Bogus Florida voter purge letters postmarked from Seattle
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Official-looking but bogus letters telling mostly Republican voters that their citizenship is in question are turning up in Florida, where GOP officials have led efforts to purge noncitizens from registration rolls.
The phony letters have been reported in 23 counties so far in an apparent attempt to intimidate voters, Department of State spokesman Chris Cate said Tuesday.
Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who pushed for the purge of noncitizens, said Florida has "zero tolerance" for voter intimidation.
"Anytime anybody's trying to prevent somebody from voting that's a serious issue," Scott said. "We'll get to the bottom of it. We'll turn over any violations of law to law enforcement. I expect law enforcement to prosecute those individuals."
Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said the agency was monitoring the situation and opened an investigation late Tuesday.
The letters purport to come from various Florida county supervisors of elections but all were postmarked from Seattle.
They tell voters that information received from the state Division of Elections indicates their citizenship is in question and that they'll be removed from the rolls unless they can prove their citizenship within 15 days.
The letters also warn in bold type that noncitizens who cast ballots "may be subject to arrest, imprisonment, and/or other criminal sanctions."
Secretary of State Kenneth Detzner sent a message Monday to all 67 supervisors of elections urging them to report the discovery of such letters to his assistant general counsel. Detzner also noted that voter intimidation is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
Cate said officials hope the bogus letters are not retaliation for the noncitizen purge.
"It would be really disappointing if someone tried to use a successful program to commit voter fraud," he said.
The purge has been criticized for inaccurately identifying voters as noncitizens. The state originally sought to remove 2,600 voters but later revised the list to only 198 names.
The effort also has drawn court challenges. Two federal judges have ruled the purge could continue, but the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has said it won't resolve the issue until after the Nov. 6 election.
The Florida Republican Party, meanwhile, sent a fundraising letter urging those who support the purge to contribute to the GOP.
The phony letters have been reported in 23 counties so far in an apparent attempt to intimidate voters, Department of State spokesman Chris Cate said Tuesday.
Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who pushed for the purge of noncitizens, said Florida has "zero tolerance" for voter intimidation.
"Anytime anybody's trying to prevent somebody from voting that's a serious issue," Scott said. "We'll get to the bottom of it. We'll turn over any violations of law to law enforcement. I expect law enforcement to prosecute those individuals."
Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said the agency was monitoring the situation and opened an investigation late Tuesday.
The letters purport to come from various Florida county supervisors of elections but all were postmarked from Seattle.
They tell voters that information received from the state Division of Elections indicates their citizenship is in question and that they'll be removed from the rolls unless they can prove their citizenship within 15 days.
The letters also warn in bold type that noncitizens who cast ballots "may be subject to arrest, imprisonment, and/or other criminal sanctions."
Secretary of State Kenneth Detzner sent a message Monday to all 67 supervisors of elections urging them to report the discovery of such letters to his assistant general counsel. Detzner also noted that voter intimidation is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
Cate said officials hope the bogus letters are not retaliation for the noncitizen purge.
"It would be really disappointing if someone tried to use a successful program to commit voter fraud," he said.
The purge has been criticized for inaccurately identifying voters as noncitizens. The state originally sought to remove 2,600 voters but later revised the list to only 198 names.
The effort also has drawn court challenges. Two federal judges have ruled the purge could continue, but the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has said it won't resolve the issue until after the Nov. 6 election.
The Florida Republican Party, meanwhile, sent a fundraising letter urging those who support the purge to contribute to the GOP.
"The Florida Republican Party, meanwhile, sent a fundraising letter urging those who support the purge to contribute to the GOP."
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Yep! Money is the root of all manner of evil!
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"Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who pushed for the purge of noncitizens, said Florida has 'zero tolerance' for voter intimidation."
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Based on 2000 and 2004, Rick Scott should be a joke writer for Jay Leno.
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"Cate said officials hope the bogus letters are not retaliation for the noncitizen purge."
