From the one story, two headlines department:
Seattle Times: “Seven charged in vote-fraud scheme”
Seattle PI: “Voter-registration workers charged with submitting bogus registrations”
Of course, the Seattle PI headline is more accurate. It was voter-registration fraud, not vote fraud. There was never any attempt or intent to actually cast a fraudulent ballot, and to suggest otherwise is simply hyperbole.
That said, I’m glad the perpetrators are being prosecuted. But rather than celebrate the permanent disenfranchisement of seven more US citizens, I thought I’d just use this story as a springboard to talk about one of my personal pet peeves: paid initiative signature gathering.
But the scheme had nothing to do with an attempt to manipulate elections and everything to do with the workers’ efforts to keep their $8-an-hour jobs, prosecutors said.
[…] “The defendants … cheated their employers to get paid for work they did not actually perform,” Satterberg said. “The defendants simply realized that making up names was easier than actually canvassing the streets.”
And if you think this sort of cheating never occurs in the $2-$5 per-signature world of the highly profitable initiative industry, I’ve got a bridge I’d like to sell you. In WA state it is not uncommon for 20-percent of initiative signatures to be rejected on closer review, and in some states the rejection rate has exceeded 50-percent. There is no evidence we even come close to catching all the fraudulent signatures, and we have no mechanism for tracing them back to individual, paid signature gatherers.
We have created strong economic incentives for cheating, and the result is a nationwide initiative industry that is rife with fraud and corruption. But for some reason the “clean elections” hawks on the right, who would gladly wipe 100,000 legitimate voters from the rolls in hope of eliminating a couple felons, consider it anti-democratic to suggest any reform that might better protect the integrity of initiative petitions.
Go figure.
Yes the righties will mis-state the case here for their own gain. And on one hand, they’ll attack paid signature gathering for voter registration, while at the same time, trying to defend Tim Lieman’s use of the same paid signature gathering methods in his attempt to make more money than he can selling bullshit watches.
It’s voter rolls, not roles, but hear, hear.
Irregularities in voter registrations do not traslate into voter fraud. The fact is that there is very little incentive for the ordinary citizen to engage in voting fraud. Felony conviction and imprisonment is a powerful disincentive while the perceived advantage of adding one or a few votes in what is unlikely to be a tight race (you know, most aren’t) is small.
Voting fraud, in all objective studies, has been found to be rare to nonexistent. While I am all in favor of vigorous government efforts to keep voting honest and efficient, I will not support efforts that are guaranteed to disenfranchise honest voters in order to catch few to no frauds. ID requirements come to mind.
As with many other voting issues, this one seems to place different freedoms in conflict with each other. In a way, this is similar to my concern for mail-in balloting. The lack of formalism in both forms of voter participation encourages fraud.
It is intriguing how much higher we place the barriers to use of credit cards than we do the ability to vote.
Au contraire, my dear Jew. We tolerate an enormous amount of credit card fraud, because the industry has made the cost-benefit analysis that the amount of lost business due to implementing safeguards that would eliminate much of the fraud is much more costly than the billions of dollars of fraud itself. This is the point that is often intentionally lost when talking about safeguarding elections.
One could, of course, eliminate mail-in ballots and require all voters to show picture ID at the polling the place. One could even have trained personal comparing signatures at the polling place, and giving provisional ballots to those that were questionable. Doing so would surely greatly diminish the opportunity for voter initiated fraud.
But doing so would also dramatically reduce voter turnout, as it would make voting much more time consuming, difficult, and in some cases, costly (like the 10 percent of people without picture ID.) And to what end? Yes, there is opportunity for fraud in our current system, but very little evidence of actual fraudulent votes being cast.
It may be unpopular to say so, but there is a benefit to tolerating a very small amount of voter fraud if the result is that many, many more citizens participate in elections.
Instead of low-paid registration gatherers, let’s contract it out to Halliburton. That way we’d have just as many if not more erroneous and fraudulent registrations, but on the bright side it would cost $1 million per registration!
