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Dead Goldfish Offered The Vote In Illinois

Posted by samzenpus on from the Mr.-Limpet dept.

Election officials in northern Chicago want to know why voter registration material was sent to Princess, a dead goldfish. "I am just stunned at the level of people compromising the integrity of the voting process," said Lake County Clerk Willard Helander, a Republican, who said she has spotted problems with nearly 1,000 voter registrations this year. Beth Nudelman, who owned Princess, said the fish may have got on a mailing list because the family once filled in her name when they got a second phone line for a computer. When will we recognize a goldfish's right to vote?

7 of 216 comments (clear)

  1. Registration Materials by MyLongNickName · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Oh no, it got sent registration materials. It did not get registered. The paperwork was sent out based on a request. It is the end of Democracy as we know it!

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    See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
    1. Re:Registration Materials by Straif · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Two words for this line of thinking: Absentee ballot.

      Registration fraud is not just about making it possible to walk in and vote illegally in person, it also about just getting on the rolls so that a ballot can be requested by mail. And with the minimal validations being enforced in most states, it's not all that hard to do. There have already been reported cases of dead people having already voted, both federally and in the primaries.

      Then of course there is the drive by voting trend that seems to be becoming more popular where people just enter a state long enough to register vote and leave (in direct violation of state voting laws). At least 14 cases have already been well documented (one an official Obama campaign worker and 13 others in an Obama associated 'get out the vote' group).

      But to be fair in this stories case, this was more about a voter registration group just bulk mailing forms.

      --
      Of course that's just my opinion...... you could be wrong!
    2. Re:Registration Materials by samkass · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It gets even WORSE! Can you believe that some people are distributing BLANK registration forms that let you enter ANY NAME YOU WANT in the "Name" field??1!one! Let's throw out the entire democratic system because it can't possibly be perfect!

      To clarify the summary-- the registration forms (not the actual registration) were sent to the goldfish because the owner had lied about a name on phone records previously, entering the goldfish's name. The goldfish was not registered, and probably could not have come up with the ID (the form required a driver's license # or last-four SSN that matched the name) if it tried.

      Why am I not worried?

      --
      E pluribus unum
  2. Re:I'd be more concerned... by jgtg32a · · Score: 4, Insightful

    because requiring ID is racist

  3. Re:The Obama Campaign by El+Royo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Which is odd, since she has more executive experience than the other three folks involved in the race -- combined.

    --
    Author of Enyo: Up and Running from O'Reilly Media
  4. Re:The Obama Campaign by Weasel+Boy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Perhaps this is why we tend to elect governors as president, not senators.

  5. Re:The Obama Campaign by bonch · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It gets worse. ACORN has been registering dead people, homeless people, Mickey Mouse, you name it. What was even more sickening is that Democrats on Huffington Post claimed Republicans were trying to "steal the election" by shutting down the "legitimate operations" of ACORN.

    I can't trust either one of these fucking political parties.