Virginia's Voter Registration Purge

From Think Progress: 

...Approximately 57,000 Virginians have been flagged as being registered in another state, and counties are removing some from the voter rolls without any notice or opportunity to rebut the claim. Before conservatives lose their marbles that this is clear and irrefutable evidence of voter fraud, it’s worthwhile to consider how voter registration works. Each state maintains its own roll rather than a nationwide system. When Joe America, who had been registered in Richmond, moves to Philadelphia and registers there, he’s not required to cancel his Virginia registration before enrolling in Pennsylvania. The process for removing registrations of people who have moved elsewhere varies from state to state, but generally involves periodic comparisons of lists between states to flag and remove people like Joe America who have moved elsewhere.

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First and foremost, as multiple county registrars explained to ThinkProgress, voters whose registrations are being cancelled aren’t being given any advance notice. Rather than being mailed a warning letter asking if they still live in Virginia, they are being sent notices that their registration has been cancelled effective immediately. If the cancellation is in error, the letter says to contact the registrar and get it worked out. It’s not measure twice, cut once. It’s cut first and be ready with tape for the mistakes...

Former GOP Candidate Convicted of Voter Fraud

From Huffington Post: 

In the midst of his 2012 GOP primary campaign for a Massachusetts state House seat, Jack Villamaino changed the party affiliation of nearly 300 people in his town of East Longmeadow. Days later, the same number of absentee ballot requests were dropped off at the town clerk’s office, a list that was almost a “name-for-name match” for those whose registration information Villamaino had altered. 

Earlier this week, Villamaino pleaded guilty to felony charges of stealing ballots and changing the party affiliation of 280 Democrats during his campaign for state representative. A judge sentenced him to a year in jail, only four months of which he'll be forced to serve behind bars. 

The remainder of that sentence will be suspended, and Villamaino will also be required to serve a year of probation. Villamaino's defense attorney had hoped the judge would throw out the felony conviction, while Hampden District Attorney Mark Mastroianni had sought additional felony charges for forgery and perjury.

Another example of Republican projection. Republicans are running around saying the oppressive laws restricting voter access is because they fear voter fraud. Why are they afraid of Democrats performing voter fraud? Because that is what they, the Republicans, do, so they assume Democrats would do the same (that's not to say Democrats never defraud voters, but it seems that most of the stories in the past year have been about the GOP). A similar story happened here in Virginia last year where a Republican campaign operative committed voter fraud.

Virginia Voter Fraud & Republican Projection

From NBC 29:

A man from Bassett admitted to faking thousands of signatures on campaign ballots. 

In December of 2011 Newt Gingrich needed 10,000 signatures to get his name on the Virginia presidential primary ballot. Adam Ward, 28, collected more than 11,000 signatures according to prosecutors. More than 4,000 signatures could not be verified by investigators.  

Tuesday night, Ward pleaded guilty to 36 counts of voter fraud and perjury in Augusta Circuit Court.  

Sentencing is scheduled for December.

I think I have figured it out. Republicans go on and on and on about how concerned they are about voter fraud. Very often they site this as a reason for voter ID laws (but that issue is for another post). However, most of the time that someone gets charged with voter fraud, it ends up being from the political right. It seems obvious to me now. The reason they are so concerned about voter fraud is because it is something that they think of as a viable option, so they think that people on the political left think it is a viable option as well. This is what psychologists call projection: Republicans are projecting their own ideas on to Democrats.

Disclaimer: This is of course not to say that all Republicans are guilty of voter fraud or that all Democrats are innocent of it. However it does seems that the majority of the hypocrisy on this issue comes from the Republican party.

Arizona's Election Disaster (500k Uncounted Votes)

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What To Look For On Election Night

As the night unfolds when polls begin closing (7:00pm Eastern is when the first round of polls close) and votes start being counted, here are some interesting things to look for:

-The legalization of marijuana - medicinal and recreational - will be on the ballot in three western states: Colorado Washington, and Oregon. Massachusetts, Arkansas, and Montana may legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes only.

-Tea Party favourites and GOP firebrands Allen West (FL), Michele Bachmann (MN), and Joe "Deadbeat Dad" Walsh (IL) are all in very close races and may be unseated.

