Friday, September 16, 2005
Article on voting audit in Wisconsin. In a state Bush won by 10,000 votes, several hundred felons voted, 14 have been charged. There's no indication I've seen that any of the 14 were aware they were voting illegally. About 100 cases of people voting twice, dead people voting, that sort of thing. Serious issues, but none of this approaches the damage to the election process of denying the vote to people without voting licenses. The WI voter ID bill was vetoed. About 1% of WI voters are on the rolls twice, usually where they have moved and not concelled the old registration.
In Indiana a few years back a newspaper "expose" found duplicate names on the voting list and found that four people could have voted twice but didn't. The state then spent $6 million to centralize the voting list. BTW I'm selling copies of the Indiana voter's list if anybody's interested. $5K. About 5 million names. Subject to fine print. For $10K, we'll go have the list updated to add data from the most recent election cycle.
Part of the problem in WI seems to be with people who've registered by mail or who change their address at the polls on election day. My objections to unwarranted searches of voters are directed at people who are already properly registered to vote. I don't object to reasonable ID requirements in order to register in the first place.
More serious evidence of vote fraud:
Hasen quoting NYT:
Comparing information from county voter registration lists, Social Security death records and other public information, Republican officials announced on Thursday that 4,755 people who were listed as deceased appear to have voted in the 2004 general election. Another 4,397 people who were registered to vote in more than one county appeared to have voted twice, while 6,572 who were registered in New Jersey and in one of five other states selected for analysis voted in each state."
On the other hand, not every one of these cases should be considered proven.
My mother, a Delaware Republican, went to vote a few years ago and was told she couldn't because she was dead. Being who she is, she went down to the county clerk and got it fixed, but not every voter would know how or have time.
It would be nice if somebody could take a sample, say 100 names, from this list and try to verify things. Do we have any records of which of the dead or early and often voters were republicans? One of my first tastes of campaigning was in New Jersey with the teamsters when I was 15 - I can believe this data in general. I'd just like to see a bit more verification. Guess I better go read the full article.
If these people voted twice, there's a simple remedy - prosecution. 1000 prosecutions will have substantial deterrant effect. hmm:
Tom Wilson, the state's party chairman, took pains to say that the analysis did not look at voters' party affiliation. He also said that the party was not accusing voters of committing fraud, suggesting instead that someone else may have exploited their names without their knowledge.
The methodology isn't perfect. In a state with millions of people, you could have a John A Smith born on the same day as John B Smith, or Jose Garcia born on the same day as Jose Garcia, and find 4000 of these. Still, this needs looking into further.
In Indiana a few years back a newspaper "expose" found duplicate names on the voting list and found that four people could have voted twice but didn't. The state then spent $6 million to centralize the voting list. BTW I'm selling copies of the Indiana voter's list if anybody's interested. $5K. About 5 million names. Subject to fine print. For $10K, we'll go have the list updated to add data from the most recent election cycle.
Part of the problem in WI seems to be with people who've registered by mail or who change their address at the polls on election day. My objections to unwarranted searches of voters are directed at people who are already properly registered to vote. I don't object to reasonable ID requirements in order to register in the first place.
More serious evidence of vote fraud:
Hasen quoting NYT:
Comparing information from county voter registration lists, Social Security death records and other public information, Republican officials announced on Thursday that 4,755 people who were listed as deceased appear to have voted in the 2004 general election. Another 4,397 people who were registered to vote in more than one county appeared to have voted twice, while 6,572 who were registered in New Jersey and in one of five other states selected for analysis voted in each state."
On the other hand, not every one of these cases should be considered proven.
My mother, a Delaware Republican, went to vote a few years ago and was told she couldn't because she was dead. Being who she is, she went down to the county clerk and got it fixed, but not every voter would know how or have time.
It would be nice if somebody could take a sample, say 100 names, from this list and try to verify things. Do we have any records of which of the dead or early and often voters were republicans? One of my first tastes of campaigning was in New Jersey with the teamsters when I was 15 - I can believe this data in general. I'd just like to see a bit more verification. Guess I better go read the full article.
If these people voted twice, there's a simple remedy - prosecution. 1000 prosecutions will have substantial deterrant effect. hmm:
Tom Wilson, the state's party chairman, took pains to say that the analysis did not look at voters' party affiliation. He also said that the party was not accusing voters of committing fraud, suggesting instead that someone else may have exploited their names without their knowledge.
The methodology isn't perfect. In a state with millions of people, you could have a John A Smith born on the same day as John B Smith, or Jose Garcia born on the same day as Jose Garcia, and find 4000 of these. Still, this needs looking into further.
