Americans for Prosperity collecting absentee ballots in NC.

[wildeyed]

http://www.nc-democracy.org/2012/09/10/lod-your-absentee-trustee/

North Carolina election officials don’t like the method Americans for Prosperity is using to solicit voters to request absentee ballots. The group has sent hundreds of thousands of mailers to registered voters with instructions for requesting a ballot by mail, but the request form is pre-addressed to AFP’s office in Raleigh rather than to the voter’s election board. “I would discourage anything like that,” said Charlie Collicutt, deputy director of the Guilford County Board of Elections. “When you trust an outside group to handle your request, you’re putting your faith in them that they’re going to get it there and get it there correctly. If there are mistakes, if a request isn’t filled out correctly, if the group waits too long to submit the requests, it could be too late to get out another one,” Collicutt said. AFP is a hard-line conservative group backed heavily by founder David Koch and board member Art Pope. It is spending millions on ads attacking Barack Obama across the country. Dallas Woodhouse, head of the AFP operation in North Carolina, says the group has the ballot requests come to its office because it’s too expensive to print the address of each voter’s county board of elections on the return form (which other organizations do) and because it wants to track the follow up (which can be done through the data file on the State Board of Elections’ website). The process AFP uses is not illegal, but it continues to worry thoughtful observers. The worries are intensified because AFP used a similar mailing campaign last year in Wisconsin that gave voters the wrong deadline date for the returning the absentee ballot request.

http://www.nc-democracy.org/2012/09/10/lod-your-absentee-trustee/

This worries me way more than in-person voter ID fraud.

[appleannie1]

1. Whoa. That is just plain wrong. I would not trust them any further than I can spit.

[auburngrad82]

2. Is this even legal?

What's to keep AFP from selectively collecting only the ballots that vote for the GOP and/or "editing" ballots that lean left?

This, to me, has more potential for voter fraud than anything the GOP has been using as reasons for voter purges.

[robinlynne]

4. +1

[wildeyed]

7. Exactly.

NC has the potential to incredibly close again this year. We are polling even. OFA has registered more voters in NC than ANY OTHER STATE. I could be won either way by a whisker. And AFP knows this.

And we are not only fighting for the Electoral College votes, the statewide races are incredibly important. AFP needs a Republican legislature and a Republican governor if it is going to ram through the disgusting bills that failed this session (Voter ID being the biggie) due to Bev Perdue's veto power.

[gkhouston]

12. I don't see how it could be. Hello, Justice Department?

Stop obsessing about medical marijuana and start doing some old-fashioned election protection.

[Ruby the Liberal]

19. This.

Just wow. How in hades is this legal?

[GObamaGO]

13. That was my question as well.

[jp11]

21. As it reads AFP is trying to get voters to ask for absentee ballots using pre-filled forms

that will go to them not the government. AFP has set themselves up to have voters essentially ask them to request an absentee ballot for the voter.

So it seems to be perfectly legal unless there was a law preventing the solicitation of absentee ballot requests.

AFP can and probably is asking people to self identify as Dem/REP or maybe is just using a database to check names/etc to see who's request for an absentee ballot they actually send in so the voter gets the ballot or holds back the ones they don't want to vote so they either get them after the election/past a deadline to be submitted, give them minimal time to submit, or don't get them at all.

I'd wager to cover themselves they'd give people minimal time to submit the ballot whom they don't want to vote over not submitting them or sending them in so late the government might send back a letter saying they missed the deadline.

[wildeyed]

24. I don't think you are even allowed to use a request form in NC.

Used to be the voter or a family member had to hand write the request. According to BOE, that is still the case.

Here is what they did in Wisconsin. So it sure looks like a dirty trick. Either trick the Dem voters into thinking they voted already and not turn the ballots in, or make it look like they are committing fraud by trying to vote twice.

[G_j]

3. K&R

[barbtries]

5. that should not be legal.

dollars to donuts any ballots coming in from democrats, or indicating a vote for democrats, will be shown the circular file. i don't trust these fucks as far as i can spit. this i find very disturbing.

