Misinformation - Fake Voting Day Flier - Virginia
A flier created to resemble an official State of Virginia document is being circulated informing voters that due to heavy voter turnout, Republicans should vote on November 4th and Democrats should vote on November 5th. From PilotOnline.com:
Text:
Due to the larger than expected voter turnout in this years electorial [sic] process. An emergency session of the General Assembly has adopted the follwing [sic] emergency regulations to ease the load on local electorial precincts and ensure a fair electorial process.
All Republican party supporters and independent voters supporting Republican candidates shall vote on November 4th as precribed [sic] by law.
All Democratic party supporters and independent voters supporting Democratic candidates shall vote on November 5th as adopted by emergency regulation of the Virginia General Assembly.
We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause but felt this was the only way to ensure fairness to the complete electorial process.
Although the spelling errors and generally juvenile tone of the letter should be a giveaway that this is a fake notice, it is nonetheless unamusing. According to Snopes, this is not a new “joke” but is the first time that they’ve seen it being presented on what looking like an actual government document.
Although states have quite a bit of latitude in how they conduct their elections, no state has the authority to extend voting past November 4th.
Ballot Confusion - North Carolina
Voters in North Carolina may not be aware that a straight ticket vote does not include a vote for the Presidential candidate of that party. A separate vote is required in order to cast a vote for President. From The New York Times:
Like a number of states, North Carolina allows its voters to choose a straight-party ticket. To do that, voters can mark one box and cast votes for all of the nominees of their preferred party. But North Carolina’s ballot has an unexpected twist. Even if a voter checks the straight-party box, he or she must vote separately for a presidential candidate.
This peculiar form of straight-ticket voting was adopted in the 1960s,
to help the state’s Democrats keep getting elected, even as a growing
number of voters began to choose Republicans for president. Not
surprisingly, North Carolina has an unusually high rate of undervotes,
ballots that do not record a vote for president. In the last two
presidential elections, the rate has been about double the national average.Poor ballot design is a burden on all voters. Less-educated voters and
the newly enrolled are even more likely to be confused and to end up not
casting a vote for president.This year, North Carolina’s flawed ballot could again result in tens of
thousands of votes being lost. That is particularly worrisome since
polls indicate a very close presidential race in the state. And as we
saw in 2000, a presidential election can be decided by a mere 537 votes.
Voters in North Carolina should be vigilant about making sure a Presidential vote has been cast.
Misinformation About Voting Machines - Texas
An e-mail received by voters in Texas incorrectly states that a straight ticket Democratic vote is necessary in order to cast a vote for Barack Obama. From AP via the Dallas Morning News:
“For those who normally vote ‘Straight Democratic’, please pay close attention!!!!!” states the e-mail, obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.
“I was informed this weekend by a group of Obama volunteers that when voting for the presidential candidate this November, you have to make sure you punch Barack’s name first, then proceed to punch ‘Straight Democratic’ or else the vote for the president won’t count,” the e-mail says.
It is not clear who initiated the e-mail but Texas Democratic Party spokesman Hector Nieto says that it is is absolutely false, that the opposite is actually true - punching both the Obama vote and a straight ticket vote voids the individual Obama vote.
The implication that the only way to vote for Obama is to vote a straight Democratic ticket could be viewed as a way to discourage voters who do not believe in straight party voting, or simply to create confusion and discourage voting entirely.
Election Website Hacked - Ohio
The portion of the Ohio Secretary of State’s website that provides information about elections in general and voter registration in particular was hacked on Monday, October 20th. From WebProNews:
The Web site of the Ohio Secretary of State that oversees voter registration and other election information was shut down briefly after it was hacked on Monday according to Jennifer Brunner, Ohio Secretary of State.
“Due to security concerns experienced by the Secretary of State’s website, full functionality of the website has been suspended to protect the integrity of state records and data. Full functionality will be restored when we are assured that all data has been protected to acceptable levels of security,” said Secretary of State Brunner.
This latest incident was not the first time the Secretary of State’s office has had to address security issues. In recent weeks, phone lines and email channels have been flooded with menacing messages and even threats of harm or death.
