By Vic Ryckaert

vic.ryckaert@indystar.com

November 01, 2002

The Marion County prosecutor's office seized dozens of suspicious absentee ballot applications Thursday as it launched a criminal probe into possible election fraud.

"If people are forging signatures on absentee ballots, that's a crime, and it is our job to investigate it," Prosecutor Scott Newman said in a written statement. click here!

Workers in the Marion County clerk's office reported irregularities in 78 absentee ballot applications for Tuesday's election.

The problems include signatures on applications that do not match those on file with the voter registration board, applications in which the voter's name is misspelled, and correction fluid used to change voters' addresses.

The Marion County Election Board on Wednesday held an emergency hearing on those suspicious applications. It voted to send the ballots to those listed on the applications. But members of the board also made it clear that those absentee ballots will be scrutinized closely on Election Day.

Republican County Clerk Sarah M. Taylor, a member of the Election Board, welcomed the criminal investigation.

"Some violations of election law do cross into criminal matters and are punishable," Taylor said.

She said she found ballot requests for three different voters that appeared to be signed by the same individual. She said it is likely that someone who did not understand the law was trying to help senior citizens or a relatives cast legitimate votes.

"In some cases, people have misunderstandings about their ability to get an absentee ballot on somebody else's behalf," she said. "Until the appropriate people can review it, we're really not sure what we have on our hands."

-- Anonymous, November 01, 2002

Answers

The push here for absentee ballots is because of the amount of snow birds that are leaving the state before the election. I would suspect that it could lead to abuse as well.

Absentee ballots could lead to havoc [Polk county Iowa] By BERT DALMER Register Staff Writer 11/02/2002

Iowa's political parties have gone too far in soliciting a deluge of absentee ballots, prompting complaints and suspicion, the election commissioner of the state's largest county says.

"I agree that we need people to participate," Polk County Auditor Michael Mauro said. "But this system needs to be changed. The candidates and the parties are using the system, and the only real losers are the voters."

Mauro's office had fielded a record 39,605 requests for absentee ballots by Friday afternoon, four days before Tuesday's election. Most of the requests reflect the work of Democratic and Republican activists who peddled request forms door-to-door or through the mail.

Nearly 8,000 ballots mailed to Polk County voters have yet to return to the election office.

County officials fear that the discrepancy between requests and returns could wreak havoc on Election Day, if people who are supposed to vote from home go to the polls instead.

No one will be refused a ballot at any of Polk County's 183 polling places, but each voter who left an absentee ballot behind will have to be investigated, Mauro said. Sorting out who voted, as well as where and when, could take several days, perhaps longer. In a close race, those delays could cause further controversy.

Reports are swirling throughout the state that voters are receiving ballots they never asked for, but Mauro said people are simply forgetting they signed for them.

"These people, they could go through a lie-detector test and pass," Mauro said. "It's sincere, genuine confusion."

Democrats began pushing absentee ballot requests shortly after the June 4 primaries.

Mauro said the issue could be made clearer with a standard ballot request form - there are now several variations - or with a requirement that voters obtain a witness signature for each request.

Both parties have pushed hard for more absentee voting this election, a strategy that parallels national trends. The drives have led to accusations of harassment or questionable tactics by both parties, leading to rumors that large numbers of ballots could be challenged after the election.

Ted Sporer, chairman of the Polk County Republican Party, is among those making the allegations. He places no blame on election officials. Sporer, who attended a demonstration Friday at the Polk County election office, said he is satisfied with poll workers' methods for counting ballots.

"I think there's a lot of skulduggery being perpetrated by the Democrats, but I don't think any of it's coming from the election office," Sporer said. "Absentee ballots are just a terrible idea. Unless you're sick or out of town, you should not be able to cast a vote without going to the polls."

Mark Daley, a spokesman for the Iowa Democratic Party, said absentee voting makes casting a ballot easier.

"Getting more people to the polls certainly helps our democracy," Daley said.

Secretary of State Chet Culver, a Democrat, said absentee ballots might create more work for election officials, but they offer the most options for voters.

Culver said Iowa ranked eighth of the 50 states in voter participation in the 2000 presidential election.

