Voter Fraud Puts Ohio Election at Risk

Posted September 15th, 2008 at 12.26pm in Rule of Law.

Picture this: Hard-left activists busing thousands of the homeless and shelter residents to the polls for same-day registration and voting.

What could possibly go wrong? The mind reels: identity fraud, multiple votes, improper influence, bought votes, non-citizen voting, and on and on.

Unfortunately, that may be what’s in store for the State of Ohio.

The problem is an ill-conceived Ohio law allowing “no-fault” absentee balloting. This means that voters don’t need to provide any justification whatsoever for casting absentee ballots in advance of election day, beginning on September 30. No doubt the law’s backers had good intentions—hitting the polling place and waiting in line on election day can really be an inconvenience—but it throws open the election to massive opportunities for fraud.

If wide-open absentee voting weren’t bad enough, the state’s Democrat Secretary of State, Jennifer Bruner, has combined that law with another already on the books—requiring voters to register 30 days before voting—to create a massive loophole for would-be fraudsters. Bruner says that ballots don’t become “votes” until election day, which means that anyone can register up until October 6. That leaves a one-week window, from September 30 until the 6th, for one-stop voting.

That strained interpretation is being challenged in Ohio’s Supreme Court in a suit brought by two (legal) state voters.

And that’s got left-wing activists in a tizzy, accusing those fighting Bruner’s strange legal handiwork and protecting the security of the election of trying to disenfranchise legitimate voters. These same activists are similarly criticizing efforts to knock off the registration rolls voters who have moved away from their listed addresses, as evidenced by returned certified mail and foreclosure lists.

This overheated response is predictable and sad. Predictable, because many left-leaning activist groups cry “racism” and “disenfranchisement” in the face of any kind of common-sense effort to ensure that voting is secure and untainted by fraud—efforts such as voter identification that are supported by a majority of Americans. It is sad because wide-open absentee voting really does risk stolen elections, as has happened before. The result is that illegal votes are able to cancel out legitimate ones.

Thanks to the Secretary of State and a few of these activist groups, absentee voting in Ohio will be more wide-open, and more at risk of fraud, than ever before.

Tagged with Ohio
vote fraud

7 Comments

September 15, 2008 Maggie, Toledo OH writes:

Add to this the partisan ruling by Ohio’s Sec of State that most of the absentee ballot requests put out by the McCain campaign are invalid.

Essentially, the absentee ballot request forms contain a check box and statement that is not required under Ohio law. However, Democrat Brunner has ruled that any forms without the box checked are to be rejected.

Yes, even though it’s not required, failure to check the box makes it an invalid request.

And then you have Obama’s recent comment: “Well, I tell you what, it helps in Ohio that we’ve got Democrats in charge of the machines.”

September 15, 2008 J. Harding, Alabama writes:

After stealing two presidential elections in a row, I am amused at the right wing’s worries that someone else will use their strategy.

The abuses of the Republican party, and its abandonment of any and all sense of principles, are the reasons I have left it. That decision was confirmed by McCain and Palin and the sleazy campaign they are running. As a party, the Republicans have no sense of honor or morality at all anymore.

I only wish I still lived in Ohio so that I could help swing it to Obama.

September 15, 2008 Austin, Florida writes:

J Harding’s reasoning is if they lost then the other side cheated. Nevermind if their side registers the dead and fights against showing ID in order to vote. We lost so you cheated. Democrats have such honor and morality that they attack the VP candidate and her family for the fact that she didn’t abort her baby with Down Syndrome.

Democrats play politics like 10 year olds. If you use a tactic accuse the other side of doing it, keep accusing them of things that you have no proof of and that you do all the time. Always avoid discussions of actual issues and debates on them while complaining that you wish the election could be about those things.

September 15, 2008 Nick Gregoratos, CA writes:

What makes Andrew Grossman so insensitive as to insinuate that just because someone is homeless or living in a shelter because their jobs have been outsourced that they are now going to commit voter fraud. I guess he would like the poor huddled masses to stay home on election day while he goes to a polling place with no line and still has a job when he gets home. This is the American way? Way to go Andrew!

September 15, 2008 whataplace, Bradentucky writes:

Austin:

That’s funny. Let me see if I can get it right…you are accusing the Democrats of accusing the Republicans of doing the same thing the Democrats are doing when in fact by doing so you are doing what you are accusing the democrats of doing, i.e. accusing them for using a tactic the Republicans are actually using. Whew!

It takes some pretty tortured logic to come to that conclusion, I guess that’s the lipstick on the pig!

October 9, 2008 Baddecisions writes:

I Can’t belive Jenifer Bruner is playing politics with the voting process. I can’t believe the amout of voting fraud going on thanks to Acorn. If you can’t have voting without fraud in a democracy what do you have.

November 19, 2008 Voter Fraud Puts Ohio Election at Risk » The Foundry at Voter Fraud On Best Political Blogs writes:

[...] Voter Fraud Puts Ohio Election at Risk » The Foundry Voter Fraud Puts Ohio Election at Risk. Posted September 15th, 2008 at 12.26pm in Rule of Law. Picture this: Hard-left activists busing thousands of the homeless and shelter residents to the polls for same-day registration and voting. … [...]

The Heritage Foundation - Leadership for America

The Foundry