PREVENTING VOTER FRAUD – OR I SHOULD SAY ‘ATTEMPTING’ TO PREVENT IT

Any registered voter may challenge any OTHER registered voters right to vote.

While there may be regulations as to deadlines and methods, this is pretty much the law of the land.

The registration records of each county are open for inspection by any registered voter of the county, including any chief judge or judge of elections, during the normal business hours of the county board of elections on the days when the board's office is open.  At those times the right of any person to register, remain registered, or vote shall be subject to objection and challenge.

In most states, challenges to registered voters must be in writing.  Once a challenge is placed against a name, it is the job of the governing authority – in North Carolina that would be the Board of Elections – to notify the voter of the challenge, and to instruct the voter how to remove the challenge.  Any voter with a challenge by his name on election day may be allowed to vote with a ‘provisional’ ballot, which will be held pending removal of the challenge, or discarded if the challenge is not removed.

Bear in mind – this procedure varies by state and the regulations are always subject to change. 

Now.   Before you begin your little campaign, contact your state party organization and ask what THEY are doing to prevent fraud. They may have something you can help out with.  If not, ASK WHY! 

So - how can you as a conscientious citizen help make sure a voter is, in fact, eligible to vote?  It’s easy with some time and a small monetary investment. 

1 - Visit your local Board of Elections and find out how many registered voters there are in your precinct.

2 – Tell them you plan to do a ‘mailing’ and would like to get the addresses of each voter.  Most likely they will NOT give you a printed list BUT you should be allowed access (in their office) by law to view them, AND use the lists to address envelopes.  Ask if this is allowed.  [In actuality, if you have a decent precinct/county/state party operation, they may already have all this in their computers – if so, the hard work is done for you.]

3 – Prepare some sort of generic, single page flyer, e.g.   ‘Election day is around the corner!  Don’t forget to do your civic duty and turn out to vote‼  See you at the polls.’

4 – Stuff them in envelopes and attach FIRST CLASS POSTAGE.  Be SURE to put a return address on the envelope.  VERIFY with the post office that the envelopes will be returned to sender if undeliverable – AND THAT THE ENVELOPE WILL BE MARKED WITH THE REASON FOR NON-DELIVERY [see list below] – this is imperative, as otherwise you are wasting your time!

5 – Pop them in the mailbox.  Now all you have to do is sit and wait.

The following … endorsements are frequently noted on returned mail:

          Insufficient Address

          Left (Gone Away)

          Moved

          Deceased

          Unknown

          Unclaimed  

          Refused

          Return–Undeliverable

There are other conditions of return but they don’t apply to first class mail.

Make a neat little pile of any returned envelopes.  DO NOT OPEN THEM.  These are the basis for your challenge to any registered voter.

After sufficient time – 21-30 days, take the envelopes to the Board of Elections and complete the process of challenging each voter’s eligibility.  It then becomes the duty of the Board to notify each challenged person and tell them how they can remove the challenge.

Envelopes.  Stamps.  Time.  Is this too much trouble to prevent election fraud in your precinct?

Before doing this, talk to the head of the Board of Elections to confirm that this IS a proper way to challenge.  If it is – Go for it!  And do it soon!  This process takes time.

Here’s an interesting link – it has recent news and lots of voting information:

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page