-Maine will have a ballot initiative that would legalize marriage equality (it is projected to pass).

-Maryland and Washington state have ballot initiatives on whether or not to uphold their states' recently passed marriage equality bills.

Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL)

-Minnesota has a proposed constitutional amendment that would define marriage as solely between one man and one woman. The measure needs at least a 50% yes vote to pass (instead of merely a plurality).

-One of the judges in the Iowa Supreme Court who ruled in favour of marriage equality in that state is up for a retention vote and anti-equality forces are gunning for his seat (3 of his colleagues lost their seats after being targeted for supporting equality).

-There are several close Senate races such as those in Montana, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin that may decide which party leads the Senate.

-There are claims of voter fraud and faulty machines in Pennsylvania, and Ohio has had some shady dealings in the electoral process care of their Sec. of State Jon Husted. If Ohio winds up an electoral disaster, don't be surprised.

For good or ill (though most likely both), it will be a long night.

Lawsuit Filed in Ohio Over Voting Software

Ohio Sec. of State Jon Husted

From Samuel-Warde.com:

A lawsuit filed Monday, on the eve of the election by the co-chairman of the Ohio Green Party and editor of FreePress.org, Bob Fitrakis alleges that software in some Ohio voting machines makes the machines vulnerable to having votes altered after they are cast.

The lawsuit involves machines made by Election Systems and Software out of Omaha, Nebraska, alleges that software on the machines could allow vote manipulation by non-election board officials.

The lawsuit comes days after FreePress.org published a report claiming that Husted had done an “end run” around Ohio law by installing the software on the vote tabulators in the weeks leading up to to the election. According to the report, the software was installed on machines that will be used by more than 4 million registered voters, including those in major metropolitan areas such as Cleveland and Columbus.

FreePress claimed it obtained a copy of the contract for the software from a source at Husted’s office. The contract calls for the tabulation machine’s vendor to “enter custom codes and interfaces to the standard election reporting software,” the publication claimed.

The lawsuit asks the court to order Jon Husted, Ohio’s elections chief, not to use the machines Tuesday and to break state contracts with ES&S for voting machines to be used this year.

The machines are in Ohio’s 25 most populous counties, said Columbus attorney Cliff Arnebeck, who filed the lawsuit.

Another Electoral Trick in Ohio?

From Salon:

Last week, Bob Fitrakis and Gerry Bello at FreePress.org reported an important story concerning what they described as “uncertified ‘experimental’ software patches” being installed at the last minute on electronic vote tabulation systems in 39 Ohio counties.

The story included a copy of the contract [PDF] between Republican Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted’s office and ES&S, the nation’s largest e-voting system manufacturer, for a new, last-minute piece of software created to the custom specifications of the secretary of state. The contract itself describes the software as “High-level enhancements to ES&S’ election reporting software that extend beyond the current features and functionality of the software to facilitate a custom-developed State Election Results Reporting File.”

On Friday evening, at Huffington Post, journalist Art Levine followed up with a piece that, among other things, advanced the story by breaking the news that Fitrakis and his attorney Cliff Arnebeck were filing a lawsuit for an immediate injunction against Husted and ES&S to “halt the use of secretly installed, unauthorized ‘experimental’ software in 39 counties’ tabulators.” Levine also reported that Arnebeck had referred the matter to the Cincinnati FBI for criminal investigation of what the Ohio attorney describes as “a flagrant violation of the law.”

“Before you add new software, you need approval of a state board,” says Arnebeck. “They are installing an uncertified, suspect software patch that interfaces between the county’s vote tabulation equipment and state tabulators.” Arnebeck’s alarm is understandable...

More Voter Fraud By The GOP

From the Examiner:

According to a report by The Press-Enterprise in California, Republican registration in Riverside county increased by nearly 35,000 voters, overtaking the advantage once held by Democrats. The newspaper contacted 350 random registered voters, with 30 of them telling their story of having their party changed without their consent or knowledge. The party affiliation change seems to have happened when workers gathered signatures by doing door knocking and standing outside stores asking people to sign petitions against animal cruelty, lower gas prices and other causes.

