MIKE ROMAN

From Philly Magazine:

Call them “Seal Team November 6.” Special operations veterans, including former Navy Seals, Delta Force will be called back into action on Election Day to make certain there’s no voter intimidation at the polls.

Philadelphia is a prime target.

Former Navy Captain Benjamin Brink is leading the operation. “The nation saw the video of members of the Black Panthers in Philadelphia intimidating people trying to vote in 2008,” Brink told me when I interviewed him during my radio show on IQ 106.9. “We are going to try and make certain that nothing like that happens this year.”

Brink claims to have over a hundred former Army Rangers, Navy Seal, Delta Force, Green Berets and others who have volunteered for duty. The idea of Navy Seals and Black Panthers getting into it at a Philly polling site gives a whole new incentive for casting a ballot. “Our guys aren’t easily intimidated,” adds Brink.

Don’t let the bravado fool you. The mission, according to the Captain, is to observe and report, not to engage. “We are going to watch for intimidation, videotape it, if possible, and report it to the proper authorities.”

Asked if their presence on Election Day could be seen as intimidating, Brink said:

“That is not our purpose. Voters showing up to the polls probably won’t even notice they are there. These men are trained to be ghosts.”

At Tuesday’s rally at Ohio State University, President Obama urged students to vote early.  Democrat organizations then provided 10 buses for students to ride to the early vote site where “Will.i.am” performed, pizza was distributed to the young voters, and golden tickets were offered to voters.

The raffle ticket-style golden tickets were perforated and each contained a unique entry number.  Entrants in the raffle apparently signed a stub pledging to vote “early for President Obama.”  Then, in completing the submission portion of the ticket, entrants had to list their name, email and phone number.  The stub was then returned to the organizers.

Its unclear whether “Organizing for America Ohio” is giving away any prizes.

If so, they have not applied for a license to conduct a raffle – a requirement binding on all organizations not tax-exempt as described in subsection 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code.

More fundamentally, however, if a prize is given, it may violate state law which prohibits candidates or organizations from offering “anything of value” in exchange for votes.

This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve seen “something of value” given away for voting.

Charges of voter suppression are flying in Pasco County, Florida.  According to the County Supervisor Brian E. Corley, his office is being overwhelmed with hundreds of voters alerted by robo-calls from Organizing for America that early voting started today.  OFA is the re-election organization for President Barack Obama.  Early voting does not begin until Oct. 27.  Some voters have even begun showing up at the office, only to be turned away.

Corley said, “I have made contact with the Organizing for America folks and they are aware of the situation. They have pledged to cease sending voters confusing messages with misinformation and will re-evaluate the robo-call message,” Corley said.

Republicans are concerned that this is happening in Pasco County. In 2008, John McCain won Pasco County by a margin of 51-47.

UPDATE (11:40 AM): This report from Fox 13 in Tampa says that door-to-door solicitors have also been giving the false start date of Early Vote. The effort may also be targeting senior citizens:

In Pasco County, Supervisor Corley has also seen another disturbing trend causing voter confusion: he says robo-calls and door-to-door solicitors have been going out saying early voting has started. Dozens of senior citizens have shown up to the elections office, only to realize they’ve been duped.

According to the Supervisor of Elections Office, a group called Organizing for America sent out the calls that early voted was to start today.

“It’s troubling that people are getting in their cars, some of which are senior citizens, and coming to our office and being given misinformation,” Corley said.

UPDATE (1:00 PM): The Weekly Standard is now reporting  Obama Campaign volunteers are impersonating Election Officials:

“This issue arose a day after Corley took a complaint from a voter about an OFA volunteer who initially said he worked for the elections office. The man told the voter there was a problem with her voter registration status, though officials confirmed her registration is fine.”

Update (2:09 PM): From the Tampa Bay Times:

OFA spokesman Eric Jotkoff said the call refers to a program where voters can request an absentee ballot at the elections office and fill it out on the spot. Corley said that program is known as a “carry-out absentee ballot,” which is available now. But he said some voters specifically mentioned early voting.

