Everything I Know Is Wrong

Coleman's lead rebounds to 167

Ten minutes ago the Star-Tribune updated their estimate of the state of the Coleman-Franken re-count from 115 to 167.

Star-Tribune
The incumbent Coleman entered the recount with a 215-vote edge over Franken, a comedian and author. That lead had dropped in the first three days of the recount, but Coleman rebounded some in the latest results and is 167 votes in front when comparing totals in precincts where the new count is complete. But the figure doesn't include ballot challenges, which have caused vote tallies for both candidates to drop.

According to state numbers, there have been 1,893 challenges between the campaigns, although some could be withdrawn before the Canvassing Board's Dec. 16 meeting. The two are running about even in challenges.

The count goes on.

And on...

Milwaukee Puts a Vote-Fraud Cop Out of Business

Gee, I wonder why Milwaukee's Democrat Administration would do this...

Wall Street Journal
Last week Mike Sandvick, head of the Milwaukee Police Department's five-man Special Investigative Unit, was told by superiors not to send anyone to polling places on Election Day. He was also told his unit -- which wrote the book on how fraud could subvert the vote in his hometown -- would be disbanded.

"We know what to look for," he told me, "and that scares some people." In disgust, Mr. Sandvick plans to retire. (A police spokeswoman claims the unit isn't being disbanded and that any changes to the unit "aren't significant.")

In February, Mr. Sandvick's unit released a 67-page report on what it called an "illegal organized attempt to influence the outcome of (the 2004) election in the state of Wisconsin" -- a swing state whose last two presidential races were decided by less than 12,000 votes.

The report found that between 4,600 and 5,300 more votes were counted in Milwaukee than the number of voters recorded as having cast ballots. Absentee ballots were cast by people living elsewhere; ineligible felons not only voted but worked at the polls; transient college students cast improper votes; and homeless voters possibly voted more than once.

Vote Fraud in Nashville

Via Glenn Reynolds:

Inoculated
[Lynn Greer] informed Phil [Valentine] and his listeners that earlier today, someone was bringing in vanloads of non-English-speaking Mexicans with no identification to one of the Nashville early voting locations. Along with the non-English speaking individuals came a bilingual woman to act as their interpreter. She informed the election personnel that she would accompany the voters into the booth, read the ballot for them, and insure that their vote was cast for the candidates of their choice.

The Davidson County Election Commission, including its Democrat members, decided that the individuals would not be allowed to vote on the grounds that since they were unable to speak, understand, or read English, they could not possibly be citizens, and therefore were not qualified to vote. In addition, Mr. Greer mentioned that these people were unable even to request the assistance of a translator themselves. Accordingly, Ray Barrett, Davidson County Administrator of Elections, instructed his employees to refuse to allow any of these individuals to vote.

However, someone prevailed upon Mr. Barrett to call the state in order to verify the Commission's decision. Brook Thompson, the Tennessee State Election Coordinator, then ordered Mr. Barrett and the Davidson County Election Commission to allow these non-English-speaking individuals to vote through their bilingual interpreter despite their lack of any sort of identification and total unfamiliarity with the English language.

If the election is as close as it looks like it's going to be, vote fraud will be a huge issue all over the country.

Obama Assembles U.S.'s 'Largest Law Firm' to Monitor Election

Yikes!

In Florida, Democratic lawyer Charles H. Lichtman has assembled almost 5,000 lawyers to monitor precincts, assist voters turned away at the polls and litigate any disputes that can't be resolved out of court.

"On Election Day, I will be managing the largest law firm in the country, albeit for one day," said Lichtman, 53, a Fort Lauderdale corporate lawyer and veteran of the five-week recount after the 2000 election when Florida eventually delivered the presidency to George W. Bush.

"For one day." Right.

Regardless of which way this election goes, it's going to be painful for the people of America.

Those 200,000 votes...

...with mismatched information? Back in the lock-box.

Counting Sheep
Although disappointing, it is not surprising that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the order requiring Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner “to update Ohio’s Statewide Voter Registration Database.”  [PDF link]

No big conspiracy, just a procedural fumble.  The Ohio Republican Party (ORP) sued under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which required state officials to:

match information in the database of the statewide voter registration system with information in the database of the motor vehicle authority to the extent required to enable [the] official to verity the accuracy of the information provided on applications for voter registration.

42 U.S.C. § 15483(a)(5)(B)(i).  The Court specifically said, “We express no opinion on the question whether HAVA is being properly implemented.”

