mail in ballots - Election Integrity - Defend Our Union2024-03-28T20:50:44Zhttps://defendourunion.org/ei/feed/tag/mail+in+ballotsElection Integrity Investigator Gregg Phillips Announces Investigative Team Has Identified Unique Devices of Interest in Location of TCF Center Election Night Ballot Dumphttps://defendourunion.org/ei/election-integrity-investigator-gregg-phillips-announces-investig2022-07-06T04:44:12.000Z2022-07-06T04:44:12.000ZDavene Meehanhttps://defendourunion.org/members/DaveneMeehan<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10625431669?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><strong><a href="https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/07/election-integrity-investigator-gregg-phillips-announces-investigative-team-identified-unique-devices-interest-location-tcf-center-election-night-ballot-dump/">Article on Gateway Pundit by Jim Hoft on July 5, 2022</a></strong></span></p><p><strong>On Tuesday, November 3rd President Trump was ahead of Joe Biden in the swing state of Michigan by over 100,000 votes. This appeared to be another solid win for President Trump in Michigan with a greater margin than his 2016 victory. The ballot counting in Detroit, Michigan on election night took place at the TCF Center, formerly known as Cobo Hall.</strong></p><p><strong>This is the site where Detroit City Officials put <a href="https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/11/fbi-not-investigating-voter-fraud-claims-2020-presidential-election/">cardboard over</a> the windows to prevent the GOP observers from seeing in, where poll workers were militantly hostile to the GOP observers, and where hundreds of affidavits by election observers claim they witnessed voter fraud.</strong></p><p>At least three election observers testified in sworn affidavits that they witnessed vehicles delivering fraudulent ballots to the TCF Center early in the morning on November 4th.</p><p>Michigander <strong>Shane Trejo</strong> <a href="https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/11/stunning-testimony-michigan-election-observer-shane-trejo-witnessed-drivers-bring-50-boxes-absentee-ballots-midnight-deadline-detroit-tcf-center-330am/">witnessed</a> the 3:30 am Biden Ballot Drop that gave Joe Biden an outstanding lift. “There were thousands of ballots in each box,” Trejo says. “There were at least 50 boxes that I saw unloaded at 3:30 am, well after the 8:00 pm deadline for ballots to show up.”</p><p>The 3:30 am was the first ballot delivery since 10:30 pm when 138,000 ballots showed up suddenly. Shane later testified that he noticed that the city of Detroit Clerk’s Office and its emblem were written on the white van that showed up with the ballots. City Clerk Janice Winfrey‘s name was on the van and a number presumably for Janet Winfrey’s office. Trejo says the ballots could not be processed when they arrived, so by the time they were counted, a new shift of poll workers had come in for the day.</p><p>After these ballot dropped Joe Biden took the lead in Michigan.</p><p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-560093" src="https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/wp-content/uploads/michigan-spike-trump-600x365.jpg" alt="michigan-spike-trump-600x365.jpg" />https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/wp-content/uploads/michigan-spike-trump-1536x935.jpg 1536w, <a href="https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/wp-content/uploads/michigan-spike-trump.jpg">https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/wp-content/uploads/michigan-spike-trump.jpg</a> 2048w" alt="" width="404" height="246" /></p><p>Shane Trejo explained how the timing was important. The Biden Ballot Drop took place at the end of one shift. The ballots were left uncounted. So when the new shift came to count ballots they didn’t know where the ballots had come from.</p><p>Trejo repeatedly asked about this truck to site supervisors and was STONEWALLED.</p><p><strong>Former Michigan State Senator Pat Colbeck</strong> was <a href="https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/11/michigan-witness-former-state-senator-witnessed-early-morning-ballot-dump-61-boxes-tcf-center-video/">also present at the TCF Center</a> on the morning of November 4th. Senator Colbeck also witnessed the 3:30 am Biden Ballot Drop. Colbeck spoke with The Gateway Pundit back in November, “I went back there and I witnessed a mini-panel truck if you will with a Detroit Election Bureau regalia all over the side and a vehicle ID number on it… And inside of it, and this gets into some chain of custody discussions, there was no indication that there was a Republican and a Democrat (present) during transfer. We don’t know if they stopped by a sidestreet in Coney Island and picked up a few more ballots during transfer. We have no way of verifying any of that information.”