We heard rumors yesterday that someone was calling St. Joseph County voters and asking who they were voting for in the presidential race. If the voter said McCain, they were told their vote had been recorded and there was no reason to come to the polls and stand in line on Tuesday. Fox 28 in South Bend covered it last night, leading us to believe it’s more than rumors.
A South Bend woman says someone tried to trick her into thinking she already voted.
Now St. Joseph County elections official are telling voters not to fall for the newest type of voter fraud.
“I feel really bad for my old age that’s the first time that I got scammed like that, terrible,” said the woman, who didn’t want to be identified.
She says she received a phone call from a woman claiming to be an elections official.
“This young lady was saying they’re doing something new and something different and I don’t have to go out and vote,” she said.
The caller said people could now vote by phone and asked her who she wanted to vote for.
The woman said John McCain.
She was then told her vote was cast and she didn’t need to vote Tuesday.
Election officials say if you think you voted by phone, you’re wrong.
“They haven’t voted at all. It’s some sort of scam,” said Murray Winn, St. Joseph County Board of Elections.
Winn says the phone call is a case of voter fraud.
“Whoever is pulling this prank is certainly trying to deprive a voter from their constitutional right to cast a ballot and that’s the unfortunate thing in all of this,” he said.
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That type of trick has been a traditional GOP tactic but whoever is responsible for it hopefully will be brought to justice.
Here are 2 links to 2 great ideas on how to avoid the whole voter registration fraud issues.
The first comes via Richard Hasen. Richard L. Hasen, the William H. Hannon distinguished professor at Loyola Law School, writes the Election Law Blog.
http://electionlawblog.org/
The article I think people should read at the link below appears in Slate.
http://www.slate.com/id/2203138/
ROB RICHIE and ADAM FOGEL have offered solutions also via an Atlantic Journal Constitution opinion piece.
Rob Richie is the executive director of FairVote, a nonpartisan, nonprofit election reform and voting rights organization in Takoma Park, MD. Adam Fogel directs FairVote’s Right to Vote Initiative.
Here’s the link:
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/2008/10/30/richieed_1030.html
Voter registration fraud is a valid crime as is vote fraud. However, if we can remove the illegitimate names off of voter rolls the issue becomes easier to manage, illegal voters can never be able to even cast a vote and GOP voter suppression cases may be a thing of the past.