Obama WTF: Obamatrons register ficticious, underage, voters in VA; The Registrar agrees and Police make arrests: Gov. Kaine says GOP fraud claim is "ridiculous

Kaine Enters Dispute Over Vote Fraud Allegations (WaPo)

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) slammed Del. Jeffrey M. Frederick, the chairman of the Virginia Republican Party, this morning for saying on Monday that groups trying to register new voters are engaged in "a coordinated and widespread effort to commit voter fraud."

In a conference call with reporters, Del. Jeffrey M. Frederick (R-Prince William), the chairman of the state party, seized on the arrests last week of three paid canvassers charged with submitting false names on voter registration forms in Hampton.

The controversy comes during one of the most aggressive efforts in a generation to register new voters, especially African Americans, in Virginia.

Convinced that there are tens of thousands of unregistered African Americans and otherwise Democratic-leaning Virginia residents, the Democrats are trying to register 151,000 new voters before the Oct. 6 deadline. A dozen other private organizations have sent canvassers into the streets to register voters. Democrats think this is their best chance of carrying the state in a presidential election since 1964.

Frederick said the criminal charges in Hampton prove that some groups are trying to register voters through fraudulent means. "Unfortunately, there appears to be a coordinated and widespread effort in Virginia to commit voter fraud," he said.

Frederick said the state Republican Party has obtained an affidavit from a Richmond woman who contends that her Social Security number was used by someone who was trying to register to vote.

Frederick made a public plea for people not to register when approached by a canvasser because of the risk of falling victim to identity theft. "Identify theft is a serious problem. . . . Virginians should exercise caution when approached by a stranger who asks for their information" to register to vote.

Local election officials and police were surprised by Frederick's comments. They said they have found no evidence of fraud or attempts to steal personal information by the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) or other organizations trying to register voters.

Virginia Democrats said Frederick and the GOP are trying to suppress efforts to register voters because they are afraid the new voters could tip Virginia into the Democratic column on Election Day.

...Volunteers, including members of the Obama campaign, do much of the work. But a group called the Community Voters Project has been paying some of its canvassers based on how many registration forms they turn in.

Last week, Hampton police arrested three of those canvassers and charged them with voter fraud.

"These people involved were not meeting their quotas, so they started making up false information," said Cpl. Allison Good, a police spokeswoman. The city registrar's office and officials at the Community Voters Project noticed the discrepancies and contacted police, she said.

In an interview on WTOP radio, Kaine called Frederick's (Prince William) assertion "ridiculous."

"I think that is slandering the reputation of hardworking Virginians who care about elections and who want people to care about this process," Kaine said. "You know, I don't like to see folks doing things in the heat of a tough election to suggest they are trying to winnow down turnout and that is what I view (Frederick's) effort as."

Gerry Scimeca, a spokesman for the Virginia Republican Party, responded in an interview by rhetorically asking Kaine if he is "against people breaking the law," referring to the arrests last week of three canvassers in Hampton Roads charged with submitting false names on voter registration forms.

"All we are saying is, with the spotlight on Virginia in this election, we need added scrutiny for some of these voter registration projects that we have," Scimeca said. "With increased activity, comes increased opportunity for fraud and mischief."

Scimeca added, "I would think the Democrats would agree with us that the elections should be free of fraud and criminal activity - by any party."

As the debate continues, Frederick and the Republicans are not only ones raising questions about potential mischief when it comes to registering new voters.

Last week, J. Kirk Showalter, the general registrar in Richmond, sent a letter to elections officials saying she was "very concerned about how some of these drives that are paying people to do voter registration are conducting business."

"To date, we have identified 18 applications taken since June 11 where the address given was a fictitious address," Showalter said in the email, which was obtained by the Washington Post.

Showalter also mentioned that her office recently discovered that a 16-year-old high school student almost made it onto the voter rolls because he stated on his registration form that he was 18.

But Rokey Suleman, Fairfax's general registrar of voters, said the irregularities do not appear to be widespread, at least not in his county.
"Whenever you have a large voter registration drive, you are always going to see some voter registration cards that are not authentic," Suleman said. "But for the most part, registrars and the boards of elections catch those before they ever make them onto the books, so the system works.

Source WaPo 7/29/08 and 7/28/08

Its starting to become clear why Kaine has emerged as the front-runner to be Obama's Veep pick. Both men clearly share the same vision of winning elections by any means possible. Clearly, the appropriate response from the Governor who has sworn to uphold his State's constitution in a case where someone in his State has been caught cheating in voter registration activities should be condemnation. But Kaine chose to attack the people who identified the fraud. Nuff said.

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