</p><p><img class="alignnone wp-image-576541" src="https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/wp-content/uploads/tcf-ballot-scandal.jpg" alt="" width="455" height="218" /></p><p>The authorities and media in Michigan were completely uninterested in following up on this shocking story.</p><p><strong>No one has bothered to review the video footage from the TCF Center on election night.</strong></p><p><strong><em>The Gateway Pundit requested the TCF video in December 2021!</em></strong></p><p>The TCF Center tried to quote us over $22,000 for one day’s worth of video. </p><div id="IC4-ad" class="sponsor IC4"><p>We requested two hours of video.</p><p><strong>We did not receive the footage until February. </strong></p><p><strong>And what we found is a political bombshell.</strong></p><p><strong>**</strong> At 3:23 AM The Gateway Pundit has exclusive video of a white van registered to the city of Detroit entering the gate into the TCF Center.<br /><strong>**</strong> At 3:25 AM we discovered video from a second camera showing three individuals unloading over 50 boxes of ballots in a hallway inside the TCF Building and just outside the counting room.<br /><strong>**</strong> The ballots were then wheeled away on carts into the ballot counting room.<br /><strong>**</strong> The van is then seen on video leaving the center about 25 minutes later.<br /><strong>**</strong> Then we saw the van returning an hour later, entering the TCF Center again and unloading more boxes of ballots.<br /><strong>**</strong> The white van was escorted by a black sports car for both ballot deliveries.<br /><strong>**</strong> The white van was allowed through an electronic gate to enter the TCF complex.</p><p><strong>This is video proof of the fraud in Detroit, Michigan. It is exactly as the GOP observers described it to us back in November!</strong></p><p><strong><a href="https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/07/election-integrity-investigator-gregg-phillips-announces-investigative-team-identified-unique-devices-interest-location-tcf-center-election-night-ballot-dump/" target="_blank">Video</a> and more pictures on web page.</strong></p><p>A couple weeks back investigators Gregg Phillips and Catherine Engelbrecht from True the Vote started to analyze the footage and late night ballot drops at the TCF Center on election night 2020.</p><p>Gregg Phillips posted on Truth today that his investigative team is looking at this TCF footage.</p><p>According to Gregg Phillips, his team has identified eight unique devices of interest in the location of this late-night ballot delivery.</p><p>On Tuesday night The Gateway Pundit spoke with Gregg Phillips. Gregg told us that the investigators are in the early stages of analyzing devices in the vicinity of the TCF Center late night ballot drop.</p><p>They have identified eight specific devices and that they are working on patterns and locations. Gregg told The Gateway Pundit that they are wanting to discover the location of the van the hours leading up to the 3:31 AM ballot drop.</p><p>We wait anxiously for their findings.</p><p>_______________<a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10625434297,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10625434297,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="379" alt="10625434297?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></a></p><p> </p></div></div>Massive 78% of Mail-In Ballots Proved Fraudulent, Judge Orders Election Do-Over.https://defendourunion.org/ei/massive-78-of-mail-in-ballots-proved-fraudulent-judge-orders-elec2022-06-22T15:13:19.000Z2022-06-22T15:13:19.000ZDavene Meehanhttps://defendourunion.org/members/DaveneMeehan<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10588357459?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=216"></div><div><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><strong><a href="https://thenationalpulse.com/2021/03/03/mi-election-do-over-due-to-ballot-fraud/" target="_blank">Article on the National Pulse, by Natalie Winters, March 3, 2021</a></strong></span></p><p>This is over a year old but I just saw it today and wanted to share this with you. </p><h4 class="pk-content-block pk-block-bg pk-block-bg-light"><strong>A Mississippi judge ruled in favor of a new election following overwhelming evidence of mail-in ballot fraud.