Liberal Democrat Vote Fraud

We all saw the results of the 2000 American election. This time, I'm personally going to fight back in the only way that I can, with a blog that documents as many news reports about Democrat fraud as I can.

Name:
Location: Iowa, United States

Dean has been a professional computer consultant for almost 25 years, serving the Unix/Linux and various programming markets.

Saturday, November 06, 2004

Vandals Hit GOP Headquarters in N.Carolina (AP)

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Vandals spray painted vulgar messages on the walls of the North Carolina Republican Party headquarters and left a burned effigy depicting President Bush and Sen. John Kerry, police said.

Authorities detained several suspects early Saturday, hours after the attacks took place Friday night, but had not filed any charges, police spokesman Jim Sughrue said.

A police officer reported Friday that about 100 people wearing masks and gloves were walking down a street near the headquarters, authorities said.

The Republican president won re-election Tuesday after a challenge by Kerry, a Democrat. John Edwards, who was Kerry's running mate, is a senator from North Carolina.


``This is not a political statement,'' Sughrue said. ``A political statement is what we made Tuesday. This is a crime.''


Police said at least two windows were broken and it appeared that the vandals tried to put incendiary devices inside of the building.


Friday, November 05, 2004

Buffalo News - Rocks shatter windows at GOP headquarters

11/5/2004

Large rocks were thrown through the plate glass windows of Erie County Republican Committee headquarters in the Statler Towers on Thursday morning. Party officials believe the vandalism is connected to the close 27th Congressional District race between Democrat Brian M. Higgins and Republican Nancy A. Naples.

Threatening phone calls had been made to party officials, according to Bradley J. Stamm, executive director for the GOP County Committee.

He said he sees a correlation between the vandalism and threats and the Naples campaign efforts to gain an accurate count of all voting machines and outstanding paper ballots in a race that she trails by nearly 4,000 votes.

Erie County Democratic Chairman Leonard R. Lenihan dismissed allegations of telephone threats to unnamed party members. 'That's political spin,' he said. 'There's been no phone threats by anyone.'

Republican officials are considering whether to assign extra security for those who were threatened, Stamm said.

'The calls threatened certain individuals,' Stamm said. 'I'm concerned for everybody's safety.' He would not specifically say who was threatened.


Sunday, October 31, 2004

KTKZ AM 1380 - Placer County Republican HQ's Burglarzied

10/31/2004 4:41:47 PM

personally visited the Placer Country Republican Headquarters today after hearing about a break-in overnight, Saturday into Sunday morning, at the location.

Placer County is the most Republican (registered voters) County in California, more than Orange County. An event like this has Republican workers shocked that it can happen in a community like Roseville, California and Placer County.

The vandals had to break into two separate doors to access the inner office of the complex. Then the vandals broke into the 'interior office complex door' by using a crow bar to pry open the door - doing damage to the lock.

The 'political thieves' had to choose between a dozen other doors inside of the complex's hallway. They obviously wanted to break into the Republican Headquarters. Leading many to believe this was all about the data (political speech attack) and not the merchandise.

The thieves stole 12 cell phones, a couple of laptop computers and the main computer containing a hard drive holding over 90,000 addresses, phone numbers and Republican data for tonight and tomorrow's GOTV drive."

MORE


The Kerry Spot - RENDELL RUNNING GET-OUT-THE-VOTE EFFORT IN PENNSYLVANIA PRISONS?

[10/29 03:53 PM]

Rep Curt Weldon, R-Pennsylvania, appearing on NRANews.com:

We have won first battle. The Governor finally relented allowed at least a 10 day extension for absentee ballots. We think it may take more, but 10 days better than none.

The governor took the a brochure to every prison warden in the state had to allow absentee ballots. This is the same governor didn�t want extension for our troops, but he wants to get out the vote in the prisons.

They system of weeding out ineligible voters was to ask the prisoners!

Weldon seeking federal injunctive lawsuit against these ballots, and seeking federal investigation.

Chances of resolving this are almost nil. They have been working on this for weeks, but we just got word of this last night.

No way it gets caught at local level - the listed address is their home address, not the prison, Weldon said.


Belleville News-Democrat | 10/30/2004 | Irregularities found in ESL registrations

Posted on Sat, Oct. 30, 2004

Irregularities found in ESL registrations

BY PATRICK J. POWERS

ppowers@bnd.com


A high number of absentee ballots and multiple names registered to the same address in East St. Louis are raising questions about the integrity of the election Tuesday, Illinois Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka said Friday.

During a news conference outside the East St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners office, Topinka highlighted suspicious cases. The cases were discovered by Illinois Republican Party members tracking absentee ballots in the Illinois Supreme Court race between Democrat Gordon Maag and Republican Lloyd Karmeier.

'There are questions that jump up and bite you on the nose,' said Topinka, who also serves as Illinois Republic Party chairman. 'This is not a Republican issue or a Democrat issue. This is an issue about fairness.'

It also was an issue quickly dismissed by East St. Louis Democrats.

'I don't have any concerns about voter fraud in East St. Louis,' said Charlie Powell, East St. Louis Democratic Committee chairman and 9th precinct committeeman. 'The Republicans are raising all this fuss to stymie the black voter in the black communities.'

One of the suspicious cases Topinka highlighted centered on Powell's own home.

'If I didn't think this was important, I wouldn't be here,' Topinka said.

Here are some of the findings:

• A total of 30 registered voters, most with different last names, are purported to live at 1232 Cleveland Ave. in East St. Louis. The address is registered to Oliver Hamilton, a Democrat and 20th precinct committeeman. Eleven of the voters requested absentee ballots for the election Tuesday. Hamilton couldn't be reached for comment.

• Of the 44 Democratic precinct committeemen in East St. Louis, 22 have at least three registered voters with different last names purporting to live at the committeemen's homes. Seven of those committeemen have five or more.

• One woman listed the Casino Queen, 200 S. Front St., as her home address. The same woman requested her absentee ballot be sent to a St. Louis address.

• At least 678 voters are registered for both East St. Louis and St. Clair County.

• At Powell's home, 1714 Bond Ave., 17 voters are registered. Of those, 14 cast ballots in the March primary election.


Aftenposten Norway, German claims to have voted in US election

A bureaucratic mix-up after getting a US drivers license while studying in South Carolina has gotten out of hand for a young German man. First he was told that was registed with the US military, then he received an absentee ballot for the 2004 presidential election.

'I tried to get out of it,' he said. Now studying in Oslo, the German citizen with a German passport wishes to remain anonymous, fearing reprisals from US authorities.

While studying in South Carolina in 1997 the man got a US driving license. Recently, while on a trip to the USA, he took the opportunity to renew his license and was told he was on military lists.

To clear up the misunderstanding he took his German passport and visa to the immigration office but was told that this didn't prove that he wasn't an American citizen - in fact, they assumed he must be one to be on the lists.

The German was then advised to register to vote - the system would then reveal that he was not on citizenship lists and the case would be solved. He asked for his vote to be sent to Europe, and expected the matter to end there.

But the absentee ballot arrived in the post and the German decided to vote for John Kerry. This may have been a big mistake.

'When they have me registered in the military then I should be able to vote,' he said.


Saturday, October 30, 2004

SF Gate - Loss of funds for voter outreach hits local groups

Vanessa Hua, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, October 30, 2004

Bay Area community groups say they have been forced to scale back voter-outreach plans after federal funds they hoped to receive became entangled in the controversy surrounding Secretary of State Kevin Shelley.

In late August, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration froze $17.5 million in federal voter funds until an audit determines whether Shelley properly spent previously distributed money. Shelley, a Democrat from San Francisco, has come under fire after he hired political allies and Democratic Party activists with some of the money.

After the presidential election debacle in Florida in 2000, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act to help states upgrade voting machines and conduct nonpartisan voter education.

About $6 million of the money that went to California was designated for voter education programs through 2006 for communities with historically low voter participation. More than 300 groups statewide applied to the secretary of state for the grants of up to $50,000.

In September, the secretary of state made requests for the release of funds for the voter education grants and other programs in time for Tuesday's election. A legislative committee approved $15.2 million to train poll workers and fund other measures -- but blocked the release of further funds pending a comprehensive spending plan from the secretary of state.

Many community organizations that had applied for the grants said they had to reduce or scrap their voter outreach plans -- and lamented the missed opportunity to mobilize people during a presidential election year, which attracts more interest by potential voters.

ACORN, which organizes low- and moderate-income families, slashed the number of precincts it will target in Contra Costa County from 50 to about 25 or 30. In those precincts, the group makes at least two visits, door-to-door, to get out the vote.


THE LEFT AND VOTER FRAUD

Fiedor Report On the News #323

10-31-04

Doug Fiedor

According to ABC News, only 25% of voters believe every vote will be counted properly. That's good news, actually. It means that something approaching 75% of voters know that the Democrats are planning to cheat any way they can.

Anyone else notice the unions have not run political ads this year? Unions got together and decided they could better use that ad money as 'get out the vote' money. There is no telling how much money they will be spreading around, but I would guess it would total somewhere between one-hundred and a hundred-twenty million. That's how much they think they hate Bush.

And that's another topic that almost predominates this election cycle: Nearly a third of the population are what I used to call the Politically Neolithic. They see tools (newspapers, television, talk radio, net sites, etc.) around but never bother to use any of them for political information. Instead, they get their current 'opinion' by whatever one-liner is being propagated by the socialist spinmeisters that particular week. These people do not even realize they are the perfect useful idiots mentioned in the socialist and communist training literature.

There is an excess of Neanderthal 'brownshirt' types out this year. Many of them are part of paid union goon squads. These idiots have put in appearances at many GOP offices throughout the nation -- intimidating workers and sometimes even busting up things.

Memo to Attorney General Ashcroft: Don't you see a conspiracy here yet? If not, come out of your damn office once in a while and look around. This intimidation and violence is sponsored and paid for by organized labor bosses.