“It is causing, I would say, massive confusion,” Corley said. “The problem is the message going out is severely misleading.”

This morning a staffer at the Michigan Republican Party’s office in Lansing answered a call from an anonymous person who threatened to “take out” any Republican poll challengers who might show up in his area.

According to Michigan GOP Chairman Bobby Schostak, the threat was the result of of an email sent by Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s campaign.

We saw what happened in 2008 when members of the New Black Panthers deployed to polling places with weapons to intimidate observers.

Today, the Michigan Republican Party received a threat from a caller in connection to an email issued by Sen. Stabenow’s campaign manager. The Michigan Republican Party staff immediately contacted and informed Lansing Police Department concerning the threat. Michigan Republican Party Chairman Bobby Schostak called on Sen. Stabenow to condemn the email and the threat.

This morning, Stabenow’s campaign issued an email accusing the Republican Party of plans to “suppress the Democratic vote” and “recruit ‘poll challengers’ to try and disenfranchise and discourage voters in strong Democratic areas.” The email asked supporters to “fight back” and donate money to Stabenow’s campaign.

Stabenow’s email takes out of context a request by the Republican Party to recruit Election Day volunteers.

Moments after Stabenow’s email went out, the Michigan Republican Party received a threatening call that used language nearly identical to the language used in Stabenow’s email.

You can see the email here

Schostak issued the following statement:

“There is no room nor excuse for threats or acts of violence in the political arena. Today’s actions are by one individual, however the cause needs to be addressed.

“Sen. Stabenow’s clumsy and misleading email was out of line, her campaign clearly incited supporters to act out irrationally.

“Sen. Stabenow needs to stop hiding behind surrogates and spokespeople and take responsibility for the email that was issued on her behalf by her campaign manager.

“I am calling on Sen. Debbie Stabenow to personally refute the email issued by her campaign manager that takes out of context an email I issued, and I am asking Sen. Stabenow to join me in sending a strong message by condemning this and any threat in the political arena.

“Anything short of personally condemning her campaign’s email message will only embolden individuals to make additional threats that have no place in political discourse.”

Regarding the MIGOP email recruiting election day volunteers, the position of “poll challenger” or “poll watcher” is an officially recognized under Michigan law, additional details of this position can be found here. As a Michigan Secretary of State pamphlet reads, in the first sentence of the first paragraph, these volunteers do not suppress the vote but are critical in “the election process as a safeguard against election fraud.” Both political parties use poll challengers.

From the Iowa Department of Public Safety:

A DCI investigation into the 2010 and 2011 general and city elections in Pottawattamie County has resulted in three individuals being charged with Election Misconduct (vote fraud), a Class D Felony.  Those charged are 52 year old Albert Harte-Maxwell of Council Bluffs, Iowa;  49 year old Linda Harte-Maxwell of Council Bluffs, Iowa;  and 40 year old Maria Ayon-Fernandez of Council Bluffs, Iowa.

According to criminal complaints filed, Albert Harte-Maxwell, Linda Harte-Maxwell, and Maria Ayon-Fernandez are all non United States citizens who registered to vote in Pottawattamie County.  Albert Harte-Maxwell voted in the 2010 general election and 2011 city election, Linda Harte-Maxwell voted in the 2011 city election and Maria Ayon-Fernandez voted in the 2010 general election.

According to the complaints, the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office compared the voter registrations database against a list of known foreign nationals identified within the Iowa Department of Transportation driver’s license database.

The comparisons of non-citizen databases to voter rolls is the result of an effort led by Florida Governor Rick Scott:

The federal government has granted Florida election officials access to a database of noncitizen residents for use in Republican-backed efforts to remove people who are not American citizens from voter registration rolls.

