NEVER WRITE OFF THEM DEAD VOTERS

Is it my imagination or is this mainly a problem in heavily Democrat populated cities like Chicago and New York, and in heavily Mexican popultated towns like those in South Texas?

DEAD VOTERS COULD DECIDE NEW YORK ELECTIONS: MIX-UP MEANS WALTER CRONKITE IS ONE OF THOUSANDS STILL ELIGIBLE TO VOTE

Mail Online
April 4, 2011

He died in July 2009 but legendary newscaster Walkter Cronkite could still have an influence on U.S. politics, thanks to an electoral oversight.

New York City’s Board of Elections still lists Cronkite and hundreds of thousands of other New Yorkers on the city’s electoral rolls, even after they have died.

And if the cost of sending forms to all those dead voters wasn’t enough, the mistake could potentially see an election rigged.

Fraudsters could impersonate dead voters as a signature and confirmation of a residential address – rather than producing any form of identification – is all that is required for long-time voters to cast their ballot.

Former Miami mayor Xavier Suarez was removed from office in 1997 after it was alleged ballots had been cast in the names of dead people.

And in the late 90s, a flawed attempt to remove the dead from the electoral register in Florida meant thousands of legitimate voters were allegedly disenfranchised before the 2000 U.S. presidential election.

With deceased celebrities like Cronkite, Angela’s Ashes author Frank McCourt and the late actress Natasha Richardson still registered to vote in New York, the city’s future elections could be unfairly contested.

With thousands of dead people counted among the city’s total registered voters, the task of collecting signatures from at least 5 per cent of the electorate is more daunting for people aspiring to run for public office.

‘The Board of Elections likes that - because it is controlled by the party leaders and they don't want to see any challengers,’ Bob McFeeley, an adviser to Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro. told the New York Post.

Aside from its political implications, the registration of dead people has financial implications for New York, with the city’s Campaign Finance Board spending $5.4million on posting voting guides to seven million homes in 2009.

It was reported earlier this year that nearly a third of registered voters in Zimbabwe are dead.

The independent Zimbabwe Election Support Network reported 27 per cent of people on the electoral roll were dead while more than 2,000 registered voters were purportedly over 100 years old, even though Zimbabwe’s life expectancy is 43.