Honest Elections?

11/25/02 Is it possible to return to honest council elections?

It's just 5 months until early voting starts for the May city council elections. Already, the vultures are circling. The mail-in ballot scam is getting a real workout even at this early date.

DallasArena.com readers know Joe May and State Rep. Terri Hodge are tied for No. 1 bad guy in this sorry operation. She's the one who says "It's a way for us poor folks to make money."

Some candidates are getting hit up by Joe Thug associates to let them do the mail-in ballot scam for their campaign -- for a substantial fee, of course.

Other candidates are being hit up by Joe Thug associates to "stay out of the campaign" in that candidate's district -- for a substantial fee, of course. Still, other candidates are being hit up by Joe Thug wannabe's who promise to protect the candidate from Joe Thug's mail-in ballot effort in their district -- for a substantial fee, of course.
That's right -- as if the mail-in ballot scam is not bad enough, it has spawned a protection racket.

Mayor Miller's husband, State Rep. Steve Wolens, has promised to push new legislation to control this election corruption. He will have to make any such changes over Terri Hodge's money-grubbing body.

State Rep. Wolens is suggesting a new restriction on when and how Election Departments can release names of voters who have been mailed ballots. What Steve proposes will actually aid Joe Thug's gang. They already know where the ballots are going because they mailed in hundreds of voter applications themselves -- in batches.

By sending the applications to the Elections Department in address order, Joe Thug's operatives can station themselves in particular neighborhood on the day when the ballots should hit the voters' mailboxes. The operatives go to the voter's door and ask if they can collect the ballot and "mail it in" for the voter.   That's what the claim to do. Of course, that's not always what happens.

Some mail-in ballot scammers use intimidation to get elderly voters to give them their ballot. One Hispanic couple in the Grawyler Park area near Love Field say a Joe Thug Associate sits outside their house and honks his horn (in his big pickup truck) until they take their ballots to him. They have been advised by their son-in-law to mail the ballots themselves in the future in the self-addressed and pre-stamped envelope the County furnishes.

You know about the elderly African-American man who was working in his yard when a mail-in scammer came up to him. They talked about voting by mail. He told the scammer his ballot had already come, but he had not completed or returned it yet. The scammer wanted to see it to make sure it was legitimate. The voter showed it to the scammer -- the scammer grabbed it and took off. The old man went to the Elections Department and filed a complaint. You probably think that is a ridiculous scenario, that the old man must have been an idiot. He knew the punk, had been talking with him and just didn't think that anything like that could happen. Wait until you are almost 80. Of course, you may not remember what it was you were waiting for, but things get a little fuzzy for many elderly people. That's what makes them so susceptible to crooks and con artists.

Some mail-in ballot scammers collect the ballots and courier them in to the Elections -- which is the legal way the ballots are to be handled by a third party like mail-in ballot scammers. It may be "legal" as one scammer informed me, but it's sure unethical.   Joe Thug's operatives don't courier the ballots, they "mail" the ballots for the voter, so there is no trace they were involved. If the voter let the scammer know they were supporting the other candidate, that ballot gets tossed. At one point, one scammer saved un-mailed, un-delivered ballots. He actually showed them to a potential candidate client.

This is not "made-up" stuff. This is the system a mail-in scammer explained to one potential candidate several years ago trying to sign him up as a client.

Whether the mail-in ballot scammer "couriers" or "mails" the voter's ballot, a ballot will never see the light of day again if the scammer suspects the voter went with the wrong candidate -- not the one paying his gang a large fee. The elderly voter doesn't know his ballot was not turned in or his vote counted. It is noted by the Elections Dept. that a ballot was mailed to Voter A and was not returned to be counted. It would be very expensive to call every voter who does not return their ballot, even if they have listed numbers and many do not.

If a scammer is to demand big bucks from future candidate clients, he must have successful elections for his last candidate client. Remember, these scammers are just bums and what is "big money" to them may not sound like much to you.

If State Rep. Wolens is serious about eliminating this entire mail-in vote fraud, his proposed legislation should be very simple. No one other than the voter (or a County employee specifically designated to assist elderly or physically impaired voters) may touch a ballot between the time the Elections Dept. mails out the ballot and the voter mails it back. The County mails out a self-addressed, pre-stamped envelope with the ballots. There is no reason for anyone unless blind or otherwise physically impaired not to be able to mark their own ballot, put it back in the envelope and mail it back. Nothing will keep someone from "advising" that voter how to mark their ballot, but there should be no fingerprints on that ballot other than Elections Dept. personnel and the voter.

It should be a crime for any third party to see or handle a voter's ballot. We don't allow it on Election Day, and it should not be legal for anyone except the voter to handle his ballot.

Until we pass that simple law, the problem will get worse in the poorest council districts in the city. You think it doesn't matter? Joe May is on the DISD School Board with a margin of less than 30 votes, all of which were mail-in ballots. Joe May lost in early voting where people actually went to the polls. Joe May lost on election day. Joe won with mail-in ballots. With 30 intimidated voters' ballots, Joe May is sitting on the DISD School Board making decisions that impact children's education and your pocket book. This extremely ethically challenged racist is one of 9 votes over a billion-dollar budget.

Now, tell me again that the mail-in ballot scam is no big deal.

Thanksgiving is approaching and DallasArena.com will take the week off. Between T-Day at my house, a niece's wedding and out-of-town company for the duration, my plate is full.

We would really have something to be thankful for if State Rep. Woolens is successful with legislation that classifies the mail-in ballot harvesters as criminals.