Assessing the President

NATIONAL REVIEW

By Hans A. von Spakovsky
December 22, 2011 1:18 P.M.
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36
 

 

The latest voter-fraud convictions in Troy, N.Y., must be very inconvenient to the public-affairs propagandists over at the DNC and the NAACP, as well as liberal mediaoutlets like the New York Times. It just ruins their constant refrain that there is no voter fraud in the United States. 
Eric Shawn at FOX News reports that two Troy city officials, the city clerk and a councilman, along with two Democratic political operatives, have pled guilty to forging absentee-ballot signatures and casting fraudulent ballots in the 2009 Working Families Party primary. The WFP is the political party associated with ACORN.
One of the citizens whose votes were stolen was stunned at what happened. She said that she was “sure this goes on a lot in politics, but it’s very rare that they do get caught.” This voter was right on the money with that observation — fraud is so easy to commit in our election system that it is rare that fraudsters get caught and even rarer that they get prosecuted.
As for the constant liberal claims that voter fraud does not occur, one of the Democratic operatives who pled guilty, Anthony DeFiglio, told New York State policeinvestigators “that faking absentee ballots was a commonplace and accepted practice in political circles, all intended to swing an election.” And whose votes do they steal? DeFiglio was very plain about that: “The people who are targeted live in low-income housing, and there is a sense that they are a lot less likely to ask any questions.”
That is exactly what former Alabama congressman Artur Davis said recently when he admitted that he was wrong to oppose voter-ID requirements. Davis says the “most aggressive” voter suppression “is the wholesale manufacture of ballots, at the polls and absentee, in parts of the Black Belt” of Alabama, which is an area of very poor black communities. These are the very areas where the NAACP claims voter fraud does not happen. The NAACP opposes all reasonable measures to safeguard the voting process for its own constituents, even going to the extent of defending vote stealers,as the NAACP did in Greene County, Ala., in the mid-1990s. Small wonder one of its local officials was recently sentenced to five years in prison for voter fraud in Tunica County, Mississippi.
In the Troy case, the ease with which voter signatures were forged without detection shows that signature comparison by election officials does not work and poses no deterrent to this type of voter fraud. That is why Kansas combined a voter-ID requirement in its new election law with a change to its absentee-ballot procedures. If you want to vote in person in Kansas, you now have to show a photo ID, and if you request an absentee ballot, you have to provide either a copy of your photo ID or the driver’s license number from the ID. That helps confirm that the registered voter — not some political operative like Anthony DeFiglio — actually requested the ballot.

AND THEN;

Recent Fraud

State   Year   Details   AR 1998 A contractor with ACORN-affiliated Project Vote was arrested for falsifying about 400 voter registration cards. CO 2005 Two ex-ACORN employees were convicted in Denver of perjury for submitting false voter registrations.   2004 An ACORN employee admitted to forging signatures and registering three of her friends to vote 40 times. CT 2008 The New York Post reported that ACORN submitted a voter registration card for a 7-year-old Bridgeport girl. Another 8,000 cards from the same city will be scrutinized for possible fraud. FL 2009 In September, 11 ACORN workers were accused of forging voter registration applications in Miami-Dade County during the last election. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the state attorney’s office scoured hundreds of suspicious applications provided by ACORN and found 197 of 260 contained personal ID information that did not match any living person.   2008 Election officials in Brevard County have given prosecutors more than 23 suspect registrations from ACORN. The state's Division of Elections is also investigating complaints in Orange and Broward Counties.   2004 A Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokesman said ACORN was “singled out” among suspected voter registration groups for a 2004 wage initiative because it was “the common thread” in the agency’s fraud investigations. IN 2008 Election officials in Indiana have thrown out more than 4,000 ACORN-submitted voter registrations after finding they had identical handwriting and included the names of many deceased Indianans, and even the name of a fast food restaurant. MI 2008

Clerks in Detroit found a "sizeable number of duplicate and fraudulent [voter] applications" from the Michigan branch of ACORN. Those applications have been turned over to the U.S. Attorney's office for investigation.

