Elections chief fears scheme

Two registration cards in Summit are for voters already on rolls. Other counties spot problems

By Lisa A. Abraham Akron Beacon Journal   19 August 2004

Summit County's Board of Elections chief is concerned there could be a scheme under way to cast two ballots under one person's name.

Elections board Director Bryan Williams said Thursday that at least two suspected fraudulent voter-registration cards mailed to the Summit County board are for people already on the county's voting rolls.

The two are among more than 50 registration cards sent to the Summit Board of Elections with what turned out to be the return address of the AFL-CIO office in Cleveland.

The Summit board is scheduled to meet Tuesday to refer the matter of the suspected fraudulent cards to the county prosecutor or sheriff.

Board staffers initially questioned the cards when it appeared that many of the signatures were in the same handwriting. A spot-check found that the names on at least two cards were those of voters already registered, Williams said.

The questionable voter registration cards were sent to the board by the Cleveland AFL-CIO office, something Williams and Deputy Director John Schmidt learned after driving to Cleveland to investigate the return address. The labor federation is part the Greater Cleveland Voter Registration Coalition, a group of more than 50 organizations working to register voters for this election.

The AFL-CIO has said it doesn't know who provided the completed cards because the office is getting so many completed cards from various volunteer sources. AFL-CIO staffers forward the cards to the counties where they belong.

Election officials have said they don't believe the labor federation was aware that any of the cards were false when the envelope was forwarded to Summit County.

The board of elections was expected to meet Thursday, but it canceled its meeting because of lack of a quorum. Board members Alex Arshinkoff and Joe Hutchinson were not present.

Goal of possible scheme

Williams said the apparent effort to double-register voters could be an indication that someone is trying to see if it's possible to cast two votes under one person's name.

Had the cards not been questioned, the actual registered voters may have gone to the polls and voted properly, but someone else could have attempted to use the second registration to obtain an absentee ballot and cast an illegal vote, Williams said.

``That's particularly troubling,'' he said.

Williams, however, said he is glad that the checks at the elections board are working and the fraudulent cards were detected.

It's not the first time in this election year that voter registration fraud in Ohio has been an issue. Given Ohio's position as a key state in the presidential race, many groups are scrambling to register votes in advance of the Nov. 2 election.

Problem in Trumbull

In Trumbull County, Board of Elections Director Norma Williams said her board is holding a formal hearing with the county prosecutor next week on a complaint about a fraudulent registration card submitted this summer.

Norma Williams said her staff questioned the card's address, and further checking determined that the card was filed for a Niles resident who had not filled it out. His address and Social Security number were inaccurate, and his signature had been forged, Williams said.

She said the card was submitted by the Ohio branch of America Coming Together, or ACT, a national group that supports Democrats and is running a nationwide voter registration campaign.

Williams said her office also has received duplicate registration cards from ACT.

ACT has come under fire in Ohio and other states, chiefly by Republicans for its close ties to the Democratic National Committee and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry of Massachusetts. But the group also is accused of hiring felons to go door to door to register voters.

The organization says it supports Democrats but has no ties to the DNC or any candidate's campaign.

ACT Ohio's attorney, Don McTigue of Columbus, said in the Trumbull County case he believes the ACT's canvasser was acting legitimately but was duped by someone. ``He didn't know the card was fraudulent,'' McTigue said.

Problem in Franklin

A problem with fraudulent voter registration cards began at the Franklin County Board of Elections in Columbus last winter, said its director, Matthew Damschroder. Most of those problems involved voter registration cards filed by ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, he said.

Damschroder said the organization was conducting numerous voter registration drives in Franklin and was paying its workers for each voter registration form submitted rather than an hourly wage. ``That fostered a quantity-over-quality mentality,'' he said.

The Franklin elections board found cards for people who don't exist and cards re-registering voters.

The Franklin County prosecutor and sheriff are investigating.

``My best guess, in our case, it was a small handful of individuals out to make fast cash by submitting fraudulent information,'' Damschroder said.

He said his office reached out to the leaders of ACORN and other organizations to educate them on how registration should be done properly. Since then, problems with ACORN filings have essentially been eliminated, he said.