Ravenwood - 10/19/04 06:45 AM
If you didn't support mandating that people show ID to vote, perhaps you will now.
Ohio authorities say a man was charged Monday with filling out more than 100 fictitious voter registration forms, some in names such as Disney character Mary Poppins and pop singer Michael Jackson.Chad Staton, 22, of Defiance County in northwestern Ohio, was to receive money for each registration form he could persuade potential voters to fill out, said Sheriff David Westrick.
Instead, Staton, himself, filled out the forms and returned them to the Toledo woman who hired him. Sheriff's deputies allege he was paid in crack cocaine instead of money. [...]
Westrick said the Toledo woman, Georgianne Pitts, 41, told officers she was recruited by Thaddeus Jackson II of Cleveland to obtain voter registrations. He said a business card provided by Pitts indicated that Jackson is the assistant Ohio director of the NAACP National Voter Fund.
According to its Web site, the National Voter Fund advances the cause of civil rights through advocacy, educating voters on candidates' stands on civil rights and increasing voter turnout in the African-American community.
The sheriff added that deputies and Toledo police had obtained a search warrant for the house where Pitts lives. He said officers confiscated drug paraphernalia and voter registration forms from the home.
Westrick said Pitts admitted paying Staton crack cocaine for the registrations in lieu of money.
Why wouldn't you show ID when you vote?
Posted by: DaveJ at October 19, 2004 10:14 PMIn some states, ID is not required. Virginia used to not require ID. It wasn't until the moter voter laws passed that they started checking.
Posted by: Ravenwood at October 19, 2004 10:29 PMBy the tone of your post, there are people that do not support showing ID.
I thought after certain misdeeds in 2000, people would have ID up to the gills when they vote.
Posted by: DaveJ at October 19, 2004 10:33 PMVoter fraud is still rampant in the United States. When I lived in Atlanta, you couldn't rent a passenger van on election day. That's because pollsters already had them all and were busing homeless people to the voting booths. On the way there they would hand out cigarettes with pictures of their candidates on them.
Posted by: Ravenwood at October 20, 2004 6:29 AMThat's not voter fraud - if they've been around before and got them registered just once under their real names. Back where I grew up, that would be more than balanced out by a conservative group that hauled warm bodies out of the nursing homes to the polls. On local tax-related issues, they'd bring in close to 25% of the vote just from that source, all against. (Bless their hearts!) Unfortunately, there really isn't any requirement to vote other than a pulse and citizenship.
Now, the NAACP "subcontractor" who was paid in crack to get voters registered, and turned in registration forms with names like Mary Poppins - THAT's fraud.
But if I could re-write the rules for voter eligibility:
1. Proof of citizenship and picture ID.
2. A minimal level of literacy IN ENGLISH. Bilingual ballots not allowed. If you have a letter from a doctor saying you are blind, you can get someone to help you register and to read the ballot to you, in English only - otherwise, you've got to fill.in the registration form yourself and read the ballot yourself.
3. Absentee ballots accepted only if you are out of the area on election day. If you're too sick to come to the polls, you're probably too sick to know what you're doing when someone holds the absentee ballot in front of you.
4. No voting yourself a share of my money. You're disqualified from voting if you have received any income or assistance from any level of government in the last 12 months. Schoolteachers, government workers, politicians, welfare, medicaid/medicare, and social security recipients are all disqualified. To keep it consistent, I suppose we'd have to disqualify cops and military too - but think of how many socialist votes you'd swap for each one of those.
Posted by: markm at October 20, 2004 12:05 PM(c) Ravenwood and Associates, 1990 - 2014