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Honestly, that sounds rather like the guilty (Republicans) pointing fingers. Why would anyone try to intimidate potential GOP voters by calling their citizenship into question. That would be like trying to accuse Queen Elizabeth of being Chinese or the Pope of being Jewish.
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It's no wonder the two parties can't come together in Washington and get anything done. Both parties (voters) think they are 100% right 100% of the time. The truth be known neither party has done a lot for this country in several decades. I think you have to have two parties so that they each have someone else to blame for everything that goes wrong. How about instead of bickering constantly they come together and work together for the good of the country. The way they behave at election time when their careers are on the line makes me wonder if any of them are fit to run the government.
The people claiming this is a republican ploy are very out of touch with a little thing I like to call reality. The dems are in a panic and trying to do everything they can to keep Obama in power. From voter fraud, to suppression of LEGAL voters, to the biggest coverup attempt since watergate, nothing is off the table for these people. And the mainstream media is doing its best to help, especially with the Benghazi coverup. One quickly buried article on CNN about the emails then nothing. After Obama loses the election, this will all come crashing down around his head.
 @acepaul This happened today 10/24/2012: A Republican-run election board in a northern Ohio county, in a hotly contested swing state, sent out voting instructions to several Democratic majority precincts with the wrong date for Election Day and an incorrect description of the polling place location, Just when you thought you are standing on firm ground your party comes along and pulls the rug out from beneath your feet. Sorry. ace.
 @left-center A few hundred people in Colorado registered to vote online. Their registrations didn't go through, but they thought that they did.Â
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When the Colorado secretary of state told everyone to check their registration status online, the site crashed and the deadline for registration passed.Â
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What's going to happen for those people? Nobody knows.Â
 @left-center Seriously, you are going to compare what could be an honest mistake (that would affect both parties) to the blatant intimidation in this article? Wow, reality check...
@acepaul Now one might be able to forgive the GOP election board if not for the history behind this kind of activity. I mean, one mistake on the voting pamphlet, but two mistakes on the same pamphlet. Very similar to 4 tears ago when Democrats were told by the Florida GOP election board via that particular pamphlet that they would have their chance to vote on the day following the general election. We have heard time and again the Republican strategy for this years election (from a GOP prespective) is to defeat Obama regardless of the effort or the cost. This makes any move to disenfranchize the Democrats' voting cohort suspect.
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As bacon_pants has so clearly pointed out three days before the Ohio incident there was another different GOP led voter fraud incident in Virginia. What is it that you are trying to justify that the GOP voter fraud activities are just a series of random acts done by some bad apples? But if it smells like a Democrat was involved it is a major conspiracy and every Democrat in America was in on the conspiracy?
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I believe you are paranoid, in that you can sense the trickery of the GOP and cannot bring yourself to believe that the Democrats aren't using the same dirty tactics against your guys.
 @bacon_pants Now that's a much better comparison to this activity.
@acepaul @left-center Or you could go with this for voter fraud :
http://gawker.com/5953143/authorities-arrest-gop-contractor-for-throwing-away-voter-registration-forms
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Ouch.
 @left-center  @acepaul http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/22/error-filled-instructions-are-sent-to-ohio-voters/
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I don't know how these things don't get checked before going out to voters. But anyway, does anyone find the correction at the bottom of the linked article ironic?
 @NoKitty666 Don't forget IL, PA, WA, and CA
I gave up on fair voting in Ohio and Florida in 2000 and 2004.  I'll be shocked if Obama wins this year.
Your know when I read these little rightwing conspiricay's, I almost want to vote for Romney to add my own. Just to see how christians will react when Mittens lets the Mormon church have access to all the private American information.  Where they will begin their super huge indoctrination to take over the Christian majority and replace them with Mormonism. Can't wait.  I can't wait.