</strong></h4><p>“In the sixty-four-page order, Judge Jeff Weill not only calls for a new election but also finds evidence of fraud and criminal activity, in how absentee ballots were handled, how votes were counted, and the actions by some at the polling place,” local news <a href="https://www.wcbi.com/notary-arrested-charged-voter-fraud-connection-aberdeen-alderman-election/">reports</a>.</p><p>The race in question – a Democratic <a href="https://www.wtva.com/content/news/Unofficial-winners-in-Aberdeen-primary-runoff-571373201.html">primary</a> – occurred in Ward 1 or Aberdeen, Mississippi for the position of alderman between candidates Robert Devaull and Nicholas Holliday.</p><p><iframe title="ELECTION FOLLOW UP" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/D4e2REjW-K4" width="614" height="345" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p><p>The judge’s ruling revealed that sixty-six of eighty-four absentee ballots – nearly 79 percent – cast in the June runoff were fraudulent.</p><p>Notary Dallas Jones, responsible for authorizing the fraudulent ballots, testified that she notarized “about 30 something ballots” at one house alone.</p><p>The investigation also found that 83 regular ballots were counted without being initialed by election workers.</p><p>“The court is of the opinion there is probable cause that several individuals involved in the disturbances during election day at the polling precinct ‘willfully and corruptly violated’ one or more of the above criminal statutes,” court filings state. “The court will leave to the appropriate authorities to determine whether the actions of Maurice Howard, Henry Randle and S. Nicholas Holliday amounted to prosecutable crimes.”</p><p>______________</p><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10588363286,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10588363286,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="379" alt="10588363286?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></a></p><p> </p></div>Maricopa County Spokesperson Admits 20,000 ‘Late’ Ballots Were Scanned Before Verification; Expert Says Likely a Crimehttps://defendourunion.org/ei/maricopa-county-spokesperson-admits-20-000-late-ballots-were-scan2022-06-12T01:49:43.000Z2022-06-12T01:49:43.000ZDavene Meehanhttps://defendourunion.org/members/DaveneMeehan<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10563250289?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=290"></div><div><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><strong><a href="https://arizonasuntimes.com/2022/06/11/maricopa-county-spokesperson-admits-20000-late-ballots-were-scanned-before-verification-expert-says-likely-a-crime/" target="_blank">Article from The Arizona Sun Times, by Rachel Alexander, June 11, 2022</a></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10563251462,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10563251462,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10563251462?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="421" height="241" /></a></strong></span></p><p>In an email exchange with <em><strong>The Arizona Sun Times</strong></em> this week, a Maricopa County Recorder’s office spokesperson may have unwittingly admitted that the county mishandled thousands of ballots from the 2020 general election that one watchdog groups <a href="https://verityvote.us/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/maricopa-late-ballots_VerityVote.pdf" target="_blank">says</a> were accepted after the legal deadline.</p><p>Megan Gilbertson, the communications director for the Maricopa County Elections Department (MCED) – a department of the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office – said that the department processed ballots by scanning them into the tabulating machines at MCED before transferring their custody the next day to <a href="https://runbeck.net/about/our-company/" target="_blank">Runbeck Election Services</a>, which verifies their legitimacy with signature verification.</p><p>She stated, “Due to the large volumes of early ballots received Election Day, we are scanning in early ballots received by 7 p.m. on Election Day well into the next morning, which is why a transfer of custody document would have a date after Election Day.”</p><p>In an earlier email, Gilbertson noted that “early ballot envelope signatures that are cured would also be tracked and scanned after Election Day until the curing deadline. None of these ballots would be marked as rejected, as they were all received by the Elections Department prior to 7 p.m. on Election Day.”</p><p>Gilbertson added that although the receipts are dated after Election Day, the ballots weren’t late because they were either cured ballots (Arizona law provides five days after an election to cure ballots) or took extra time to transport to <a href="https://runbeck.net/about/our-company/" target="_blank">Runbeck</a>, their third-party private vendor, due to scanning them first at MCED.