The problem was that the requirements for a temporary restraining order (TRO) were not met.

"TRO" means temporary restraining order. According to people who know much better than I (Brad at Counting Sheep) it looks like the only one who can sue to force Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to comply with HAVA is Attorney General Mukasey and the DOJ.

Waiting for the next shoe to drop.

Update: Daily Kos has a different view of the issue. Go Figure.

Voters shouldn't have obstacles created for them when they try to vote just because of beauracratic[sic] bungling. Democrats recognize that. But Republicans, who are desparate[sic] to keep voters away from the polls lest they should be held accountable for their actions, are hellbent on creating a wide array of such obstacles--some of them insurmountable. Today, though, one such attempt at voter suppression has failed. So while we continue to keep an eye on the tactics that will be used over the next several weeks to disenfranchise voters, let us take a moment and celebrate that, for today, one GOP suppression tactic in Ohio bites the dust.

So, to recap: 200,000 new registration,s with information that doesn't match what's on file for them, is not a problem, but trying to match them up is. And let's not forget that these registrations were held out as problematic by the Democrat Secretary of State.

Update: Gretta Van Susteren has found some interesting connections. They may not go anywhere, but they are interesting.

1. The Secretary of State of Ohio Jennifer Brunner filed a request in the Supreme Court relating to the underlying claim in her state that there has been voter registration fraud…with ties to the work of ACORN in registering voters.

2.  A group — the Service Employees International Union [SEIU] — filed an amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court asking the Supreme Court to rule with the Secretary of State of Ohio (and essentially asking for a ruling that would be favorable to ACORN in that it would “call off the dogs.”)

3.  I thought it curious that SEIU would file an amicus brief for Brunner and did some quick research …and now I need more indepth research (which is where YOU come in.)  According to my quick research..the same person who started ACORN, started SIEU.  His name is Wade Rathke. So then I wondered, who is Wade Rathke?

There's more.

Voter Registration Fraud—ACORN and Others

The FBI is investigating whether there is a coordinated nationwide effort at fraud on the part of ACORN.

AP
The FBI is investigating whether the community activist group ACORN helped foster voter registration fraud around the nation before the presidential election. A senior law enforcement official confirmed the investigation to The Associated Press on Thursday. A second senior law enforcement official says the FBI was looking at results of recent raids on ACORN offices in several states for any evidence of a coordinated national scam. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because regulatons[sic] forbid discussing ongoing investigations particularly so close to an election. ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, says it has registered 1.3 million young people, minorities and poor and working-class voters—most of whom tend to be Democrats.

Over a third of early registrants in Ohio have "mismatched information."

Plain Dealer
Since Jan. 1, Ohio has 666,000 newly registered or updated voters -- all of whom fall under scrutiny by this latest court ruling. Brunner said an initial review found that at least 200,000 of them might have mismatched information. Once the office identifies all of the mismatched voters, Brunner will send the list to the county boards of election where the individuals have registered. But state Republican Party Chairman Bob Bennett said Brunner's decision to not implement the verification system sooner without the court forcing her to do so has cost county boards of election valuable time reining in examples of fraud.

The Buckeye Institute files a RICO action against ACORN.

Buckeye Institute
The Buckeye Institute, a Columbus-based think tank, today filed a state RICO action against the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) on behalf of two Warren County voters. The action filed in Warren County Court of Common Pleas alleges ACORN has engaged in a pattern of corrupt activity that amounts to organized crime. It seeks ACORN's dissolution as a legal entity, the revocation of any licenses in Ohio, and an injunction against fraudulent voter registration and other illegal activities. Plaintiffs Jennifer Miller of Mason, Ohio and Kimberly Grant of Loveland, allege that ACORN's actions deprive them of the right to participate in an honest and effective elections process. They allege fraudulent voter registrations submitted by ACORN dilute the votes of legally registered voters.

ACORN and Voter Fraud, Sittin' in a Tree..

Tree... get it? ACORN. Tree.

I'm sorry.

The next line of the poem is K-I-S-S-I-N-G. And it's a fairly accurate description of the intimacy in the relationship between ACORN and fraud. It is likely that you have all heard of ACORN. At this late date it would be odd if you had not. But many of you still don't know how deeply ACORN's efforts at voter fraud run. Almost daily there are new allegations of fraud on the part of ACORN. In state after state there are new scandals. Here's a little roundup of recent ACORN activity.