 @NoKitty666 What? Seriously what?Â
 @NoKitty666 Conspiracy? Not really. This stuff has been going on for years on both sides. And there is no denying the left leaning media. And there are some pretty desperate people who want to keep Obama in office for whatever crazy reason. No, the real conspiracy nuts are those blaming the Republicans for this.
lol. I was adding to the conspiracies in AcePauls reality. Not crazy enough?
 @acepaul CNN has been leading the way on the Libya "coverup." They have done countless stories on prime time TV about it.Â
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On nbcnews.com there is another article about those emails too up on their site today. Â
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Do you know the story about the boy who cried wolf? Â Â
 @acepaul Sounds like spoon fed Fox conspiracies yet again.Â
 @Andrew Bush Oh, don't be so naive. Voter fraud and intimidation have been going on for years (yes, on both sides) though I think the dems take the cake on this one. The Benghazi situation becomes more clear every day. If Obama would have come out day one and directly called this a terror attack, accepted responsibility, vowed revenge, not apologized for a stupid movie trailer, been overall more presidential about it, he would be miles ahead. But he did not, and that is just one more nail in his political coffin.
Don't be so sure that this isn't a republican ploy once again and yet another claim to be victimized. Â Â
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They try to take away marriage and claim to be victims.
They try to force women to have vagina probes and play the victim. Â
They try top force women who are raped to have babies and then claim to be the victim.Â
They try to stop mosques from being built then claim to be the victims. Â
They try to purge voters when there is no fraud and claim to be victims. Â
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They are also victims of ending slavery, allowing interracial marriage, integrated schools, women getting to vote.  They even claim to be victims of ending slavery as their tea party candidate Rand Paul wants to allow businesses to put white only signs back up. Â
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Republicans.... They create the issue then claim to be false victims time and time again. Â
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Notice they are also the ones screaming personal responsibility for everyone else. Â
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 @Andrew Bush Maybe you need to get out of the house more.  When you paint people with a broad brush as if they are all wired exactly the same, it's just going to breed more hatred of those people, and it's not even on target.  You are living in a vacuum.  If by "They", you mean "extremists", it makes sense, but you didn't say extremists, you just act like all Republicans are this way.  If I were to define Democrats by the extremists, it would be so easy to paint just as much an unflattering picture.  Slavery, women's right to vote, interaccial marriage, really?  I'm a moderate Republican, and have a black white and 3 mixed kids.  I'm the only white guy in the household, but I must be racist.  Moderates are the glue that's going to keep this country held together if it is able to be held together.  The far left and far right whack jobs are the problem, they all sound like they would rather have a civil war rather than accept each other for their differences.  The Democratic party doesn't get off the hook for any of this.Â
 @Andrew Bush Black Wife, not "black white"  Still haven't gotten down responding on an IPAD.Â
Look, Beck just said today that God made Mitt Romney lose that debate. So I'm sure God had a hand in all this as well. My only question is, Does God have a voter ID card or License? Because I'm pretty sure he doesn't and that must mean then he's an illegal alien and should be deported back to Kolab. Â
Whether extremist Democrats, or Extremist Republicans did this, it only proves the point that extremists don't give a da*n about ethics, they just want to win, and are bad for our Country. Â I'm glad our politicians aren't like th..... Oh wait, they are.Â
Republicans are trying to steal the Election like the one in 2004 !
Shame on them !!!!
 @scychan Republicans have to lie cheat and steal no matter what the topic. Â
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Remember lying America into war and the whole torture disgrace republicans have bestowed on America? Â
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Republicans disgrace themselves but unfortunately they drag the rest of America down with them. Â
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 @Andrew Bush  @scychan Maybe so. They were taught by the masters of lies, deception and backstabbing aka democrats.
 @scychan Read the Article - the letters are being sent *TO* *REPUBLICANS*.
@scychan --- Really?!? Come on!
Carl Rove and company! This is GOP without a doubt. The dems would not target their own voters.