08 Nearly 400 ACORN-submitted registrations in Kansas City have been rejected due to duplication or fake information.   2007 Four ACORN employees were indicted in Kansas City for charges including identity theft and filing false registrations during the 2006 election.   2006 Eight ACORN employees in St. Louis were indicted on federal election fraud charges. Each of the eight faces up to five years in prison for forging signatures and submitting false information.   2003 Of 5,379 voter registration cards ACORN submitted in St. Louis, only 2,013 of those appeared to be valid. At least 1,000 are believed to be attempts to register voters illegally. MN 2004 During a traffic stop, police found more than 300 voter registration cards in the trunk of a former ACORN employee, who had violated a legal requirements that registration cards be submitted to the Secretary of State within 10 days of being filled out and signed. NC 2008 County elections officials have sent suspicious voter registration applications to the state Board of Elections. Many of the applications had similar or identical names, but with different addresses or dates of birth.   2004 North Carolina officials investigated ACORN for submitting fake voter registration cards. NM 2008 Prosecutors are investigating more than 1,100 ACORN-submitted voter registration cards after a county clerk found them to be fraudulent. Many of the cards included duplicate names and slightly altered personal information.   2005 Four ACORN employees submitted as many as 3,000 potentially fraudulent signatures on the group’s Albuquerque ballot initiative. A local sheriff added: “It’s safe to say the forgery was widespread.”   2004 An ACORN employee registered a 13-year-old boy to vote. Citing this and other examples, New Mexico State Representative Joe Thompson stated that ACORN was “manufacturing voters” throughout New Mexico. NV 2009

Nevada authorities indicted ACORN on 26 counts of voter registration fraud and 13 counts of illegally compensating canvassers. ACORN provided a bonus compensation program called “Blackjack” or “21+” for any canvasser who registered more than 20 voters per shift, which is illegal under Nevada law.

 

 

 

Chris Hayes Equates Gingrich Worker Committing Voter Fraud With 70 ACORN Convictions For It

By Jack Coleman | December 31, 2011 | 19:22
 

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jack-coleman/2011/12/31/chris-hayes-equates-gingrich-worker-committing-voter-fraud-70-acorn-co#ixzz1jjaHDyM6

70 CONVICTIONS!!!  HHMMMMMM

Minnesota Majority’s Report on Felon Voter Fraud Convictions

Stemming from Minnesota’s 2008 General Election

October 13th, 2011 - Prepared by Dan McGrath

Page 1

Executive Summary

More than two years after Minnesota Majority filed complaints with county attorneys throughout 

Minnesota citing evidence of ineligible felons voting in the 2008 General Election, convictions for these 

election crimes are still emerging from our legal system.  The statute of limitations for these 2008 crimes 

will run-out this November after which no additional illegal voters will be able to be charged.

As of August 10th, 2011, 113 individuals are now known to have been convicted for voter fraud 

committed in 2008. We believe this is the highest number of voter fraud convictions obtained in any 

state for a single election cycle since 1936. In fact, according to a 2006 Justice Department report, there 

have been more convictions for voter fraud in Minnesota from just the 2008 election than the DOJ was 

able to prosecute over a five year span, nationwide.

While this number may seem a small percentage of the 2,803 suspected ineligible voters originally 

submitted to county prosecutors for investigation, there is a wide gap between voting while ineligible and 

voting while knowingly ineligible.

A report produced by Citizens for Election Integrity titled “Facts About Ineligible Voting and Voter Fraud in 

Minnesota” (November, 2010) included survey data from the county attorneys in Anoka and Dakota 

Counties that indicated the primary reason suspected ineligible voters were not charged was because the 

attorneys could not prove these individuals knowingly violated election law. A total of 83% of suspects not 

charged in Anoka County and 53.5% of suspects not charged in Dakota County fell into this category.