Unions felt their membership was too stupid to find their polling place in less than an hour. Therefore, unions bargained for their membership to get election day off. Many government workers will have the day off as a paid holiday, too. So, not only do the unions pay them with "walking around" money to cause mischief, in the case of government workers, we pay them wages to do that. Who says socialism doesn't pay? Many of the Neanderthals in the goon squads get doubly paid.


Now the Democrats are planting the seeds for a new twist. They've "suggested" there may be riots if Democratic candidates do not win. Well, get the old shotguns out of the closet, gentlemen. Take the plugs out, open up the choke and load with scattershot. Any rioters coming to the homestead should be run off loudly. That'll stop that stuff in a hell of a hurry.



Andrew Leigh on the Left's Rage on National Review Online - Anger Mismanagement

The Left is at alert-level HATE.

By Andrew Leigh

I know a wealthy couple in southern California, well-educated, with a son about ten years old. The husband has a high-paying job with a movie studio, the mother owns a successful home business, easily placing them in that $200,000-plus income bracket which Kerry promises to tax more. And yet they hate President George W. Bush with unbridled passion.

A family that does everything together, they actively encourage their son to share in this hate. Their beautiful home, in a very posh neighborhood, brims over with anti-Bush books, from Noam Chomsky's latest to Michael Moore's most vociferous. The son's room features one of those standing punching bags with Bush's image on it. Magnetically pinned to the refrigerator door, alongside the son's lovingly displayed schoolwork, are all sorts of demeaning caricatures of the president, including a target symbol with Bush's face in the middle. But on the back of their SUV, next to their shiny new 'Kerry-Edwards' bumper sticker, they have a faded one that reads, 'Teach Peace.'

Many L.A. Republicans view placing a Bush-Cheney bumper-sticker on one's car, on the other hand, as an act of courage akin to storming the beaches at Normandy. Stories abound of cars defaced by a keying job just because the owner had the temerity to hang a Republican sign in his rear window. As Richard Rushfield, writing for Slate magazine, discovered in a sociological experiment, wearing a Bush-Cheney T-shirt in most parts of L.A. is a ticket to verbal abuse.

The rage of the American Left has spilled over the banks and threatens to drive all common decency before it. For the first time in my life, I have felt that the United States is in actual danger of degenerating into a banana republic, with both sides doomed to snipe at each other from behind ramparts, whether with legal briefs or actual guns.

Indeed guns have already been used, as yahoos have reportedly fired shots into GOP headquarters in several states. And there are disconcerting accounts of union goons and other Democratic activists intimidating voters as they attempt to exercise their rightful franchise in "early voting."

The Democratic party has announced its intent to declare victory no matter the electoral outcome, and to preemptively find voting irregularities even where none occur. Numerous improprieties in Democratic voter-registration efforts have already been uncovered. Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, said that there won't be any riots — as long as the Democrats win. Regarding Sinclair Broadcasting's plans to air a documentary on Kerry's anti-war activities, a Kerry-campaign advisor snarled, "They better hope we don't win."


Florida: Lawsuit alleges fraud in voter registration

Miami Herald

Oct. 30, 2004

Natalie P McNeal

Several South Florida residents are suing a nonprofit agency, saying the group conducted a voter registration drive, paid workers for each application and purposely withheld applications until after the registration deadline.

The lawsuit against the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now says the nonprofit group asked several South Florida residents to register to vote during a summer petition to get a minimum-wage amendment on the ballot.

The lawsuit, which has 11 plaintiffs, was filed Friday against ACORN in Broward County Circuit Court. ACORN is the nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families.

Solicitors were paid $2 per voter registration application, which is against federal and state law, according to the suit filed by Fort Lauderdale attorney Bill Scherer.

While it is legal to pay workers to register voters, the pay cannot be based on the number of voters registered. In addition, the lawsuit alleges that ACORN copied and sold the applications to America Families United, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit group. This week, a former employee handed over 179 registration applications that were never sent to the supervisor of elections offices in Broward or Miami-Dade counties.

The deadline for the application was Oct. 4.


Friday, October 29, 2004

Man Accused Of Trying To Run Over Katherine Harris Man: 'I Intimidated Them With My Car'

October 27, 2004

http://www.wkmg.com

Man Accused Of Trying To Run Over Katherine Harris Man: 'I Intimidated Them With My Car'

POSTED: 11:30 am EDT October 27, 2004 UPDATED: 11:47 am EDT October 27, 2004

SARASOTA, Fla. -- A Sarasota man was arrested on an aggravated assault charge Wednesday after he was accused of trying to run down U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris and a group of supporters with his car.

A silver Cadillac sped toward the group at a Sarasota intersection Tuesday evening, then swerved at the last minute before driving off, according to police.

Witnesses gave the car's license plate number to police, and they tracked it to Barry M. Seltzer, 46.
He came to the police station Wednesday and complained to officers that Harris' supporters had impeded traffic.

'I intimidated them with my car,' Seltzer told police.

He was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. A call for comment to Harris' campaign secretary was not immediately returned.
Harris, a Sarasota Republican, is seeking a second congressional term after serving as Florida's secretary of state during the protracted 2000 presidential recount.

Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


AP News - from Tampa Bay Online - Florida Republicans and Democrats trade pre-election accusations

Oct 29, 1:42 AM EDT

By TIM REYNOLDS
Associated Press Writer

MIAMI (AP) -- Claims of voter intimidation. Problems with absentee ballots. Republicans and Democrats accusing one another of election fraud. The scene in Florida days before the presidential election was reminiscent of the recount chaos from 2000.

State Republican leaders said Thursday they are protecting the election process by compiling a list of voters whom they say are improperly registered and should not be allowed to cast ballots Tuesday. The list was based on a database of suspected felons that state officials discarded in July because it was riddled with flaws, but GOP officials said they updated it.

'I presume they will use it as a basis for challenges,' said Howard Simon, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Florida. 'And when they're using a list that's very likely inaccurate for challenges, I think we're in for hand-to-hand combat at the precincts.'

Republicans also said they identified 925 convicted felons who've lost voting rights and have either already voted or have requested absentee ballots for this election. The party alerted the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie said he was 'disconcerted' by claims that supporters of Democratic challenger John Kerry are clogging early voting locations and attempting to dissuade backers of President Bush from voting.

'Some folks have been intimidated to the point where they turned away from the lines,' Gillespie alleged.


Thursday, October 28, 2004

The Columbus Dispatch - Voters report fake calls

Instructions to change polling place don't come from board of elections

Friday, October 22, 2004

Suzanne Hoholik

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

The caller interrupting a North Side couple's dinner earlier this week said he was from the Franklin County Board of Elections.

He told the elderly woman that her voting site had changed and that on Nov. 2 she and her husband should cast their ballots at a South Side precinct. The caller even left the phone number of the board.

Her husband, who didn't want their names published out of fear of retribution, called the board, sat through a long menu of automated options and finally spoke with an employee.

'They said there was no way in the world they would make such a call,' he said. 'I think it�s hankypanky and somebody in the election is trying to kill some votes.'

At no time, Elections Director Matthew Damschroder said, does the board call voters.

'The only communication from the board of elections is printed on official board of elections paper with the logo,' he said.

'If they're saying they're the board of elections, that's a violation of the law. My recommendation to them would be to cease and desist.'

His office has received about a dozen calls since last week from voters checking on similar calls.

Damschroder said there are two scams: The caller tells voters their precincts have changed or the caller offers to pick up an absentee-ballot application, deliver the ballot to the voter and return the completed ballot to the elections office.

By law, the elections board mails absentee ballots and the only deliveries are made to voters in nursing homes by both a Republican and Democratic elections worker. The only person who can return an absentee ballot, besides the voter, is an immediate family member.

"People are calling saying, ‘I got a call last night when I was watching Oprah from this group,’ " Damschroder said. "By law, the board of elections does not give anybody a ballot to deliver."

Carlo LoParo, spokesman for Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, said he hadn’t heard about the scams. But he said he was glad to hear that voters who had received calls reported them to the elections board.

"Election fraud, voter intimidation or providing voters with wrong information is unacceptable," he said. "Anyone engaging in this activity will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

"Anyone contemplating this type of malicious activity should think twice."


The Washington Times: AP - Court Actions Piling Up for Ohio Voters

Oct 28, 8:08 PM EDT

By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS
Associated Press Writer

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- The Ohio Republican Party asked a federal appeals court Thursday to allow hearings on thousands of voters whose registrations have been challenged in this pivotal battleground state.

The request asked the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a lower-court ruling Wednesday that stopped hearings on about 23,000 voters who were challenged by the GOP around the state.

Republicans say mail to some of the voters came back undelivered, raising the possibility of fraud. Democrats say the GOP is trying to keep poor and minorities, who move more often, from voting.

Ohio could end up deciding who wins the White House. No Republican has ever been elected president without taking Ohio; only two Democrats have done so in 100 years. Polls show the race is too close to call in the state.

Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro also filed an appeal similar to that of the Republicans, saying Wednesday's order 'has just thrown Ohio's electoral process into disarray, and has opened the door to voter fraud.'

Republicans originally challenged about 35,000 voters but have had little success in having their registrations rejected. They withdrew about 7,500 challenges because of mistakes and county elections boards have refused to accept hundreds more.

In their appeal, Republicans said the voters whose registrations have been challenged could still cast a provisional ballot regardless of the outcome of the challenges.


Felons served as election deputies

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Oct. 22, 2004

TOM KERTSCHER

Two men deputized by the City of Milwaukee to register voters are convicted felons who are on probation and are therefore not eligible to register people to vote, court records show.

Both felons became so-called deputy registrars through Project Vote, whose voter registration activities are being investigated by the Racine County district attorney's office.