Connecticut

One of the phony registrations was for a 7-year-old girl in the Marina Village housing complex, whose age was listed as 27 on the voter card.

[...]

ACORN filed more than 8,000 voter cards in the city during its registration drive, but Borges said the piles of cards are riddled with duplicates and false information that was found by him and his staff.

[...]

"We have three boxes of returned letters, with no such address, no such name," Borges said. "It's crazy."

Missouri

"I don't even know the entire scope of it because registrations are coming in so heavy," Davis said. "We have identified about 100 duplicates, and probably 280 addresses that don't exist, people who have driver's license numbers that won't verify or Social Security numbers that won't verify. Some have no address at all."

[...]

In April, eight ACORN workers in St. Louis city and county pleaded guilty to federal election fraud for submitting false registration cards for the 2006 election. U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway said they submitted cards with false addresses and names, and forged signatures.

Ohio

A national voter-registration group admitted to Cuyahoga County election officials Tuesday that it cannot eliminate fraud from its operation.

[...]

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, has turned in at least 65,000 cards to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections in the last year. The board has investigated potentially fraudulent cards since August.

Wisconsin

The complaint accuses Adam Mucklin, 22, of registering to vote in June, after he was convicted of battery in April, and after a judge told him he couldn’t vote as a convicted felon. Later in June, Mucklin signed up to work as a paid voter registrar for the Community Voters Project, something else he couldn’t do as a convicted felon, the complaint says.

[...]

Mucklin was among 49 voter registration workers who were referred to the Milwaukee County district attorney’s office by the Milwaukee Election Commission on suspicion of election fraud. He is the second to be charged.

[...]

Virtually all the workers under scrutiny were employed by either the voters project or by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Those groups were among several politically liberal organizations that launched massive voter registration drives in Milwaukee in advance of the Nov. 4 election.

Indiana

More than 2,000 voter registration forms filed in northern Indiana's Lake County by a liberal activist group this week have turned out to be bogus, election officials said Thursday.

Nevada

Secretary of State spokesman Bob Walsh says ACORN is accused of submitting multiple voter registrations with false and duplicate names.

The raid comes two months after state and federal authorities formed a task force to pursue election-fraud allegations in Nevada.

Florida

Voter registration fraud has been detected in one Florida county and now Republicans are pointing their finger at one organization designed to get minorities to vote.

The accusations are against the "Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now," or ACORN.

North Carolina

State Board of Elections officials are trying to determine whether about 100 voter registration forms submitted by a local chapter of a national grassroots organization to the Durham County Board of Elections are fraudulent.

Similar accusations have been lodged across the country against the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, which goes by the name ACORN. In Durham, the claims were made last month after the group submitted about 5,000 voter registration forms to the county board of elections.

"All of a sudden, I started seeing the same names over and over again," said Mike Ashe, county elections director. He said some forms had similar names but different addresses or dates of birth.

Pennsylvania

The investigation began late last month after county elections head Steve Chiavetta challenged the validity of between 100 and 150 voter registration applications.

"I've gotten some voter registration forms that are very questionable that need to be looked at by experts," said Chiavetta, who turned the matter over to the county detectives.

"We've had some calls from voters that somebody fills out this form and we send them a voter registration card and they say they've never filled out anything," Chiavetta said.

Washington

King County prosecutors filed felony charges Thursday against seven people in what a top official described as the worst case of voter-registration fraud in state history, while the organization they worked for agreed to keep a better eye on its employees and pay $25,000 to defray costs of the investigation.

The seven submitted about 1,800 registration cards last fall on behalf of the liberal Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, which had hired them at $8 an hour to sign people up to vote, according to charging documents filed in Superior Court.

ACORN is not new on the scene. Allegations of voter fraud go back a long way, to 2006, 2004, 2003 and beyond. Senator Obama has been involved with them for a long time, though—as his surrogates are careful to say—not as a community organizer.But in lots of other ways. Here is an Obama/Acorn Fact Sheet.

Even if ACORN, the organization, were as innocent of malicious intent as they claim, the results of their efforts are undeniably corrupt. ACORN admits that they cannot eliminate fraud in their operation. If ACORN was my organization, and voter fraud was not its raison d'etra, I would put it out of its misery.

Update: ACORN's atrocious record is even starting to make the mainstream media take notice. Ed Morrissey provides us with video of CNN's Drew Griffin.

Too little, too late.