Nonprofit Voter Participation Center sends election registration docs to dogs, dead people
Brenda Charlston holds a photo of her long-deceased dog, Rosie, and a voter registration form for "Rosie Charlston" that arrived in the mail for the canine last month, in Seattle, July 11, 2012. / AP
(AP) OLYMPIA, Wash. - The voter registration form arrived in the mail last month with some key information already filled in: Rosie Charlston's name was complete, as was her Seattle address.
Problem is, Rosie was a black lab who died in 1998.
A group called the Voter Participation Center has touted the distribution of some 5 million registration forms in recent weeks, targeting Democratic-leaning voting blocs such as unmarried women, African-Americans, Latinos and young adults.
But residents and election administrators around the country also have reported a series of bizarre and questionable mailings addressed to animals, dead people, noncitizens and people already registered to vote.
Tough ID laws could block thousands of voters
GOP Michigan gov. vetoes voter ID laws
New lawsuit challenges Florida voter purge
Brenda Charlston wasn't the only person to get documents for her pet: A Virginia man said similar documents arrived for his dead dog, Mozart, while a woman in the state got forms for her cat, Scampers.
"On a serious note, I think it's tampering with our voting system," Charlston said. "They're fishing for votes: That's how I view it."
Every presidential election cycle brings with it a variety of registration drives targeting people who typically are underrepresented at the polls, and Republicans have long seized on sloppy or questionable registrations as a sign of potential fraud on the part of Democrats.
It's an issue that is particularly sensitive this year GOP political leaders have used fears of fraud to successfully push laws across the country that could make voting more difficult by requiring voters to show identification. Democrats have fought the laws, arguing that they can disenfranchise citizens, minorities in particular.
The group at the root of the questionable mailings — the Voter Participation Center — acknowledges that the databases it uses to contact possible voters are imperfect because they are developed from commercially collected information. The group also says it expects people who receive misdirected mail to simply throw it away.
Several election officials said they believed the voter registration systems were secure enough to catch people who might improperly submit the misdirected documents.
But administrators in New Mexico, a potential swing state in the 2012 presidential race, warned that ineligible voters who complete the documents could make it onto the rolls.
New Mexico is one of two states in which noncitizens can qualify for a driver's license by simply proving residency — not necessarily legal residency — and state elections officials have no way of verifying the legal status of those who file registration documents.
Ken Ortiz, the chief of staff at the New Mexico secretary of state's office, said some noncitizens have contacted the state asking why they received the forms when they'd previously been told that they could not vote.
"We fear that some of these individuals who receive this mailing may feel that they are being encouraged to vote by our office or county government," Ortiz said.
The mailings appear official, arriving in privacy envelopes with the headline "VOTER REGISTRATION DOCUMENTS ENCLOSED." Some information is already completed on the voter registration papers, and recipients also get an envelope to send completed forms to local elections officials.
- no previous page
- next
1/2
Popular on CBSNews.com
- Port Authority releases photo of One WTC workers at dizzying heights 133 Comments
- Massive train collision takes down highway overpass
- Washington state bridge collapses 20 Photos
- Thousands of U.S. bridges vulnerable to collapse
- Best U.S. beaches 2013 10 Photos
- Bridge collapse blamed on tractor-trailer 328 Comments
- Deadly Angel Flight crash in upstate New York
- Sandy-shocked Jersey Shore seeks summer comeback
sw59404 said, "... The poor, elderly, minorities, illegals are not disenfranchised as the left claims. If voting is important enough to anyone, they will make the attempt to vote. Those that don't register don't care enough to make the attempt, so why should we pander?"
---
"Pander"? Voting is a right, and every effort should be made to make voting accessible-- even easy-- for every voter. That is the idea that brought about absentee registration and voting, and surely you experienced few misgivings about that measure.
Because voting is a right, perhaps you also were opposed to the Jim Crow poll tax and literacy tests that illegally but effectively excluded black voters.
But other, more subtle obstacles also lie in the path of a would-be voter. To presume that registration and voting depends on only proper motivation is not entirely correct. Voter registration depends on also having correct information. Not everyone has adequate information sources, and may not make correct decisions about registration and voting, both of which are detailed, rule-based processes.
For example, whether a registered voter is informed about new requirements for a voter ID may depend on local practices. Sometimes, the news is widely distributed in media, but often it is not. If a prospective voter does not receive a newspaper, he may miss the news until too late to vote. Entirely too many factors can limit a citizen's participation, and are used for that purpose by administrations hostile to voters of the opposite party.
The US DOJ found Florida's GOP administration already purging rolls of many voters who were, in fact, properly registered. The Florida process was both heedless of voter rights and interests, and was riddled with inconsistencies and errors, creating ample justification for the DOJ action.
But the GOP action in Florida merely continues its decade-long campaign nationally to raise the false cry of "Voter Fraud!" to impose rules, practices and restrictions that effectively exclude voters likely to be of the opposition party. This, in itself, is partisan abuse of power and should be halted everywhere as the illegal action it is.
You should be overjoyed that efforts are made to bring in all citizens into self-government, even if all voters do not share your beliefs. Even so, the United States has a scandalously low voter turnout compared to other nations. Any country, including ours, where legions of citizens are disqualified from voting sets the stage for a tyranny of the elite-- the well-educated with property and connections. This was exactly the kind of tyranny that was the basis for the American revolution, where patriots charged they were denied the rights of Englishmen.
As for possible fraud, the article makes clear that voter registration information is commercially available and can be misused for non-official purposes by any third party-- GOP or Democrat. In many states, actual voter registration rolls are freely and publicly available.
The extent of any national voter fraud problem? New York University's Brennan Center for Justice concluded in a 2007 report, "... by any measure, voter fraud is extraordinarily rare."
Contrast that finding with the appearance of a legislative package from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization which promotes GOP policy among state legislatures. The ALEC package is, in fact, a handy toolkit of voter restrictions and sample legistation for states where GOP governors and GOP legislatures enjoy control, and want to keep it that way.
Your state may be one of them. The Brennan Center describes the various measures now used to restrict voter participation-- (1) an end to registration on election day, (2) sharply restricted early voting, (3) laws which require citizenship papers, (4) laws restricting student voting and (5) rules for organizers of voter registration drives that are extremely difficult to follow.
---
But that is precisely the point-- the landed gentry do not care about anybody except their own profits and holdings. Why should they decide elections?
After all, you learned in history class that denial of electoral franchise and political rights was much of the basis for the American revolution.
I had to do all this 5 years ago when I renewed my ID. Why did I have to do it all over again this year? Because NOW they scan the information into some mysterious state database. Or maybe it's a national database. But it's clear now, that the state knows all about you if you want a state ID or driver's license.
I think it is interesting that Republicans didn't demand that the same government issued ID or any of the other changes be enforced during the Republican primaries earlier this year, and they had numerous problems with vote counts and other issues! In fact this was never even an issue during the primaries. I also wonder after the debacle in the 2000 elections why Republicans weren't whining about voter fraud and changing the rules then. No, they waited until four months before the next Presidential election to set rules to keep whay all the experts say will affect minority, poor, the elderly and students who generally vote Democratic from being able to vote. Republicans are so desparate that they are resorting to cheating.
---- Well, here we go.
This is too crazy to be serious. It can't be taken for a face value.
This is a smear campaign. A propagandist trick.
We know, Hitler declared that "The Communists burned the Reichstag" although he staged it and seized the power.
This is the Fifth Column in action if not a bizarre joke.
Remember the white powder in mail? Something else now.