The decision by the Department of Homeland Security, which came after efforts by the Obama administration to block access, was issued in a letter to Gov. Rick Scott’s administration and made public on Saturday. Mr. Scott, along with the state’s Republicans, had been pushing for months to gain access to the database, which is maintained by the department, arguing that it would allow for a more accurate review of voter lists.

The Courier-Journal reports that two men, Joshua Clemons, 36, and Paul A. Etheridge, 52, have been arrested for forging absentee ballots.   A grand jury indicted the men after reviewing evidence from an Indiana State Police investigation.

Etheridge, who finished third in the 2011 Democratic Primary for Mayor of New Albany, is accused of marking or forging the ballot of Shana Gibson and Geneva A. Jackson, and of soliciting Gibson to apply for an absentee ballot knowing that she was ineligible to vote.

Clemons, a driver on the NASCAR circuit who operates Clemons Racing on Grant Line Road, also is accused of identical offenses, but on separate victims, Shane M. Stansberry and Trisha A. Stansberry. The indictment said the Stansberrys were ineligible to vote.

This is the latest in a string of absentee ballot fradu charges in Southern Indiana:

Austin Mayor Doug Campbell and the city’s sanitation chief face pending felony charges stemming from handling absentee ballots in the May 2011 mayor primary. The men were arrested last May and their cases are pending.

A prominent Democratic consultant, Mike Marshall of North Vernon, was charged last October with 45 felony counts of perjury and vote fraud involving absentee ballot tampering during the 2010 general election. His case is also pending.

Ronald Bilbao, spokesman for the ACLU of Florida:

If legislators really want to attack voter fraud, they have to go after absentee ballots, which we know has fraud in Miami-Dade County and across the state.

We’re speechless.

The first round of the PA Voter ID Law challenge is done and the score is:

PA Voters 1, Cheaters 0.

From Philly.com:

A Commonwealth Court judge denied a bid by civil rights groups to block the new voter identification law from taking effect, delivering a first-round victory to Gov. Corbett and legislative Republicans who pushed the measure through this spring saying it was needed to prevent voter fraud.

Judge Robert E. Simpson’s rejection of the plaintiff’s request for an injunction was first reported in a short note at the end of the case docket sheet.

The court later posted Simpson’s 70-page opinion.

In his decision, Simpson said plaintiffs did not establish that “disenfranchisement was immediate or inevitable.”

He also said plaintiffs did not prove that denying an injunction would cause “greater injury,” and instead noted issuing one now would interfere with election machinery now in motion.

Simpson said the plaintiffs’ lawyers “did an excellent job of ‘putting a face’ to this burdened by the voter ID requirement.

“At the end of the day, however, I do not have the luxury of deciding this issue based on my sympathy for the witnesses or my esteem for counsel. Rather, I must analyze the law, and apply it . . . ” he wrote.

Lawyers for the ACLU and other groups seeking the injunction vowed to appeal the ruling.

Some PA Election Officials are vowing not to enforce the law.

Expect this battle to rage on.

That’s what her opponent in the upcoming election claims.

From CBS4 in Miami:

Rod Vereen accused Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle of dragging her feet in the investigation of two women allegedly caught with more than two dozen absentee ballots.

Vereen, who is running against Rundle in the August 14 Democratic primary, suggested Rundle may not have charged the women because she’s afraid the women might be tied to one of her own political consultants.

“It is the State Attorney’s Office that is prohibiting these two young ladies from being arrested and charged in this case,” Vereen said during a press conference in front of the Miami Dade Election headquarters in Doral. “This is just another situation where our state attorney has put politics over professionalism and prosecution. And this has to stop. The taxpayers deserve more and they are going to get more.”

Vereen sent a letter Tuesday afternoon asking the Governor to appoint an independent prosecutor.

Rundle released a statement saying there is no evidence connecting anyone from her campaign to the alleged fraud.

She did not address the fact that her office is charged with collecting the evidence.