</p><p>Maricopa County elections officials contracted with <a href="https://runbeck.net/about/our-company/" target="_blank">Runbeck Election Services</a>, a Phoenix-based business founded in 1972 by Chuck Runbeck. According to the company’s website, the firm specializes in “customized election solutions, reaching more than 70 million voters” and touts its services “are conducted from our state-of-the-art, secure facility – designed specifically for the production of election-related materials.”</p><p>The county contracted with Runbeck Election Services to provide signature verification for the ballot affidavits contained on the ballot envelopes.</p><p>The ballot receipts, the county spokesperson said, are drawn up when MCED drops the ballots off with Runbeck for <a href="https://runbeck.net/automated-signature-verification/" target="_blank">verification</a> – not when they come in from the United States Postal Service (USPS).</p><p>She wrote, “We have bipartisan staff that pick up envelopes from USPS. That staff delivers these envelopes, each with a unique intelligent barcode, to the Elections Department. The envelopes picked up from the post office are then delivered to Runbeck along with the early ballot affidavits dropped off at voting locations on Election Day.”</p><p><em><strong>The Sun Times</strong></em> asked Gilbertson to confirm her statement that ballots go directly from USPS to MCED first, then to Runbeck.</p><p>“Yes,” she answered.</p><p><em><strong>The Sun Times</strong></em> shared the information from Gilbertson with an Arizona election lawyer, who said that under the state’s elections law, tabulating an unverified ballot is a crime.</p><p>The attorney pointed to three separate provisions of Arizona state law.</p><p>First, 16-550(A) of the Arizona Revised Statutes (ARS) states that the first action by elections officials upon the receipt of a ballot is to verify its authenticity by comparing the signature on the affidavit (on the envelope) to the corresponding signature in the county record.</p><p><a href="https://www.azleg.gov/viewdocument/?docName=https://www.azleg.gov/ars/16/00550.htm" target="_blank">16-550. Receipt of voter’s ballot; cure period</a></p><p>A. On receipt of the envelope containing the early ballot and the ballot affidavit, the county recorder or other officer in charge of elections<strong> shall compare the signatures thereon with the signature of the elector on the elector’s registration record.</strong> If the signature is inconsistent with the elector’s signature on the elector’s registration record, the county recorder or other officer in charge of elections shall make reasonable efforts to contact the voter, advise the voter of the inconsistent signature and allow the voter to correct or the county to confirm the inconsistent signature.</p><p> (emphasis added)</p><p>Second is ARS 16-1009, which classifies the offense for public officer(s) who do not follow the procedures in the way the law describes.</p><p><a href="https://www.azleg.gov/viewdocument/?docName=https://www.azleg.gov/ars/16/01009.htm" target="_blank">16-1009. Failure or refusal to perform duty by election officer; classification</a></p><p>A public officer upon whom a duty is imposed by this title, who knowingly fails or refuses to perform that duty in the manner prescribed by law, is guilty of a <strong>class 3 misdemeanor</strong>.</p><p>(emphasis added)</p><p>Third is ARS 16-1010, which further classifies an election official’s failure to follow lawful procedure with regards to elections.</p><p><a href="https://www.azleg.gov/viewdocument/?docName=https://www.azleg.gov/ars/16/01010.htm" target="_blank">6-1010. Refusal by election officer to perform duty; violation of election law; classification</a></p><p>A person charged with performance of any duty under any law relating to elections who knowingly refuses to perform such duty, or who, in his official capacity, knowingly acts in violation of any provision of such law, is guilty of a <strong>class 6 felony</strong> unless a different punishment for such act or omission is prescribed by law.</p><p>(emphasis added)</p><p>In Arizona, each count of a class 3 misdemeanor is punishable with up to <a href="https://www.azleg.gov/viewdocument/?docName=https://www.azleg.gov/ars/13/00707.htm" target="_blank">30 days in jail</a>. One count of a class 6 felony is punishable with up to <a href="https://www.azleg.gov/viewdocument/?docName=https://www.azleg.gov/ars/13/00702.htm" target="_blank">one-and-a-half years in prison</a>.