Posted on 08/17/2013 3:54:44 AM PDT by Jacquerie
A Texas-based watchdog known as True the Vote is staying one step ahead of Florida’s elections officials.
The organization has identified 173 cases of alleged interstate voter fraud, or double voting, in Florida and Maryland, the group announced Monday.
Each case represents a single person voting in both states during the same federal election cycle, dating to 2006.
“The 173 cases does not mean 173 illegal votes,” said Logan Churchwell, communications director for True the Vote, a nonpartisan voters’ rights and election integrity group. “It means at least double that.”
The group used updated 2012 voting data to cross-reference Florida and Maryland registration lists. Maryland is the latest state under review in what Churchwell described as the “snowbird” project.
Using names, dates of birth, residential addresses and federal voting information, True the Vote has already identified potential double voting abuses in Florida by way of Ohio (534 cases), New York (32) and Rhode Island (2), as of October last year.
True the Vote submits its findings to the U.S. Department of Justice and state elections officials for further investigation.
Florida Watchdog contacted the Florida Department of State Division of Elections for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
Voter fraud is a third-degree felony in Florida and carries a maximum penalty of $5,000 and five years in prison.
In a news release, Catherine Engelbrecht, president of True the Vote, said double voting is attributable to the fragility of our absentee voting systems.
For various reasons, including convenience, absentee ballot voting has increased in Florida in recent years, though proper safeguards are still being debated.
“Voter ID can’t do anything against an absentee ballot fraud case because it’s all done in the mail,” said Churchwell.
As previously reported, absentee balloting, or vote by mail, was the focus of a grand jury report led by Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle after irregularities were found in the area’s 2012 elections.
The report highlighted several clear violations and the rise of absentee ballot voting in general in Miami-Dade County -- 27 percent of the total 885,067 votes in November, as opposed to 7 percent in 2000.
True the Vote’s recent findings show the highest instances of absentee ballot interstate fraud occurring in Escambia, Clay, Duval, Pinellas and Volusia counties.
According to Pew Research, 2.75 million Americans were registered to vote in more than one state last year. But that does not mean they committed fraud.
Still, for those like Wendy Rosen, the temptation to double vote could be hard to resist.
Rosen ran for a seat in Maryland’s 1st Congressional District last year but ended her campaign less than two months before the general election when it became known the Maryland resident also voted in Florida.
Churchwell said True the Vote will continue to offer Florida and other states assistance even if they don’t get credit. “It’s a bipartisan issue, and the absentee voting system is only as good as the list maintenance process is,” he said.
Updated as of 5:07 p.m. A spokesman for the Division of Elections said in an email that,”The division is reviewing the files.”
Still we hear the sounds of crickets on the national level, none of these cowards will step forward
ERIC WILL GET RIGHT ON IT!
People who vote in both states should lose their right to vote in any state.
This is not a thing that is done by mistake. It is a deliberate act, and treasonous.
What they should do is identify these people, but keep quite for now. The next time there is an election (2014), these people should be followed and secretly filmed. The results (filmed voting in two places) should be posted on the Internet for all to see. After they vote the second time, they should be confronted and questioned about what they did - on camera. These people should also be publicly identified - with name, address, phone number, party affiliation.
This is a huge problem in Florida.
This state goes blue on some elections ONLY because of voter fraud .
absentee ballots - northerners who vote here while here only in the winter - illegals who vote
Multiply that figure by 100,000 and you have around the correct number.
They SHOULD go to prison for a minimum of FIVE years, but nothing will happen to them...no one cares. You can bet your *ss there were thousands more double-voters like this, as well...especially Florida/New York.
The temptation to BREAK THE LAW was too hard to resist. These people all deserve an eternity in hell.
I’m for the purple finger vote and ID. This article made me chuckle - like Eric Holder is going to do something about voter fraud. ROFLMAO.
GOP-e response?
That is why I intend to donate to Boehner’s democrat opponent next year.
5.56mm
I’d say hang them. We don’t care where they go after that.
Heck no. they already have enough on them to fine and jail them. Fullest extent of the law.
Sometimes, people don’t know they voted twice. In some precincts, people vote for you.
bump
When no photo ID is required there is no way to know how much fraud there really is.
Signature?
I know for a fact that our local poll workers are forbidden from challenging a prospective voter on the basis of a non-matching signature.
Even when the signatures are obviously from two different people.
Even when the prospective voter can barely scrawl the name, doesn’t know how to spell “his” name, and can’t speak a word of English.
I doubt fraud matters much to people in FL, MD, NY, or just about any other place. So long as liberals prevail anyway
2. The Democrat Line is that vote fraud doesn't exist and measures to secure the ballot are racist, homophobic, anti-semitic, etc., yawn, etc.
3. See this video, where one of Obama's top campaign managers, Stephanie Cutler, complains that requiring an ID is voter supression, she of the mob that suppressed Tea Party votes.
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