California Watch reports that Democrats have filed a complaint with the county registrar of voters, presenting affidavits from over 130 voters who had their party affiliation switched from Democrat to Republican. A spokesman for the Democratic Party, Steve Mavigilo, is blaming the Golden State Voter Participation Project, a Republican registration group. The top donor for the Golden State Voter Participation Project is Republican activist, Charles Munger Jr, who gave over $240,000 to the project over the first six months of the year.

Lowlights & Highlights: October 20, 2012

If you have been keeping up with voting rights and voter frauds issues as a I have, you are aware that GOP-led states have time and again tried to pass laws in the name of trying to fight in-person voter fraud, incidents of which are very few and far between. These laws, however, have the net affect of disenfranchising many law-abiding, legal citizens who should have the right and ability to vote.

This week, there was an incident here in Virginia (Rockingham County to be specific) where someone was caught throwing away voter registration applications which had been filled out. This happened on the last day here that one could register to vote. Luckily two things happened. First, the culprit has apparently been caught and it seems that he was acting alone (as far as we know so far). Second, he was caught in the act and the applications were turned in in time enough for those applicants to still get registered.

For me personally, this is disturbing because it happened in my home state. Looking at the big picture however, what we have here is a bit of hypocrisy because this person, the apparent culprit, was a Republican operative. How is it that the Republican Party is so ardently against voter fraud, yet when it does happen, they seem to be the ones responsible in one way or another?

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Even given his poor performance in the first presidential debate, I was highly anticipating the second debate. Maybe it's just my political nerdiness. The important thing is that President Obama did not disappoint. He took it to Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney walked himself into a trap and the President had the good sense to do it. He was forceful when he needed to be, including calling Romney out on trying to politicize the deaths of American ambassadors in Benghazi. That ay have been the most presidential I have seen Obama ever when he was talking about securing U.S. consulates and embassies and essentially saying the buck stops with him. Romney's take on what happened that day was so wrong that the moderator (CNN's Candy Crowley) had to fact check him right then and there.

And then there was Romney's "binders full of women" comment. I honestly can't believe he actually said something like that. I'm not sure whether or not Romney can come back from that given that the third and final debate is on foreign policy and I doubt that as many people will be watching that debate as watched the first two.

The President also saved bringing up Romney's 47% comment to throw against him for his closing statement. All-in-all, Obama came across as far more empathetic whereas Romney came off as (surprise surprise) pandering. Between Obama's great performance and Romney's terrible performance, I was very happy with this debate.

Hell, Obama's performance was so good, Tagg Romney (one of Mitt Romney's sons) wanted to take a swing at the President.

Arrest Made in Virginia Voter Fraud Case

From WHSV:

The Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office made an arrest in the investigation of voter registration fraud that began on the afternoon of Oct 15, when law enforcement received a citizen complaint of voter registration application forms being found in a dumpster behind a business in the City of Harrisonburg.

Colin Small, 31, Phoenixville, Pa was a Voter Registration Supervisor employed by Pinpoint, an independent private organization contracted by the Republican Party of Virginia, for purposes of general voter registration.

Small is charged with destruction of voter registration application, disclosure of voter registration application and obstruction of justice.

These charges are based on lengthy consultation with and assistance from the Rockingham County Commonwealth Attorney’s Office regarding the investigation.

Investigation Over Trashed VA. Voter Registration Forms

From NBC29:

Just hours before the Monday deadline for voter registration, a Harrisonburg store manager made a discovery that will keep eight citizens from being silenced.  Their completed registration forms were discarded like trash.  Investigators don't yet know if it's criminal activity or just bad business.

A typical Monday afternoon at Tuesday Morning, a store in Harrisonburg, took a strange turn, when the manager Rob Johnson spotted someone putting a bag of trash in his recycling bin.  Johnson went to retrieve the misplaced refuse.

"That's when I realized, this bag is really light and looked inside," Johnson said.  "There was the manila folder with the eight voter registration applications, and I was like, we've got something here."

The Rockingham County registrar says those forms belonged to would-be voters from three different counties.  Their only common thread appears to be a recent registration drive in the Elkton area.

"We don't know what the motive was to throw these away," said Rockingham County Voter Registrar Doug Geib.  "But I don't think it was based on that… because there's no way the people collecting the applications would know what party, what candidate these people are going to vote for."

Republicans Committing Voter Fraud