By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Original Sources (www.originalsources.com)
November 7, 2000
The Reverend Louis P. Sheldon, Chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition observes in his editorial for this election day:
"As sure as the sun will come up tomorrow morning, we're now in the middle of voter fraud season. Actually, this season began several months ago as activists began pondering how they might subvert the democratic process to steal the election from the American people."The process has grown more bold and more commonplace in recent years as liberal activists have routinely violated federal election laws.
"This year is no exception. Reports coming out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, say that campaign volunteers for Al Gore were caught on videotape by station WISN, handing out cigarettes to the homeless as they were encouraged to vote early by absentee ballot on Saturday. The head of the Milwaukee Rescue Mission told reporters that he made Democrat volunteers leave his property after he caught them bribing the homeless with cigarettes."
In strait-laced Utah, it's not cigarettes but ice cream and pie being used to convince voters to vote for the Democrat. John Curtis, a Democrat running for the Utah State Senate, passed out flyers over the week-end which began with "John, a lifelong Republican," and ended with a coupon for a free slice of pie at his brother-in-law's restaurant. While a slice a pie doesn't seem to be much of a threat to our political system, it is in violation of the Utah State Election law and John Curtis, who presents himself to his conservative district as a Republican running as a Democrat, if elected to the State Senate, would be passing state laws. The difference between using a slice of pie or thousands of dollars at a Buddhist temple as your method of breaking campaign finance law, is a matter of scale, not principle.
Yet, the last thing Utah voters heard from Utah Democrat Candidate John Curtis on the ten o'clock news last night were charges of dirty politics when it was pointed out by the election Department that he had violated Utah campaign laws. He took no responsibility for his own actions.
Rev. Shelton also observed that the dead were expected to vote this year in record numbers, along with the illegal aliens, especially in California. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported yesterday in an article entitled "Even death can't stop some voters" that Atlanta has a high concentration of dead, but highly committed voters who went to the polls today to cast their ballots. The practice isn't limited to Atlanta.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution tracked the votes of Alan Jay Mandel "always a patriotic man," that took place after he had died in January 1997.
"…Mandel is not the only dead Georgian to cast a ballot in recent years. The dead regularly vote in local, state and federal elections across Georgia, according to public records reviewed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and WSB Channel 2 Action News."The two news organizations acquired databases from the Georgia Department of Human Resources listing the 1.1 million deaths on record statewide since 1980, from the U.S. Social Security Administration listing the 64.6 million deceased persons on record nationwide as of October, and from the Georgia Secretary of State's office listing the 3.6 million active voters and their voting history as of August.
"An analysis matching names and dates of births, and addresses and Social Security numbers where available, and discarding matches with slight inconsistencies, show the actual number of ballots cast by the dead is fairly small --- 5,412 in the past 20 years. But the ranks of potential dead voters have grown dramatically in recent years. Currently, there are more than 15,000 dead people on active voting rolls statewide, increasing the potential for voting errors and fraud.
"That trend, according to state officials, has developed because of efforts to cure another problem --- a concern that voting rolls were being purged too often, and that the effect of those purges might be diluting black voting strength."
The catalyst is the federal Motor Voter Law, implemented in Georgia in 1995. It allows people to register to vote when they get or renew their driver's licenses. About a million new voters signed up statewide when the law took effect, said Chris Riggall, spokesman for Secretary of State Cathy Cox.
The Motor Voter Law also changed the way voting rolls are purged. Prior to the law being passed, county registrars automatically purged the rolls of people who hadn't voted for three years. Automatic purges were banned under the Motor Voter Law, which means the voter rolls today are loaded with deceased, voters who have moved elsewhere or illegal aliens.
The so-called "Undocumented voters" was augmented in 1996 by Clinton allowing thousands of illegal aliens, many of whom had criminal records, to become citizens and vote in the Election. In 1996 hundreds of illegals were recruited by Hermandad Mixicana Nacial, a radical group that works closely with the Dept. of Immigration and Nationalization in Congressman Bob Dornan's 1996 district, an effort that gave Loretta Sanchez the house seat.
So, what is the solution? Will Campaign Finance reform solve the problem? Not likely. In fact, it is campaign finance reform in various packages over the years which have made the system unmanageable. The Federal Motor Voter law has greatly enlarged the voter rolls while the percentage of registered voters who vote has dropped sharply.
The solution is in the hands of the voters. As along as the irresponsibility of Democrats is permitted, as long as we put up with such excuses as Al Gore's "no controlling legal authority" when breaking existing law, we can expect the problem to get worse.
There ARE no laws that can be substituted for integrity. As long as the public continues to elect Democrats who will not accept the responsibility for their own actions, which is what we did in electing Bill Clinton, we can expect deception from our leaders.
As long as we elect candidates who, like Al Gore, blame the laws they passed for their own lack of honesty and integrity or, as in the case of Utah Democrats who are trying to get elected by pretending they are really Republicans and then accuse Republicans of being mean to them when their deception is pointed out, we can expect to continue to be lied to by our elected representatives.
To comment: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Original Sources (www.originalsources.com)
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