Told Friday about the probation status of the two Milwaukee men, Milwaukee Election Commissioner Lisa Artison could not say how many voter registration applications they had submitted. But she said in an e-mail that a voter 'cannot be disenfranchised' because of errors by election officials or deputy registrars.

The work of deputy registrars is important because local election clerks generally do not try to confirm the identity of the person named on voter registration applications that are submitted by the deputies.

By contrast, election clerks must see proof of identification from a person seeking to be registered if their application was submitted by someone who is not a deputy registrar.

Local election clerks give deputy registrars some instruction and make them swear an oath to work honestly, but no criminal background checks are done.

"It's like an onion, with every layer you strip off you're finding another layer of corruption here," said Chris Lato, spokesman for the Republican Party of Wisconsin. "Clearly there are flaws in the system when felons can apparently very easily get involved in the Wisconsin election process."

The Republican Party held a news conference this week to highlight a felon in the Dane County Jail who tried to vote by absentee ballot - though the attempt had already been caught by jail and election officials.

People convicted of felonies become eligible to vote only after completing their sentence, including any probation or supervision. Deputy registrars must be eligible to vote.


For those with dementia, voting still a question

For those with dementia, voting still a question

Sunday, October 24, 2004

By Mackenzie Carpenter, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

As the hunt for every last vote intensifies, one question is being quietly debated in medical circles that may have an impact on this year's election:
Should people with dementia be allowed to vote?

In California, Democratic activists have filed suit against a veterans' hospital whose officials, they say, prohibited them from talking to residents on the grounds that they have dementia and were therefore incompetent to vote.

In Mobile, Ala., the district attorney fielded complaints this summer that mentally incompetent residents of a nursing home were allowed to vote in a municipal election.

And in South Carolina, state Democrats held a new primary after a state senator complained of voting fraud with absentee ballots of people in nursing homes with dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

It's not known how many people with dementia actually vote, although recent studies in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island found that residents from dementia clinics voted in higher numbers than the population at large. Nationally, 4.5 million people are estimated to have dementia, while in Pennsylvania, those with Alzheimer's -- the most common form of dementia -- is estimated at 285,000.

Legally, states are all over the map on the issue, said Dr. Jason H. Karlawish, a geriatrician at the University of Pennsylvania's Institute on Aging, who directs the Dementia Voter Project. Pennsylvania, like 26 other states, has no guidelines on how election officials and judges should handle questions about voters who may or may not be capable of voting -- although it is possible that individual counties and boroughs have their own rules, he said. On the other hand, the 23 states that do have guidelines are mostly focused on the delivery of absentee ballots to nursing homes rather than on issues around assistance in voting.

Diane Balcom, regional director of the Alzheimer's Association of Greater Pittsburgh, noted that the problem splits two ways. Those with advanced dementia may be the victims of voter fraud when nursing home officials mark their ballots, while many people with an early diagnosis of dementia may be denied their right to vote even though they're capable of it.

"There are people with dementia who might not be able to drive, but who still have the ability to cast a vote and understand the process," she said.


Florida ballot chief warns on 'observers' - October 26, 2004

By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Florida elections chief Dawn Roberts has warned the state's 67 election supervisors to be on the alert for observers at polling places who might use strong-arm tactics or otherwise harass or improperly assist potential voters in the Nov. 2 presidential election.

'You have the right and obligation to set reasonable time, place and manner restrictions with respect to 'observers' in and around the voting site,' Mrs. Roberts, the state's elections division director, wrote in a memo circulated Friday.

Both Republicans and Democrats have accused each other of voter harassment and have issued strong warnings nationwide - particularly in the hotly contested race in Florida - against voter intimidation. Each side is training poll watchers on how to spot improper behavior by poll clerks, malfunctioning voting machines, and whether the polls are opening and closing on time.

An unprecedented number of Republican and Democratic poll watchers are expected at voting precincts throughout Florida, whose 25 Electoral College votes ultimately decided the 2000 presidential election after a Supreme Court ruling. Florida law allows each party and candidate to post an observer at each polling place. All observers must be registered voters.

On Sunday, former Vice President Al Gore told black voters in Jacksonville, Fla., who still might be angry over his narrow 2000 defeat not to let their concern 'turn into angry acts or angry words,' and instead to channel their anger 'into energy at the polls.'




Illegal voters get stern warning (From Republican CO Secretary of State)

By Erin Cox and Chris Frates
Denver Post Staff Writers

Thursday, October 14, 2004 - Secretary of State Donetta Davidson said Wednesday that she will aggressively pursue the prosecution of voter registration fraud uncovered throughout the state.

In a passionate speech at a news conference about the integrity of the election process, Davidson pushed for more help from the state's district attorneys and attorney general.

Davidson, an elected Republican official, said she wants her warnings to prevent illegal voters from casting ballots.
'I hope I scared them to death,' she said.

She also said prosecutors had left her uninformed about their progress but acknowledged she had never asked for an update until Wednesday.

'I called the attorney general today and informed him that I was going to take a lead in some of this,' Davidson said. 'I've been out of the loop. ... I'm putting myself back into the loop.'

Davidson demanded a meeting Sunday of Denver metro district attorneys and candidates for the office to discuss how to go after voter fraud before and after the election.

The widening claims of voter registration fraud took on an increasingly partisan tone Wednesday, with Republicans threatening tough action and Democrats alleging Republicans are trying to bully voters away from the polls.

The documented fraud ranges from voters registered multiple times, unauthorized changes to party affiliation and as many as 6,000 felons on the registration rolls.

Davidson, along with county clerks across Colorado, has turned over at least 1,000 instances of questionable voter registrations to Attorney General Ken Salazar, she said.

Salazar, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, said he is "in full cooperation with the district attorneys around the state - we will find and prosecute these violations aggressively and to the fullest extent of the law."

Ken Lane, a spokesman for Salazar, said the office is currently prosecuting one individual and investigating about 150 suspicious documents.

Republican Gov. Bill Owens, who left the state Wednesday to campaign for President Bush, released a statement calling on elected officials "to place the highest priority on attacking potential voter fraud."


9news.com - I-Team uncovers partisan tactics in Colorado voter registration drives

Updated: 10/25/2004 11:09 AM MDT

LAKEWOOD - 'I thought it was very questionable what they were doing,' said Frank Taylor, a former registration worker. Taylor registered some 75 new voters in June for the group 'Choose 2 Vote.'

But when he turned in the forms to the company based in Lakewood, he was only paid for a few of them. 'They wouldn't pay us if they were Republican,' said Taylor. Workers were paid $3 per application if the voter registered Democrat, unaffiliated or independent, but nothing for Republican.

Taylor says he finally quit because he wasn't getting paid for at least half of the forms he was submitting to 'Choose 2 Vote.'

Company spokesman Derrick Lee admitted to 9NEWS he was only interested in registering Democrats.

'Yeah, what do you want me to say? It's true,' said Lee. 'The Republicans weren't paying money for voter registrations.'

Lee would not say which Democrats funded his voter registration drive.

'I have folks who were willing to pay me to do it,' said Lee.

While the selective payments are not illegal, the Colorado Republican Chairman says it's also not ethical.

"By not making it an even playing field for all registrations, like we do it, you're almost encouraging them not to do it even-handedly," said Ted Halaby, GOP Chairman. "What that does is encourages fraud," he said.

In fact, Arapahoe County received so many questionable registration forms from "Choose 2 Vote" in April, it turned them over to the Secretary of State for investigation.

"We are concerned that some of these applications, which have been filed in Arapahoe County, may involve voter registration fraud," wrote Nancy Doty, Arapahoe County Clerk to Donetta Davidson.


WNDU-TV: Story: Voter fraud allegation in St. Joseph County - October 28, 2004

Posted: 10/28/2004 05:25 pm

The U.S. attorney for the northern district of Indiana is being asked to investigate an alleged incident of voter fraud.

The name of a man who died more than three years ago has shown up on paperwork requesting a mailed absentee ballot.

The man's name is Stanley Grygiel, and he was a registered democrat. Grygiel died in June of 2001.

Mail from the Democratic Party still occasionally shows up at the home of the late Grygiel, according to a son who still lives there.

The son expressed surprise Thursday, when told that an application for a mailed absentee ballot, bearing his father's name, had been turned in to the voter registration office.


Soros-supported voter-registration drive probed - October 20, 2004

By Jerry Seper

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Billionaire currency trader George Soros, in his quest to unseat President Bush, has given millions of dollars to a coalition of anti-Bush organizations whose nationwide voter-registration drive has been targeted by state and federal authorities for possible widespread fraud.

Working under an umbrella organization known as America Votes, the coalition's registration drive - described by election officials as the largest in U.S. history - focused on potential voters in 14 so-called battleground states.

America Votes, which represents a collection of labor unions, trial lawyers, environmental groups and community organizations representing 20 million Americans, describes itself as a 'nonpartisan political organization' that seeks to use the strategic abilities and large membership base of its coalition members to 'break new ground in electoral politics.'

Its goal is to 'register, educate and mobilize' voters for this year's elections, but some of those efforts are now being challenged.

Hundreds of questionable voter-registration applications, such as duplicates, and accusations of workers shredding registrations in favor of one party are under review by local, state and federal law-enforcement and election authorities in Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Missouri, Michigan, Minnesota, West Virginia, Oregon, Ohio, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Florida.

The coalition spent more than $100 million on its voter-registration campaign, according to financial records and several people familiar with the member organizations. Despite its nonpartisan claim, its membership includes 32 groups committed to Mr. Bush's defeat.

Cecile Richards, a veteran labor and political organizer, is the coalition's president. Before coming to America Votes, she served as deputy chief of staff to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat.


First Coast News - Woman Arrested For Stealing Signs Speaks Out

By Maria Tsataros

First Coast News

FRUIT COVE, FL -- Fabiola Armitage is back on television, only instead of a campaign ad the focus has been on her mugshot.

