Rush Limbaugh, Crossover voters in Ohio, and Felonies....

OK. Tonight on Verdict (Dan Abrams) he had a segment where Ohio is looking into prosecuting 16,000 crossover voters who may be listening to Rush Limbaugh and are cross-over voting. What do you think? Does this have any legs? Do you think they can prosecute successfully? It is supposedly a felony in Ohio, unlike other states. Should they prosecute Rush for promoting this? They said all it would take is one person to say they lied on their form because of Rush and they might be able to charge him. He says it is a First Amendment issue. Your thoughts?

They should know the laws of their state before following the orders of Limbaugh.

they signed a legal document when they registered democrat.

in signing the form with the intention of being disruptive, at the request of Rush, they committed a felony and should have their voting right stripped forever. and a 6 month jail sentence.

-snip-

After the election, some local Republicans admitted they changed parties only to influence which Democrat would face presumed Republican nominee John McCain in November. One voter scribbled the following addendum to his pledge as a new Democrat: "For one day only."

-snip-

....But Michael Slater of Project Vote, a nonpartisan group that designs voter registration drives for low-income people, said GOP meddling in the Ohio Democratic Primary was a clear-cut example of fraudulent voting, which is how Republicans have defined the issue in recent years, as GOP advocates have urged state legislatures and Congress to adopt anti-fraud measures such as tougher voter ID laws.

"Here we have a real instance of spurring people on to engage in illegal election activities with a real intent to affect the outcome," Slater said. "That is voter fraud. People were encouraged to break the law. They had to declare allegiance to a political party and sign a document under penalty of perjury. Intent is what matters in voter fraud."


...After 2004, Republican-controlled legislatures in Florida and Ohio passed laws, now overturned, curtailing voter registration drives under the guise of fighting voter fraud. Meanwhile, numerous states have passed new and tougher voter I.D. laws, all aimed at stopping people who purportedly were impersonating voters.

"I think this is Rush and others inspiring people to commit voter fraud,"Slater said. "They should be brought under investigation."

http://projectvote.org/newsroom/voting-matters-blog/voting-matters-blog-post.html?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=1937&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=263&cHash=d95f034a7c

they exist to protect the party from this type of gaming, and include the right to be verified against voter records.

Ohio is one of the few states this is still legally binding in because their contract and tort law are still based heavily on commonlaw. I can say this because even though I live in California my business is still registered in Ohio because of the strength of the contract law.

The guy that scribbled "for one day only" will not be in trouble, in fact that is the only thing that will have saved him, because of his scribbling under Ohio law would be an addendum to the contract and would then become binding IF the registrar accepted it and they did. So while that may have been a jest and a smart ass comment he may have just saved himself from a felony conviction.

Now other people that have signed the carrd and either discussed it openly or can be demonstrated by their downticket not being similar (Democratic presidential candidate, republican issues and ticket the rest) can be prosecuted and probably will.

Just for the record the reason this can be verified is after 2004 any ballot that has that kind of anomaly is automatically flagged and collected for record and review to be sure it wasn't a mechanical failure. So it is easily reconciled with the change.

In addition, the other downfall for people is the affidavits is timeframed to the year, a large number ( and this is why it is being considered for prosecution ) of people that changed have sent in for a change back, and that new card can now be used against them not just as evidence in perjury but something called uttering which is another felony in Ohio.

So yeah this can and probably will be prosecuted and there will definitely people hoisted by their own smug petards.

I didn't switch parties, so I didn't have to sign one of those cards.

In some they didn't bother.

We were voting in a new precinct for the first time on a cold and rainy day. The motor went out in our back window, so it was down all day until we could take the door panel off and fix it. My husband had a dinner meeting that night, so we were just trying to get in and vote as quickly as we could. It looked like they had a lot of voting paperwork at our precinct. We'll get more time to chat with them the next time maybe as we stand in line to vote in the GE.

If I didn't live that story I would think it was comedy skit.

at the time they signed it.

NGU.

over to support HRC. You are so obvious.

I'm addressing the legal question of proving their intent.

You guys really need to chill.

votes in Ohio and Texas that have no intent to vote for her in the GE right? I mean Rush wasn't telling his listeners to vote Obama.

and Obama got more republican votes than Clinton.

I've said here for a long time that the Democratic party should have closed primaries. I'm opposed to republicans helping choose our nominee under any circumstances.

most of Obama's crossovers are legit. There are no right wing talking heads telling their people to vote Obama. They have always known they can beat HRC.

to judge the motives of voters. We should have closed primaries and not worry about the issue at all.

