In Focus This Week
Allegations of voter fraud in Alabama’s June 3 primary grow
Voting records from three counties subpoenaed by State’s Attorney General
By M. Mindy Moretti
electionline.org
Even before the polls closed on the June 3 primary election, Alabama Secretary of State Beth Chapman (R) voiced concerns about an unusually high number of absentee ballots in Perry County.
“Just last night on television a young man from Perry County admitted to selling his vote. That combined with … the astronomically high number of absentee ballots in that county (past and present), makes Perry County a prime suspect for voting irregularities that need to be investigated,” Chapman said in a statement at the time.
Now, two and half weeks after the vote, an election which did not include presidential contenders, the voting records of three Alabama counties — Perry, Bullock and Lowndes — have been subpoenaed by the state’s Attorney General and a full-blown investigation into vote buying is underway.
Problems arose first in Perry County which Chapman referred to as either the “poster child for voter fraud or the poster child for voter turnout.”
The rural county has only 8,361 registered voters (total 2005 population 11,317). According to information provided by Chapman’s office, 4,207 votes were cast, representing a 50.3 percent turnout of registered voters — more than double other counties.
The unofficial voter turnout for the entire state is estimated at only 14 percent.
The absentee vote percentage was 19 percent, compared to less than 2 percent or under in many other counties.
Within two days of the June 3 primary, Attorney General Troy King had issued a subpoena for all the voting records in Perry County.
This is not the first time that Perry County has had issues with allegations of voter fraud. The 2004 mayoral race in Marion — the county seat — still has not been settled because of an ongoing legal battle over absentee ballots. And in 1985 three county leaders were found not guilty of charges they altered absentee ballots.
On June 11, King’s office subpoenaed the records from Bullock County.
In Bullock County, approximately 23 percent of the votes were cast via absentee ballots. In one race, according to the Montgomery Advertiser, Clarence “Bubba” Blue defeated incumbent county commissioner Johnny Adams, Jr. by 271 votes cast in the district’s precincts. However, Adams received 736 absentee votes to 76 for Blue which gave Adams a 389 vote victory.
“Since we first exposed alleged voter fraud in Perry County, reports of voter fraud have come out of the woodwork across our state,” Chapman said.
Chapman says reports were pouring into her office from Lowndes, Jackson, Hale, Jefferson, Dallas and Wilcox Counties.
In Lowndes County, there were accusations that absentee voters traded their votes for loads of gravel for their driveways. Several citizens showed up to vote at the polling place and were told they had already voted absentee when they had not. Citizens who once lived in Lowndes County who now live as far away as Chicago allegedly cast absentee ballots.
This week, King’s office issued subpoenas for the voting records in Lowndes County. According to a release, the subpoenas were served on Circuit Clerk Ruby Jones, Sheriff Chip Williams and Probate Judge John Hulett.
The subpoenas directed them to provide, “any and all records regarding: June 3, 2008 election, including, but not limited to, applications for absentee ballots, poll list, identification accompanying absentee ballots, affidavits accompanying absentee ballots, record of elections, ballot accounting sheets, sign in sheet from each polling place, and clerk’s book for each polling place.”
Lowndes County has 10,183 registered voters — out of a population of 12,686. On June 3, 727 absentee ballots were cast in Lowndes compared with 365 in the state’s largest county, Jefferson.
Alabama is no stranger to voting controversy. In 1965, thousands of citizens took to the streets to fight for the voting rights of residents in Perry and Dallas counties.
And in 2008, all three counties where records have been seized are majority black counties. Edward Still, an Alabama attorney who maintains VoteLaw.com, sees this as a concern.
“There are other counties with allegations,” Still said, “But [King] has subpoenaed only three counties. Interestingly (or ominously) the counties the AG has acted against are all majority-black.”
What impact this ongoing investigation has on the November election remains to be seen. Still does not believe much because the accusations surround small, local elections. Still, Chapman has asked the Department of Justice to provide even more observers for the November 4 election than are typically in Alabama.
As for the broader impact on elections, especially absentee voting, in Alabama moving forward, some small changes have already started to take place, but Still doesn’t anticipate mass electoral reform.
“There may be a call for toughening the absentee voting laws again,” Still said. “We already require absentee voters to make a copy of their ID and include it with the absentee ballot — in a separate envelope. There may be an effort to increase penalties or something like requiring a neutral official to witness all the absentee ballots, but I don’t think that would be practical.”
On Wednesday, Chapman announced a new Voter Fraud Unit within the Secretary of State’s Office. The unit will include members of the Secretary of State’s legal and elections division who will be trained to deal with reports of voter fraud.
In addition to the new unit, which will investigate all allegations of voter fraud, a new hotline and Web site were created to help citizens report voter fraud. Previously, the Attorney General’s office maintained a hotline in the few weeks prior to and after the elections.
“It is important for the citizens of Alabama who have reports of voter fraud to know that someone is here to listen and to gather the information in a manner which complies with the law. It is also important for these individuals to know that appropriate action is being taken with their complaint” Chapman said in a statement.
As for voters in Alabama, well one voter, who asked that his name not be used, sees it as business as usual.
“I will say this — it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. Welcome to the New South, same as the Old South.”