Armitage is a Kerry supporter and a strong believer in stem cell research. She's featured in an advertisement urging Floridians to vote against Amendment 3 on this year's ballot. The amendment would cap how much money a lawyer can make from a medical malpractice lawsuit.

St. Johns County Sheriff Deputies arrested Armitage for grand theft and battery this week. They say she had 78 campaign signs supporting George Bush and Mel Martinez in her trunk. Armitage tells First Coast News that she 'was told by code enforcement that would be okay, to pick them off, to remove them from the right-of-way.' "


OpinionJournal - John Fund - We May HAVA Problem

Monday, October 18, 2004 12:01 a.m. EDT

It's a safe bet you will hear more about provisional ballots before Election Day--and a lot more if the election goes into overtime again. The provisional ballot could become this year's equivalent of Florida's infamous punch-card ballot, and it could decide who wins the presidency.

This is the first election held under the Help America Vote Act of 2002. One of its key provisions is a requirement that people in all 50 states whose names aren't on voter registration rolls be given a provisional, or conditional, ballot that will then be cross-checked with public records after the polls close to see if it is valid. 'If I had to pick the one thing that will stir up anger and lawsuits on Election Day, it will be provisional voting,' says Doug Chapin, executive director of the nonpartisan Electionline.org.

With 200,000 polling places nationwide, an average of five provisional votes per precinct would mean a million such votes. But in a year when manic registration efforts make it likely there will be a flood of first-time voters, officials expect far more. In Los Angeles County alone more than 100,000 people voted provisionally in 2000, with about 60% of them ultimately declared valid.

But that's the rub. Democrats are preparing to make aggressive media and legal arguments that almost all provisional votes must be counted, a reprise of their 2000 Florida rallying cry of "Count every vote." Yesterday Eric Holder, a top official in Bill Clinton's Justice Department, told "Fox News Sunday" that "if every vote is allowed to be cast, and if every vote is counted, John Kerry will be president within a day of that election." Asked how he could guarantee that, Mr. Holder replied "you heard it right here" and repeated his claim.

This year harried election officials are likely to be overwhelmed by complaining voters. To keep order and make sure the lines at polling places don't become intolerable, officials will hand anyone not on their lists a provisional ballot. "All of those will be counted only after everyone's else's ballots have been counted, and after everyone knows exactly how close the race is," says Mischelle Townsend, a former registrar of Riverside County, Calif.
It's at that point the lawyers are likely to jump in if there's a close race. DeForest "Buster" Soaries, chairman of the federal Election Assistance Commission, warns there is a risk poll workers won't be trained on how to properly handle provisional ballots and that "the manner in which the ballots are verified could be challenged."


Electorate more fearful than officials of vote fraud - October 27, 2004

By Joyce Howard Price
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Many Americans are worried about the accuracy of the voting process next week, a national poll finds, but election officials in most battleground states believe an influx of new voters and a high turnout will cause logistical problems � not increase the specter of fraud.

Election officials say they do not anticipate being plagued by voter fraud, overvoting (voting more than once), or the types of ballot problems that beset the presidential election in Florida four years ago.

'The higher number of voters will bring its own set of problems. Crowd control becomes an issue. There's always an opportunity for fraud, but we've made efforts to minimize it,' said Kevin Kennedy, spokesman for the Wisconsin State Board of Elections.

An Associated Press poll of 1,000 U.S. adults, including registered and likely voters, found that 69 percent of Democrats and 56 percent of Republicans fear the election will be unresolved on Nov. 3. Fewer than half of Democrats and about three-fourths of Republicans say they are 'very confident' the election results will be accurate.

About half of those surveyed said they expect the results will be challenged in court, like those in 2000. Lawsuits already have been filed on everything from how provisional ballots are counted to accusations of fraud in voter registration.

Election officials in Michigan, as in most states, predict a higher-than-normal turnout Tuesday, but they expect to have results shortly after the polls close.

"[W]e're so decentralized [in terms of elections], and we have 5,300 polling places throughout the state. So even if there is an increase of 200,000 voters on Election Day, that increase will be dispersed pretty well and will be manageable," said Kelly Chesney, spokeswoman for the Michigan Secretary of State's Office.

In Arizona, election officials have established a "fraud line" for people to report suspicious activity and cross-check voter rolls to prevent illegal voting activity.


Voter fraud ought to be atop hit list - deceit, conspiracy and propaganda all merged in paranoia

Atlanta Journal-Constitution
October 26, 2004

Jim Wooten

Bad guy, this Bush.

How bad? Pick up one of the cards being passed out last week at Emory University.

'Bush . . . will keep executing OUR juveniles & will appoint the next 4 Supreme justices. Bush will keep minimum wage @ $5.15/hr. Kerry will raise it to $7.00/hr. Bush would not meet with the Urban League Black Caucus - or the NAACP, Kerry met with them all.'

On the reverse, the message directs voters to four DeKalb County early voting locations, before concluding: 'Hands that once picked cotton can now pick public officials. This is the event of the DECADE!!! VOTE or DIE.'

In the realm of hyperbole, where young Democrats are admonished to 'VOTE or DIE,' it is the most modest of understatement to declare this presidential election as no more than the 'Event of the DECADE.' It can surely be hyped as the 'Event of our LIFETIME,' if not the 'Event of the CENTURY!'.

The exclamation point is a no-cost way of hyping the hype. Three exclamation points is the punctuation equivalent of the street-corner scream. Four is the incoherent babble of a political lunatic. Keep this handy reference for future elections.

So this is where's it's come - deceit, conspiracy and propaganda all merged in paranoia - to produce what may turn out to be the most corrupt national election of the DECADE!!!, if not our lifetime. Both parties will have thousands of lawyers and poll watchers spread across the country.

When the stakes are vote-or-die high, and the means for fraudulent voting are readily available, corruption is virtually guaranteed. What's a little dishonest voting when the alternative is so ominous?

Democrats have seen election laws requiring anything beyond the most rudimentary of voting registration requirements as an obstacle to winning elections. Their ideal would be early voting and same-day registration of any warm body over 18. That would make it possible to harvest voters far more efficiently by, for example, running buses to elderly high-rises or to collection areas in advance of Election Day.

Voting is another of those areas where liberals and conservatives disagree. Consistent with the liberal view that individuals should be free to behave as irresponsibly as they choose, while government is obligated to find a way to serve them, Democrats seek to build a registration voting system that allows individuals to be completely passive. On Election Day, the van will come by and hand out the slate, and all the individual is expected to do is react to fright and vote accordingly.

The first major legislation that set the stage for future corruption was the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, the so-called motor voter law that went into effect in January 1995. It requires states to provide voter registration through welfare and disability agencies, at driver's license offices and through the mail.


FrontPage magazine.com :: The Illegal Alien Swing Vote by Michelle Malkin

By Michelle Malkin

Townhall.com | October 27, 2004

The right to vote is precious, the politicians preach. Our democracy hangs in the balance, the pundits screech.

Yes, but if we all value the sanctity of the voting process so highly, why is it that I've never once been asked to produce identification of any kind in the 16 years I've been a voter, from Ohio to California to Washington state to Maryland?

And why is it that we can't protect our elections from people who have no right to vote, no right to be here, and no right to undermine our safety or sovereignty?

While unhinged Democrats spread fear about the alleged discriminatory disenfranchisement of American citizens, they have supported the indiscriminate enfranchisement of untold numbers of foreign outlaws -- including suspected al Qaeda operatives and terrorist sympathizers.

Last week, the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch reported that illegal alien Nuradin Abdi -- the suspected shopping mall bomb plotter from Somalia -- was registered to vote in the battleground state of Ohio by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a left-wing activist group. Also on the Ohio voting rolls: convicted al Qaeda agent Iyman Faris, who planned to sabotage the Brooklyn Bridge and had entered the country fraudulently from Pakistan on a student visa.

In the battleground state of Florida, indicted terror suspect Sami Al-Arian illegally cast his ballot in a Tampa referendum in 1994 while his citizenship application was pending. He claimed the unlawful vote was the result of a 'misunderstanding.' State officials declined to prosecute.

You've heard about those satirical "10 out of 10 terrorists agree: Anybody But Bush" bumper stickers? There may be more truth to them than you think. John Fund, author of Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy, reports that at least eight of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were eligible to vote in Virginia or Florida while they plotted to kill Americans.

What's to stop the next foreign terrorist plotter from casting a tainted ballot in the nation he has sworn to destroy? Not much. According to the Franklin County Board of Elections, the Dispatch reports, the office simply "takes a person's word, that they're [sic.] a U.S. citizen."


CBS 2 Chicago: G-O-P critical of keeping clerk office open after Kerry rally

Wednesday October 27, 2004

MADISON, Wis. (AP) Republicans are criticizing a decision to keep the Madison city clerk's office open late for voting after a John Kerry rally.

State Republican Party spokesman Chris Lato (LAH'-toh) says it amounts to a contribution to a political campaign, only they're using taxpayer money to do it.

The city clerk will keep the office open until eight tomorrow, when it normally closes at 4:30 p-m to accommodate any absentee voters coming from the Kerry rally a couple blocks away.

The clerk's office will also be open until five Friday and Monday and will be open Saturday from eight to one.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)"

The Daily Times - County GOP cries voter fraud (Delaware Cty, PA - Philly?)

By MARLENE DiGIACOMO, mdigiacomo@delcotimes10/27/2004

MEDIA COURTHOUSE -- When a change-of-registration form was filed by a 98-year-old resident at the Fair Acres Geriatric Center -- as part of the crush of new registrations and other forms inundating Delaware County's election officials during this year's highly charged presidential race -- employees were first taken aback. Then they became concerned.

County District Attorney G. Michael Green said it became clear from the previous form filed by the nonagenarian that the signature was a forgery.

That form was one of at least 60 that Green said were fraudulent, setting off an investigation by his office.

