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Here's one on Arkansas. You may have seen this one allready:

Saturday, November 9, 2002

Pulaski County officials set to certify vote today
BRIAN SKOLOFF
Associated Press Writer

LITTLE ROCK -- After two days of uncertainty, Pulaski County officials said Friday they were prepared to certify election results.
Election commissioners had been waiting since Tuesday night to finish counting ballots when the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled Thursday that residents of the state's most populous county were not entitled to an extra 90 minutes of voting this week.

A Pulaski County judge delayed poll closing from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday, citing the Democratic Party's complaints of long lines at some precincts and the absence of ballots at others. The justices said Thursday that Circuit Judge Collins Kilgore was wrong to do so.

The Supreme Court voided the lower court's order in a 4-3 decision.

While no one knows exactly how many ballots were cast late -- record-keeping practices varied by precinct -- the Pulaski County Election Commission was able to identify and discount about 300.

The Republicans accused Democrats of trying to steal the election by extending voting hours in the predominantly Democratic county.

Election commissioner Ann Smith said the county's election results would be certified this morning.

Meanwhile, Pulaski County Prosecutor Larry Jegley has said he would petition the circuit court next week to convene a grand jury to look into how the voter registration and the election system in the county could be improved, after months of snags in the Pulaski County clerk's office.

In Phillips County, the sanitation director for Helena pleaded guilty to voter fraud charges. And the state Republican Party has said it will ask the U.S. Attorney's office to investigate further allegations of voter fraud there.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Ray White acknowledged that his office would be looking into allegations of voter fraud across the state.

"We've had a lot of calls ... and more than one of them are things that we'll be following up on and investigating," White said.

He would not cite specific cases.

In Sebastian County, election commissioners were conducting a recount Friday night of votes cast in the state Senate race between Republican Denny Altus and Democrat Joe Ellen Carson.

County Clerk Doris Tate said the recount, requested by Carson, could go on until midnight.

Former state Rep. Sue Madison of Fayetteville maintained her victory in a state Senate race after a recount Thursday. Madison's opponent, Republican Bootsie Ackerman of Fayetteville, requested the recount after election results showed a 79-vote difference among more than 21,000 votes cast in the race.

And in Saline County, Democrat Janet Johnson maintained her victory in Tuesday's election for a state House seat after a recount Thursday requested by her Republican opponent Dennis Milligan.

http://www.baxterbulletin.com/news/stories/20021109/localnews/335188.html

A good article about the fraud in absentee balloting:

An election scam

Both parties are ignoring yet more stories of massive voter fraud--much of which was carried out through illegal manipulation of absentee ballots--that seem to be getting worse each election cycle.

THE SHOCK OF LAST Tuesday's election still hasn't worn off in Washington. Republicans can barely contain their excitement, and Democrats are wondering what went wrong. Meanwhile, both parties are ignoring yet more stories of massive voter fraud--much of it carried out through illegal manipulation of absentee ballots--that seem to get worse each election cycle.

A blizzard of chads in Florida two years ago obscured news reports of a political hack for Al Gore bribing the homeless in Wisconsin with cigarettes to vote for the veep. And while federal investigators were chasing phantom charges of disenfranchisement of African-Americans in the Sunshine State, college students in the Midwest and snowbirds in Florida were freely telling the press that they had illegally cast multiple votes.

They had reason to make such bold admissions. Cheating is so easy and the prosecution of vote fraud is so rare that the payoff--electoral victory--far outweighs the fear of punishment. The smoke-pushing Wisconsin Democrat was fined just $5,000 and got no jail time. And those paid-for votes were still counted for Mr. Gore.

Late last month, Milwaukee's NBC affiliate filmed Democratic campaign workers handing out cash and free food to residents at a home for the mentally ill. After a rousing game of bingo, the patients were ushered into another room by their Democratic hosts and handed absentee ballots. But the most outrageous tale this year comes out of South Dakota, where authorities are investigating hundreds of cases of suspected vote fraud.

Republican John Thune lost to incumbent Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson by just 528 votes. Mr. Thune had a comfortable lead at 2 a.m. Wednesday morning with just three counties left to report. Those areas just happened to be where the Johnson campaign had worked hard to register Indians living on reservations--the center of the vote-fraud probe. Dewey County election officials told The Wall Street Journal's John Fund that they had received "a huge envelope of 350 absentee ballot applications postmarked from the Sioux Falls office of the Democratic Party." That county's attorney says that many of the absentee ballot applications were filled out in the same handwriting.

Denise Red Horse, who died in a Sept. 3 car crash, somehow managed to apply for an absentee ballot on Sept. 21--in two different counties. Both applications were mailed from Democratic headquarters, where a party worker was found with a history filled with local names. Many of those listed in the book ended up registering to vote, which contributed to this statistical oddity: The number of people on the voting rolls in Dewey and Ziebach counties far exceeded the 2000 Census count of residents over the age of 18.

Absentee balloting, which accounted for just 5 percent of the vote 20 years ago, now accounts for 30 percent. University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato calls absentee voting "the preferred choice of those who commit voter fraud." In an attempt to get more people to the polls, 29 states don't require voters to state any good reason to receive an absentee ballot. Those states--thankfully, Virginia isn't one--have exchanged low voter turnout for a temptation to fraud. Imagine the fun party operatives will have if the idea of Internet voting ever catches on.

Every phony vote--and hundreds of thousands, at least, are manufactured each election--cancels out a legitimate one. It is the ultimate disenfranchisement--nothing less than the hijacking of democracy that corrupts the legitimacy of our government. It seems particularly outrageous on this Veterans Day, a mockery of American soldiers' sacrifice.

President Bush last month signed a bill that will help states pay for new voting machines and update voter databases to help detect fraud. But that will all be for naught if states pass out absentee ballots like cupcakes and continue to put a low priority on the prosecution of election cheaters.

Date published: Mon, 11/11/2002

http://www.freelancestar.com/News/FLS/2002/112002/11112002/785255