How to STEAL an election

Absent Without Leave
Early voting may mean late election results.

Monday, October 30, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST

This year more voters than ever will cast ballots early. The result may be that we get the final election results late. It's possible we won't know which party controls either house of Congress for days or even weeks because of all the disputes and delays caused by absentee ballots.

It's so easy to cheat you'd be surprised who's been caught at it. In 1998, former congressman Austin Murphy of Pennsylvania, a Democrat, was convicted of absentee-ballot fraud in a nursing home, where residents' failing mental capacities make them an easy mark. "In this area there's a pattern of nursing home administrators frequently forging ballots under residents' names," Sean Cavanagh, a former Democratic county supervisor from the area, told me. He says that many nursing home owners rely on regular "bounties" from candidates whom they allow to enter their facilities and harvest votes.

Simply put, absentee voting makes it easier to commit election fraud, because the ballots are cast outside the supervision of election officials. "By loosening up the restrictions on absentee voting they have opened up more chances for fraud," Damon Stone, a former West Virginia election fraud investigator, told the New York Times.

The need for safeguards against strong-arm tactics was proved in East Chicago, Ind.'s 2003 mayoral race. Challenger George Pabey defeated Robert Patrick, the eight-term incumbent, among Election Day voters but lost by 278 votes after some 2,000 absentee votes were tabulated.

Party operatives "tend to target people who are elderly, infirm, low-income, non-English-speaking," says Jeffrey Garfield, executive director of Connecticut's Election Enforcement Commission. He notes that absentee ballot fraud has been a persistent problem in his state for years and in Hartford alone has resulted in the arrest of at least eight city politicians, including a state representative who pleaded guilty last year to inducing elderly residents of a housing complex to vote for him.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110009167

Click to expand...

Press of Atlantic City, The (NJ) - March 4, 2005
POLITICAL LANDSCAPE TAKING SHAPE
ATLANTIC CITY DEMOCRATS BACK CALLAWAY
Craig Callaway and his slate powered to an overwhelming victory at the Atlantic City Democrats meeting on Thursday.Callaway, the City Council president, picked up 29 of the 30 eligible voters in his attempt to get the endorsement of the city's Democratic Party.

Press of Atlantic City, The (NJ) - October 31, 2005
ONCE AT ODDS, CALLAWAY, WHELAN UNITED IN PARTY
In 1997, Jim Whelan was mayor of Atlantic City, and Craig Callaway was an angry man with a bullhorn.Throughout that spring, Callaway, his brother David and other protesters chased Whelan at city groundbreakings, advocating their positions and insulting the mayor and guests.At an April groundbreaking in the Northeast Inlet section, they berated Whelan and state Sen. Bill Gormley, R-Atlantic, with chants of "Satan in suits."

Press of Atlantic City, The (NJ) - August 31, 2006
THREE PLEAD GUILTY IN EXTORTION PROBE
CALLAWAY TURNED STREET SMARTS INTO POLITICAL MUSCLE
The former Atlantic City Council president beat early criminal charges to become a force in local politics.When Craig Callaway pleaded guilty to taking $36,000 in bribes over a little more than a year, it brought to a shuddering halt the career of the most influential politician in Atlantic City.Over the span of little more than a half dozen years, he and a network of friends, family and associates managed to outwork and outthink their rivals, controversially using the absentee ballots...

Press of Atlantic City, The (NJ) - August 31, 2006
CALLAWAY GUILTY OF BRIBERY, RESIGNS FROM ATANTIC CITY COUNCIL
2 OTHERS NABBED IN EXTORTION PROBE
Atlantic City Council President Craig Callaway resigned his post after he and two others with ties to Atlantic City officials pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday in an extortion probe that is expected to ensnare others as it widens.Callaway, southern New Jersey contractor Terry Jacobs and former Camden City Councilman Ali Sloan-El will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Joseph A. Rodriguez on Dec. 12. It was the first court appearance for all three, who waived going before a federal...

Click to expand...