August 22, 2004
MAKE EVERY VOTE COUNT...TWICE:
Exposed: Scandal of double voters: With debate over the 2000 election still raging, thousands of people illegally register in both New York City and Florida, which could swing an election. (RUSS BUETTNER, 8/21/04, NY DAILY NEWS)
With debate over the 2000 election still raging, thousands of people illegally register in both New York City and Florida, which could swing an election.
Some 46,000 New Yorkers are registered to vote in both the city and Florida, a shocking finding that exposes both states to potential abuses that could alter the outcome of elections, a Daily News investigation shows.Registering in two places is illegal in both states, but the massive snowbird scandal goes undetected because election officials don't check rolls across state lines.
The finding is even more stunning given the pivotal role Florida played in the 2000 presidential election, when a margin there of 537 votes tipped a victory to George W. Bush.
It's a wonder Pat Buchanan isn't president. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 22, 2004 2:24 PM
The funny -- or sadly predictable -- thing about the article is that while it states that the number of double-registered Democrats in New York and Florida outnumber double-registered Republicans by a 68-12 margin, the personal accounts of the first two double-voters mentioned by political affiliation happen to be registered Republicans. You don't get to a Democratic double voter until the next-to-last paragraph of the story, and he justifies it by claiming the Republicans have fixed the vote count in Florida.
But at least they did mention the 68-12 number; had this been the New York Times, odds are that paragraph would have been a victim of the delete key before it ever made it to the layout computer.
Posted by: John at August 22, 2004 3:06 PMThe Yahoo! News story - taken from the Reuters (!) newswire - carries no quotations, but explicitly mentions the 68-to-12 disparity for Democratic double registrations:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1896&e=2&u=/nm/20040822/us_nm/campaign_voters_dc
Over the last week, there was a trend building among some commentators (Paul Krugman, for example), to try to preemptively declare a Bush victory in Florida illegitmate because of supposed voter intimidation and ongoing problems with voting machines. This new story, I would say, certainly sticks a spoke in that particular wheel.
Posted by: Joe at August 22, 2004 3:34 PMVoting in two states at the same time is election fraud. These criminals should be struck from the roles in both states.
Posted by: David Rothman at August 22, 2004 11:41 PMDavid --
Jail time also, especially those registered as Republicans, they should know better.
Posted by: Uncle Bill at August 23, 2004 10:16 AM>Registering in two places is illegal in both
>states, but the massive snowbird scandal goes
>undetected because election officials don't
>check rolls across state lines.
Anybody remember the Election Day sequence in Gangs of New York? Scorcese didn't make any of that up -- that was how elections were done in NY in those days, most famously by the Democrats' Tammany Hall machine. (And maybe still -- they elected Hillary, didn't they?)
Posted by: Ken at August 23, 2004 12:49 PMI'll bet on most days Pat feels the same way.
Posted by: jim hamlen at August 23, 2004 4:11 PMAnother blog quotes an article where one of the snowbirds said he registered twice to keep Bush from stealing his vote, i.e. two for Kerry and figure one will get through.
Posted by: Ken at August 23, 2004 5:06 PM