</p><p>Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward told <em><strong>The Sun Times</strong></em>, “I don’t trust a word that comes out of the Maricopa County Election’s Department nor from the County Recorder and his staff. They’ve got a history of incompetence, law breaking, and obfuscation related to election integrity and this is just another instance. … it looks like they’ve got something to hide.”</p><p>– – –</p><p><em><a href="https://arizonasuntimes.com/author/ralexander/" target="_blank">Rachel Alexander</a> is a reporter at </em><strong><em>The Arizona Sun Times</em></strong><em> and <strong>The Star News Network</strong>. </em><em>Follow Rachel on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/rach_ic" target="_blank"><em>Twitter</em></a><em>. Email tips to </em><a href="mailto:rachel.r.alexander@gmail.com"><em>rachel.r.alexander@gmail.com</em></a><em>.<br /> Photo “Megan Gilbertson” by <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/megegilbertson" target="_blank">Megan Gilbertson</a>. </em></p><p><em><strong>Defend</strong> <strong>Florida</strong> <strong>is</strong> <strong>a</strong> <strong>grassroots</strong>, citizens organization. We are not incorporated, we are not a non-profit and we do not fundraise. <strong>Defend</strong> <strong>Florida</strong> <strong>is</strong> <strong>a</strong> state-wide, citizen-driven movement designed to protect <strong>Florida</strong> and Floridians from Federal government overreach and to ensure election integrity.</em></p></div>Aug 29, 2020: Confessions of a voter fraud: I was a master at fixing mail-in ballotshttps://defendourunion.org/ei/aug-29-2020-confessions-of-a-voter-fraud-i-was-a-master-at-fixing2022-05-18T02:49:11.000Z2022-05-18T02:49:11.000ZDavene Meehanhttps://defendourunion.org/members/DaveneMeehan<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10497262486?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p><a href="https://nypost.com/2020/08/29/political-insider-explains-voter-fraud-with-mail-in-ballots/?utm_campaign=iphone_nyp&utm_source=pasteboard_app" target="_blank">New York Post Article by Jon Levine.</a></p><p>A top Democratic operative says voter fraud, especially with mail-in ballots, is no myth. And he knows this because he’s been doing it, on a grand scale, for decades.</p><p>Mail-in ballots have become the latest flashpoint in the 2020 elections. While President Trump and the GOP warn of widespread manipulation of the absentee vote that will swell with COVID polling restrictions, many Democrats and their media allies have dismissed such concerns as unfounded.</p><p>But the political insider, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he fears prosecution, said fraud is more the rule than the exception. His dirty work has taken him through the weeds of municipal and federal elections in Paterson, Atlantic City, Camden, Newark, Hoboken and Hudson County and his fingerprints can be found in local legislative, mayoral and congressional races across the Garden State. Some of the biggest names and highest office holders in New Jersey have benefited from his tricks, according to campaign records The Post reviewed.</p><p>“An election that is swayed by 500 votes, 1,000 votes — it can make a difference,” the tipster said. “It could be enough to flip states.”</p><p>The whisteblower — whose identity, rap sheet and long history working as a consultant to various campaigns were confirmed by The Post — says he not only changed ballots himself over the years, but led teams of fraudsters and mentored at least 20 operatives in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania — a critical 2020 swing state.<br /><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10497263095,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10497263095,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="476" height="317" alt="10497263095?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p><p>“There is no race in New Jersey — from city council to United States Senate — that we haven’t worked on,” the tipster said. “I worked on a fire commissioner’s race in Burlington County. The smaller the race, the easier it is to do.”</p><p>A Bernie Sanders die-hard with no horse in the presidential race, he said he felt compelled to come forward in the hope that states would act now to fix the glaring security problems present in mail-in ballots.</p><p>“This is a real thing,” he said. “And there is going to be a f–king war coming November 3rd over this stuff … If they knew how the sausage was made, they could fix it.”