Ohio vote costs woman her job

According to the Times Herald Records, Amy Little was fired by Congressman John Hall (D-Dover Plains) after he learned she is/was embroiled in voter fraud investigations in Ohio. She was one of his long-time campaign advisers.

Little is one of the Vote Today Ohio organizers identified as a potential fraudulent voter by Palestra.net.

From the article:

Little has been a registered Democrat in New York since 1991, and Ulster County election officials said she voted in the party primary here in February.

But in October, Little registered to vote in Ohio. On her registration paperwork, she indicated she moved from her home at 142 Guilford Schoolhouse Road in New Paltz to a place at 1979 N. 4th St. in Columbus, near Ohio State University.
...
Franklin County Board of Elections officials said four people, including Little, registered from Vote Today Ohio’s address in October, just before the state’s deadline. Little requested an absentee ballot, which election officials said she has submitted.
...
Rep. Hall’s campaign isn’t waiting for a verdict. The freshman congressman, who’s running for re-election in the 19th district, heard about Little’s problems Tuesday. “The moment we heard about it, her campaign consulting contract was terminated,” said Campaign Director, Susan Spear.

Hall's campaign paid Little $11,139 in consulting and travel fees over the last nine months. The payments were sent to her New Paltz address.

H/T Warren Throckmorton

Voter Fraud: here's the evidence!

According to Tiffany Wilson at Palestra.net, Barack Obama campaign worker Zachary Cafritz registered to vote in Ohio on September 9, 2008 and he cast an early absentee ballot on October 4, 2008 in Franklin County.

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Wilson further documents the other Obama staffers who have not withdrawn their ballots and registrations, despite instructions from the campaign to do so.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."

More voter fraud? Vote Today Ohio

Palestra.net continues to impress me with their investigative reporting on voter fraud in Ohio.

In their latest video, they take a look at another group, Vote Today Ohio, with out-of-state volunteers who've registered to vote - and who've received absentee ballots.

This is a must-see video as it details contradictions by the lead organizer, and also documents that several of the volunteers intend to return to their permanent homes, making them 'temporary' residents of Ohio and ineligible to vote.

Can you imagine what would happen in main stream media did this kind of work?

Court battle over Ohio voter registration continues

Ohio's Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner filed an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court over previous court rulings that said she must verify new voter registrations with external databases and share any mismatches with local boards of election.

Here is the text of the ruling from the Sixth District U.S. Court of Appeals.

According to Brunner's own office, there are about 200,000 registrations that contain information that does not match either the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles or the Social Security Administration. That's roughly one-third of all the new registrations filed to date.

The way it's supposed to work, the Secretary of State checks the registration card information with these two external databases. Any unverifiable information is supposed to sent back to the local board of election. The local board then will attempt to clarify the mismatch. It could be something as simple as a transposition of figures in the address or Social Security number - or it could be as serious as a registration for a person who doesn't exist. Having a report of the mismatches just allows the local boards to correct the information, ensuring that the registered individual is able to cast a ballot.

Imagine what would happen if, through a typographical error, the data saved into the elections database shows the last four digits of your SS# are 1981 instead of 1891. If the board entered it incorrectly, your correct number on your ballot won't match and it could result in your vote not being counted.

The verification process protects legitimate voters while identifying potentially fraudulent voters. This is a win-win for all involved.

But for some reason, Brunner continues to fight this, despite her claims yesterday that she would comply with the ruling.

Almost as if she anticipated a court ruling a few hours later, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner promised yesterday to give county elections workers access to a list of possibly problematic voter registrations. (source)

At the same time, revelations from Palestra.net reporters Tiffany Wilson and Shelby Holliday (Video Blog: Vote From Home Votes and Prosecutors Now Investigating Ohio Vote) have resulted in an investigation by the Franklin County Prosecutor.

"Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien confirmed that he is investigating alleged voter and registration fraud involving 13 newly registered voters who came to Columbus for a get-out-the-vote campaign and used the same address, a small East Side home." (source)

Brunner ran on a platform of restoring confidence in Ohio's election process. So far, she's doing just the opposite.