Inquiry sought into allegations of voter fraud in Duval County

[Judi Lynn]

March 29, 2006, 10:52PM
Inquiry sought into allegations of voter fraud in Duval County
Associated Press

SAN DIEGO, TEXAS - Allegations of voter fraud have surfaced in Duval County, where records show one of every two voters who cast a ballot in the Democratic primary did so away from the polls, using the mail.

Longtime county clerk Oscar Garcia Jr. said the number of mail-in ballots in the primary was unusually high in the South Texas county, the San Antonio Express-News reported.

More than half of the 5,641 votes cast were through absentee balloting. That amounts to 2,958 ballots sent by mail, more than all the early voting in the county's 2004 primary when about 2,800 ballots were cast both in person and by mail.

Jon West, assistant district attorney for Duval County, said he called for a state probe after receiving complaints about mail-in vote irregularities.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/3758066.html

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. Repugs love Absentee Voting

because it is so much easier to cheat with absentee ballots. This type of voting needs to be made much more restrictive again.

[salin]

2. On the other hand, many folks

are concerned about the new machines and have been urged to vote by absentee in order to make sure there is a paper trail per their ballot. That urging comes from both sides of the spectrum - seems that the concern about electronic voting problems spans political spectrums.

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. Then we need to get rid of the machines

Voting absentee does nothing to correct that problem.

People think they voted but there is no way to prove the the BOE received your vote or bothered to count it.

In the 2004 election the Repugs focused on Absentee voting because those are the easiest votes to 'fix'. They get weekly updates of the Inactive Voter lists and request and intercept their ballots. They also had operatives going door to door in the poor neighborhoods to 'help' people vote. They especially like to 'help' illiterate people vote. The result was that in Florida at least, Bush won the Absentee Vote, Kerry won the Early Vote and the Election Day vote was about 50/50.

Voting in person with pen and paper is the best way to vote and should be encouraged.

[salin]

4. The several last elections, I voted absentee...

but did so by voting, in person, in advance at the Court House. I did so because I was working the polls, and in that capacity saw how those ballots were handled (brought to the precinct, still sealed, to be tallied in with the overall votes.) Can't say a thing about anywhere else - but about the county where I had voted and this was really a safe way to go.

That said, the machines used in the county are older, have never been suggested to have had problems, generally the outcomes are pretty close to what is expected - so there may not (YET) be the same concerns and thus need/desire for actions such as absentee voting (and I agree in person voting - with paper and pen - is best, and where that is not possible, I would suggest to find out if absentee voting can be done in advance, in person, with a pen and paper ballot.)

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. That's what we call Early Voting here

Voting in person is the key and on a paper ballot.

What happened in FL is that they made it very easy to vote absentee. It use to be that you had to have a good reason and you also needed a witness to sign your ballot. Of course, the Repugs were quick to get rid of even those restrictions in order to 'mine' this source of votes. Unfortunately, in the process they have managed to totally corrupt what use to be a safe way to vote.

[salin]

6. Thanks for the info

will pay much greater attention in the future (and make the distinction per 'Early Voting' and absentee voting.)