He listed an Ohio address, but he is not the owner of that property. He does, however, own a "a nearly million dollar property within the Beltway" that he bought in February.
Wilson further documents the other Obama staffers who have not withdrawn their ballots and registrations, despite instructions from the campaign to do so.
"Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien sent a letter to each campaign reminding them that no one is entitled to register or vote in Ohio unless they are an Ohio resident. According to the Ohio Revised Code, an Ohio resident must live in the state for at least 30 days before the election and must also intend to remain in Ohio after the election.
Prompted by the letter, 13 Ohio Obama employees pulled their registration and ballots in Franklin County on Thursday. Included among the 13 were three spokespeople for the Obama campaign: Tom Reynolds, Olivia Alair and Isaac Baker. When I spoke with Tom Rosenberg, an attorney for the Obama campaign in Ohio, he said the rest of the 700 Ohio campaigners were instructed to act in accordance with Ohio law. I interpreted this to mean that all Obama employees who had registered in Ohio without the intent to live in Ohio after the election were instructed to withdraw their ballots.
This doesn't seem to be the case.
Yesterday, I found six more members of Obama's Ohio staff who registered and in some cases already voted in Franklin County. I contacted the Franklin County Board of Elections to see if they pulled their ballots. They did not. The individuals in question are Zachary Cafritz, Jay Tucker, David Muehlenkamp, Quentin James, Max Blachman and Stephanie Speirs."
Vote From Home staffers also did not withdraw their ballots.
"The three founders of Vote Today Ohio, an independent get-out-the-vote organization supporting Barack Obama, have not withdrawn their ballots either. Amy Little, Yolanda Hippensteele and Tate Hausman all registered and voted using a 1979 N. Fourth Ave., Columbus address. Hausman owns an apartment and has a wife in New York. Little is from Poughkeepsie and when I visited their address on Friday, a woman said she was out of town. Previously, a NY Post reporter called Little's Poughkeepsie address and a child answered saying Little would return "home" on Thursday. Hippsensteele recently moved from Massachusetts to East Bay, California for a job with Free Press."
Wilson also checked with the John McCain Campaign:
"No Ohio McCain campaigners have withdrawn their ballots. "We have consulted with elections officials and have written them to confirm that our staff meet all requirements of Ohio law and are legally registered to vote in the state," said Jon Seaton, McCain-Palin Regional Campaign Manager."
So we've got clear evidence of individuals who have come to Ohio on a temporary basis, have no intention of staying in the state past the election and its certification, who have homes and families in other states, who have registered and who have cast a ballot. Today, the boards of elections start separating the ballot envelope from the identification envelope, which means that after separated, these individuals can still be prosecuted for voting illegally, but there is no way to separate out their vote and not have it count.
Gov. Ted Strickland has stated that he would not support election reform legislation because he lacked evidence of fraudulent activity:
"If there are problems that can be documented and supported with evidence, I welcome those to be brought to me. But what I am aware of is a lot of talk about potential fraud or inappropriate behavior. But I really haven't seen any evidence that we should have any reason to question the reliability... of our election system." (Columbus Dispatch, 10/22/08)
"There is no evidence of voter fraud in Ohio and it offends me, quite frankly, that even some of the leaders within the Republican Party now are attempting to convey that impression in their criticism of Secretary Brunner and our voting system." (Gongwer News Service, 10/17/08)
Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner previously suggested evidence of election fraud in Ohio did not exist:
"There are a number of, basically, allegations that don't have any evidence to support them. There's much more conjecture than anything else." (MSNBC, 10/9/08)
Here's your evidence, Brunner and Strickland - now what are you going to do about it?
UPDATE: H/T from Brian at BearingDriftOhio.com:
"In Ohio we can't use government computers to check the ID of voters, but we can use them to investigate the personal history of someone in Toledo who asks Obama a revealing question.
This is just a taste of our future."
5 comments:
With all of the strange happenings that occur, it amazes me that the pols can say there is no reason to reform voting with a straight face!!! I think it is the "big lie" effort: Tell a lie often enough, people will believe it.
Okay. Maybe there is evidence of one vote cast fraudulently. So if Obama wins Ohio by one vote, we'll give it to you.
But, if you are asking for Ohio to review and throw out hundreds of thousands of registrations. You gotta be kidding.
smrstrauss - you've obviously not read my writings on the issue. I'm not in favor of throwing out thousands of registrations - whatever gave you such an idea?
I AM in favor of verifying registrations with the external databases, sharing that information with the local boards and then letting the local boards gather any additional information they deem necessary to clear up any discrepancies.
That way, voters won't spend time in lines on election day if there have been minor typographical errors - as is likely with humans.
Here's the point you're so readily overlooking. These documented cases - not just one but over a dozen - are just the ones that have been documented in Franklin County. Have any of these non-profits and other groups done the same thing in other counties? And if they have - it's wrong! no matter what party or candidate they're supporting.
You should be angry about even ONE fraudulent vote - especially when it could have been prevented.
BTW - you have a fallacy in your argument. You are assuming that every mismatched registration needs to be discarded - or you're accusing me of wanting that.
I just want them checked - and so should you. The question you should be asking is why the SecState is opposed to sharing information with the local boards so any incorrect information can be fixed PRIOR to election day - and any potentially fraudulent registrations are not permitted to actually cast a ballot.
You're certainly not suggesting that we should tolerate fraudulent votes just so a particular candidate can get elected - are you????
Just to make sure...was Brunner's comments in regards to this type of fraud?
Most of the time, when we say there has been no cases of voter fraud in Ohio--it means that there hasn't been any case of a person pretending to be someone else...and voting. (Which I'm going to call for the moment "perjury of identity.")
In these cases, the person isn't pretending to be someone else--they are using their real identity. They're just pretending to be Ohioans. (Which we'll call "perjury of status.")
There's been plenty of perjury of status in Ohio--people voting in their own name at multiple properties they own, for instance. But since they were using their own name, until a statewide database was setup, there was no way of figuring that out.
Kadim - my recollection of the MSNBC interview was that he comment was in response to the ACORN issues. I don't believe she made the distinction you've raised.
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