Vote Fraud Archives - Page 89 of 103 - Voting Integrity Institute

Another ACLU Attack on Election Reforms

By Robert Knight Although people in the nation's smallest state can obtain photo voter IDs with ease, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) says that requiring an ID in order to vote is a hardship. The group's Rhode Island chapter has demanded an end to the photo voter ID law that a solidly Democratic legislature enacted in 2011. It's the latest attack by the ACLU and other leftist groups against state election reforms that are specifically designed to prevent vote fraud. Over the past few years, courts have struck down laws in Arkansas, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Texas, while upholding them in Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio and Wisconsin. In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Indiana's photo voter ID law, which has been a model for other states. North Carolina's voter ID law, which also curbs early voting and ends out of precinct voting and same-day registration, went to trial in late July in a federal court.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:37:08+00:00August 17th, 2015|ACRU Commentary, Early Voting, Same-Day Registration, Vote Fraud, Voter ID|

List of Voter Fraud Cases Keeps Growing

The Heritage Foundation's list of nearly 300 documented cases of voter fraud in the United States continues to grow. Recent additions reveal that voter fraud is not just an individual or isolated crime; in some counties and communities, election fraud is almost a way of life. These additions again reinforce the need for measures such as voter ID laws and procedures designed to verify the accuracy of voter registration information are needed to prevent these crimes in the first place. Take East Chicago, Ind., for example, a town made infamous by the extensive voter fraud that occurred there in the 2003 Democratic mayoral primary election. The Daily Signal is the multimedia news organization of The Heritage Foundation. We'll respect your inbox and keep you informed. The fraud was so pervasive that the Indiana Supreme Court overturned the results of the primary and ordered a new special election that resulted in a different winner. A local judge found "direct, competent, and convincing evidence" that supporters of the election's apparent victor, incumbent Mayor Robert Pastrick, orchestrated an elaborate scheme of absentee ballot fraud.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:36:57+00:00August 12th, 2015|Absentee / Mail-in Voting, ACRU Commentary, Vote Fraud, Voter ID|

No Vote Fraud? Here Are Five Cases in 2015

By Hans von Spakovsky (ACRU Policy Board member) and Brandon Johnson Despite being only six months into 2015, there have already been a slew of sometimes bizarre stories about voter fraud across the country. They show just how far some people will go to cheat the system. Here are a few of the most outlandish stories: 1. Madison County, Ga. Mohammad Shafiq of Madison County, Georgia, was none too happy with Madison County sheriff candidate Clayton Lowe. So Shafiq started campaigning for the other candidate by submitting fraudulent voter registration cards supposedly for new voters, apparently intending to eventually vote under those registrations. When the fraud was detected, he coerced a couple to sign affidavits falsely saying they had registered themselves. He was charged with two counts of voter identification fraud, two counts of perjury, and three counts of tampering with evidence. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years probation and a fine of $6,750.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:37:08+00:00July 15th, 2015|ACRU Commentary, Vote Fraud, Voter ID|

Mississippi Circuit Clerk Charged with Vote Fraud

NEW ALBANY, Miss. (AP) -- The Mississippi Attorney General's office has arrested a veteran Union County deputy circuit clerk, accused of trying to influence voters. A newspaper reports Rhonda Wilhite Dowdy, of New Albany, was arrested Monday on one count of voter fraud. Rachael Ring, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Jim Hood, confirmed the arrest Thursday. Dowdy has worked for the Union County Circuit Clerk's office since August 1987. Ring says Dowdy is accused of changing the address of non-resident voters to make it appear they live in the county in exchange for their vote for a specific candidate. Ring could not release which candidate or whether the candidate knew of Dowdy's alleged actions

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:38:03+00:00July 14th, 2015|News, Vote Fraud, Voter ID|