If the voter admits they never intended to vote for the Dem candidate in the GE, that would be proof. Many people may cop a plea to avoid prosecution. They may be able to get them to turn on Rush.

there will be any prosecutions over this, and certainly none for Rush.

them for voter fraud to manipulate an election. pretty serious, and stupid of them to do (if they changed back parties, some have, right?)

ballot in GE.

at started at 16000, that they at least want to make a point,and charge somebody. I'm still holding onto hope that Limball is their real target.

i hope they roast some of these felons and i hope they are sweating bullets right now

some of them were stupid enough to write thier confessions onto the registration form LOLLOL

I can always hope.

his post as proof....and a caller to Rush on the air...

voters are in principle not prosecutable as prosecution involves what is in their minds and hearts, and litigation would be an incredible mess. Limbaugh, on the other hand, should be within the the realm of prosecution for inciting a conspiracy to election fraud. But I am not a lawyer...

If somebody was actually meeting people and organizing them on the ground they could be in trouble

i guess,
from what they were sayin at least heh.

also be sweating now? It closed tonight at midnight, didn't it? I am sure there are people there who did it. Start with McKean County for one.....

what really went on

I sent Cynthia McKinney an email

when Clinton usurps the nomination I warned her to get ready and "put out the tentstakes.... we'll have 10 weeks to get a party going on." I told her I'd "bring my tambourine."

She emailed back

"Bring your tambourine, baby."

You can bet your ass I will... and I've been voting Democratic for more than 35 years.

My family has been voting Democratic for 150 years... but you can blame Abe Lincoln for that.

:D

This is new:

do this for pay? If not, you should. And, even though copyrighted, can I use them in a YouTube Video someday?

No, I do this for my own amusement. :D

more here: www.swamp-rat.com

WE NEED BUMPER STICKERS. I see you did some from prior. Time to do some for NOW!!!!

;)

unless they wrote something funny on the form?
Otherwise, they will just say they are now democrats.

:rofl:

As for the rest, they go free.

it's only one "nth" of the real fraud

but if they can nail them, they should

GO OHIO

NGU.

Now it seems that they are the ones actually perpetuating it.

I'm of two minds on this. It should be investigated. But I don't think the "Democrats for 1 day only!!!111" should go to jail. Let's face it; they aren't the brightest bunch taking Rush's advice. They didn't know they were committing a crime and if they knew that they could possibly be engaging in criminal behavior, I don't think they would have crossed over.

Rush is the real culprit here and I hope at the very least someone takes a hard look at whether he should be charged or fined. Our voting process should be sacrosanct, yet with every election, we make ourselves out to be little more than a banana republic. Integrity must be restored to the process.

That's what one of the guest was saying on Verdict.

So, unless they are too stupid and can't read or didn't read it, then they should be prosecuted.

ignorance is no excuse but I could see some of them not really knowing. I think the lady who called Rush on air was one of them. You could tell by the quiver in her voice.

Too bad for her, she should have known what she was doing wasn't right.

"Vote Hillary to bloody up Obama." Rush Limpballs

no irony... just corruption

to commit the act?

in a class action suit.

Any lawyers among us who can explain?

who is an Independent who lives in Florida. She is thinking of registering as a Democrat so she can vote for Obama if there is a redo primary because she doesn't want Hillary to win the nomination. She writes about it on DU. Another poster tells her to "do it!". She doesn't switch in the end, but if she had, could they both be in trouble? Just wonderin'.....

Very strange considering I thought everyone here on DU were against Election/Voter FRAUD.

I was called a childish and cranky:shrug:

The penalty could be anywhere from 6 to 12 months in jail, and a $2500 fine.

:eyes:

I thought they were very rude, and well Childish and Cranky:rofl:

Oh yeah, I was also called dishonest. Of course I just considered the source and didn't continue to fight back, because I didn't have the energy for it. This was right before I went to bed. When I woke up and checked My DU, I saw they had added more insults.

They certainly can't tolerate information when they think it is ALL about their girl.

tolerated now. It IS a serious question, though, as to ballot stacking.

her supporters here try to defend it by using the tired old phrase "Well they're voting for Obama too."

But I truly believe Obama's repub's votes would vote for him in the GE, Hillary's crossovers not so much.

Too bad we will never know for sure how they will vote come November, since only one will be left standing.

She's an idiot, but she doesn't deserve a felony record. She has a career and a daughter.

which would prosecute voters for maliciously switching parties to screw with a primary ...

and now, the media is attacking Brunner for even considering enforcing the law ...

My understanding of OHio law is that voters do not declare a party affiliation when they register. When you choose to vote in a primary you don't have to do anything to prove your party affiliation unless you are challenged by an election official (who may do so based on records indicating which party's primary you voted in previously). If you are challenged you have to fill out a form and if you fill it out deceitfully you can be charged with election falsification -- seems like a stretch to me.

Any way, if that's correct, then this whole thing seems like a tempest in a teapot. How many voters were challenged and had to fill out forms? And what exactly did Rush say -- before the election -- that could conceivably be viewed as illegal, given that the First Amendment does generally limit speech-based prosecutions.