Similar fraud allegations have been made by Republicans in Philadelphia and other counties; Pennsylvania Democrats say their opponents are running scared.

The allegations are the latest twist in Tuesday's presidential contest, which has sparked widespread excitement.

'Interest in the 2004 general election has exceeded all those in recent memory in Delaware County,' said county Solicitor John McBlain, who also spoke at Tuesday's press conference. McBlain, who is also treasurer of the county Republican Party and vice president of Aldan Borough Council, said this year's election has seen an unparalleled amount of voter registration applications and absentee ballot applications.

He said more than 27,000 new registrations have been filed, and to date more than 15,000 applications for absentee ballots have been received and processed. There are currently 198,400 Republicans, 119,166 Democrats, 34,997 non-partisans, 1,143 Libertarians and 588 Green Party members in the county. New registrations have been 2 to 1 Democrat.

"Unfortunately, it appears that some individuals have attempted to take advantage of our election system by fraudulently filing forms to vote, voter registration applications and obtaining absentee ballots fraudulently," said McBlain.

Republicans across the country have been making similar allegations in recent weeks. The Philadelphia GOP on Tuesday questioned the validity of 10,000 new registrations.

Numbers such as those have Green and other Republican officials in the county running scared, charged state Democratic Party Chairman T.J. Rooney.


FOXNews.com - You Decide 2004 - Fraud File: The 'New Florida'?

Fraud File: The 'New Florida'?
Wednesday, October 27, 2004

STORIESBACKGROUND

WASHINGTON - Could Ohio become this election's Florida?

Analysts brood that the state, a crucial part of President Bush�s and John Kerry's election strategy, may see its election system break down under the weight of hundreds of thousands of newly registered voters and a raft of legal challenges.

Kerry's victory strategy depends on Ohio (search). Bush knows no Republican has won re-election without the state.

Kerry and Bush are locked in a dead heat. Both campaigns will have lawyers throughout Ohio looking for any sign of trouble.

This year, 8 million Ohioans are registered to vote - that's up 800,000 from 2000. Seventy percent of the state still uses punch card ballots - which even Florida's gotten rid of after the hanging chads of the 2000 election.

"We have statewide standards for determining what constitutes a ballot vote on a punch card ballot. They didn't have that in Florida in 2000," said Ken Blackwell (search), Ohio's secretary of state. So far in Ohio, five lawsuits challenging the state�s policies on provisional ballots and voter registration have already been filed and settled.

Each Florida county had its own standard for counting a punch card vote. Ohio doesn't count dimpled chads or ballots with only one chad perforated.

The emphasis now is on turning out the vote and Kerry's campaign is out in force — 100 paid staff, 57 offices, 24,000 Election Day volunteers. And pro-Democratic groups like America Coming Together will have thousands more on the ground, many equipped with disposable cameras and video cameras to report any signs of voting trouble.

Bush’s campaign has more than 100 paid staff and more than 79,000 volunteers in Ohio. The campaign reports that it has made more than 2 million calls and knocked on nearly 350,000 doors. Starting Saturday, it intends to knock on 400,000 doors and place 800,000 phone calls to Ohioans.

— FOX News' Major Garrett contributed to this report.



MercuryNews.com | 10/27/2004 | Voters guide for immigrants stirs debate

Posted on Wed, Oct. 27, 2004

Voters guide for immigrants stirs debate

ORGANIZERS CLAIM TO BE NON-PARTISAN, BUT SUGGESTIONS SIDE WITH DEMOCRATS

By Edwin Garcia

Mercury News

Hoping to decipher the state's perplexing ballot propositions, a coalition of advocacy groups has published an unprecedented ``immigrant voters guide'' for tens of thousands of foreign-born citizens across California.

But while the coalition claims to be non-partisan, its guide might create a different impression: The recommendations side 100 percent with the official position of the state Democratic Party.

``It's ridiculous,'' said Nhut Ho, an alternate member of the Santa Clara County Republican Central Committee, and Vietnam native. He said the guide incorrectly characterizes all immigrants as Democrats.

Some local and state Republican leaders are questioning how the coalition came to its conclusions.

``It sounds more like a coordinated campaign with the Democrats,'' said Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, a Republican who represents Imperial County along the border with Mexico.

A spokeswoman for the coalition that produced the guide in six languages strongly denies any such connection to the Democratic Party.
``Our tax-exempt status prohibits us from doing any partisan work,'' said Larisa Casillas, who oversaw the guide's development for the Northern California Citizenship Project, based in San Francisco. ``We're able to take positions on issues, but we can't take positions on particular parties or candidates,'' she said.

The guide focuses on eight of the state's 16 measures on Tuesday's ballot.

It recommends a ``yes'' vote on Proposition 66, the measure to ease sentencing requirements for ``three strikes'' criminals, because ``immigrants and people of color are disproportionately sentenced.'' The guide suggests ``yes'' on Proposition 72, which seeks to order more businesses to provide health care for workers.

The state Republican Party recommends a ``no'' vote on both.

While the guide's recommendations are identical to the platform promoted by the Democrats, three of its positions are shared by both parties.


RULING BLOCKS HOPEFUL VOTERS

Miami Herald
Oct. 27, 2004
Jay Weaver

Thousands of Floridians won't be able to vote in five urban counties because they failed to complete their voter registration applications, a Miami federal judge said.

A Miami federal judge on Tuesday tossed out a lawsuit that sought to allow thousands of Floridians to vote in next week's general election, saying county and state officials didn't have to process incomplete voter registration applications.

U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King ruled against three prospective voters who sued Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood and election supervisors in Duval, Orange, Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

King said the voter applicants -- one from Miami-Dade and the other two from Duval -- could sue only their own county election supervisor, not the secretary of state or other county supervisors.

More important, King said Miami-Dade and Duval election supervisors acted legally when they deemed their voter applications incomplete by the Oct. 4 registration deadline.

King said the Miami-Dade plaintiff, Emma Diaz, a new U.S. citizen who failed to check off the voter registration box saying she was not mentally incapacitated to vote, ''created her own injury'' by not correcting the mistake by that deadline.

''I feel like crying,'' said Diaz, 23, of Miami Beach, whose application was received by the Miami-Dade election supervisor on Sept. 23. ``I thought I was at least going to get a chance, but no. I feel pretty offended because the ruling [said] that I caused this injury upon myself.


BocaNews.com - Election violence surfaces in South Florida

Published Tuesday, October 26, 2004

by Sean Salai

Election-related violence is on the rise this week in South Florida as impassioned Republicans and Democrats duke it out at rallies and the polls.

Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans and Independents in Palm Beach County, where voters last week began casting early ballots for the Nov. 2 general election, and strained feelings are already leading to hostility. In Boca Raton this weekend, county Republicans filled out police reports for shattered car windows at a Friday rally and a vandalism incident Sunday night at their headquarters.

"I've never seen anything like it," Jenni Garrison, executive director of the Republican Party of Palm Beach County, said yesterday. "This is our first presidential election since 2000 and people are already nervous and scared about using the new machines. This contentiousness just adds to their anxiety."

Garrison said the nastiness is also evident from Republican volunteers, adding that she hopes both parties will crack down on it.

"I've already removed people from polling places for behaving inappropriately and antagonizing Democratic voters," Garrison said. "We've also removed inappropriate signs. We're not out there to harass the voters and behave like four-year olds. We�re there to support our president."

Sunday's incident occurred at the GOP's Boca headquarters on North Federal Highway between 7 and 11 p.m. The unknown perpetrator tampered with the deadbolt on the office door, locking party workers out of the office when they discovered that their keys no longer worked.

"The brown shirts have arrived and they're all Democrats," said Sid Dinerstein, county GOP chairman.


DenverPost.com - Two charged with voter registration fraud

By Jon Sarche
The Associated Press

Denver prosecutors today charged two people with filling out multiple voter-registration forms and said they were investigating 'reams' of documents for potential problems.

Monique Mora, 20, and Pelonne Page, 21, are accused of putting down false information on the forms or having others do it.

The two were working for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, one of numerous groups that paid people in Colorado this year to register voters.

Group officials did not immediately return a call for comment.

Similar investigations are under way in several counties, said Lisa Doran, a spokeswoman for the Colorado secretary of state's office.

'We're going to have more charges after the election,' she said. 'What we'll find is people not only may have attempted to register more than once not by accident, they may even attempt to vote more than once.'

Secretary of State Donetta Davidson has said she is confident that poll workers and election judges will be able to catch potential fraud.
Lynn Kimbrough, spokeswoman for the Denver district attorney, said Mora and Page each were charged with six counts of procuring false registrations, a misdemeanor punishable by up to 18 months in jail and a fine up to $5,000.


9news.com | News - Criminal charges filed against two people for alleged voter registration fraud

Chip Yost (9NEWS Investigative Reporter)
Created: 10/27/2004 12:55 PM MDT - Updated: 10/28/2004 9:05 AM MDT

DENVER - Criminal charges have been filed by the Denver district attorney against two voter registration workers.

They are accused of making up names of voters during a registration drive. Each worker faces six counts in this case.

They have been identified as Monique Mora and Pelonne Page.

According to the district attorney, the two Acorn employees filled out several registration applications themselves or had others fill out multiple forms with false information.

District Attorney Bill Ritter says since the two registration workers were paid for the alleged bogus applications, he believes their motivation was money and not an attempt to manipulate the outcome of the election.

[Yeah, we know that Democrats wouldn't try to manipulate the outcome of an election now, don't we? ]


Judge in Iowa stays out of the provisional ballot fray, for now

DAVID PITT, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, October 27, 2004

(10-27) 18:12 PDT DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) --

A judge declined to rule Wednesday in a lawsuit filed by Republican voters challenging a decision that allows Iowans to cast provisional ballots outside of their home precincts. He said the challenge was premature.