‘Politiqueras’ and Vote Fraud in the Rio Grande Valley

In the vote-rich Rio Grande Valley of Texas, home to hundreds of thousands of legal and illegal immigrants, the is fighting a legal battle to clean up dirty voter rolls. At the same time, a left-wing campaign called Battleground Texas, funded partially by billionaire George Soros, is attempting to "turn Texas blue" by inflating voter rolls before the 2016 election. The ACRU recently won a consent order in federal court to clean up voter rolls in one border county (Terrell) and is pursuing the same in another (Zavala). In both counties, the number of registered voters exceeds the number of legal, age-eligible residents. This week, a National Public Radio report showed why the ACRU has put so much time, money, and effort into ensuring ballot integrity in South Texas. NPR shined a light on an FBI investigation into vote fraud in the region, including the widespread use of "politiqueras," who gather mail-in ballots and pay people to vote. Here's an excerpt: According to the Justice Department, in 2013, more public officials were convicted for corruption in South Texas than in any other region of the country. One of the practices the task force is looking at is vote-stealing. They're called politiqueras -- a word unique to the border that means campaign worker. It's a time-honored tradition down in the land of grapefruit orchards and Border Patrol checkpoints. If a local candidate needs dependable votes, he or she goes to a politiquera. In recent years, losing candidates in local elections began to challenge vote harvesting by politiqueras in the Rio Grande Valley, and they shared their investigations with authorities. After the 2012 election cycle, the Justice Department and the Texas attorney general's office filed charges. The NPR report prompted Republican Party of Texas chairman Tom Mechler to state that Texas Democratic Party chairman Gilberto Hinojosa "needs to come clean with the people of Texas" about whether he "personally participated in the corrupt practice of using politiqueras to commit voter fraud," according to the Houston Chronicle. Mechler asked whether Mr. Hinojosa "knowingly oversaw institutional voter fraud or if he simply turned a blind eye to fraudulent practices that were routinely committed by Democrat candidates in South Texas."

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:38:03+00:00July 9th, 2015|ACRU Commentary, Vote Fraud, Voter ID|

FBI Investigating Vote Fraud in Rio Grande Valley of Texas

National Public Radio -- A new FBI anti-corruption task force is trying to clean up the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. According to the Justice Department, in 2013, more public officials were convicted for corruption in South Texas than in any other region of the country. One of the practices the task force is looking at is vote-stealing. They're called politiqueras -- a word unique to the border that means campaign worker. It's a time-honored tradition down in the land of grapefruit orchards and Border Patrol checkpoints. If a local candidate needs dependable votes, he or she goes to a politiquera. In recent years, losing candidates in local elections began to challenge vote harvesting by politiqueras in the Rio Grande Valley, and they shared their investigations with authorities. After the 2012 election cycle, the Justice Department and the Texas attorney general's office filed charges. "Yes, there is a concern in which the politiqueras are being paid to then go and essentially round up voters and have them vote a certain way," says James Sturgis, assistant U.S. attorney in McAllen. In the town of Donna, five politiqueras pleaded guilty to election fraud. Voters were bribed with cigarettes, beer or dime bags of cocaine. In neighboring Cameron County, nine politiqueras were charged with manipulating mail-in ballots.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:38:03+00:00July 8th, 2015|News, Vote Fraud, Voter ID|

Evidence Lacking in Charge that Voter ID Laws Reduce Turnout

Hillary Rodham Clinton and her Democratic allies are shining a bright light on voter ID laws and other perceived roadblocks to the ballot box, yet drawing a straight line from laws designed to crack down on fraud to low turnout in a single contest is notably difficult, analysts say, and data on the most recent elections tend to lag behind the fast-moving debate. Individual contests, the amount of time and money spent on each campaign and the weather can be major factors in how many people show up at the polls on Election Day, clouding a debate that has roiled courts and kicked up dust among progressives who say minorities and the poor have been disenfranchised. Many analysts point to a Government Accountability Office study that found turnout dropped by roughly 2 percent in Kansas and Tennessee from the 2008 to the 2012 contests, compared with states that didn't change their voter ID laws. Yet analysts say the record of impartial studies is limited, and researchers are still breaking down November's midterm contests.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:34:43+00:00July 6th, 2015|News, Vote Fraud, Voter ID|

