Author Archives: ELECTIONLAWCENTER.COM

Erie County ballot tampering case goes national

The allegations of voter Fraud irregularities in Erie Couny, New York include ballot tampering, dirty tricks and outright election fraud problems.  Putting aside political shenanigans, most concerning would be the potential inside-job nature of the marking of ballots.

“The national media paid attention today to the alleged ballot tampering in Erie County, and Republican County Executive Chris Collins took advantage of it in a Fox News appearance to harshly criticize his Democratic opponent, Mark C. Poloncarz.  Poloncarz, in turn, blasted Collins.


The alleged tampering centers around at least 10 ballots mailed to absentee voters in Lackawanna who complained the ballots were already marked for Collins on either the Republican or Independence lines.  The investigation is focused on a Democratic clerk at the Erie County Board of Elections, but county sheriff’s investigators have emphasized that they do not suspect the tampering was linked in any way to the campaigns of either Collins or Poloncarz.


“What we’ve seen in the last week leading up to the elections is a disturbing trend of dirty tricks and outright election fraud here in Buffalo and Erie County that involves my opponent and his supporters, a Democrat operative in the Erie County Board of Elections and also the executive director of the New York State Democratic Party,” Collins said in an interview on a brief Fox News segment known as “Voter Fraud Watch.”




 

Blue Dog Democrats pull in money but face challenges with redistricting

@ Politico: the fact that the remaining Blue Dogs survived the 2010 elections suggests “that they’re a pretty capable group of candidates,” said Alan Abramowitz, a political science professor at Emory University. “Of course, with redistricting going on, it’s hard to know what’s going to happen to their districts.”

With redistricting not going well for Democrats in the South, this is a overly optimistic piece on the Blue Dog Caucus and their chances at survival in 2012.  New lines and another tough cycle, this time with a unpopular President at the top of the ticket, may make the money raised irrelevant.

Federal Panel delays Florida preclearance litigation until next year

At the link, a three-judge federal panel on Friday denied a motion by Florida to speed up a review of controversial changes to the state’s voting laws — a decision that all but guarantees Florida will hold its Jan. 31 presidential primary under two sets of election rules.  The decision by the U.S. District Court here ends a weeks-long battle between Florida officials and the Justice Department on how long the case should last, and it could mean a ruling no earlier than next May.  It may also add some chaos to what should be a closely watched Republican presidential primary, although Florida election supervisors said they expected little disruption.

It appears these federal judges don’t want to negatively impact their pre-planned vacations over the multi-holiday season regardless on the impact of voters in Florida.  Instead they set the hearing in the middle of a Presidential election year.  Who nominated these Judges?  The court is already allowing the courtroom to become a complete zoo by allowing 29 intervenors into the case when the issues are fairly straightforward and the complexity of the case is neglible.  When compared to the complex redistricting litigation across the country, there is no excuse in failing to having this promptly heard and decided.  Justice delayed is Justice denied.