Polk County District Court Judge Arthur Gamble said Secretary of State Chet Culver acted within his responsibility as the state's top election official when he ruled such votes could be counted.

The judge said, however, five Republicans who sued Culver must wait until Friday to proceed in the case; Culver issues his final election rules Thursday.

The development is the latest twist involving new voting requirements.

Provisional ballots -- required in all states for the first time this year -- are used when voters say they are properly registered but their names are not on the registration rolls. The ballots are later counted if elections officials determine the voter is validly registered.

Culver said his rule on counting such ballots was made based on advice from Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller; a Justice Department attorney, however, has told Miller he was wrong in his interpretation.


Law Suits in Iowa

SeaMax News

By Robert John Soto.
Posted 10/27/2004 12:50:00 PM

Five Republicans sued election officials in an effort to prevent ballots from being accepted if a voter votes in the wrong precinct.

Attorney General Tom Miller said that Iowans could vote in the right county, but in the wrong precinct and still have their vote counted. Another problem is that voters are now required to mark off a citizenship box.

The Republicans claim that if this type of voting occurs it would not only be unlawful it would also increase voting irregularities and delay the results of the election.

This lawsuit involves provisional ballot. These ballots are used when the voter is not registered. The lawsuit asks for an immediate hearing and an order to stop out-of-precinct ballots from being accepted.

The Republicans in Iowa also claim that Chet Culver and Tom Miller have conducted the election in a partisan manner.

Chet Culver, the Secretary of State of Iowa, has been accused of accepting registration forms from voters who did not mark a box confirming U.S. citizenship.

Miller told election officials to accept registration forms of 364 Iowans who registered, but did not mark the box in regards to citizenship.


HoustonChronicle.com - 6 accused of voting twice may face charges

Oct. 28, 2004, 5:59AM

6 accused of voting twice may face charges

A grand jury will hear cases in Galveston County

By KEVIN MORAN
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

GALVESTON - A half-dozen Galveston County voters could face criminal charges if a grand jury decides they intended to cast more than one early election ballot and commit voter fraud, officials said.

Since early voting opened Oct. 18, daily checks indicated that six people might have voted twice as of Monday, said Galveston County Clerk Mary Ann Daigle.

District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk said the cases will be submitted to a grand jury and indictments will be issued if the jury believes voting fraud occurred.

Voting twice is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, Sistrunk said.
More than 30,000 people had filled out ballots in Galveston County by the time the early-voting locations closed for the day Tuesday, Daigle said. The county has 185,880 registered voters.

'With the mail-in ballots that have been returned, the total vote is 36,452 so far,' Daigle said.


MICHAEL MOORE TO PROTEST MISSING BALLOTS AT BROWARD ELECTIONS OFFICE

Miami Herald

10/28/04

Michael Moore, the documentary film-maker who directed the anti-Bush movie Fahrenheit 9/11, is expected to deliver a protest speech outside the Broward County Supervisor of Elections office at 7 tonight.

Moore plans to discuss news reports that 58,000 absentee ballots are missing in Broward, according to his publicist, Terri Hardesty.

For months, both political parties and critics of the touch-screen machines used in Broward, Miami-Dade and 13 other counties have urged voters to use absentee ballots, which are on paper.

That led to a surge of absentee requests, topping more than 300,000 in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.

Broward's elections office, at 115 South Andrews Ave. in Fort Lauderdale, is resending about 76,000 absentee ballots to voters who say they asked but still haven't received them.

The elections office is still trying to discover why so many people haven't received the absentee ballots.

But with so little time before Tuesday's election, officials will mail out replacements -- thousands of them -- today. The ballots will be shipped via overnight mail to people outside the county, Broward Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes said.

Moore, an Oscar-winning film-maker and number-one bestselling author, will surely bring more attention to Florida's pre-election voting woes.

He embarked on what he calls his ''Slacker Uprising Tour'' on Sept. 26 in Elk Rapids, Mi. The tour will visit 60 cities and 20 states in an effort to get millions of traditional non-voters to the polls on Nov. 2.

The tour will end on Election Day in Tallahassee, Florida.


Yahoo! News - Student Get-Out-The-Vote Drive Halted

Student Get-Out-The-Vote Drive Halted

Thu Oct 28,12:28 PM ET

MILWAUKEE - The superintendent of Milwaukee schools halted a get-out-the-vote program involving students after complaints were raised about its link to a pro-Kerry organization.

Superintendent William Andrekopoulos acted late Wednesday, citing a policy that prohibits the district from being a political advocate.

His decision came a day after Republicans accused Democrats of using the students for political gain because the program was organized by the Wisconsin Citizen Action Fund, whose parent organization endorsed Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) for president.

Students at 33 Milwaukee schools called voters and went door to door in minority neighborhoods and areas with historically low voter turnout, urging people to cast ballots in Tuesday's election. The young people, ranging in age from 11 to 18, often conducted the efforts during school hours.

'There were too many variables associated with canvassing for the district to manage,' district spokeswoman Roseann St. Aubin said. 'The administration felt it had to take action to avoid the appearance of any impropriety.'


Republicans challenge 5,600 addresses that may not exist

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

State Republicans filed a last-minute complaint Wednesday with the Milwaukee Election Commission claiming that 5,600 city addresses on the voter rolls may not exist.

The commission will meet at 9 a.m. today to consider the Republican allegation.

The Republican Party of Wisconsin checked the addresses of more than 300,000 people registered to vote in the city with a software program also used by the U.S. Postal Service.

Republicans found that 5,619 addresses may be non-existent and then visited a number of the addresses. They snapped photos showing vacant lots, a gyro stand, a park and spots between two houses where the address should have been.

A Republican Party spokesman said the GOP routinely checks voter rolls to purge files and was interested in the city of Milwaukee because of the large number of new voter registrations for this presidential election.

'George Bush lost the state by 5,708 votes, so these kinds of things do matter,' Chris Lato said.

A spokesman for John Kerry sharply criticized the move by Republicans, saying it was merely to prevent people, most likely those who lean Democratic, to vote.

'This is part of a consistent effort on their part to try and call the legitimacy of the electoral system into question,' said George Twigg, Kerry's Wisconsin campaign director.


Yahoo! News - FEC OKs Unlimited Donations for Recounts

Thu Oct 28, 4:00 PM ET Politics - AP

By SHARON THEIMER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Presidential and congressional candidates can raise unlimited donations to finance recounts as President Bush (news - web sites) and Al Gore (news - web sites) did for their high-stakes Florida dispute in 2000.

Four of the Federal Election Commission (news - web sites)'s six members said Thursday that the FEC's long-standing rule on recount fund raising remains in effect, which means federal candidates can set up separate recount funds and finance them with unlimited donations from individual contributors. Candidates cannot accept corporate, union or foreign money.

The FEC's guidance was issued informally in comments by a majority of the commission's members. The commission stopped short of issuing a formal advisory opinion on the matter after a Senate candidate withdrew his request for one.

At issue was what effect, if any, a 2002 campaign finance law had on recount fund raising. The law prohibits national party committees and presidential and congressional candidates from raising corporate, union and unlimited contributions for election costs.

The Bush campaign has argued that nothing in the law affects recount fund raising. The law's sponsors and campaign finance watchdogs have told the FEC they believe the new restrictions do apply to recounts, and that candidates should only be able to collect contributions of up to $2,000 from individuals and $5,000 from political action committees for recount expenses.


Commissioner Ellen Weintraub said that even though the FEC didn't issue a formal opinion on recount fund raising, it was important for candidates to know where a majority of commissioners stood.


"I think it's worth telling people it's not worth filing those complaints" should their opponents raise unlimited individual donations for recounts, Weintraub said.


While Weintraub was among at least four commissioners concluding the old rule stands for this election, she said she would be open to siding with the law's sponsors and limiting recount donations should the FEC take up the issue again after the 2004 election.

[ Well, looks like this will guarantee that these recount fiasco's will be with us into the future, as far as the eye can see :( ]

The Columbus Dispatch - Election: "Voter challenges halted"

Thursday, October 28, 2004

Mark Niquette
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Voter challenges halted

A federal judge yesterday issued a temporary order preventing elections boards in Franklin and five other counties from hearing challenges that the Ohio GOP had filed against thousands of newly registered voters.

Ohio Democrats declared victory, saying they will seek to block any other county board from considering voter challenges - and even if the order were reversed later, there likely wouldn't be time for hearings before Tuesday's election.

The Franklin County Board of Elections has canceled 2,371 hearings set to start at 9 a.m. today, but officials cautioned voters that things might change.

"The bottom line to voters is to stay tuned," said Matthew Damschroder, board of elections director.

Nick A. Soulas Jr., an assistant Franklin County prosecutor, didn’t know if Prosecutor Ron O’Brien would appeal, but Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell will not, a spokesman said.

It was the latest legal development in the hard-fought presidential election in Ohio that already has generated several lawsuits and could produce many more if Tuesday’s outcome is as close as expected, experts say.

U.S. District Judge Susan J. Dlott yesterday granted a request by the Ohio Democratic Party to halt hearings called to verify the residency of new voters who had been sent mail that was returned as undeliverable.

Republicans suspect fraud and wanted boards to conditionally remove voters from the rolls if they don’t live where they are registered. Democrats argued mail also is returned for legitimate reasons, including someone serving in the military.


Democrats file 9 suits in Florida - The Washington Times

October 27, 2004

Democrats file 9 suits in Florida

By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Democrats in Florida already are pursuing nine election-related lawsuits, accusing state election officials of conspiring to disenfranchise minority voters.

Led by the Florida Democratic Party, the People for the American Way, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the AFL-CIO, the lawsuits target, among others, Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood, who was appointed by Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, President Bush's brother.

The suits say Republican officials refused to count provisional ballots, improperly disqualified incomplete voter registrations, established overly restrictive rules to disproportionately hurt minority voters and actively sought to disenfranchise blacks.