Voter Registration Fraud - California
Voters in California claim they were tricked into registering as Republicans by a group called Young Political Majors. According to the LA Times:
Those who were formerly Democrats may stop receiving phone calls and literature from that party, perhaps affecting its get-out-the-vote efforts. They also will be given only a Republican ballot in the next primary election if they do not switch their registration back before then.
Some also report having their registration status changed to absentee without their permission; if they show up at the polls without a ballot they may be unable to vote.
Apparently, registrations were changed during a petition drive outside of grocery stores:
Voters contacted by The Times said they were tricked into switching parties while signing what they believed were petitions for tougher penalties against child molesters. Some said they were told that they had to become Republicans to sign the petition, contrary to California initiative law. Others had no idea their registration was being changed.
“I am not a Republican,” insisted Karen Ashcraft, 47, a pet-clinic manager and former Democrat from Ventura who said she was duped by a signature gatherer into joining the GOP. “I certainly . . . won’t sign anything in front of a grocery store ever again.”
An AP story posted in the Mercury News informs readers that the founder of Young Political Majors was arrested over the weekend on (generally) unrelated charges:
Mark Anthony Jacoby, who owns the firm Young Political Majors, is accused of registering himself to vote twice— in 2006 and in 2007— using the address of a childhood home in Los Angeles where he no longer lived.
The Secretary of State’s Office said Jacoby used the address to meet a state requirement that signature-gatherers sign a declaration stating that they are either registered to vote in California or are eligible to do so.
State investigators and local police arrested Jacoby shortly before midnight Saturday near an Ontario hotel on a warrant issued by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office earlier this month.
Jacoby faces four felony charges: two counts of voter registration fraud and two counts of perjury. Voter registration fraud carries a penalty of up to three years in prison.
How To Rig An Election
Allen Raymond explains in his new book How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative how his company helped Republicans disrupt the election process by blocking, on election day, the communication ability of the New Hampshire Democratic Party office a fire department location that was planning on transporting senior citizen voters to polling places.
His efforts were shut down after an hour and a half by a communication from a Republican official who told him that the Chairman (of the Republican Party in New Hampshire, presumedly) had asked him to stop the calls because they were a violation of federal law. Raymond was convicted of phone harassment and spent time in federal prison. Two other Republican officials were brought up on charges as well. From CNN:
One of Raymond’s alleged co-conspirators, James Tobin, was a top official with the National Republican Senatorial Committee that year. He went on to serve as George W. Bush’s Northeastern regional re-election chairman in 2004. Tobin was initially convicted. But he succeeded in having that decision overturned by an appellate court. Just last week, Tobin was again indicted in the case on two counts of making false statements to a federal agent. His lawyer had no comment.
Another co-conspirator and former chairman of New Hampshire’s Republican Party, Charles McGee, pleaded guilty to phone harassment in the case and served seven months in prison.
Mr. Raymond says a film project is in the works.
Supreme Court Rules Against Republicans - Ohio
An effort to require Ohio to manually check thousands of new voter registrations before election day has been set aside by a unanimous decision from the Supreme Court of the United States.
Republicans are concerned about fraudulent registrations, but Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner says that complying with the request would be an undue burden on the system and would create confusion and inaccurate voting tallies. From The Wall Street Journal Online:
Ms. Brunner argued that many mismatches would appear for trivial reasons, such as typographical errors. She said as many as 200,000 of Ohio’s 660,000 new registrants this year could be affected. She raised concerns that thousands of voters might have to cast provisional ballots, which can require additional verification and aren’t counted until 10 days after the election.
The Republican Party alleges that activities by groups like ACORN are a threat to democracy, a sentiment reflected by John McCain and Sarah Palin:
Sen. McCain is making allegations about voter-registration fraud a centerpiece of his campaign, charging that Acorn, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is trying to perpetrate fraud through its drive to register 1.3 million new voters this year. During Wednesday night’s debate, Sen. McCain said Acorn “is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy.”
His running mate, Sarah Palin, kept up the attacks Friday, telling a rally near Cincinnati, “You won’t let them turn the Buckeye State into the Acorn State.”
Voting Machine Problems - West Virginia
Voters are alleging that voting machines are switching votes.