Problem solved, the good Republican way.
4 Goldy
and 20/22/24/26% credit card rates ay back a LOT of fraud.
And once again Frank Blethen and his minions shows their true colors…. Anyone surprised?
@3 Barriers to use of credit cards? What barriers? Even my dog gets credit cards in the mail! Hey Stefan — your watchdog says hi.
Stefan’s lucky he has a lawyer wife to support him, and a successful career as a gigolo, because it doesn’t appear he’s making a living by suing KCRE under the public records laws. I’ve asked him about a thousand times by now how his lawsuit against Dean Logan and KCRE is doing, and he won’t answer. I infer from that, it’s not doing so great.
Oh, and just to add a punchline to the above…
Just because you live on Mercer Island does not mean you are one of us.
A simple solution would be to require ID when voting. I “wonder” why the republicans don’t support it.
KCRE gave Stefan 600,000 pages of documents, free use of a room in a public building for six weeks, and a county employee to wait on him — all at taxpayer expense — but asserts KCRE maliciously withheld a couple pages of documents from his glazed gaze. So now county taxpayers have to pay for defending against a gold-digging bullshit lawsuit, too.
@4 Goldy – like the 10 percent of people without picture ID.
Are you suggesting these people have no bank accounts, don’t use government services?
Most Republicans support photo ID at the polls and proof of citizenship when registering to vote. Common-sense Democrats, like Rodney Tom, agree with that.
@4 French … I KNEW it (smile)
Perhaps credit cards are insecure but I humbly suggest they are more secure than signatures. If we could use our signatures as a biometric to buy pizza, the level of pizza fraud would be sky high!
BTW … I do a pretty awesome job forging Elvis’ signature.
You want a copy?
Mais, mon ami …
The issue is that your concerns for signatures on Eymena initiatives is exactly the same as my concern for a mail in ballot. Eynman would claim that the current method encourages voter participation, similarly mail in ballots would encourage buy-a-vote schemes.
I also find it hilarious that the same side of the left-right coin toss is vs. electronic voting and for mail ins.
Is the real issue making it possible for as many folks to vote as possible? Personally I wold begin with easier things .. a national voting holiday and a check off on your taxes for a start.
I also believe in graded voting rights … why should not foreign residents of cities vote?
Hey Stefan! I know you read this blog! How’s your lawsuit against Dean Logan and KCRE doing? Why won’t you give your admiring fans a straight answer? Were you laughed out of court? I personally don’t have an investment in your lawsuit; just wondering, that’s all.
@14 Why do Republicans work so hard at keeping American citizens from voting in their own country? For example:
“A confidential campaign directed by GOP party chiefs in October 2004 sought to challenge the ballots of tens of thousands of voters in the last presidential election, virtually all of them cast by residents of Black-majority precincts.
“Files from the secret vote-blocking campaign were obtained by BBC Television Newsnight, London. They were attached to emails accidentally sent by Republican operatives to a non-party website.
“One group of voters wrongly identified by the Republicans as registering to vote from false addresses: servicemen and women sent overseas.
“Here’s how the scheme worked: The RNC mailed these voters letters in envelopes marked, ‘Do not forward’, to be returned to the sender. These letters were mailed to servicemen and women, some stationed overseas, to their US home addresses. The letters then returned to the Bush-Cheney campaign as ‘undeliverable.’ The lists of soldiers of ‘undeliverable’ letters were transmitted from state headquarters … to the RNC in Washington. The party could then challenge the voters’ registration and thereby prevent their absentee ballots being counted.