Democrats Sue over Virginia Voter ID Law

Virginia Democrats filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging the state's voter ID law, joining an effort backed by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton to overturn voting rules in several swing states ahead of the 2016 elections. The Democratic Party of Virginia said in the lawsuit that the photo ID requirement, which was approved by the Republican-run legislature, would make it difficult for residents to vote. "The commonwealth voted strongly to support Democrats in recent national elections. After Republicans determined they couldn't change the minds of the electorate, they decided to change the makeup of the electorate instead by making it more difficult for Virginians to exercise their right to vote," Susan Swecker, chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Virginia, said in a statement. Similar arguments have been raised in lawsuits challenging GOP-backed voter ID laws in presidential battleground states of Ohio and Wisconsin. Opponents of voter ID laws claim they disproportionally stops blacks, Hispanics and poor Americans from voting. Proponents argue that the laws are a safeguard against voter fraud. But there has been scant evidence of either widespread voter fraud or that the laws cause widespread problems with access to voting. "This is another politically-motivated lawsuit funded by George Soros and out of state interest groups who are seeking to manipulate the court system in order to benefit the Democratic Party," said Virginia House Speaker William J. Howell. Mr. Soros has pledged to spend as much as $5 million trying to overturn voter ID laws and other election rules ahead of next year's elections.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:34:43+00:00June 16th, 2015|News, Vote Fraud, Voter ID|

Don’t Believe Voter Fraud Happens? Here Are More Examples

By Hans von Spakovsky In the interest of helping out the editorial writers and pundits of media outlets who don't think voter fraud occurs, I wanted to note just a few recent cases (and readers interested in seeing almost 200 more such cases can do so here.): In McAllen, Texas, two campaign workers (known as politiqueras in local parlance) who bribed voters with cocaine, beer, cigarettes and cash during a 2012 school board election have been sentenced separately to serve eight and four months in prison, respectively. U.S. District Court Judge Randy Crane called this election fraud "terrible" and said that "our country requires that our voting process be clear and free of fraud for democracy to work... it's dangerous for this to occur without consequence." A couple in Le Sueur, Minn., was charged with felony voter registration fraud for lying about where they lived so they could vote in a school bond referendum in another town. A woman in Dothan, Ala., was sentenced to six months in prison for her part in a voter fraud scheme that got a city commissioner re-elected. She was the second of the four people charged to have been found guilty of voter fraud in the case, which may have involved more than 100 absentee ballots.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:36:58+00:00May 26th, 2015|Absentee / Mail-in Voting, ACRU Commentary, Vote Fraud, Voter ID|

Playing the Race Card in Court

There's more racism afoot in the land, and it fits the soft bigotry of lowered expectations. Did you know that minorities need more than a full month in which to cast a vote? And they can't be expected to show a photo ID like other voters. That would be asking too much of them. Who, you might ask, is perpetrating this libel about the missing adulthood of America's minorities? Why, the very people who claim to speak for them on all matters. The same ones who created redistributive welfare policies that destroyed inner-city families. The latest ploy that makes some citizens out to be imbeciles in need of a master is a legal attack on several election reform laws enacted in 2014. In Ohio, leftist groups have filed a lawsuit demanding that state officials restore more than a full month of voting before Election Day, plus other measures intended to eliminate the slightest inconvenience at having to register or to vote. They claim the new rules violate the First, 14th and 15th amendments and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, plus the Civil Rights Act of 1964. "This is the Left's new legal strategy to go after election reforms aimed at discouraging vote fraud," said J. Christian Adams, a former Justice Department Voting Section attorney and current policy board member of the . Mr. Adams, who has successfully sued counties in Mississippi and Texas to clean up their voter rolls, added, "If they succeed in Ohio, they'll roll this out all over the country." On May 8, the Ohio Organizing Collaborative filed in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Ohio, alleging that election reforms enacted in 2014 by the Republican-led legislature that reined in the state's lax requirements were intended to burden people who tend to vote Democrat, especially minorities and young voters.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:38:04+00:00May 18th, 2015|ACRU Commentary, Vote Fraud, Voter ID|

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