In other words, most of the suspects on Minnesota Majority’s original list did, in fact, vote while ineligible, 

but the standard for prosecution in Minnesota is “ineligible voter knowingly votes.” If an ineligible voter 

claims not to have known they were breaking the law, it’s difficult for prosecutors to prove otherwise. In 

essence, to be convicted of voter fraud, the suspect must generally admit willful, knowing guilt.

Minnesota Majority’s survey of county attorneys revealed an additional 112 suspected ineligible voters 

who had been charged and were awaiting trial as of August 10

th

, 2011. Another 73 were reported to be 

pending charges.

While some ineligible felon voters registered in advance of the election and should have been flagged for challenge, the overwhelming majority who evaded detection used Election Day Registration, which 

currently has no mechanism to detect or prevent ineligible voters.

Voter fraud is real

And voter ID laws are really needed; they are not racist

Sunday, December 18, 2011

By Jack Kelly, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The state chairman of Indiana's Democratic Party resigned Monday as a probe of election fraud in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary widened.
State law requires a presidential candidate to gather 500 valid signatures in each county to qualify for the ballot. Barack Obama may not have met it. Investigators think 150 of the 534 signatures the Obama campaign turned in for St. Joseph County may have been forged.
Yet Democrats say that measures to guard against vote fraud are racist Republican plots to disenfranchise minority voters.
Republicans "want to literally drag us back to Jim Crow laws," said Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, D-Fla, chair of the Democratic National Committee.
The NAACP has asked the United Nations to intervene to block state voter ID laws. It may have an ulterior motive for opposing ballot security measures. An NAACP official was convicted on 10 counts of absentee voter fraud in Tunica County, Miss., in July.
Former Democratic Rep. Artur Davis, who is black, said vote fraud is rampant in African-American districts like his in Alabama.
"The most aggressive contemporary voter suppression in the African-American community is the wholesale manufacture of ballots at the polls and absentee, in parts of the Black Belt," Mr. Davis said. "Voting the names of the dead, and the nonexistent, and the too mentally impaired to function cancels out the votes of citizens who are exercising their rights."
Laws requiring photo IDs suppress minority voting, Democrats charge. The facts say otherwise. In Georgia, black voter turnout for the midterm election in 2006 was 42.9 percent. After Georgia passed photo ID, black turnout in the 2010 midterm rose to 50.4 percent. Black turnout also rose in Indiana and Mississippi after photo IDs were required.
"Concerns about voter identification laws affecting turnout are much ado about nothing," concluded researchers at the universities of Delaware and Nebraska after examining election data from 2000 through 2006.
You need a photo ID to get on an airplane or an Amtrak train; to open a bank account, withdraw money from it, or cash a check; to pick up movie and concert tickets; to go into a federal building; to buy alcohol and to apply for food stamps.
Most Americans don't think it's a hardship to ask voters to produce one. A Rasmussen poll in June indicated 75 percent of respondents support photo ID requirements. Huge majorities of Hispanics support voter ID laws, according to a Resurgent Republic poll in September.
This year there have been investigations, indictments or convictions for vote fraud in California, Texas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina and Maryland. In all but one case, the alleged fraudsters were Democrats.

THE DAILY CALLER/ by Matthew Vadum

Yet another former ACORN employee was convicted of voter fraud last week. This brings the total number of convictions for former workers from the embattled group to at least 15 so far this year.

Kevin L. Clancy of Milwaukee pleaded guilty last week to participating “in a scheme to submit fraudulent voter registration applications,” according to Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen. Clancy admitted to filing multiple voter registration applications for the same individuals and registering himself and other voter registration canvassers to vote multiple times while working on an ACORN voter drive.

Clancy received a 10-month prison term for his crime. Clancy’s sentence will begin when he completes another sentence he is currently serving for armed robbery.

