Even though the Republican meme of voter fraud has proven virtually non existent, and the very few examples that have existed have been perpetrated almost exclusively by Republicans, election fraud remains a real threat, because there is nothing Republicans will not do to steal an election. That has even cropped up here in my back yard.
A Clackamas County elections worker is under criminal investigation for tampering with ballots, WW has learned.
The underlying allegation is that the woman, whose name has not been released, filled in blanks on ballots turned into the county for the Nov. 6 general election.
Sources familiar with the incident say their understanding is that the woman filled in a straight Republican ticket on the ballots where preferences had been left blank by voters.
Elections law makes marking another person’s ballot a class C felony.
"ORS 260.715(1) states that a person may not knowingly make a false statement, oath or affidavit when required under election law. For purposes of voting, this means a person may not vote or sign any other person’s (including a spouse’s) ballot – not even with a power of attorney," says the secretary of state’s elections manual.
Clackamas County Elections Clerk Sherry Hall could not be reached. Tim Heider, public affairs manager for Clackamas County, declined to comment… [emphasis original]
Inserted from <Willamette Week>
Somebody really dropped the ball in Clackamas County, because ballots are supposed to go from the security envelopes to the optical scanners in seconds. No elections worker should be left unsupervised with ballots, ever. It is a sad thing that people have to be so closely watched, bit the “family values party” has no ethics whatsoever.
11 Responses to “Republican Party Stole Votes in Oregon”
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This is sad considering that Oregon has stringent counting rules. Alas, the county by county rules rather than statewide leaves voting vulnerable in right leaning counties. I didn't think Clackamas was one of those. Fortunately, the red counties are sparsely populated and can't swing an election easily except at the local level. That's bad enough, but if the Orcs want to live in a dung heap, so be it.
Clackamas is not, Marva. This was a Republican attempt to commit election fraud in a left leaning county. I bet some supervisor's butt is in big troubler, but at least the caught the bitch.
I guess there is no place above suspicion– so "Trust , but verify" seems wise ;
Indeed!
It seems to me that there was a similar issue in maybe Wisconsin or Minnesota last year about August (or at least reported then). That was my introduction to the corruption in some US politics. I believe it was a Republican county clerk playing with the vote count.
Now there is this in Oregon!
As a banker, ask me about cash security and auditing some time. I did it for 40 years. When large amounts of cash are delivered to a bank by armoured car, custody is always taken by two people. That is a safety feature, not only for the bank, but also for the people receiving it. Is your vote any less valuable than $60,000 or $100,000 when you consider what is at stake for 4 years?
I had the owner of a travel agency in my office and we were discussing her business. She was having some problems that really didn't add up. After telling me her procedures, I made a suggestion or two, but it was up to her to decide if she would follow them. She did and a month later she returned to tell me she had proof now that an employee was falsifying things and scamming her. More over, it involved her largest corporate client (they were not doing anything wrong — they were being used too!) The employee was fired and the matter referred to the police.
It is the same in the administration of elections. There must be strict procedures in place including dual custody at a minimum and they must be followed. If you don't want to play by the rules then get out!
One funny little story about following the rules — very early in my career, the bank auditors showed up one evening. The first item on their two week long agenda is to count all the cash. I was a teller and had the cash in my till as well as a lock compartment in the vault. The auditor asked me to go get the cash out of the compartment while he continued counting my till cash. I tried to shut my till but he kept insisting he have access to the till cash while I retrieved the other. Fed up with his stupidity, I quite forcefully closed my cash drawer with his fingers in the way. When he pulled his VERY sore fingers out, I calmly locked the drawer, went and retrieved the other cash, and returned, unlocking my till for him to carry on. He was more than a little pissed off with me. I don't know if he ever played the guitar again! He was deliberately trying to trick me but did not succeed because I knew and followed the rules. BTW, he reported me to the Senior Inspector who congratulated me on my conduct.
Good show!
If I'm thinking about the same thing, it was a Republican county elections supervisor in Wisconsin, who "accidently" did not report the Democratic votes.
I commend you on your values, Lynn.
I'm sure this incident followed you in your Personnel files throughout your career.
Hear, hear!
"I'm sure this incident followed you in your Personnel files throughout your career." — I think it did because later on, I always got the call to do special audits etc when I was in northern BC. Rather than send a team in, they would have me go in to investigate. One trip was about 100 km away so I'd go to my office at 6am, work for a couple of hours, then drive to the site, work til about 6 pm and then drive home only to start the same routine the next day. After a month, I was glad it was over. But then the manager at the other branch went on holidays and I was privileged to get it again. By the time I was finished, the admin officer was fired (she was the main problem) and the branch manager was demoted and transferred out. Then I went back to my branch just in time for a holiday. They asked me again a month later to go to the Haida Gwaii (where the earthquake was 2 weeks ago) but I was going on holiday so I didn't go.
The RepublicanTs will do anything to win. It doesn't matter if it is against the law. They feel as though laws do NOT apply to them.
Laws are for the litrtle people.