# So....Where Was All The "Voter Fraud"? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 6, 2008, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-where-was-all-the-voter-fraud/471517 "2008-11-06T20:33:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-where-was-all-the-voter-fraud/471517/1 "2008-11-06T20:33:20Z")
Reading around, doesn’t seem to have been much of a problem. Actually, doesn’t seem to have been a measurable problem. So, either the Soros-ACORN conspiracy worked flawlessly…and I mean _perfectly_, so perfectly that nobody even got caught!..or there was no such thing. I’m leaning towards “no such thing.” And, tell you the truth, my guys aren’t much good at conspiracy. Don’t have the inclination, nor the skills, and can’t keep their mouths shut. What do I want now, then? Other than to rub some people’s nose in it, what do I want? Voting place equality. Enforced at a federal level. As much as is humanly possible, every voter in America should have a rough parity of access and convenience to voting. The very fact that an economically disadvantaged voter faces more hassle than his more comfortable fellow citizen is an obscenity. (The fact that this offers an advantage to one side of the political discourse has not escaped my attention.) And to my fellow citizens who stood on line for hours in order to make their voices heard: I salute you. Not all heroics are grand heroics, some heroics are simply made up of endurance and fortitude. You are the inheritors and protectors of The Dream, and made one more step towards making it The Fact. This all-American, red-blooded, flag-waving radical lefty salutes you. I offer you the most honorable salute in my vocabulary: a true American. Onward. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-where-was-all-the-voter-fraud/471517/2 "2008-11-06T20:39:41Z")
There has never been a problem with voting fraud in America. Cases are very rare. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-where-was-all-the-voter-fraud/471517/3 "2008-11-06T20:49:32Z")
Uh huh. Well, rare or not, they’re cropping up. [Out of state voters have absentee ballots voided.](http://www.10tv.com/live/content/local/stories/2008/10/23/story_voters.html?sid=102) [Congressman Hall adviser fired, linked to Ohio voting fraud probe.](http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081029/NEWS/81029041) ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-where-was-all-the-voter-fraud/471517/4 "2008-11-06T20:56:18Z")
Thirteen? Thirteen absentee voters had their votes invalidated! Gasp! I had no idea, **Moto** , that the conspiracy was so huge! The horror! The horror! ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-where-was-all-the-voter-fraud/471517/5 "2008-11-06T21:06:57Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Reading around, doesn’t seem to have been much of a problem. Actually, doesn’t seem to have been a measurable problem. So, either the Soros-ACORN conspiracy worked flawlessly…and I mean _perfectly_, so perfectly that nobody even got caught!..or there was no such thing. I’m leaning towards “no such thing.” And, tell you the truth, my guys aren’t much good at conspiracy. Don’t have the inclination, nor the skills, and can’t keep their mouths shut. So… Where was all the “Vote Tampering”? I was lead to believe that our electronic voting system was so bereft of security that any nerd with a thumb drive / modem could rig the election. Apparently the Diebold executives and programmers that rigged prior elections just didn’t think it was important enough to keep the most liberal, terrorist loving, gun hating, socialist presidential candidate from winning. Color me surprised. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-where-was-all-the-voter-fraud/471517/6 "2008-11-06T21:10:00Z")
Good point. If the elections are so vulnerable to being stolen by nefarious Republican operatives, where were they? ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-where-was-all-the-voter-fraud/471517/7 "2008-11-06T21:16:55Z")
Classic example of wanting to have your cake and eat it, too. Also a classic example of Elucidator’s intellectually vacant reasoning powers. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-where-was-all-the-voter-fraud/471517/8 "2008-11-06T21:22:42Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Thirteen? Thirteen absentee voters had their votes invalidated! Gasp! I had no idea, **Moto** , that the conspiracy was so huge! > > The horror! The horror! In order for voter fraud to occur in this way: 1. A person has to register under false pretenses. Whoever collected the registration form, cannot throw it away, even if the person filled in the name, “Mickey Mouse.” They are required to turn it in. Only the county clerk’s office has the authority to reject it. Obviously if they see it, they’ll reject it, after they’ve checked that there is no person named “Mickey Mouse” in the county with a state ID, etc. If ACORN receives bad registrations, they are not allowed to reject them. 2. Supposing that the county clerk, for whatever unlikely reason, allows the registration of “Mickey Mouse” to go through (:rolleyes:), then the conspirators have to find a person who will show up at a polling place, claiming to be “Mickey Mouse,” and the polling people have to accept this assertion, and give the person a ballot without ever questioning the validity of the person’s identity. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-where-was-all-the-voter-fraud/471517/9 "2008-11-06T21:30:28Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Good point. If the elections are so vulnerable to being stolen by nefarious Republican operatives, where were they? Palin had them out on shopping sprees. Finding Gucci shoes for a 2nd grader takes time. ---
**Author:** ![Parthol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/dec6dc/32.png) [@Parthol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Parthol)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-where-was-all-the-voter-fraud/471517/10 "2008-11-06T21:35:27Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Good point. If the elections are so vulnerable to being stolen by nefarious Republican operatives, where were they? I’m only half serious, but if I were a Nefarious Dieboldian who could rig voting machines, I wouldn’t dare risk doing so during an election whose polling was so lopsided. Given how far ahead Obama was the week before the election, a McCain victory would have been extremely suspicious – suspicious enough to invite unwanted scrutiny regarding the security of machines. Now I’ll be completely serious: this is the perfect time for a meaningful investigation into the security of voting machines, which (to me) clearly poses a larger _potential_ threat than likely voter fraud (which should also be eliminated, clearly), and even voting-suppression (ditto). I’m not as concerned about whether it happened _this_ time, as I am that it could easily happen in any future election. Now that there should be no perceived motivation of “whining about the results,” we should do whatever is necessary to fix our crappy prone-to-abuse electronic voting technology. To ignore the problem for another election cycle would be like returning from the battlefield with a huge hole in your Kevlar vest, but deciding not to fix it because, today, no one happened to shoot you in the chest. