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Dead Goldfish Offered The Vote In Illinois
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?
In their five year investigation of voter fraud, the Bush Administration found 120 prosecutable offenses of voter fraud, out of millions and millions of votes cast. Organized voter fraud is a myth, but organized voter suppression is very real. Republicans know that the higher the turnout, the more likely it is that the Democrat will win. So, they like to spread things like this around to encourage voter suppression efforts Like this one in Ohio.
Republicans are complaining now more than ever about problems with voter registration, but they have been completely unable to show it leading to voter fraud. It's classic misdirection.
It should be noted that one GOP scheme to challenge voters if there is any discrepancy in government databases (IRS, DMV, etc) would have prevented their much ballyhooed "Joe the Plumber" from voting, because one database misspelled his name. And rather than challenge all "questionable" registrations, the GOP is only challenging new registrations. In a highly Democratic year.
And all their whining over ACORN ignores the fact that groups are required by law to turn in all registrations, even if they appear problematic. Which is why ACORN does quality control and flags suspicious registrations so they can be easily investigated by elections officials.
Republicans know their brand is a turd sandwich; their entire philosophy has been proven to be broken at every level on every issue. So now they're trying to cheat their way into holding on to power. Pathetic.