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Memo Pad

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Republican U.S. House Staffer Pleads ‘No Contest’ To Five Election Fraud Counts

September 19th, 2012 12:51 pm Brad Friedman

No doubt Fox ‘News’ is going wall-to-wall with this today, so you’ve got no need for us to tell you about it, right? … What? They’re not? Huh. How strange.

Well, then, if you haven’t heard, Lorianne O’Brady, a former staffer to Congressman Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) has pleaded “no contest” to five misdemeanor counts of election fraud yesterday, related to creating and submitting fraudulent signatures in a failed conspiracy to qualify McCotter for the ballot this year.

O’Brady is just one of four of top McCotter aides who were charged last month with a total of 36 federal felony and misdemeanor election fraud-related counts in the alleged ballot petition forgery scheme. McCotter abruptly resigned last July as the scandal began to emerge.

While U.S. House candidates in Michigan are required to submit just 1,000 valid voter signatures, McCotter’s campaign turned in some 2,000. Investigators discovered, however, that just 244 of them were actually valid. The rest were forged or photo-copied from previous petitions.

Submitting false signatures is the same thing that Fox “News” has spent years falsely claiming the community group ACORN was engaged in. The difference, of course, is that ACORN was the one to have discovered and turned in the handful, among their tens of thousands of voter registration workers, found to have defrauded them in such schemes. ACORN itself was never found to be involved in such fraud, and in every case, it was ACORN themselves who discovered the fraud and sought prosecution for the workers.

McCotter’s campaign was hardly the only Republican team involved in submitting fraudulent signatures in hopes of winning a place on the ballot this year. As The BRAD BLOG reported exclusively last January, the Presidential campaign of former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich was being investigated by the Virginia State Attorney General after the former GOP Presidential candidate’s campaign was discovered to have turned in fraudulent signatures in their failed bid to qualify for the Republican Presidential Primary Election in VA, Gingrich’s home state. Gingrich was caught on tape claiming to a supporter, after the forgeries were discovered by the state Board of Elections: “We turned in 11,100 — we needed 10,000 — 1,500 of them were by one guy who, frankly, committed fraud.”

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  • Not_Phyllis

    My gawd…it just keeps getting better and better!

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/2NKCGIJTXTXR3L43O7PTNMFVQE igraine

    Whatever. I am for Romney and am against ANYONE committing voter fraud. What about them dems that just got caught for voter fraud down in Arkansas? Hmmm? Thought so.

    • http://profile.yahoo.com/UHE4MJP5FHMFIEAOGEQHETUGDQ Rvn_sgt6768

      And how would restrictive voter ID laws have prevented this? Personally I feel these guys belong in jail for longer than 5 years and their rights to ever vote or run for office should be permanently be taken away.

    • genroku

      For the record, “them dems” aren’t passing restrictive voter ID laws to combat POLITICIAN fraud!

      It’s not VOTER fraud that’s the problem, it’s POLITICIAN fraud (including the loud mouth, should-be felon, Ann Coulter herself!). Nevertheless, it’s the red herring that Republicans are using to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of VOTERS in as many as fifteen states. And it’s no coincidence that they’re voters most likely to vote Democrat! It’s called “winning at all cost” (or more accurately, “cheating”), and just one more ploy by conservatives to ensure they win the White House when they know their candidate is a loser!

      The always-resourceful Republicans conveniently ignore WHO is committing fraud as they pass these restrictive voting laws, siezing on the “fraud” concept as an opportunity to disenfranchise their opponent’s supporters. But then, Romney has increasingly shown that he is so totally unfit to be President by his constant flip-flopping, blatant lies, and his latest gaffe, admitting that he doesn’t care what happens to almost half the country. He’s dug his hole so deep that many Republicans won’t even vote for him at this point. Fraud is the only thing left to get him into the White House, and if, God forbid, he’s successful, I will have made my case!

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Charlie-Watkins/100001075495857 Charlie Watkins

      We’re still waiting for your proof.

  • BradBlog

    “I am for Romney and am against ANYONE committing voter fraud”

    That’s strange. How do you square THAT circle, given that Romney appears to have committed voter fraud himself in MA in 2010?

    As to “Dems that got caught committing vote fraud in Arkansas”, got URL?

