# Voter fraud discovered!! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 28, 2012, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-fraud-discovered/636083 "2012-09-28T01:37:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BigAppleBucky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigapplebucky/32/178_2.png) [@BigAppleBucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigAppleBucky)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-fraud-discovered/636083/1 "2012-09-28T01:37:28Z")
> **[Meet the Press: Inside Takes on the Latest Stories with Kristen Welker](https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press?lite)** > > Follow Kristen Welker as she uncovers breaking news events with the experts on NBCNews.com. Find coverage on the latest in politics, news, business, and more. > [@](#): > > Palm Beach County, Fla., elections supervisor discovered 108 potentially fraudulent registration forms submitted by the GOP consulting firm, including suspected phony signatures and home addresses that matched those of a gas station, a medical building, and a Land Rover automotive dealership. and Volunteer Busted Only Registering Romney Voters [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/W0CL1QPTAqs/hqdefault.jpg "Volunteer Busted Only Registering Romney Voters") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0CL1QPTAqs) > [@](#): > > A video uploaded to YouTube on Friday depicting a young woman registering voters in El Paso County, Colorado claiming she works for the clerk’s office, but is only registering voters who support Mitt Romney. I believe my psychology prof called the condition wherein a guilty person accuses another of doing the same thing is all “projection”. It seems the GOPers are projecting their own misdeeds on others. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-fraud-discovered/636083/2 "2012-09-28T01:40:11Z")
Predictable Republican response: “See? You need voter-ID programs to protect you from people like us!” ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-fraud-discovered/636083/3 "2012-09-28T02:38:03Z")
The first is voter _registration_ fraud. Not voter fraud. The second is just downright despicable. ---
**Author:** ![BigAppleBucky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigapplebucky/32/178_2.png) [@BigAppleBucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigAppleBucky)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-fraud-discovered/636083/4 "2012-09-28T02:40:23Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > The first is voter _registration_ fraud. Not voter fraud. . . Of course, but voter ID fraud just about never happens so we need to talk fraud where we can find it. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-fraud-discovered/636083/5 "2012-09-28T04:00:40Z")
I don’t get it, where’s the payoff? What good is it to register fake voters unless they go to the polls and fake vote, which is a logistical and secrecy nightmare. I know the Pubbies have highly paid teams of professional cynics, but what the fuck is this in aid of? This is a jigsaw puzzle made of goat droppings, but there’s one missing. ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-fraud-discovered/636083/6 "2012-09-28T04:10:58Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > I don’t get it, where’s the payoff? What good is it to register fake voters unless they go to the polls and fake vote, which is a logistical and secrecy nightmare. I know the Pubbies have highly paid teams of professional cynics, but what the fuck is this in aid of? > > This is a jigsaw puzzle made of goat droppings, but there’s one missing. Presumably, the worker got paid a fee for each person they registered, so they had incentive to get creative. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-fraud-discovered/636083/7 "2012-09-28T04:13:34Z")
You mean the people writing the checks thought they were paying for legit registrations, and got took? They were ACORNholed? I should add, even though its happening to Republicans, and the _karma_ is rich in irony, I can’t approve of such behavior. So I don’t. But only because I can’t. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-fraud-discovered/636083/8 "2012-09-28T04:32:07Z")
**Kimstu** called it: They’re trying to gin up a fake fraud scare. The right-wing fundies in Maryland tried a similar stunt when Montgomery County passed equal-rights protection for trans people a few years ago: they dressed up a man in women’s clothes and sent him to invade a women’s locker room. They got called out for it and failed to fool anybody. The failed in their efforts to overturn the trans equal rights legislation. These are the same types who faked out ACORN too, as **luci** implied, with, yes, fraud. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-fraud-discovered/636083/9 "2012-09-28T08:50:37Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > The right-wing fundies in Maryland tried a similar stunt when Montgomery County passed equal-rights protection for trans people a few years ago: they dressed up a man in women’s clothes and sent him to invade a women’s locker room. It’s like being lied to by a five-year-old. “The dragon did it! He flew in and ate the cookies and he had green wings and big red eyes!” Now, I suppose, there’s nothing to do but wait for the inevitable _tu quoque_ brigade to drop in. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-fraud-discovered/636083/10 "2012-09-28T10:25:14Z")
Wm. F. Buckley taught me that hypocrisy is the service that vice pays to virtue. So if one is a fraud, a tax cheat, whatever, it’s still supposedly good for society to denounce such behavior in general, and oppose it in others. Or something. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-fraud-discovered/636083/11 "2012-09-28T13:08:15Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > I don’t get it, where’s the payoff? What good is it to register fake voters unless they go to the polls and fake vote, which is a logistical and secrecy nightmare. I know the Pubbies have highly paid teams of professional cynics, but what the fuck is this in aid of? > > . If you win a local election with 1600 votes to your opponent’s 1400, and a nosy journalist notices there are only 2900 registered voters in your area, it can be a tad embarassing. Especially if the registrar belongs to your party. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-fraud-discovered/636083/12 "2012-09-28T13:15:41Z")