Election Reform News This Week
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) announced this week that under new rules in Florida’s electoral process, more than 115,000 ex-felons will be able to vote in the upcoming presidential election. “Once somebody has truly paid their debt to society, we should recognize it, and we should honor it and we should welcome them back into society and give them that second chance,” Crist said in a New York Times article. The newer rules create a three-tiered system for ex-convicts, based on the severity of their crimes. Those who have completed sentences and probation for the least violent, Level 1 offenses since April can have their rights restored without having to fill out paperwork, after the state confirms payment of restitution. Of the 115,232 who have regained their rights, the vast majority are older cases that preceded the law. But most of the state’s estimated 950,000 felons must request reinstatement.
This week’s edition of Law & Order includes news from two election fraud cases and more indictments in Texas. In Kentucky, the trial of four election officials accused of misappropriating public funds to influence the November 2006 general election got underway on Monday. The trial is expected to last at least two weeks. In Utah, the defendants in the Daggett County election fraud case made their first appearance in court this week. Eleven of 18 defendants have appeared in court so far and all have pleaded not guilty. And in Hidalgo County, Texas, embattled elections administrator Teresa Navarro resigned this week as a grand jury was preparing to return more felony indictment charges against her. Indictments were also returned against former elections department operations director Rene Solis.
As flood waters envelop millions of acres across the Midwest, officials in Johnson County, Ind. are assessing the damage to their flood-ravaged voting machines and unfortunately, the prognosis is not good. Floodwaters damaged nearly 500 voting machines in a Johnson County annex building. “They were in approximately six feet of water,” Johnson County Clerk Jill Jackson told a local television station. They have since been moved to higher ground. The prognosis from the voting machine company is not expected to be good either. “Until the county gets something in writing from them, what I expect the letter to say is that our warranty is going to be null and void they can’t warrant equipment that’s been submerged in water,” said Jackson.
Research and Report Summaries
electionline provides brief summaries of recent research in the field of election administration. Note some articles require a subscription. Please email research links to sgreene@electionline.org.
Building Secure and Transparent Elections through Standard Operating Procedures – By R. Michael Alvarez and Thad E. Hall, Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project Working Paper #65, May 2008: The researchers examine numerous items that need to be kept secure during the election process. The authors find that standard operating procedures (SOP) have not been uniformly adopted across the states and that effective chain of custody procedures that promote transparency can help prevent fraud and the perception of fraud. Many states lack formalized chain of custody SOPs and recent problems with chain of custody issues in Cuyahoga County, Ohio and Cook County, Illinois are cited. Rigorous chain of custody procedures are described in Georgia and Travis County, Texas. Alvarez and Hall suggest ways in which election administrators can develop and implement appropriate chain of custody procedures.
Report from the Ohio Secretary of State: 2008 Primary Election – Jennifer Brunner, Ohio Secretary of State, Spring 2008: Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner (D) reports that the state “weathered the storms” of a challenging, high-turnout March presidential primary election and showed great improvement since the 2004 presidential primary. Citing problems that cropped up in some jurisdictions, though, a number of recommendations are made to improve elections including: continuing to clarify voter ID requirements; continuing to improve accuracy of registered voter database at boards of elections; continuing to improve poll worker training; continuing to improve polling place accessibility; continuing to clarify voter registration requirements; requiring security and risk mitigation plans for each board of elections; requiring post official canvass audits for all counties and; continuing to clarify provisional voter requirements.
Opinions This Week
National: Lessons from 1968; Electoral College; Ex-felon voting rights; Military voters
Arkansas: White County
Florida: Under votes; Voter education; Vote system
Massachusetts: Transliteration
Minnesota: Instant-runoff voting
North Carolina: Instant runoff voting
Tennessee: Paper ballots
Virginia: Ex-felon voting rights
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Request for Proposals
The Colorado Secretary of State’s office issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) on June 6, 2008 to procure a new Campaign Finance software system to replace their legacy system. The RFP is posted on the Secretary of State’s Elections Web site at http://www.elections.colorado.gov/DDefault.aspx?tid=1039 . The deadline for submission of proposals is July 10, 2008.
Job Postings This Week
All job listings must be received by 12 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday for publication in our Thursday newsletter. Job listings are free but may be edited for length. Whenever possible, include Internet information. Please email job postings to mmoretti@electionline.org
Director of Campaign Finance Reform, Common Cause, Washington D.C. — lead Common Cause team to design and implement campaign finance reform strategy and campaigns, with primary focus on public financing of elections, as part of a broader pro-democracy agenda. Build and manage relationships with key coalition partners and allies. Serve as spokesperson and resource to the media and the public on Common Cause campaign finance reform efforts. Assist in the development of public education materials, policy briefings, and online and offline grassroots engagement strategies. Assist development staff in writing of grant proposals and reports. Work closely with other Common Cause staff to ensure overall success of campaign finance reform campaigns at the national, state, and local level. Manage program budget. Other duties as needed. Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree required, JD preferred; extensive knowledge of campaign finance law and policy; demonstrated political judgment and advocacy skills; minimum ten years advocacy, legal or political campaign experience; minimum five years coordinating or supervising the work of others; commitment to Common Cause issues and agenda; ability to analyze complex public policy issues and communicate them effectively to a broader audience; demonstrated ability to be flexible and work well under pressure; strong organizational and interpersonal skills; and a good sense of humor. Application: Please submit resume, cover letter and salary requirements to Director of Human Resources at hr@commoncause.org and include “Director of Campaign Finance Reform” in the subject line; or fax to 202.355.7546. No phone calls please.