Matt Miller, a spokesman for the Kerry campaign, said Republicans are 'trying to scare people away from the polls.'

But Mrs. Hood's spokesman, Alia Faraj, described the lawsuits as politically motivated, saying they were eroding public confidence in the election process by challenging 'every single law we are following.'

One suit challenges a ruling by Mrs. Hood to throw out forms on which new voters had failed to check a box indicating whether they were U.S. citizens, and another argued that although only 17 percent of the voters in Broward County and 20 percent in Miami-Dade County were black, more than a third of the voter-registration forms that were determined to be incomplete and invalid in both counties involved black voters. "


'Disenfranchised' voters

Thursday, October 28, 2004

Copyright � Las Vegas Review-Journal

EDITORIAL: 'Disenfranchised' voters

Democrats hardly concerned about the integrity of voter registration process

The Democratic Party will apparently stop at nothing to completely bastardize the voter registration process. Fortunately, another judge has issued a common-sense decision to uphold the simple requirements that protect the integrity of one of our most sacrosanct rights.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King ruled in Miami that Florida election officials do not have to process incomplete voter registration forms. Apparently, thousands of people signed Florida registration forms to affirm their eligibility but failed to produce adequate identification, such as a Social Security number, or check boxes affirming their citizenship, mental capacity and felony status.

The lawsuit's backers, which include the AFL-CIO and the social action group Advancement Project, said an appeal of the decision would be filed by Friday.

Democrats are outraged that more voters have been 'disenfranchised.' Similar cries were heard in Clark County this month when District Judge Valerie Adair refused to reopen the voter registration period over Democratic Party allegations that a Republican-backed registration firm had selectively destroyed Democrats' forms.

At the core of both cases are the issues of integrity and personal responsibility -- and Democrats' desire to eliminate them from the registration process. In Florida, those who submitted incomplete forms could have participated in this year's election if they simply had followed instructions put in place to protect against fraud.


Wednesday, October 27, 2004

Florida Judge: Some Provisional Ballots Can Be Tossed

Friday, Oct. 22, 2004

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- The state must reject provisional ballots if they are cast in the wrong precinct, a federal judge said Thursday in the latest in a series of opinions on how such votes should be counted.

U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hinkle ruled voters who show up at a polling place and aren't on the rolls should be allowed to submit a provisional ballot - in case it's later determined they were in the properly assigned precinct.

But he said federal law doesn't require the state to count the ballot if it's determined the voter submitted the ballot somewhere other than the assigned precinct.

A provisional ballot is held until officials determine if the person was entitled to vote. If they should have been allowed to vote, the ballot counts; if not, it's thrown out.

The ruling comes in a case brought by Democrats, who wanted the judge to block Secretary of State Glenda Hood from ordering that provisional ballots be tallied only if they were cast in the correct precinct.

Hood spokeswoman Alia Faraj said the ruling was ``a victory for all Floridians who want an orderly election'' Nov. 2.

"Florida law simply requires that those who use provisional ballots be treated equally with all other voters who have to cast their ballots in their assigned precinct,'' Faraj said.

Mark Herron, a lawyer for the Democrats, said Hinkle's ruling doesn't make sense. ``You'd think people who are entitled to vote are entitled to have their ballots counted,'' he said.


Just a reminder

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nbc4i.com - Politics - Hundreds March Against Provisional Ballot Ruling

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- About 500 people stopped traffic in downtown Columbus Monday as they marched to Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell's office, NBC 4's Natalie Walston reported.

Those marching were upset about a final court ruling on the handling of provisional ballots in Ohio.

Democrats challenged a law in Ohio that said a voter could only vote in his or her assigned precinct. But a three-judge panel shot down the challenge, saying people needed to vote where they are assigned.

The group of protestors alleged that Republicans were limiting the number of voters, Walston reported.

'I'm concerned with people knowing where their voting locations are, and there are a number of new voters who have registered,' Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, D-Cleveland, said.


MLive.com: NewsFlash - Appeals court reverses lower-court ruling on provisional ballots in Michigan

10/26/2004, 6:56 p.m. ET
By DAVID EGGERT

The Associated Press

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that provisional ballots cast outside the precinct where a voter resides cannot be counted in Michigan.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling that said provisional ballots should be counted on Nov. 2 as long as they are cast in the right city, township or village.

Provisional ballots - required in all states for the first time this year - are used when voters say they are properly registered but their names are not on the registration rolls. The ballots are later counted if elections officials determine the voter is validly registered.

The three-judge appeals panel said the Help America Vote Act, passed by Congress in 2002, 'does not require the state to count as valid those ballots that are cast outside of the precinct in which the voter resides.'

The Michigan case, the panel noted, is similar to a recent Ohio case in which the same panel ruled that provisional ballots cast by Ohio voters outside their own precincts should not be counted.

The Michigan Democratic Party, Bay County Democratic Party, the NAACP and voter-rights groups sued Republican Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land last month, arguing that federal election law says some provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct should be counted. State officials had ordered that only provisional ballots cast in the correct precinct be counted.

'It's a relief that we don't have to implement new procedures just before the election,' Land spokeswoman Kelly Chesney said.


Talon News -- RNC Blasts Democrats, CBS On 'Memogate'

By Jeff Gannon
Talon News

September 23, 2004

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie is raising questions about the relationship between the CBS network and the Democratic Party as well as their conduct. In a press conference Wednesday, Gillespie said that he believes a crime has been committed in the CBS 'Memogate' scandal.

Gillespie pointed out that the Texas Legal Code says it is a third degree felony if one 'makes, presents, or uses any record, document, or thing with knowledge of its falsity and with intent that it be taken as a genuine governmental record' or 'makes, presents, or uses a governmental record with knowledge of its falsity.'

Gillespie said that a chronology of events indicates that the Kerry campaign knew about the documents CBS used in their September 8 report.

Gillespie said that Bill Burkett claimed that he made multiple contacts with the Kerry campaign in August, sending an e-mail newsletter on August 21 saying he talked to Kerry campaign seniors on Friday, August 20. The Kerry campaign reportedly told him they wanted to 'counterattack,' and he says he 'gave them the information to do it with.'

'Bill Burkett says he contacted the Democratic National Committee and laid out a rationale for using what he termed 'down and dirty tactics against President Bush,'' Gillespie added. 'We know that the Kerry campaign devised a strategy to attack the President's National Guard service that began the same night the Republican National Convention ended, with Senator Kerry attacking the president's guard service on the night of September 2.'


County elections trustees discuss possible charges regarding suspected illegal absentee ballot applications

Lake County Elections Board trustees today will discuss the possibility of criminal charges being brought against at least two issue advocacy groups and potentially a political candidate regarding suspected illegal absentee ballot applications.

Janet F. Clair, elections board director, said she is investigating numerous applications and is likely to ask trustees to refer the matter to Lake County Prosecutor Charles E. Coulson. Her investigation had not concluded Tuesday, she said.

Trustees will meet at 8:15 a.m. today in Painesville.

Clair said questionable applications have come in from large neighborhood blocks in which the entire area is requesting absentee ballots.

Others have come from an issue advocacy group canvassing nursing homes, she said.

Several signatures on some ballot applications also appear not to be genuine, Clair said.

'Whenever we see a red flag, we investigate,' Clair said.

'We're trying to monitor the election to make sure everyone is voting properly.'

Clair said felony election fraud charges might be a possibility.


HUNDREDPERCENTER NEWSWIRES: Authorities Investigating Voter Fraud by Democratic Groups in Ohio

Friday, September 24, 2004

Authorities Investigating Voter Fraud by Democratic Groups in Ohio

In the United States, only 17 states require identification in order to vote. Apparently democrats, who readily accuse republicans of rigging the 2000 election, are attempting to steal the 2004 Presidential election by registering the deceased as democrats.

In Lake & Summit counties, Ohio ( battleground state), authorities are investigating more than 1,000 voter registration forms and absentee ballot requests that appear to be fraudulent.

Lake County Sherriff, Daniel Dunlap said,'I don't know if this was a concerted effort or if it was just an overzealous, independent person here and there who decided to push the envelope.' Dunlap is currently investigating an attempt to register a dead person amongst the many other cases of obvious fraud. He has notified the FBI and the Ohio secretary of state of these occurrences.

Lake County Prosecutor, Charles Coulson said, 'We've seen voter fraud before, but never on this level. I grew up in Chicago and this looks like the politics of Mayor Daley in the '50s and '60s.'

Lake County election & law enforcement officials said their investigation is centered on absentee registration attempts by the NAACP's National Voter Fund and an anti-Bush, nonprofit group called Americans Coming Together, or ACT Ohio.


TCS: Tech Central Station - The Attack on One Man That Was Bigger Than the Clash of Civilizations

An American serviceman was ambushed last month. This ambush was especially noteworthy because it did not occur in Iraq or Afghanistan; it occurred within the borders of the United States. PFC Foster Barton, recipient of the Purple Heart, was on a two-week leave, recuperating from injuries sustained while on duty in Iraq. While leaving a concert in Columbus, Ohio, he was attacked. According to a local television report, his attacker reportedly 'was screaming profanities and making crude remarks about U.S. soldiers.'

I suspect that PFC Barton does not want to be part of any larger story or lesson about the war on terrorism. He is, most likely, a soldier who wants to do his job well, carry out his mission, and protect his buddies as best he can. However, a soldier does not always pick the battles in which he is involved. Circumstance has placed PFC Barton front-and-center of the war that transcends even the 'clash of civilizations.' Foster Barton was attacked by the common enemy of all civilizations.