“The integrity of elections is dependent upon citizens and officials insisting they be conducted lawfully,” Van Hollen said. “Wisconsin’s citizens should not have to wonder whether their vote has been negated or diminished by illegally cast ballots.”

So far 2010 has been a banner year for ACORN voter fraud prosecutions.

In Milwaukee, former ACORN worker Maria L. Miles, who worked with Clancy, pleaded guilty to “falsely procuring voter registration.” She will be sentenced next month.

Also in Milwaukee, Frank Edmund Walton was convicted of “falsely procuring voter registration.” According to Van Hollen, Walton solicited voter registrations while working for a group called the Community Voter Project. Court documents indicate that after committing the crime he became an ACORN employee. Walton will be sentenced in December.

ABC News' Gary Langer and Greg Holyk report:

The nation's economic ice jam is showing tentative signs of a thaw, warming some political sentiment along with it. The question: Whether the change amounts to enough to boost Barack Obama - and incumbents generally - in the election year ahead.

The jury's out because the mood remains so glum: Sixty-eight percent of Americans in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll still say the country's headed seriously off on the wrong track. But that's down from 77 percent in September, and "right direction" ratings, at 30 percent, while weak, are their best since June.

Economic sentiment strongly informs the political mood, and there's still a deep chill. This poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, finds that even with his gain on jobs, 51 percent disapprove of how Obama's handling them. Despite the change in "worse-off" ratings, twice as many have lost ground financially under Obama as say they've moved ahead. And while more say a recovery's begun, three-quarters of them also say it's a weak one.

There's also one particular risk ahead: The federal Energy Information Administration reported yesterday that the price of gasoline has risen by 16 cents in the past month to an average $3.39 a gallon, its highest in any January in records since 1990. If gas keeps rising, the recent, tentative advances in economic and political sentiment would be imperiled.

Those are some of the push-pull sentiments in place as Obama approaches the start of his fourth year in office, his third State of the Union address next week - and what promises to be a tumultuous election year ahead.

THE DYNAMIC - As reported Monday, Obama has a 48 percent job approval rating overall, up from his career low 42 percent in October. His challenge is that of the four previous presidents since 1940 to enter their re-election year with less than 50 percent approval, just one won re-election, Richard Nixon in 1972.

Still, if the dynamic remains problematic for the president, it's less bad than it's been, substantially more Americans - 61 percent - say Obama "sticks with his principles," an issue on which he may seek to draw comparisons with Mitt Romney, should the current Republican frontrunner secure his party's nomination.

At the same time, Obama has a performance deficit: More than half, 52 percent, say he has not accomplished much since taking office - and of those who say so, most say it's his own fault, as opposed to that of the Republicans in Congress. That may make four more years a tough sell - and could weaken the president's efforts to run against the Republicans in Congress, despite that institution's record-low popularity.

The Iranian government, which captured a U.S. stealth drone in December, has agreed to give the top-secret spy craft back, but with a catch.

Instead of the original RQ-170 Sentinel drone, the Islamic Republic said Tuesday that it will send President Obama a tiny toy replica of the plane.

Iranian state radio said that the toy model will be 1/80th the size of the real thing. Iranian citizens can also buy their own toy copies of the drone, which will be available in stores for the equivalent of $4.

The White House formally requested return of the drone after the Iranians displayed it on state television. The U.S. says that the craft was operating over Eastern Afghanistan.

On  Dec. 11, after President Obama said he had requested the return of the drone, an Iranian general said that it was not going to happen. The general also warned on Iranian television of a "bigger response" to the "hostile act" of crossing into Iranian airspace.

"No one returns the symbol of aggression to the party that sought secret and vital intelligence related to the national security of a country," Iranian Islamic Revolution Guards Corps [IRGC] Lt. Commander Gen. Hossein Salami said, according to Iran's Fars News Agency.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that "given Iran's behavior to date, we do not expect them to comply" with Obama's request. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta also said he didn't expect Iran to hand over the drone.