account for about 3 to 4 per cent of all votes cast (only the physically infirm and persons who will be out of town on election day are eligible to vote absentee). But in 1994 in Greene County 34 per cent of all ballots were cast absentee. Besides the post-office incident, a local watchdog group attests to absentee ballots being stolen from people's mail-boxes, voters being threatened with the loss of their public assistance, and batches of absentee ballots being sent to local Democratic officials. It all paid off. The chairman of the Greene County Commission, who otherwise would have had a tough race with an anti-machine challenger, won re-election handily, with 50 per cent of his votes cast absentee. Forget sending envoys to Haiti, local activist Pam Montgomery remembers thinking. ''They ought to send them here.''<< >>In a notorious 1993 case in Philadelphia, Republican Bruce Marks ran against Democrat William Stinson in a race that would decide control of the Pennsylvania State Senate. Marks won at the polls by about 550 votes, but Stinson won overall with a 1,396 to 371 edge in absentee ballots. The Stinson campaign had gone into minority areas with absentee-ballot applications, falsely telling residents that they could vote absentee as a convenience. The campaign took the resulting 1,000 applications to the board of elections, the Democratic members of which improperly gave the applied-for ballots directly to the Stinson people. Campaign workers took the ballots back to the voters and talked them into voting for their candidate, or else simply filled out the ballot themselves. A federal judge awarded the election to Marks.<<
