[EL] Erie County absentee ballot irregularities

Sat Nov 5 15:15:15 PDT 2011

Hello Jim:

You have posed very useful numbers when it comes to the issue of voter fraud, even for a county that you suggest is very problematic. You tell us that voter fraud is exceedingly negligible (11 of a quarter million votes), and that you will continue monitoring this "comedic" trend. Stay on it: I hear there are dozens of Catholic nuns in the county, without photo IDs, wishing to vote 

In another similar vein, I am surprised that Rick did not highlight one of the greatest achievements of the Republican 112th Congress:
(Sorry friends, I am a little cranky being in the office on Saturday)

Washington Post
November 4, 2011

Bill to ban phantom EPA dust rule approved by House panel
	By  David A. Fahrenthold and Juliet Eilperin, Published: November 2 | 		Updated: Thursday, November 3, 1:45 PM	
Earlier this year, Republicans found what they saw as an ideal talking point to illustrate a federal bureaucracy gone batty.

The Environmental Protection Agency, they warned, was trying to regulate something only God could control: the dust in the wind.

“Now, here comes my favorite of the crazy regulatory acts. The EPA is now proposing rules to regulate dust,” Rep. John Carter (R-Tex.) said on the House floor. He said Texas is full of dusty roads: “The EPA is now saying you can be fined for driving home every night on your gravel road.”

There was just one flaw in this argument: It was not true.

The EPA’s new dust rule did not exist. It never did.

Still, the specter of this rule has spurred threebills to prevent it, one of which was approved Thursday by a House subcommittee. It sparked a late-night battle on the Senate floor. GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain cited it in a debate as a reason to eliminate the EPA.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Gardner <jgard at buffalo.edu>
To: law-election <law-election at uci.edu>
Sent: Sat, Nov 5, 2011 4:50 pm
Subject: [EL] Erie County absentee ballot irregularities

Dear Colleagues:

For those interested in election fraud: Ever-opaque Erie County, NY, has now 
produced this item:

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/politics/article620478.ece

What I've been told is that ten or eleven voters in Lackawanna, an older 
industrial suburb of Buffalo, who requested absentee ballots received them, but 
the ballots had been already been filled in for one race (the one at the top of 
the ticket): in the County Executive contest, these ballots had already been 
marked for Chris Collins, the Republican incumbent.  No other races were 
affected and the ballots contained no other marks.  The DA's office is now 
investigating, and somehow finds the evidence thus far collected to be 
insufficient to charge anyone.  I am not sure why it would be so difficult to 
figure out how these ballots were marked before leaving the Board of Elections, 
but many things seem more difficult than one might expect in this county.

As to motive, the leading speculative explanation seems to be that this is an 
attempt by Democratic insiders to embarrass or discredit Republicans.  It 
certainly is not a serious attempt to influence the election outcome -- Erie 
County contains nearly a million people, and 245,000 voted in the County Exec 
race in 2007.

I will follow up if anything suitably comedic ensues.

Jim

___________________________
James A. Gardner
Vice Dean for Academic Affairs and
Joseph W. Belluck and Laura L. Aswad
   SUNY Distinguished Professor of 
   Civil Justice
State University of New York
University at Buffalo School of Law
Room 316, O'Brian Hall
Buffalo, NY 14260-1100
voice: 716-645-2052
fax: 716-645-5968
e-mail: jgard at buffalo.edu
www.law.buffalo.edu
Papers at http://ssrn.com/author=40126

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