From the Charleston Gazette:
Three Putnam County voters say electronic voting machines changed their votes from Democrats to Republicans when they cast early ballots last week.
This is the second West Virginia county where voters have reported this problem. Last week, three voters in Jackson County told The Charleston Gazette their electronic vote for “Barack Obama” kept flipping to “John McCain”.
In both counties, Republicans are responsible for overseeing elections. Both county clerks said the problem is isolated.
Election officials blamed the changes on human error.
“People make mistakes more than machines,” said Jackson County Clerk Jeff Waybright.
Regardless of the opinion of officials, those charging that the machines switched are certain that they made their choices correctly:
Shelba Ketchum, a 69-year-old nurse retired from Thomas Memorial Hospital, described what happened Friday at the Putnam County Courthouse in Winfield.
“I pushed buttons and they all came up Republican,” she said. “I hit Obama and it switched to McCain. I am really concerned about that. If McCain wins, there was something wrong with the machines.
“I asked them for a printout of my votes,” Ketchum said. “But they said it was in the machine and I could not get it. I did not feel right when I left the courthouse. My son felt the same way.
… Bobbi Oates of Scott Depot said her vote for incumbent Democratic Sen. John D. Rockefeller was switched to GOP opponent Jay Wolfe.
“I touched the one I wanted, Rockefeller, and the machine put a checkmark on the Republican instead,” Oates said of her experience Thursday.
She said she caught the mistake, called over a worker in the county clerk’s office and was able to correct her vote. But she worries other voters may not catch such a mistake.
When asked if she is sure she touched the box for Rockefeller, she said, “I’m absolutely positive.”
Putnam County Clerk Brian Wood explained that the touch screen systems may be confusing voters because of their slow response to touches, and would prefer that these stories not be printed:
“The reaction time [on the machines] may be different. And when you hit the screen a second time, it cancels your vote,” Wood said. “When you get in a hurry, if you go to fast and hit it again, you can cancel what you just did.
…
Wood said, “Voting machines are very reliable. I hate the fact that stories like this are printed. It makes everybody get scared.
“That is not good for anybody. Where the fault is, I don’t know and the voter doesn’t know. There needs to be good communication between the voters and the poll workers.”
Chris Ketchum feels like the response was “blame the victim”:
“My son Chris said, ‘Mom, I didn’t vote for the people who came up on that machine. I wanted to go back and vote again. I called the lady at the polls and she said it was my fault because of the way I was punching the buttons.’
Voting Machine Problems - West Virginia
Voters are alleging that voting machines are switching votes. From the Charleston Gazette:
Virginia Matheney and Calvin Thomas said touch-screen machines in the county clerk’s office in Ripley kept switching their votes from Democratic to Republican candidates.
“When I touched the screen for Barack Obama, the check mark moved from his box to the box indicating a vote for John McCain,” said Matheney, who lives in Kenna.
When she reported the problem, she said, the poll worker in charge “responded that everything was all right. It was just that the screen was sensitive and I was touching the screen too hard. She instructed me to use only my fingernail.”
Even after she began using her fingernail, Matheney said, the problem persisted.
… Calvin Thomas, 81, who retired from Kaiser Aluminum in Ravenswood in 1983 and now lives in Ripley, experienced the same problem.
“When I pushed Obama, it jumped to McCain. When I went down to governor’s office and punched [Gov. Joe] Manchin, it went to the other dude. When I went to Karen Facemyer [the incumbent Republican state senator], I pushed the Democrat, but it jumped again.
“The rest of them were OK, but the machine sent my votes for those top three offices from the Democrat to the Republican,” Thomas said.
“When I hollered about that, the girl who worked there said, ‘Push it again.’ I pushed Obama again and it stayed there. Then, the machine did the same thing for other candidates.
“Why didn’t she [the polling clerk] tell me before I even used the machine that might happen? And how many people, especially my age, didn’t notice that?
Government officials say they have corrected the problem, which they believe may have been a calibration issue which was apparently not addressed before voting began.
Video Your Vote
PBS and YouTube have teamed up to create a page chock full of information via (of course) video regarding the voting, the election process, and charges of chicanery.
Here’s one video, regarding our election process in general - if you have children, it’s a great primer!