    • http://www.facebook.com/marlene.giese.94 Marlene Giese

      Post your source about the Democratic voter fraud in Arkansas. Do you have facts on this?

      • Soapm

        It would take a lot of fraud for Dems to change the outcome in Arkansas. What would be the point?

  • JSquercia

    Of course the Republicans know about voter FRAUD . They’re the guys committing IT

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ford-Truck/100003735221640 Ford Truck

      Voter fraud is fine with the Republicans, as long as its them doing it.

      • Soapm

        Looks like we’ll get more laws restricting the minority vote. What a price the minorities pay when the GOP commits more fraud…

  • bcarreiro

    Hey Mitt(a man who cant have a battle of wits with an unarmed person), you may have pull with some republicans ……..but u have none in intelligience!!!

  • http://www.facebook.com/dominick.vila.1 Dominick Vila

    Don’t expect much out of this, the GOP will dismiss it as the work of a lonely staffer, immediately reprimanded by the righteous Immoral Minority, and will draw a distinction between this incident and ACORN. The worst part is that a plurality of Americans will believe it.

  • dellmartin

    So the solution looking for a problem has found it. But oh, wait, that’s not the way it was supposed to turn out! The photo IDs would not have solved anything here of course.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4HKCTSVHCQJCJUU2VYCERLWWDE Richie T

    Republicans keep screaming the Democrats are doing it. What’s it feel like for your own party to get busted?
    Federal elections should be Federal not State Jurisdiction. The way the 10th is actually worded, it’s States until the Feds claim it.
    “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
    Delegated, prohibited, reserved, Tickets are “reserved” until you claim them.
    Look up,
    Article VI Clause 2 in the Constitution. “The Supremacy Clause”
    Article V; Adding amendments to the Constitution., It’s another case of actual wording,
    “OR, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States,”
    We the citizens of The United State can add amendments to the Constitution without Congress having a thing to do with it.
    An Amendment can void any decision by the Supreme Court.
    We need to take the country back. It’s our, not theirs.
    One more thing. Nov 6 2012, whatever it takes to get there, VOTE.

  • old_blu

    All we have to do is just let the GOP go and they will bury themselves.

    Anyone else notice the look on John Boners face. (oops Boehner) Did I say that?

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ford-Truck/100003735221640 Ford Truck

      I saw that! I cracked up laughing at the stupid look on his face. Looks like he’s gong to break out in tears!

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/HFYZP2APYPP7H6PWS2ZDQRWFEQ Hillbilly

    I have said it before and will say it again, voter fraud is done before the polls open and after they close. This story goes to show what some politicans (spelled wrong) and their aides will do to just get on the ballad and after the polls are closed how do we know that the votes are being counted in a honest way? We don’t all you have to look at the 2000 and 2004 elections and see how easy it was to disallow votes when your brother is governor of the state and his secretary .of state that belongs to the same party that the governor does and one of the candidates also belong to the same party. Then there is the case where a county in a northern state had more votes cast than there were voters in the county. Most voter fraud isn’t committed by the voters , it is committed by people running for office and their staffs as the above article shows.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/UHE4MJP5FHMFIEAOGEQHETUGDQ Rvn_sgt6768

    Seems like the only way to stop this sort of voter fraud is to look at the registration card and if it says Republican on it then you know it will be a fraud attempt. Never mind asking for a government authorized ID like a driver’s license.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Barry-Levy/1091577549 Barry Levy

    So for the past several months demcRATs were telling others that there is no election fraud. Nice to see you on board that election fraud exists, and this is another example of the need for voter ID>

    It shouldn’t be a party issue, depending on which party you are, or who you support, it should be about the sanctity of the ballot box.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Charlie-Watkins/100001075495857 Charlie Watkins

      “there are just 10 known cases of in-person voter impersonation — the only type of voter fraud that can possibly be deterred by polling place Photo ID restrictions — in the entire country, out of hundreds of millions of votes cast since 2000. ”

      WE, really needed to spend millions of taxpayer dollars to prevent 10 people from fraudulently casting votes over the last 11 years. YEA RIGHT.

    • Jim_n_Panama

      Your observation is absurd. I can only conclude that you think everyone who signs a petition must provide photo ID before signing? Am I missing something (other than your hair on fire deluded wing-nut anger)?