“One target list was comprised exclusively of voters registered at the Jacksonville, Florida, Naval Air Station. … [See this scrub sheet at http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.g.....038;size=o ] …
“A soldier returning home in time to vote in November 2004 could also be challenged on the basis of the returned envelope. Soldiers challenged would be required to vote by ‘provisional’ ballot. Over one million provisional ballots cast in the 2004 race were never counted; over half a million absentee ballots were also rejected. The extraordinary rise in the number of rejected ballots was the result of the widespread multi-state voter challenge campaign by the Republican Party. …
“The BBC obtained several dozen confidential emails sent by the Republican’s national Research Director and Deputy Communications chief, Tim Griffin to GOP Florida campaign chairman Brett Doster and other party leaders. Attached were spreadsheets marked, ‘Caging.xls.’ Each of these contained several hundred to a few thousand voters and their addresses. A check of the demographics of the addresses on the ‘caging lists,’ as the GOP leaders called them indicated that most were in African-American majority zip codes. …
“Setting up such a challenge list would be a crime under federal law. …
“Soldiers sending in their ballot from abroad would not know their vote was lost because of a challenge.”
Quoted under Fair Use; for complete article and/or copyright info see http://tinyurl.com/jv9nf
Roger Rabbit Commentary: I won’t comment on Stefan’s motives, other than to suggest he’s a publicity-seeker, but the RNC’s motives are clear: To keep legitimate voters whom they believe are more likely to vote Democratic than Republican from voting in their own country — even voters that Republicans send to fight their wars in foreign countries, in the name of bringing ‘democracy’ to those countries.
No furriners in USA! Keep out non-citizen pelt-hunters!
Of course, Stefan can’t let the ACORN fiasco slide by his nose without taking a cheap shot at the Governor:
“Instead of automatic reenfranchisement, I propose that those who wish to give unincarcerated felons an equal voice in society’s decisions should simply help the felons pay off their legal obligations. e.g. Dwight Pelz and the state Democrats could launch a ‘Help this Felon Vote’ website to include sympathetic appeals such as: Fruto Boy Crispila punched an old lady in the face and stole her purse. He completed a 20 month prison sentence. He still owes $300 in court costs and $500 to his victim for her dental bills. Your donations will help him to pay his debts so he can vote for Christine Gregoire!”
I doubt that Stefan actually knows who Fruto Boy voted for in 2004 — and he probably doesn’t WANT to know, because from what we know in general about the voting behavior of Washington’s white male felons, about 90% of ’em are Rossi fans. But not to worry, despite fascism’s successes in America, we still have the secret ballot (for now) and Stefan can hide behind the anonymity of Fruto Boy’s secret ballot to take partisan cheap shots at the best governor our state’s ever had.
Hey Stefan, why don’t you do ONE honest thing in your entire life by admitting you’re a party hack and partisan propagandist like me?
The difference between me and Stefan is that I admit it, and he won’t, even though everyone knows it.
JCH is a nazi
I sure hope #22 doesn’t get deleted for being off-topic! Because, you see, it isn’t off topic. Nothing I post on this blog is off-topic … that’s impossible! There is only one topic on HA, and it’s the same topic all of my comments are about:
REPUBLICANS SUCK!
Hey Stefan! If you’re squeamish about contributing to the Help A Felon Vote Fund, how about giving to an alternative charity instead? Namely, the Help Roger Rabbit Live Like A Republican Fund! To donate, call 1-900-LICK-ROG. All proceeds go directly to my well-being. Support your local rabbit today!
If the Iraq war isn’t a colonial occupation, why is the Bush regime building an embassy in Baghdad that covers an area the size of 80 football fields with imported slave labor?
Kinda looks like the neocons are planning to occupy Iraq until their oil runs out.
I wonder why Stefan never says anything on his punk blog about fraudulent initiative signatures? I wonder why Stefan The Election Reformer doesn’t raise a great big stink about illegal caging operations that disenfranchise American soldiers deployed to combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan? Because he’s a partisan hack who’s only interested in helping Republicans “win” elections by fair or foul means, that’s why!
