Widening the Margin of Voter Fraud

We like to joke about the margin of voter fraud in close races. It is almost like some new, accepted normal where the right has been taught by political experience to leave no race too close to call lest our candidate face the wrath of some phantom Democrat electorate.  While the exact size of this manufactured minority voter block remains incalculable, we are convinced that its impact is very real.  Every now and then, some clumsy political operative leaves the closet door to Democrats’ shady voter registration efforts ajar and we come face to face with the very real skeletons that are contained within.

Earlier this month, New Jersey authorities made over a dozen arrests connected to a major voter fraud scandal in Paterson, NJ. The list of defendants and charges is too exhaustive to detail here, however one news source summed up the scandal:

The defendants arrested yesterday and Tuesday, as well as Fermin-Cepeda, all allegedly acted as bearers/messengers for mail-in (absentee) ballots. The complaint summonses allege that the defendants tampered with mail-in ballots and/or voted mail-in ballots on behalf of voters who did not receive the ballots or who did not authorize them to vote for them.

This is only a narrow view of what is indisputably a systematic problem. The Wall Street Journal points to several other New Jersey elections that are currently under investigation.  A similar assault on the integrity of absentee ballots was discovered in Troy, New York, during the 2009 primaries. In this instance, the Working Families Party was caught forging mail-in ballots. The scandal is still under active investigation over a year later.

Of course, these recent stories pale in comparison to the rampant phantom voting of 2008. Doug Ross has an exhaustive list of each of the scandals over the last two years, but while the game has long been identified, the scale and scope of the players involved have gone overlooked.

For some time, the right has come to understand the direct relationship between massive fraudulent voter enrollment by activist groups and the propensity for voter fraud in absentee ballots. What is truly breathtaking is the shift in strategy for how operatives of the left actively engage in these tactics. We still see and will likely continue to be exposed to the stereotypical case of the mysterious “disappearing/reappearing voting machines” or the throngs of dead that vote Democratic. However, these criminal activities are usually carried out by groups, campaigns, or organizations. We are just now beginning to witness the fruits of the institutionalization of fraud among individuals.

A perfect example would be SEIU’s attempts at registration of illegal immigrants. While the activist organizations create a gateway for voting irregularities, it is the participation of individuals that widens the margin of voter fraud. We see evidence of this in the Paterson, New Jersey, case above:

It is also alleged that Cespedes voted twice – once using her married named of Belkis Cespedes and once using her maiden name of Belkis Nunez.

This rings strikingly familiar when compared to what has been uncovered in the recently conceded House race in NY-1. Fox News reported an instance where a man, with dual residences in Manhattan and Long Island, voted twice on Election Day.  Additionally, in a sample review of 438 absentee ballots, Fox uncovered 48 Democratic voters, or nearly 11%, had been illegally registered to vote in two separate districts. Interestingly, demographics of those with double registrations are not those of your typical SEIU operative, but of affluent Manhattan liberals.

Where there are issues pertaining to questionable voter registration, there seems to be some left-wing organization involved in it and NY-1 fits the template.

It is not illegal for second home owners to vote from their vacation homes, as long as they are not also registered or vote elsewhere. In fact, the Democratic Party has encouraged the practice.

The website, Countryvote.org, which is run by the New York Democratic Lawyers Council, says that “New Yorkers have the right to choose where they vote if they have more than one home…you have the right to vote using an absentee ballot if your work or family commitments keep you in the City during the week.”

The Democratic Party encourages their voters to register strategically and somehow those voters take it a step further with illegal dual voting registrations?

Thus far, the majority of voter fraud cases that are being investigated involve the groups and organizations standing at the gateway. But brace yourselves, because the culture of fraud is clearly in place and it is extensive. Gone are the days where voter fraud involved a couple of people with a trunk full of ballots, and here are the days where the severity of instances will be measured by the number of perpetrators.