 @snoopy84 it looks like it was targetted at mostly republican voters.Â
So it is most likely a democrat doing it.
 @Star Shooter  @snoopy84 Sure...that's what they want you to think...
 @snoopy84 Did you read the article?  It says mostly Republican voters were targeted.  Sounds to me like Democrats taking a page out of the Republican playbook.
 @Cetus  @snoopy84 I made an error. I took my info from an opt ed. I would cite the article but I am considering the source. But their was one point made about the republicans who were targeted-most know better about their voting registration and it sounds like they would vote anyway and the risk was low for a not voting. The point was that someone sent those to cast a shadow over the election process if it were close. I'm not ready to go their yet.Â
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So, my bad for now.
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 @Cetus  @snoopy84 The idea that it may have been a Republican conspiracy should be considered. The GOP has shown little regard for the tactics they have employed against the Democratic presidential contender. Of note is that the story does not mention the number of letters sent or who the recipients were. For all we know, there may have been only 37 letters sent to a group of Republican co-conspirators. Care should be taken not to jump to conclusions before a perpetrator or perpetrators are caught and confess to the crime.
 @RN1  @left-center  @snoopy84 RN1 - While you have a reasoned argument, the ad hominem attack you ended it with really detracted from it.
 @RN1  @left-center  @Cetus  @snoopy84 "they are smart enough to pull off a major false-flag operation"
Not "smart", just devious and conniving...
 @RN1  @Cetus  @snoopy84 I cannot speak for Cetus or snoopy84, but to point a finger at me for calling any Republican stupid you will need to deliver objective evidence or apologize. I have not and will not call another person stupid And if you were to take the time to read the article you would see that it is incomplete and does not give enough information to eliminate either consideration.
 @left-center  @Cetus  @snoopy84 So, after many months of badmouthing republicans as stupid, you are now saying we should suspect they are smart enough to pull off a major false-flag operation to make people THINK that it's Democrat shenanigans? Er... Right. Um, you might want to loosen up the headband, there.
 @snoopy84 Unsubstantiated claims once more.
Well I doubt the Reps would do it to theirselfs.
 @dkgiovenco I have to say it... I loved "theirselfs"
 @dkgiovenco Really? It wouldn't be the first time. They present idiots like Atkins and Murdock as lightning rods, and they blame the press for "overreacting and taking their words out of context"...
It is good sign of due diligence that the fraud in the Seattle post-marked letters has been found. Note that the letters were post-marked from Seattle, I do not think that there is enough evidence yet to blame someone from the Northwest. Regardless it has been stifled. All registered, eligible & legal voters, should they be Republican or Democrat, must be given the right to vote in the general election. This also holds true for those states where voter ID requirements are being legislated to purposely dismiss a voting cohort or several voting cohorts.
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It is unfortunate that someone or some group has acted this way, but letters like these have gone to the voters before. In 2008 letters were sent to Democratic voters (of course, it was in Florida again) explaining that Democrats were to report to the polls on the day after the general election, the reason given was that the voting places could not accommodate all of the voter turn-out. Of course, the letters were a hoax, and a few voting officials, that knew better, put an end to it.
Once again, the democrat dictator-wanna-be's try to steal an election. Surprise, surprise. Big city machine politics at work once again...
 @RN1 Really -the democrats are sending scare tactic letters to their own voters?
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Please think how stupid that would be.
 @snoopy84 "Official-looking but bogus letters telling mostly Republican voters that their citizenship is in question are turning up in Florida, where GOP officials have led efforts to purge noncitizens from registration rolls."
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Note the "mostly Republican voters" part.
 @RN1 Indeed. FL is going after the vote early vote often illegal voters so some of our friends here in the Seattle area are trying to counter it by keeping republicans from voting. Another year another election.
Chads. Again.
Gee mailed from seattle low down cheating democraps can't win in the arena of ideas.
Chads.