"We have a wonderful tradition in this state of citizen engagement and participation, and we should all be proud of that," Culver said. "We have some of the best election laws and administrative rules in the nation, and I fully expect things will go as well as they did in the November 2000 election."

County auditors statewide are scrambling to educate voters on how they can cast conventional ballots at the polls if they already requested absentee ballots.

Voters must surrender their absentee ballots at their election office or at their polling place. If a ballot has been lost, election workers require written notice before a new one is issued.

Officials also implored voters to return their absentee ballots by mail, rather than hand them to party activists for delivery.

In Polk County, absentee ballots are filed in a locked room until the polls close. The ballots are counted by a single machine at the auditor's office. Ballots called into question by poll workers are set aside and investigated by a bipartisan panel of citizens.

Mauro said Polk County's election machines are programmed to "lock out" any ballot cast twice, regardless of the type of ballot. In the case of a recount, officials file away every absentee ballot request, as well as three printed records of votes: polling-place tapes, master computer tapes and the ballots.

"There's no such thing as a fail-safe," Mauro said, "But I think it's a pretty good system. There's a lot of safeguards."

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2002

I agree that unless you're going to be unavoidably "absent" from the voting area, you shouldn't get to do an absentee ballot. Here in NC we have "early voting," which means you can go to the voting office and vote up until close of business today. Ridiculous. It all costs money, particularly when verifying has to be done, and greatly multiplies the chance of abuse.

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2002

Early-voting ballots in Bexar ruled illegal

By Sherry Sylvester

Express-News Staff Writer

Web Posted : 11/02/2002 12:00 AM

As the last day of early voting wound down Friday, a federal judge ruled that the two-sheet ballot Bexar County has been using for two weeks violates state and federal laws.

U.S. District Judge Edward C. Prado wrote that the ballot, which requires voters who want to vote a straight ticket to mark both sheets, "is a change affecting voting and is ineffective without preclearance from the Department of Justice under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act."

Prado noted that Bexar County already has arranged for a one-page ballot that meets legal standards to be available in all polling places on Election Day next Tuesday.

But he did not provide specific instructions to the county on how to resolve questions that may arise when counting the more than 100,000 early voting ballots that already have been cast in the election.

Instead, he said, those issues should be resolved by the Early Voting Ballot Board, which reviews early ballot counting.

The League of United Latin American Citizens, which filed the lawsuit protesting the two-sheet ballot, and the Democratic Party of Texas, which intervened in the lawsuit, had asked Prado to give specific instructions, but the judge declined, saying state law leaves that decision up to the ballot board.

Bexar County Elections Administrator Cliff Borofsky said the secretary of state will have a staff member on hand to observe the Early Voting Ballot Board when its members review the ballots.

Bexar County learned the ballot was problematic just a few days before early voting was set to begin on Oct. 19.

The unexpectedly long ballot required voters to mark two sheets if they wanted to vote a straight ticket for a political party. In previous elections, straight-ticket voters had to mark only one sheet.

Fears that the starting date would have to be changed prompted LULAC to seek a temporary restraining order to force Bexar County to begin early voting as scheduled. The state Democratic and Republican parties both joined the suit.

That issue, however, was rendered moot when Bexar County officials and the two political parties decided to begin voting as scheduled, despite having to use the two-sheet ballot.

The plaintiffs also argued the two-sheet ballot requiring two marks for a straight-ticket vote was a change that should have been cleared by the Justice Department.

Meanwhile, a new ballot has been printed to be used on Election Day that will require single-party voters to make only one mark on the first sheet. The second sheet lists uncontested races, a proposed constitutional amendment and non-partisan races.

Prado said that, while the change to a new ballot has not been formally cleared by the Justice Department, the election should continue as if it had been precleared.

He noted that the approval process has been started, and all sides have agreed the new ballot should be used on Election Day.

Bexar County Democratic Chairman Gabe Quintanilla, who served as the attorney for the State Democratic Party, predicted the ballot problems would continue to haunt the upcoming election.

"No matter who wins or loses in any of the races on this ballot, there will probably be a lawsuit by the loser," he said.

Republican officials were not available for comment late Friday.

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2002