Reply #40: Berks County, Pennsylvania

[friesianrider]

Scott: Voting forms need law-enforcement review

> The county commissioner says activist groups have submitted thousands of
> questionable applications.

> Berks County Commissioner Mark C. Scott on Tuesday called for local, state
> and federal lawenforcement officials to monitor voter-registration forms in an
> effort to prevent election fraud.
> Scott, a Republican, said he noticed over the weekend that Voting Is Power, an
> offshoot of the Washingtonbased Muslim American Society Freedom Organization,
> turned in thousands of questionable applications to the election office.
> "This has every indication that it will be a controversial election," he
> said. "I expect the final count will be challenged. If we don't take a strong
> stand, the results of the election will lack credibility."
> Democratic Commissioners Judith L. Schwank and Thomas W. Gajewski Sr. said
> the county is doing everything possible to prevent fraud and that they would
> not object to help from law-enforcement agencies.
> Christopher M. Winters, deputy elections director, said he welcomes such
> monitoring.
> "I would say that in my 20 years in politics, I've never seen anything
quite
> like this," Winters said. "You have to ask yourself, 'Is it really the
election
> that is getting people interested in voting?' We hope it is."
> Elections officials said the county has received about 2,000
> voter-registration forms from Voting Is Power and about 1,000 from ACORN - the
> Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Officials said those
> organizations support the Democratic Party.
> All the applications from those groups are questionable and have been set
> aside, officials said.
> Scott said the election office was notified over the weekend that Voting Is
> Power was conducting a registration drive in Berks.
> Mahdi Bray, the executive director for Muslim American Society Freedom
> Organization, said the organization has not submitted fraudulent applications.

> "We are registering Muslims from all over the country," said Bray, who was
> unaware of a drive in Berks. "We are doing everything aboveboard. This is
> simply not true. Most of our voter drives are completed."
> Officials said the majority of the Voting-Is-Power applications appear to
be
> from Latinos and were brought in by Miguel A. Gonzalez of Sinking Spring.
> ACORN officials said the group, which represents low-income residents, has
> done nothing wrong.
> "We check every single card and do our utmost to keep the cards as clean
and
> accurate as possible," said Sundrop Carter, director of ACORN's Lehigh Valley
> office. "We have a zero tolerance on voter fraud, and we prosecute."
> So far, the election office has processed about 35,000 applications.
> Officials said only about 8,000 are legitimate.
> They said 18,000 to 20,000 more applications need to be processed.