Communicating on a grassroots level through blogging is a beautiful thing that the internet makes possible to anyone. What I have been doing in my spare time is something akin to the mass mailings I used to do in AZ to pump up business and create buzz. Except now, it’s about defeating Dave Reichert in the upcoming election.
What I’m doing is collecting all the local blog addresses in my immediate area. (People who take the time to blog are generally the thinkers and communicators in their immediate social sphere.) The next time Dave Reichert uses his franking priviliges to send out blatant campaign propaganda for himself, I’m sending a comment/message to every blogger that I can find in my town.
From what I know of direct marketing (which is quite a bit more than the average person — because my economic life depended on it for 15 years), this gambit will bypass all established media and create an immediate negative buzz for Reichert.
“Try it! You’ll like it!”
@14 Stefan
I suspect most Americans feel the same AND feel that manipulation of voter lists and turn-outs should be criminalized.
The problem I have with both sides is the lack of ethical and logical and logical consistency.
You SAY you want to be sure that only legal folks vote THEN Eynman (unless you want to disown him) engages in a proce3ss that directly conflicts with your goals.
You say that you support strict contstructionism, then YOUR SC overturns the State of Florida to appoint GWB prexy.
You say you support the Constitution, but GWB’s mutliple violoations are trivialized as being political.
You claim to support the free market, but your health care system is as free as OPEC.
You claim to support equality of opportunity, but put down the lower classes with educational and tax policies that make it very hard to progress.
How about all of us who do support the US Constitution, who do support traditional American values of privacy, individual opportunity, etc. join together in a F— them all movement? Hilklary for Prexy with Chuck Hagel for veep?
OK?
Boy I guess Steffy really wants to make sure Darcy gets the nomination. If I was Rod Tom, I’d be running full page ads trying to distance myself from that piece of shit’s endorsement.
Signature fraud was a major issue a few years ago in MA. The organization sponsoring a petition initiative to strip gay couples of the right to marry hired a company to get the sigs. They payed a buck or two each. After the fraud was recognized, an investigation found that the signature gathering company hired people who had done small time for stuff like check fraud. As in, hire folks who you know don’t mind breaking the law for profit. Also, there were many layers of subcontractors in the scheme, so that no one was easily to blame for the poor “training” the sig gatherers got. MA is a really easy state to do this in, because 1) there is no record kept of who collected signatures on any particular form, 2) it isn’t even illegal to fake signatures!, and 3) the layout of the petition sheets made bait-and-switch (you think you’re signing one thing but you’re actually signing another) a snap. Initiatives are an important democratic tool in principle, but poorly managed they are about as anti-democratic as you can get.
Roger Rabbit says:
If the Iraq war isn’t a colonial occupation, why is the Bush regime building an embassy in Baghdad that covers an area the size of 80 football fields with imported slave labor?
07/27/2007 at 12:12 pm
Roger Rabbit says:
Kinda looks like the neocons are planning to occupy Iraq until their oil runs out.
07/27/2007 at 12:13 pm
• Deliberately off-topic comments (except in “open threads”), as well as pointless comments on these comments.
headless lucy says:
Communicating on a grassroots level through blogging is a beautiful thing that the internet makes possible to anyone. What I have been doing in my spare time is something akin to the mass mailings I used to do in AZ to pump up business and create buzz. Except now, it’s about defeating Dave Reichert in the upcoming election.
What I’m doing is collecting all the local blog addresses in my immediate area. (People who take the time to blog are generally the thinkers and communicators in their immediate social sphere.) The next time Dave Reichert uses his franking priviliges to send out blatant campaign propaganda for himself, I’m sending a comment/message to every blogger that I can find in my town.
From what I know of direct marketing (which is quite a bit more than the average person — because my economic life depended on it for 15 years), this gambit will bypass all established media and create an immediate negative buzz for Reichert.
“Try it! You’ll like it!”
• Deliberately repetitive comments, particularly those intended to repeat and a reinforce slander that has already been sufficiently debunked.