    • Dave_dido

      You totally missed the point, Barry.There is a difference between registration fraud and impersonation fraud. Registration fraud is a much bigger problem than impersonation fraud. But the laws passed by Republican legislatures recently were aimed at impersonation fraud of which there were supposedly only 10 verifiable incidents in the whole country in the last ten years. The Republicans did absolutely nothing with regard to registration fraud because their aim was in suppressing the votes of minorities and the poor who traditionally vote democrat.
      So when you say, “nice to see you on board”, the fact is we were never “off-board” with regard to voter registration fraud. And we’re still not “on board” with regard to voter impersonation fraud aimed at voter suppression. You are right about one thing: it shouldn’t be a party issue. Every patriotic American should be outraged by the recent voter suppression antics of the Republican Party. And, yes, Dems are also outraged by any type of voter fraud, including what supposedly went on in Arkansas.But that was not voter impersonation from what I understand so far. We see no reason whatsoever to suppress voters just because of a miniscule number of cases of voter impersonation.

      • http://profile.yahoo.com/UT65ONRU6FIXEMJCAKM7GAMYAI Jacqui

        Thanks for explaining it to Barry, thus saving me the effort.

  • http://www.facebook.com/julia.margrave Julia Margrave

    Who is surprised by this kind of shady behavior coming from the GOP? It shows their real color and it is not red, whit and blue!

  • alumahead

    Even this is proof that the mythical voter fraudster doesn’t exist. This was only an attempt at voter fraud, not actual voter fraud. There are enough safety checks in place that there is virtually no lower level voter fraud. True voter fraud happens by political parties and activist judges and they barely try to hide it when it happens.

  • ontop66

    When is Obama going to admit he lied about the attack on our ambassador to Libya being murdered. As everyday passes we learn more about the “video casing the riot” in Libya. When is he going to ask for the resignation of Ambassador Susan Rice after her lying on five of the Sunday News shows? Now he is wasting tax dollars on television advertising in Pakistan. By the way, why did Obama suddenly start going to daily intel briefings? What is he doing on January 21, 2013? office

  • anyasnote

    “THOSE WHO CAST THE VOTES DECIDE NOTHING. THOSE WHO COUNT VOTES DECIDE EVERYTHING’ – Joseph Stalin. With a fraud in Florida we got Bush for 8 yrs and U see what happened to good old USA. Yes Repukes will be bring it up ACORN, who did exposed the voter fraud and the majority of US lemmings will still believe it that ACORN was a bad dog. LOL.
    No legacy is so rich as HONESTY. W. Shakespeare. You don’t get honesty from ANY POLITICIAN, no matter what party.
    Vote on issues not parties and don’t look at the skin color of your President. We ALL swim in the same ocean and don’t let your voice to go with a first tide. Once swept away, you might not get a way back. Be wise with your voice and put politics, racism a side and VOTE FOR YOUR COUNTRY. Thank a soldier/ veterans for their sacrifice for your to Vote for what they fought, a freedom to vote (a thing of the past in some states now), a freedom of speech, freedom to worship whoever you want, marry whoever you want etc.
    Don’t let their sacrifices blind you because of your bigotry or hate of your President or loyalty to your party. Party comes and go, Presidents get elected some Ok some not so OK but we have nobody to blame but ourselves. We are lazy to be objective, we let common sense go and prejudice prevail, we became gullible, ignorant and hateful even towards each other over lies, distortion or who’s got the better imaginary friend.
    Be the change you want to see” – Gandhi VOTE with common sense not hate.
    Don’t anybody to manipulate you to their way of thinking, you will not accomplish anything.
    Prove R/R that the 47% is not lazy, moochers and deserve better.
    Real life experience is worth much more that platitude. The platitude of one man are the life principals of the gullible. Truth is more practical, truth is in actions on platitudes.
    SEMPER FI.

  • bpai99

    It is truly scary the lengths to which some people and groups go to manipulate elections. I wonder how many cases are never caught and what the impact has been.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Connie-Witter/100000044568446 Connie Witter

    I am simply amazed that Fox News did not carry such an important article. I wonder why?
    Could it be that it would make Democrats look good? UMPH!
    Connie Witter
    Community Activist