Reply #3: Here was the margin of Bush's win (in Johnson County)- all's fair in polit

[berniew1]

politics I guess

Just challange enough in close state to swing the balance:

Malfeasance
016411 10/27/04, 4:54 PM PST Registration-related problem Johnson County County, Iowa Voter moved from one county in Iowa to another. She mailed in a request to her new county (Johnson county) to register there and to recieve an absentee ballot. When she did not receive her absentee ballot, she called the registar's office and was told that they threw away her registration and absentee ballot request form because she was not already registered in that county and they were receiving too many registrations.

Dirty Tricks
018316 10/31/04, 7:51 AM PST Other Iowa City, Johnson County, Iowa Her block was being leafletted with flyers listing wrong polling place from "new voters project" and listing 1-866-ourvote hotline number.
Challanges:
027487 11/01/04, 6:41 PM PST Other Iowa City, Johnson County, Iowa DNC called voter to challenge his registration. Voter has been a 30 yr. resident No
047317 11/02/04, 4:29 PM PST Provisional ballot problem Central School, Johnson County, Iowa Cast a provisional ballot but was told that she must prove that she registered by noon on Nov. 4th. New Voters Project is a student organization that she thinks is affiliated with University of Iowa.

047876 11/02/04, 4:51 PM PST Other County Auditor's Office, Johnson County County, Iowa Republicans challengers have challenged over 4000 absentee ballots. Got email from friend, currently at auditors office. Grounds for challengingng are unknown.
060429 12/27/04, 6:05 AM PST Absentee-ballot related problem; Registration-related problem Johnson County, Iowa Reported via mail to eirhelp: Want a case study of dirty voter fraud tricks? called me last night, upset because she got a letter in the mail yesterday (Nov. 9) saying her absentee ballot was challenged, and she had until noon on Nov. 4th to reply or her ballot would be thrown out. She's having her mail forwarded from IC to DC while she's there, which explains why it took a week for her to get this letter. So called the county auditor's office to complain. Apparently, the auditor's office had received a couple *thousand* similar calls complaining this week. Some committee challenged a bunch of absentee ballots in Johnson county, and really didn't give voters a chance to respond: the letter regarding the challenge (sent from Dubuque) was postmarked Nov. 3, and they required a response by noon Nov. 4. They invalidated her voter registration, in fact. So not only didn't her vote for Kerry count, she now has to re-register to vote in the future. and I voted in the last congressional election 2 years ago, and she hasn't changed addresses or anything since then. She checked to make sure her registration was still valid when we got our absentee ballots, in fact. I wonder how widespread this is? If they were able to invalidate ballots from people who were clearly legitimate voters, simply by a technicality whereby they challenged the ballot and didn't give the voter a chance to respond, how much did this occur nationwide? There is a serious flaw in the system when the burden of proof is on the voter. If someone wants to challenge a voter registration, they should have to prove there is a reason it should be invalid. It's ludicrous that someone can challenge a ballot without reason, and require the voter to jump through hoops to prove that they should be allowed to vote.
060736 12/31/04, 6:27 AM PST Voter Intimidation Johnson County, Iowa According to http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041103/NEWS09/411030376/1056 complaints were made that MoveOn volunteers were electioneering within 300 feet of a polling place. According to http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041102/NEWS09/41102003/1001/NEWS the volunteers may have been talking only to people who had already voted. The problems were resolved without arrests.
060738 12/31/04, 6:30 AM PST Voter Intimidation Johnson County, Iowa According to http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041103/NEWS09/411030376/1056 Republicans challenged the legality of several hundred absentee ballots, forcing them into a pile of challenged votes that will be sorted out later. Challenges included different spellings of a person's name. "There's no one particular group that is being targeted that we can tell, other than the fact that they're all Democrats," said Sarah Swisher, the county's Democratic Party chairwoman.
Don't let Students vote
060748 12/31/04, 7:04 AM PST Registration-related problem; Machine problem; Problem based on student status Johnson County, Iowa According to http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041013/NEWS09/410130353/1001 many voter registrations couldn't be processed because they used part of their SSN as identification but the state's connection to the Social Security database wasn't working. The problem especially affected students.

042764 11/02/04, 1:42 PM PST Registration-related problem Iowa City, Johnson County, Iowa Re-Registered 3 times and never received a absentee ballot.