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-where-was-all-the-voter-fraud/471517/11 "2008-11-06T21:35:56Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Thirteen? Thirteen absentee voters had their votes invalidated! Gasp! I had no idea, **Moto** , that the conspiracy was so huge! > > The horror! The horror! But that’s not what you said, is it? You said the problem was not measurable and that nobody got caught. Clearly that’s false - these were just two stories I remembered - there are likely more out there. So that goes to measurable right there. Do I think it will sway most elections? No. But I think it can easily shake the faith many people have in the process, and that’s why these people ought to be punished. I find it also interesting that these two separate operations were targeting Ohio - a known swing state from the beginning. Not that that invalidates any results - but it argues for the prosecution of individuals and the breakup of these groups. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-where-was-all-the-voter-fraud/471517/12 "2008-11-06T21:37:31Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > Apparently the Diebold executives and programmers that rigged prior elections just didn’t think it was important enough to keep the most liberal, terrorist loving, gun hating, socialist presidential candidate from winning. You don’t think all those campaign donations went to TV spots and flying Obama so he could kill his granny, did you? Just the take from September was enough to buy all of Diebold’s management team. And **UncleBeer** , there was an awful lot of very public bemoaming that this election was going to be stolen by misregistrations. Hell, McCain expressed a fear that ACORN was “destroying the fabric of democracy” in the last debate. I don’t see any “intellectually vacant reasoning” in **luci** asking where all that terrible stuff actually was. I do, on the other hand, find your dismissal of his question to be typical of someone whose people were caught in an exaggeration and doesn’t want to admit it. And on yet another hand, I was glad to see that the fears of many that the Republicans would “steal” the election through vote tampering and and voter suppression were also largely unfounded. People on both sides get mighty jumpy around election time and ready to grab onto any conspiracy theory that comes along. Your guy grabbed that baseless CT with both hands, and it reflects badly on him. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-where-was-all-the-voter-fraud/471517/13 "2008-11-06T21:39:16Z")
There would have been a huge outcry if the repubs won this one. Sometimes you just have to accept that your party has been killed. in a way they may never recover from. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-where-was-all-the-voter-fraud/471517/14 "2008-11-06T21:45:13Z")
> [@](#): > > And **UncleBeer** , there was an awful lot of very public bemoaming that this election was going to be stolen by misregistrations. Hell, McCain expressed a fear that ACORN was “destroying the fabric of democracy” in the last debate. I don’t see any “intellectually vacant reasoning” in **luci** asking where all that terrible stuff actually was. I do, on the other hand, find your dismissal of his question to be typical of someone whose people were caught in an exaggeration and doesn’t want to admit it. Hogwash. We’ve been hearing for eight years now from the idiot left how simple it was to rig election results. Now it’s apparently impossible. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-where-was-all-the-voter-fraud/471517/15 "2008-11-06T21:45:31Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > There would have been a huge outcry if the repubs won this one. Sometimes you just have to accept that your party has been killed. in a way they may never recover from. Funny - the Democrats won only one state in both 1984 and 1972. And they’re still around. Don’t go typing my party’s obituary just yet. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-where-was-all-the-voter-fraud/471517/16 "2008-11-06T21:51:44Z")
The only time voter fraud is claimed is when the vote is very close and the losing party doesn’t want the winning side to claim a mandate. In order to supress some of the vote, a party will contest some of the ballots as fraudulent. In the case of this election, the margin for Obama was comfortably large, so claiming fraud would not have accomplished anything. While he doesn’t have an overwhelming mandate, it’s pretty strong. ---
**Author:** ![Parthol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/dec6dc/32.png) [@Parthol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Parthol)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-where-was-all-the-voter-fraud/471517/17 "2008-11-06T21:57:00Z")
> [@UncleBeer](#): > > Now it’s apparently impossible. Who exactly is saying that? And whoever they are, they’re wrong. Frankly, I don’t care which party stands to gain from voting machine tampering – the fact that it’s possible, and can be done by a small number of people, is something that needs to be addressed. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-where-was-all-the-voter-fraud/471517/18 "2008-11-06T22:06:13Z")
There was no Bush or Rove involved in this election, unlike the last two, and there don’t seem to be any significant shenanigans reported. Hmmmm. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-where-was-all-the-voter-fraud/471517/19 "2008-11-06T22:11:32Z")
> [@UncleBeer](#): > > Hogwash. We’ve been hearing for eight years now from the idiot left how simple it was to rig election results. Now it’s apparently impossible. Ignoring your baseless conclusion, lefty claims of rigging results was not what the OP was about. It was about righty claims, including by your candidate, that there would be apocalyptic amounts of voter fraud. Which there doesn’t seem to have been, mostly because of the checks and balances that existed all along. Those same laws and practices whose existence the righties chose to ignore to score political points and fool the underinformed. You’ve been here long enough to know better than to post without reading the OP. ---
**Author:** ![5-HT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/f19dbf/32.png) [@5-HT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5-HT)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-where-was-all-the-voter-fraud/471517/20 "2008-11-06T22:13:36Z")
**elucidator** , haven’t you been reading free republic and the PUMA boards? The fraud was everywhere and really obvious to everyone and now the media is covering it up. Between this, Obama’s secret birth certificate, pro-obama violent riots in american cities, and Ayer’s prominent role within the Obama administration, it’s amazing that the press has the time to cover up so many different things at once. And without any leaks too! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-where-was-all-the-voter-fraud/471517.md?page=2)