</p><p>Mail-in voting can be complicated — tough enough that <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/08/05/84000-mail-in-ballots-disqualified-in-nyc-primary-election/">84,000 New Yorkers</a> had their mailed votes thrown out in the June 23 Democratic presidential primary for incorrectly filling them out.</p><p>But for political pros, they’re a piece of cake. In New Jersey, for example, it begins with a blank mail-in ballot delivered to a registered voter in a large envelope. Inside the packet is a return envelope, a “certificate of mail in voter” which the voter must sign, and the ballot itself.</p><p>That’s when the election-rigger springs into action.</p><p><strong>Phony ballots </strong></p><p>The ballot has no specific security features — like a stamp or a watermark — so the insider said he would just make his own ballots.</p><p>“I just put [the ballot] through the copy machine and it comes out the same way,” the insider said.</p><p>But the return envelopes are “more secure than the ballot. You could never recreate the envelope,” he said. So they had to be collected from real voters.<br /><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10497264687,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10497264687,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="10497264687?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p><p>He would have his operatives fan out, going house to house, convincing voters to let them mail completed ballots on their behalf as a public service. The fraudster and his minions would then take the sealed envelopes home and hold them over boiling water.</p><p>“You have to steam it to loosen the glue,” said the insider.</p><p>He then would remove the real ballot, place the counterfeit ballot inside the signed certificate, and reseal the envelope.</p><p>“Five minutes per ballot tops,” said the insider.</p><p>The insider said he took care not to stuff the fake ballots into just a few public mailboxes, but sprinkle them around town. That way he avoided the attention that foiled a sloppy voter-fraud operation in a Paterson, NJ, city council race this year, where 900 ballots were found in <a href="https://newjerseyglobe.com/local/postal-service-finds-some-paterson-vbm-ballots-not-placed-in-mailboxes/" target="_blank">just three mailboxes.</a></p><p>“If they had spread them in all different mailboxes, nothing would have happened,” the insider said.</p><p><strong>Inside jobs</strong></p><p>The tipster said sometimes postal employees are in on the scam.</p><p>“You have a postman who is a rabid anti-Trump guy and he’s working in Bedminster or some Republican stronghold … He can take those [filled-out] ballots, and knowing 95% are going to a Republican, he can just throw those in the garbage.”</p><div class="inline-module inline-module--related-post"><div class="inline-module__inner"><p>In some cases, mail carriers were members of his “work crew,” and would sift ballots from the mail and hand them over to the operative.</p><p>In 2017, more than 500 mail-in ballots in New York City <a href="https://www.wnyc.org/story/absentee-ballots-left-stranded-brooklyn-post-office-after-election/" target="_blank">never arrived</a> to the Board of Elections for races that November — leaving hundreds disenfranchised. They eventually were discovered in April 2018. “For some undetermined reason, some baskets of mail that were bound to the New York City Board of Elections were put off to the side at the Brooklyn processing facility,” city elections boss Michael Ryan said at the time of discovery.</p><p><strong>Nursing homes </strong></p><p>Hitting up assisted-living facilities and “helping” the elderly fill out their absentee ballots was a gold mine of votes, the insider said.</p><p>“There are nursing homes where the nurse is actually a paid operative. And they go room by room by room to these old people who still want to feel like they’re relevant,” said the whistleblower. “[They] literally fill it out for them.”</p><p>The insider pointed to former Jersey City Mayor Gerald McCann, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/27/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/27jerseynj.html" target="_blank">who was sued in 2007</a> after a razor-thin victory for a local school board seat for allegedly tricking “incompetent … and ill” residents of nursing homes into casting ballots for him. McCann denied it, though he did admit to assisting some nursing home residents with absentee ballot applications.</p><p><strong>Voter impersonation </strong></p><p>When all else failed, the insider would send operatives to vote live in polling stations, particularly in states like New Jersey and New York that do not require voter ID. Pennsylvania, also <a href="https://www.pa.gov/guides/voting-and-elections/" target="_blank">for the most part,</a> does not.