Daily Archives: November 17, 2012

Drama continues in the Allen West-Patrick Murphy partial recount in Florida

In South Florida, the Allen West campaign gets a partial victory with the St. Lucie County recount that will begin soon to resolve potential tabulation errors during early voting.  However, the drama continues as the Supervisor of Elections in St. Lucie County is now hospitalized and state representatives are present.  The TC Palm reports:

About 100 people milled around Supervisor of Elections Gertrude
Walker’s office Saturday morning while workers set up batteries of
machines to recount eight days of early voting ballots that could effect
the tight District 18 congressional race between Patrick Murphy and Allen West. 

As of 9:55 a.m., the recount had not begun.

Five Sheriff’s patrol cars were parked at the entrance to the building on Okeechobee Road, where security was tight.

Saturday morning, Supervisor of Elections Gertrude Walker was nowhere
to be seen. Friday night it was reported she had been taken to a
hospital.

Digital media campaign investment: Obama $47 million; Romney $4.7 million

As reported by PBS NewsHour.  Not sure what to make of the reported disparate amount of expenditures by the two campaigns on this emerging media.  Obviously, more could have been done by the Romney campaign. With so much of the public moving from mainstream media and toward new media sources and digital readership of online news, $4.7 million seems like a paltry amount of investment when compared to the hundreds of millions spent by each campaign.

“Ex-W.Va. county official sentenced to 21 months”

One of the biggest deterrents to voter fraud is to actually prosecute the crime and take the crime seriously.  That is what happened recently in West Virginia as a federal judge lowers the boom on a defendant for lying to investigators looking into absentee fraud.

A federal judge sentenced a former West Virginia count official to nearly two years in prison on Thursday partly as a warning that election fraud must stop in the state.

…”I hope that this sent a message, a very simple message
that you can’t steal elections in the southern district of West Virginia, and
if you try you’ll go to jail,” Goodwin said.

Several in the courtroom gasped when Johnston announced the
prison term, but some others nodded their heads when he spoke of a need to
deter the fraud that has poisoned elections in that region for decades.

Thomas Ramey
Jr. was ordered to serve 21 months for lying to an FBI agent about
absentee ballot applications, which prosecutors say were part of a
scheme to sway Lincoln County’s 2010 Democratic primary

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Ex-W-Va-county-official-sentenced-to-21-months-4039045.php#ixzz2CR2ue0XK

A
federal judge sentenced a former West Virginia county official to
nearly two years in prison on Thursday, partly as a warning that
election Thomas Ramey
Jr. was ordered to serve 21 months for lying to an FBI agent about
absentee ballot applications, which prosecutors say were part of a
scheme to sway Lincoln County’s 2010 Democratic primary.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Ex-W-Va-county-official-sentenced-to-21-months-4039045.php#ixzz2CR2eO9JJ

A
federal judge sentenced a former West Virginia county official to
nearly two years in prison on Thursday, partly as a warning that
election Thomas Ramey
Jr. was ordered to serve 21 months for lying to an FBI agent about
absentee ballot applications, which prosecutors say were part of a
scheme to sway Lincoln County’s 2010 Democratic primary.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Ex-W-Va-county-official-sentenced-to-21-months-4039045.php#ixzz2CR2eO9JJ

A
federal judge sentenced a former West Virginia county official to
nearly two years in prison on Thursday, partly as a warning that
election Thomas Ramey
Jr. was ordered to serve 21 months for lying to an FBI agent about
absentee ballot applications, which prosecutors say were part of a
scheme to sway Lincoln County’s 2010 Democratic primary.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Ex-W-Va-county-official-sentenced-to-21-months-4039045.php#ixzz2CR2eO9JJ

Ohio Provisional Ballots Without Proper ID Won’t Be Counted



“The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has sided with Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted in a legal battle over counting provisional ballots cast in the Nov. 6 election.


 


“The appeals court today granted a stay of a decision earlier this week by U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley that ordered Husted to count provisional ballots cast by voters that may have lacked the proper identification on the ballot envelope. The number of affected votes is estimated to be very small – from a few hundred up to 2,000 or so.


“Husted said his position has been vindicated.  ‘I am pleased that the court has once again ruled to uphold consistent standards and to maintain the integrity of Ohio’s elections process,’ he said in a statement.”


 


More here.