The Vote Fraud Cannard

A lot of outlets didn’t run with the Kirk audio for good reason–I couldn’t provide many details about the recording so they chose not to go with it. I fully understand and frankly if I hadn’t been able to confirm details I would have done the same.  However, it’s a bit much to give ABC 7 credit (something ABC 7 didn’t do) for breaking the audio—looking at you Huffington Post.

ABC 7  have confirmed the tape is authentic with the Kirk Campaign.

Giannoulias’ campaign has released a list of Republican vote fraud cases over the last few years.  An excerpt:

Voter intimidation in Virginia and New Mexico: In 2006, Virginia legally qualified and registered voters received calls from people claiming to be working for the Board of Elections or Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jim Webb’s campaign telling them that they were ineligible to vote, their polling place had changed or giving incorrect dates for the election.  [CNN, 11/7/06]  In 2008 the New Mexico GOP sent private investigators to the homes of Hispanic voters to determine whether they were eligible to vote.  [New Mexico Independent, 10/23/08]

Republicans sent to jail for phone jamming: In 2002, Republican Congressman John Sununu won the U.S. Senate race in New Hampshire by just a few points over Governor Jeanne Shaheen after the state GOP hired a Republican firm to jam the Democrats’ GOTV phonebanking efforts on election day.  The Republican culprits were ultimately caught and sent to jail, but John Sununu was still sworn in as Senator anyway.  [Washington Post, 5/17/06]

Illegally purging qualified voters from the registration rolls: In 2004, in several states, most notably Ohio, the RNC orchestrated “voter caging,” the proven unreliable practice of purging voters from the rolls after attempting to send mail to their residences and having it returned.  Republicans used voter caging to challenge the eligibility of tens thousands of voters in urban, heavily Democratic areas.  [Washington Post, 10/29/04; Brennan Center for Justice, 6/29/07]  In 2008, Colorado Republican Secretary of State Mike Coffman was sued for purging 16,000 to 30,000 names off of the voter rolls for reasons including confirmation mail being undeliverable.  Many of the names were removed within the 90-day period protected by the National Voting Rights Act.  [Colorado Independent, 10/26/08]  Also in 2008, Montana’s lieutenant governor Republican John Bohlinger lashed out at the state GOP for a scheme to purge thousands of voters from Democratic-leaning counties, and called for the removal of the policies and the people responsible.  Voters targeted for the purge even included decorated veterans, members of the law enforcement and senior citizens, just because they lived in blue counties.  [John Bohlinger Op-Ed, Montana Standard, 10/4/08]

As I pointed out, most of the vote fraud today isn’t double voting or such, but tied to different forms:

• Voter Registration fraud linked to voter registration efforts where individuals are paid by the signature and fake signatures to get paid (i.e. Mickey Mouse).  This is almost always caught by local election authorities and even if it isn’t–someone has to produce an ID of somesort along the way. While you don’t have to produce ID at the polling place, you do before then or if it’s your first time voting.
• Absentee ballot fraud–I mentioned this the other day and provided some examples
• Voter intimidation–note, you actually have to intimidate someone and having the assclowns from the New Black Panther party at a black precinct is stupid and silly, but not intimidation
• Phone jamming and other forms of interference with other campaigns
• Purging voter rolls illegally

I’m sympathetic to saying not all election fraud is by one party, but the ongoing effort to claim large scale fraud at polling places is a joke and has no evidence to support it.

Placing poll watchers is an age old practice and legitimate, but to target black areas to the degree as Mark Kirk announced he was doing is both unproductive given that’s not were fraud happens and telling that the concern is about minority voters and precincts.  Putting people in place to object to voters in areas that are heavily minority is entirely predictable and terribly depressing.  If one believes in rationality of political actors, it makes no sense unless you are trying to do something else.

Freudian slips of jiggering are, of course, English, but also hysterically funny.