As is so often the case with your startling insights, **L** P, I"m not quite sure I grasp your point. Are you suggesting that the plan is to register fake voters, and then pull them like the rabbit from Bullwinkle’s hat, simply to embarrass…who? ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-fraud-discovered/636083/13 "2012-09-28T13:36:06Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > As is so often the case with your startling insights, **L** P, I"m not quite sure I grasp your point. Are you suggesting that the plan is to register fake voters, and then pull them like the rabbit from Bullwinkle’s hat, simply to embarrass…who? When you have 3000 votes but only 2900 registered voters, something is screwy somewhere, and somebody might investigate, especially if the margin of victory is 100 votes. Better make sure your numbers all match up before you fiddle with the ballots, even if that means forging fake registrations for dead people and cartoon characters. Seriously, you’ve never heard all those old jokes about Chicago Democrats registering entire graveyards? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-fraud-discovered/636083/14 "2012-09-28T13:46:19Z")
It seem the guy in charge of the company has been doing this for quite some time for the Republicans. _Sproul has been previously accused of suppressing Democratic voter turnout, throwing away registration forms, and manipulating ballot initiatives. His firms – formerly Sproul & Associates, Lincoln Strategy, and Strategic Allied Consultants – had previously worked for RNC voter registration efforts during the campaigns of George W. Bush and John McCain. In 2004, Democratic Senators Leahy and Kennedy sent a letter to then Attorney General John Ashcroft requesting that he “launch an immediate investigation into the activities of Mr. Sproul and his firm.”_ ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-fraud-discovered/636083/15 "2012-09-28T14:05:42Z")
I’m shocked. No, I’m totally shocked to find the inside of my monitor not practically coated by the spittle of Usual Suspects, who spent weeks frothing and ranting about Acorn. Shocked I tells you. Shocked. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-fraud-discovered/636083/16 "2012-09-28T14:08:14Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > It seem the guy in charge of the company has been doing this for quite some time for the Republicans. From his wiki page: [ > [@](#): > > Also during the 2004 election, it was alleged that Sproul’s company had set up voter registration drives on their premises under the name America Votes, a name already claimed by a large, progressive organization. > [@](#): > > In Nevada, there were news reports that Sproul’s employees had shredded Democratic registration forms and had been told to register only Republicans. > [@](#): > > According to a 2005 Baltimore Chronicle article, the Republican Party had paid Nathan Sproul $8,359,161, and alleged this is far more than what had been reported to the FEC. ]([Nathan Sproul - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Sproul)) ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-fraud-discovered/636083/17 "2012-09-28T14:09:07Z")
> [@BigAppleBucky](#): > > I believe my psychology prof called the condition wherein a guilty person accuses another of doing the same thing is all “projection”. It seems the GOPers are projecting their own misdeeds on others. It’s psychology, but of the applied kind, not the descriptive kind - IOW it’s a political tactic, commonly used by Karl Rove and copied by others. If you know you’re vulnerable on an issue or a behavior, the tactic is to loudly accuse the other guys of it. That dissipates doubts in the minds of your supporters while creating them in the minds of the swayable independents. More usefully, it inoculates you against the charge - if the other guys point out your hypocrisy, it looks like petty spite instead of factual observation, and since the other guys know that, they won’t say something that will backfire on them. ---
**Author:** ![Latro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@Latro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Latro)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-fraud-discovered/636083/18 "2012-09-28T14:28:38Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > It’s psychology, but of the applied kind, not the descriptive kind - IOW it’s a political tactic, commonly used by Karl Rove and copied by others. If you know you’re vulnerable on an issue or a behavior, the tactic is to loudly accuse the other guys of it. That dissipates doubts in the minds of your supporters while creating them in the minds of the swayable independents. More usefully, it inoculates you against the charge - if the other guys point out your hypocrisy, it looks like petty spite instead of factual observation, and since the other guys know that, they won’t say something that will backfire on them. Yes, my wife uses this tactic quite efffectively. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-fraud-discovered/636083/19 "2012-09-28T14:54:17Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Predictable Republican response: “See? You need voter-ID programs to protect you from people like us!” That’s what I first thought. The whole voter fraud “issue” is bullshit anyway. If anything it seems more and more like it is just an excuse to exclude legit voters. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-fraud-discovered/636083/20 "2012-09-28T15:39:59Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > That’s what I first thought. The whole voter fraud “issue” is bullshit anyway. If anything it seems more and more like it is just an excuse to exclude legit voters. Well yes, but as certain esteemed dopers have pointed out, if it is legal to require voter ID, then it is the right thing to do. Legal = right It matters not if the reason behind voter ID is to exclude legitimate voters (who will be voting for the “wrong” party) - this is not a problem. As long as it’s legal, it is morally and ethically OK. At least that is what our more authoritarian folks here are telling us. YMMV [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-fraud-discovered/636083.md?page=2)