</p><p>The best targets were registered voters who routinely skip presidential or municipal elections — information which is publicly available.</p><div class="story story--i-flex story--i-flex-none-lg"> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10497265868,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10497265868,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="10497265868?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a><p>“You fill out these index cards with that person’s name and district and you go around the city and say, ‘You’re going to be him, you’re going to be him,'” the insider said of how he dispatched his teams of dirty-tricksters.</p><p>At the polling place, the fake voter would sign in, “get on line and … vote,” the insider said. The impostors would simply recreate the signature that already appears in the voter roll as best they could. In the rare instance that a real voter had already signed in and cast a ballot, the impersonator would just chalk it up to an innocent mistake and bolt.</p><p><strong>Bribing voters </strong></p><p>The tipster said New Jersey homeless shelters offered a nearly inexhaustible pool of reliable — buyable — voters.</p><p>“They get to register where they live in and they go to the polls and vote,” he said, laughing at the roughly <a href="https://nypost.com/2009/11/28/bloombergs-price-of-victory-102m/">$174 per vote</a> Mike Bloomberg spent to win his third mayoral term. He said he could have delivered the same result at a 70 percent discount — like when Frank “Pupie” Raia, a real estate developer and Hoboken nabob, was <a href="https://hudsonreporter.com/2019/06/25/jury-finds-hoboken-politico-frank-raia-guilty/" target="_blank">convicted last year on federal charges</a> for paying low-income residents 50 bucks a pop to vote how he wanted during a 2013 municipal election.</p><p>Organizationally, the tipster said, his voter-fraud schemes in the Garden State and elsewhere resembled Mafia organizations, with a boss (usually the campaign manager) handing off the day-to-day managing of the mob soldiers to the underboss (him). The actual candidate was usually kept in the dark deliberately so they could maintain “plausible deniability.”</p><p>With mail-in ballots, partisans from both parties hash out and count ballots at the local board of elections — debating which ballots make the cut and which need to be thrown out because of irregularities.</p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10497266078,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10497266078,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="10497266078?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></div></div></div><p>The insider said any ballots offered up by him or his operation would come with a bent corner along the voter certificate — which contains the voter signature — so Democratic Board of Election counters would know the fix was in and not to object.</p><p>“It doesn’t stay bent, but you can tell it’s been bent,” the tipster said. “Until the [certificate] is approved, the ballot doesn’t matter. They don’t get to see the ballot unless they approve the [certificate.]”</p><p>“I invented bending corners,” the insider boasted, saying once the fixed ballots were mixed in with the normal ones, the bed was made. “Once a ballot is opened, it’s an anonymous ballot.” </p><p>While federal law warns of prison sentences of <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/52/20511" target="_blank">up to five years,</a> busted voter frauds have seen far less punishment. While in <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/crystal-mason-texas-woman-sentenced-to-5-years-for-voter-fraud-speaks-out-on-felon-voting-rights/" target="_blank">2018 a Texas woman</a> was sentenced to five years, an Arizona man busted for voting twice in the mail was given just <a href="https://www.azag.gov/press-release/former-tucson-man-sentenced-double-voting-2016-election" target="_blank">three years’ probation</a>. A study by the conservative Heritage Foundation found <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/docs/pacei-voterfraudcases.pdf" target="_blank">more than 1,000 instances</a> of documented voter fraud in the United States, almost all of which occurred over the last 20 years.</p><p>“There is nothing new about these techniques,” said Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at Heritage who manages their election law reform initiative. “Everything he’s talking about is perfectly possible.“</p><p>The city Board of Elections declined to answer Post questions on ballot security.</p></div>