[progressivebydesign]

6. The AFP KNOWS which ballots belong to Dems. They will simply throw them away.

or mail them late.

How the fuck can this be LEGAL????

[wildeyed]

8. It shouldn't be.

NC actually has pretty strict Absentee rules. This must be a loophole they are exploiting and that state Dems couldn't get closed due to lack of votes this session.

[sandyshoes17]

9. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong

But I thought I heard that absentee ballots are only counted in close or contested races. That's why it's very heavily done in red states. I don't know. Maybe someone here does.

[marions ghost]

10. typical tactics

North Carolina is notorious for election theft.

[wildeyed]

15. Um really?

In recent times? Link?

[marions ghost]

17. Absolutely--as bad as Ohio and Florida

Too much info to post here--just google nc stolen elections

Note: I am talking about election tampering, not "voter fraud."

I am talking about voter suppression, "irregularities," evidence of fraud in many ways.

Go ask the question in the DU Election Reform group and you will probably get a more definitive answer.

[wildeyed]

18. That is not my impression after living here for over 10 years.

I do a lot of work with Board of Elections and they are very competent. An activist I work with, once with Acorn, now with another group, pronounced our BOE "one of the best in the nation". We have been a Democratic state for ages statewide until this last election, which means that the Dems have controlled the BOE. So I am confused by your pronouncement.

[marions ghost]

20. I would suggest you do a little research on your own

the BOE covers up a lot, because it makes NC look bad. Bad for business, y'know. The Dem party will cover it up even when it hurts Dems, because it looks like sour grapes. You need to talk to a real insider. If you're in Charlotte talk to some people who worked with the Gantt campaign, and later the elections of 2000 and 2004. NC has 50% of counties with unverifiable e-voting machines, purchased from Diebold all at the same time. There is huge corruption in NC, egregious voter suppression, crimes that have gone unprosecuted. There is little political will to change things. It's largely ignored or actively hidden. I worked in elections in NC in the 1990's and have followed it all closely since then, so I do know something about this. What I saw made me determined never to work in elections again (doesn't mean I won't work for candidates). North Carolina has a long history of election tampering.

Go to: www.bradblog.com and enter "North Carolina"--there is a wealth of info there.

The Institute for Southern Studies has info

http://www.ncvoter.net look at their "quotes" page --where BOE head Gary Bartlett said in 2004 "Every jurisdiction that has purchased DREs loves them!" He is a big supporter of unverifiable e-voting, which caused huge problems in 2004.

And seriously, ask questions of the Election Reform forum here at DU--it's one of the best resources in the country, RE the elections of the 2000's.

[marions ghost]

22. Here's what you get when you search DU site for NC voting problems 2004:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/searchresults.html?q=nc+voting+2004&sitesearch=democraticunderground.com&sa=Search!&domains=democraticunderground.com&client=pub-7805397860504090&forid=1&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&cof=GALT%3A%23008000%3BGL%3A1%3BDIV%3A%23336699%3BVLC%3A663399%3BAH%3Acenter%3BBGC%3AFFFFFF%3BLBGC%3A336699%3BALC%3A0000FF%3BLC%3A0000FF%3BT%3A000000%3BGFNT%3A0000FF%3BGIMP%3A0000FF%3BFORID%3A11&hl=en

[Initech]

11. Charles and David Koch have been committing treason and getting away with it.

If Obama is reelected these fucking grifter criminals should be arrested and thrown in the very torture chambers they support.

[nc4bo]

14. Oh my gawd!!

Making it a point to warn every one I know!!

[librechik]

16. they just cheat and dare us to stop them, knowing they have the balls of the judges

in their pockets. They know they will get away with it, and in the meantime (while folks are trying to figure out how they got screwed) they rush to get their desirable election results certified by the Republican Secretary of State (there is always a corrupt Republican --or corrupt Dem) We almost lost Al Franken to that process, and we did lose him for several months while the thing dragged on in court.

It's just part of the republican agenda.

[ananda]

23. This is a thousand times worse than anything ACORN ever even dreamed of doing!

Where's the DOJ on this?