View Blog Entry
[ Browse ]
-
0
Filed under Politics (National) Obama Staff Stand By Votes
Tiffany Wilson reporting from Columbus (2008-10-26 11:25:19)
Happy Sunday and the start of a new week. Countdown to the election: Nine days. Yesterday the Ohio boards of elections began to open and count absentee ballots. Once a ballot is opened, the vote is tallied. It cannot be pulled. If voter fraud becomes an issue, the individual may still be prosecuted but the vote cannot be withdrawn.
Because of this, Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien sent a letter to each campaign reminding them that no one is entitled to register or vote in Ohio unless they are an Ohio resident. According to the Ohio Revised Code, an Ohio resident must live in the state for at least 30 days before the election and must also intend to remain in Ohio after the election.
Prompted by the letter, 13 Ohio Obama employees pulled their registration and ballots in Franklin County on Thursday. Included among the 13 were three spokespeople for the Obama campaign: Tom Reynolds, Olivia Alair and Isaac Baker. When I spoke with Tom Rosenberg, an attorney for the Obama campagin in Ohio, he said the rest of the 700 Ohio campaigners were instructed to act in accordance with Ohio law. I interpreted this to mean that all Obama employees who had registered in Ohio without the intent to live in Ohio after the election were instructed to withdraw their ballots.
This doesn't seem to be the case.
Yesterday, I found four more members of Obama's Ohio staff who registered and in some cases already voted in Franklin County. I contacted the Franklin County Board of Elections to see if they pulled their ballots. They did not. The individuals in question are Zachary Cafritz, Jay Tucker, Quentin James and Max Blachman. I identified several others - but they've been in Ohio since February 2008.
According to voter registration records, Zachary Cafritz is registered to vote in Washington, D.C. He most recently cast a ballot during the Potomac Primaries on February 12, 2008. Also in February, Cafritz bought a nearly million dollar property within the Beltway. Campaign donation records show Cafritz donating $2300, the maximum personal contribution allowed, to the Obama campaign in January. Cafritz graduated from Harvard this spring and the donation was made from a Cambridge, Mass. address.
According to the Franklin County Board of Elections, Cafritz registered to vote in Ohio on September 9, 2008 and he cast an early absentee ballot on October 4, 2008. Cafritz is registered to a Columbus address, but his name does not show up in the Franklin County Auditor database as the owner of the property where he registered. I tried calling the number for the address, no one answered.
Quentin James is a junior on leave from Furman University in Greenville, SC. According to James' personal MyBO profile, he is from Mauldin, SC. Franklin County Board of Elections records show James registering and voting on October 6, 2008. According to an Oct. 17, 2008 article in Furman's school paper, The Paladin, "James still has one year left at Furman, but after graduating he eventually would like to work in Washington D.C. improving the lives of everyday people." I tried calling the number listed to the address James used to register in Franklin County, no one picked up.
In the prosecutor's letter to the campaigns, O'Brien outlines "non-residents who are here for temporary purposes are not entitled to register and/or vote." O'Brien goes on, asking both campaigns to educate their staff and volunteers to this information so as to avoid disputes after Saturday. Today is Sunday. Their ballots were not withdrawn.
The Obama campaign isn't alone in ignoring the Prosecutor's warning to withdraw votes. The three founders of Vote Today Ohio, an independent get-out-the-vote organization supporting Barack Obama, have not withdrawn their ballots either. Amy Little, Yolanda Hippensteele and Tate Hausman all registered and voted using a 1979 N. Fourth Ave., Columbus address. Hausman owns an apartment and has a wife in New York. Little is from Poughkeepsie and when I visited their address on Friday, a woman said she was out of town. Previously, a NY Post reporter called Little's Poughkeepsie address and a child answered saying Little would return "home" on Thursday. Hippsensteele recently moved from Massachusetts to East Bay, California for a job with Free Press.
I've called the Vote Today Ohio contact line several times asking if they were going to withdraw their ballots. I've not received a call back or an answer to my question.
No Ohio McCain campaigners have withdrawn their ballots. "We have consulted with elections officials and have written them to confirm that our staff meet all requirements of Ohio law and are legally registered to vote in the state," said Jon Seaton, McCain-Palin Regional Campaign Manager. Last week Obama spokesperson, Isaac Baker, said the out-of-state staff registrations weren't an issue because the McCain campaign was doing it as well. We found two individuals on the McCain campaign who were registered and or vote in Ohio. Both have been living in Ohio for at least six months.
As it stands now, I've put in a request to the Franklin County Board of Elections for the names of everyone who's asked for their registration and ballot to be withdrawn.
Stay with Palestra.net as this story continues to develop.
read Tiffany Wilson's blog | view Tiffany Wilson's profile
Comments
No comments.
Please sign in if you wish to post a comment.