Within every society, everywhere in the world, there exist individuals willing to use violence to get what they want. Saddam Hussein terrorized the Iraqi people to make himself rich and powerful. Foster Barton's attacker terrorized an American soldier to make himself feel good. They may not be linked by a common command-and-control structure or political ideology, but they are certainly linked by common, warped view of humanity. They share the belief that they are free, whenever they can get away with it, to make others the object of their violence. The current war against the network of dictators and terrorists, even more fundamental than a clash of civilizations, is a part of civilized society's ongoing stand against violence-for-personal-gain-and-fulfillment. The attack against Foster Barton was part of that same war.


WBNS-10TV Columbus, Ohio: Election Fraud Cases Under Review

Hundreds of cases of suspected election fraud are under review in Franklin County.

'I was surprised by the number,' county prosecutor Ron O'Brien told 10TV.

Stacks of voter registration applications are now being scrutinized. Prosecutor O'Brien's office is reviewing them for irregularities after the applications raised red flags with the Board of Elections.

'What causes some of this to happen is that people are being paid to register new voters,' O'Brien said of the practice of paying people by the application.

One application being examined was signed in the name of a man who passed away in February. Another 25 applications show different addresses for the same man.

Six of the suspicious forms were submitted by representatives of the Columbus Urban League, while 62 others came from ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

Both groups say they've fired people suspected of fraud.

Kevin Eugene Dooley, involved in Project Vote as an employee or agent of ACORN, was indicted by the grand jury earlier this year for two felony election offenses -- false election registration, and submitting false election signatures to the Board of Elections. Dooley is alleged to have falsified and forged a new voter registration card that was submitted to the BOE.

And you might recognize the name of Nuradin Abdi. He's a native of Somalia charged with plotting to blow up a Columbus mall.


Long gone but still registered

Ohio's Election Day rolls include people who couldn't - and shouldn't - vote

Sunday, October 24, 2004
Jon Craig
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Ohio's voter-registration rolls are dirty, containing more than 122,000 apparent duplicates as well as the names of people who moved out of state in the 1990s, a local murder victim and even a pair of accused terrorists.

Among supposedly eligible voters in Franklin County are suspected terrorists arrested for alleged plots to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge and a local shopping mall. As an imprisoned felon, one is ineligible to vote. The other, from Somalia, is not a U.S. citizen and thus broke state and federal laws when he registered in 1999, officials said.

Also on the voter rolls is an Upper Arlington man who moved to Washington state in the late 1990s, registered there, later moved to New York and now is registered there.

And the list includes a Columbus man's adult children who moved out of state in 1997 and 1993 - despite the father's attempt to get them removed.


Dems Register al-Qaida Terrorists in Ohio Vote Drive

In a bid to get out the vote for John Kerry, Democrat activist groups in Ohio have registered at least two known terrorists involved in a plot to blow up a shopping center.

Nuradin Abdi, a Somali immigrant and admitted al-Qaida member who was indicted earlier this year as part of a conspiracy to blow up the Columbus Mall, was registered to vote by the left-wing group ACORN, according to the Columbus Dispatch and the Ohio News Now TV Network.

ACORN has spearheaded an aggressive Democrat vote drive in the battleground states.

Iyman Faris, another new Ohio voter added to the rolls by Democrats, is serving a 20-year jail sentence for his role in surveilling potential al-Qaida targets, including the Brooklyn Bridge, the Dispatch said.

According to Ohio News Now, Abdi's name was added to the rolls by ACORN employee Kevin Eugene Dooley as part of the group's Project Vote operation.

Dooley was indicted earlier this year on two felony election offenses: false election registration and submitting false election signatures to the Ohio Board of Elections.

'As far as board of elections is concerned, Abdi is a registered voter,' Ohio board of elections director Matt Damschroeder told ONN.

Only after Abdi's case was exposed did Ohio officials strike his name from the voting rolls, because of his status as an illegal alien.


Ohio Gov. Taft: 4 Counties Have More Registrants Than Eligible Voters

Appearing on CNN's 'American Morning' program Tuesday, Ohio's Republican Governor Bob Taft painted a disturbing picture of widespread vote fraud in his state.

Taft told CNN's Bill Hemmer that in four Ohio counties, more people have registered to vote than live in those counties and are of voting age.


'We have four counties where you have more voters registered than you have 18 and over population,' Taft said.

Taft noted the role of Democrat 527 groups that have inflated Ohio�s voter registeration rolls.

'We've had a lot of fraudulent voter registrations already, mostly by those 527 groups. There will be unprecedented scrutiny of this election on both sides, he said. Taft noted that many of these new registrations appear to be fraudulent.




The Seattle Times: Local News: 3 computers stolen from Bush's Bellevue campaign office

Saturday, October 02, 2004 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M.

3 computers stolen from Bush's Bellevue campaign office
By David Postman and Ashley Bach
Seattle Times staff reporters

A large rock was thrown through the window of Bush-Cheney Washington state headquarters in Bellevue. Three laptops belonging to key campaign workers were taken.

BELLEVUE - Three computers loaded with confidential campaign plans were reported stolen early yesterday in a burglary at President Bush's Washington state campaign headquarters.

Someone threw a rock through a window of the campaign's office in a suburban business park, taking laptops belonging to key campaign workers from the desk of the Bush campaign's state director, Bellevue police and Republican Party officials said.

The Bush campaign and local Republican officials say they're convinced the break-in was politically motivated. They say it appeared to be a targeted burglary and was suspiciously similar to a break-in four years ago at Bush's Bellevue offices.

'Whoever did this was clearly looking for a body of information,' said local Bush campaign spokeswoman Leah Yoon.

Police said their investigation was still in the early stages. But so far, said department spokeswoman Jessamyn Poling, 'there's no indication that it was politically motivated.'

State Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance called it a 'Watergate-style break in,' and said he suspects Democrats are behind it.

"If you're just some burglar looking for computers to sell to buy drugs, you take every laptop in the office, maybe," Vance said. "But they knew exactly whose computers to get."


WSMV- Nashville Channel 4 News Teen, angry over brother's deployment, steals 71 Bush signs

September 29, 2004

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Police said a Nashville teenager and his friends stole 71 Bush-Cheney yard signs because he was mad at President Bush for sending his brother to Iraq.

Andrew Thurman, 18, told police that he and 19-year-old Frederick Stevenson stole the signs from several west Nashville neighborhoods because his brother, a U.S. marine, was sent to Iraq.

'It's not unusual to see the isolated theft of campaign signs in local, state and federal elections,' Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron said. 'However, this is the first time I can recall that someone who admits responsibility for the theft has linked it to the war in Iraq.'

Thurman, Stevenson and two other teens were riding in a Honda Accord when they were stopped by police. Officers searched the car and found the signs, along with three pistols.

Thurman and Stevenson were cited for misdemeanor charges of theft and unlawful weapon possession. The other teens, who were both minors, face only the weapon charge.


Rapid City Journal: Vandals target GOP campaign signs

Saturday, October 2, 2004 11:31 PM MDT

Vandals target GOP campaign signs
By Kevin Woster, Journal Staff Writer

RAPID CITY - The battle over political yard signs continued in Rapid City on Friday night, and the Republicans seemed to get the worst of it.

Signs supporting Republican candidates John Thune and Larry Diedrich were spray painted, stolen or destroyed up and down West Boulevard, as well as on several streets nearby. West Boulevard resident Ellen Drabek said Saturday that she lost two signs from her yard during the night.
'Mine weren't painted. Mine were stolen. And there were two large Thune signs up at St. Patrick Street that were broken up. All the rest of them were spray painted,' Drabek said. 'None of the Democratic signs were touched.'

The vandalism and thefts occurred about two weeks after three Rapid City teenagers were caught after they were spotted in the act of stealing a large yard sign for Democrat Stephanie Herseth from a West Boulevard yard. Signs for Democrat Tom Daschle also had been taken.

Reports of stolen or defaced political signs have come from throughout the state, from both Democrats and Republicans. The Friday night incident seemed to be isolated to the West Boulevard area, Sgt. Ron Bedard of the Rapid City Police Department said.


WHAT WE CAN LOOK FORWARD TO, AFTER ELECTION DAY

September 2, 2004: Huntington, West Virginia:

Republican supporters in Huntington were watching their candidate accept the party's nomination when a gunshot rang out right in the middle of George W. Bush's speech.

'We heard a small snap, and felt glass come sliding by us. We looked up and saw a hole in our window and realized somebody was shooting at us', said Paula Stewart.

Witnesses tell police that someone fired a shot at the Republican Headquarters office at 1402 4th Avenue around 10:30pm Thursday night.


Duluth News Tribune | 09/16/2004 | Teens confess to vandalizing campaign signs

Posted on Thu, Sep. 16, 2004

Teens confess to vandalizing campaign signs

PUBLIC SAFETY:The three Duluth boys say they want to apologize to man for spray painting his lawn signs supporting President Bush.

BY MARK STODGHILL

NEWS TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER


'We did it.'

Three Duluth teenagers walked into the Duluth News Tribune on Wednesday afternoon, opening with these three words. The boys said they were responsible for vandalizing Bush campaign signs and painting a swastika and the word 'Nazi' at a London Road residence last weekend.

An hour later, the three boys traveled to the Lakeside-Lester Park police station, where Sgt. Scott Campbell was waiting to talk to them.

The teenagers told the News Tribune they meant no harm to Bob James, the homeowner and Bush-Cheney supporter who erected the signs. They said they spray painted the signs and the swastika on James' sidewalk but had nothing to do with the vandalism of two of James' vehicles.

Friends and supporters of James and the Republican Party of Minnesota had offered a $2,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the vandalism.

While the teenagers were remorseful for what they did to James, they stood by their contempt for President Bush. They said they left a phone message for James on Wednesday and twice went to his house to apologize, but he wasn't home. They planned to try again later Wednesday.

'It was not an act of hate,' said Dustin 'Dusty' Dzuck, 17, a senior at Denfeld High School. 'My mom called me a terrorist. It wasn't terrorism; it was activism. It was for a cause.... The whole thing is, basically, I just wanted to get the word out there that in my opinion."


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