Republican Official Hopes Recipes Will Flush Out Voter Problems

[Hissyspit]

Source: WRAL-TV

Republican official hopes recipes will flush out voter problems
Posted: Jan. 28 3:49 p.m.

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — A Republican Party official in Cumberland County is mailing thousands of apple pie recipes to voter addresses he thought seemed questionable. “We’re hoping for returned letters so we can challenge them at the local Board of Elections and get the records corrected,” Cumberland County GOP Chairman Ralph Reagan said Wednesday.

Reagan filed a complaint with the Cumberland County Board of Elections after three Democrats swept the county commissioner ballot for District 2. Reagan contends that some people voted in the wrong precinct. He challenged the veracity of addresses among the list of early voters. Reagan said he looked at the voter registry and found about 5,500 early voters addresses that he thought didn’t look correct.

The elections board dismissed Reagan's complaint on a technicality, saying Reagan didn’t live in the district where he sought the challenge. To prove his point, Reagan mailed a copy of a recipe for apple pie to each of the addresses in question. “Just Like Mom Makes!” it says. On the bottom, it says “This Recipe Distributed by the Cumberland County Republican Party.” He said he’s had hundreds returned to sender. Under state law, a returned letter is proof that a voter has an invalid address.

- snip -

Cumberland County Elections Director Terri Robertson said her office will try to reach any voter who is challenged. She noted that soldiers and college students may be living out of the county but can still be registered to vote there. Each challenged address will require a hearing. The burden of proof will lie with Reagan.

Read more: http://www.wral.com/news/local/politics/story/4420528/

[dipsydoodle]

1. Apple pie

or sour grapes ?

[Sherman A1]

2. Wow!

Think of this.... The Republican Party actually does something FOR THE PEOPLE (yeah, it's just a recipe, but it's actually SOMETHING). What a novel approach. I would give this guy a couple of points for creative thought (which again is a major stretch for this group).


:nopity:

[struggle4progress]

3. Recipes mailed to find bogus voters (Fayetteville Observer)

Published on Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Recipes mailed to find bogus voters

By Andrew Barksdale
Staff writer

... In November, Reagan filed an election protest with the Cumberland County Board of Elections after all three Democrats on the county commissioner ballot were swept into office ...

Reagan said he has mailed about half of the letters so far ...

“We haven’t gotten a lot back,” he said ...

Terri Robertson, director of the Cumberland County Board of Elections, .... recalls only one instance three or four years ago where someone challenged another voter. A hearing was held, and the voter prevailed, she said ...

http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=316990

Two stories published independently the same day by different newspapers: (1) Reagan tells the N&O he’s had hundreds returned and (2) tells the FO he hasn't gotten a lot back. Yeah ... um ... You've just crossed over into the Twilight Zone!

[santamargarita]

4. Their favorite recipe is bullshit pie with Kool-Aid

Let all Republicans eat shit!

[enuegii]

5. Apple pie, huh? As in "American as apple pie"...

What is it with republican types and this meme? Everyone's heard of Johnny Appleseed, right? He was actually a real person, John Chapman, who traveled the young country planting apple tree seedlings. He did this because, before European settlers in the 16th century brought them here, there were no apple trees in the New World. The apple is native to the area around the Caspian Sea, and spread from there into Europe and Asia thousands of years ago.
I'm sure European moms figured out how to make apple pie long before anyone ever dreamed of a place called America, so what could possibly be so quintessentially American about apple pie?

[radfringe]

6. isn't this "caging"

What's the difference between sending out apple pie recipes or other letters for the express purpose of address verification for voter roles?

This smells - (and it doesn't smell like apple pie baking) - especially with letters being mailed only to "suspected" addresses.

It may be a different matter if these letters were sent to everyone on the voter roles, with a form asking the person to verify their address.

Wonder how many registered Dems vs registered "rushicans" are getting these letters.

[annabanana]

7. So. . .One mailman with an agenda can disenfranchise anyone he wants?

(I wonder if they're hiring?)

[groundloop]

9. Or one incompetent mailman...

Yes, they exist - I have one of them. I'd hate like hell to have to jump through hoops the next time I vote because of this.

[Moosepoop]

8. "A returned letter is proof that a voter has an invalid address" ???

If I were to receive any kind of mailing stating that it came from a faction of the Republican Party,
I too might very well mark it "Return to Sender" as a way of saying "FU, don't bother sending me any more of your crap. Not even a recipe for apple pie."

Returned mail sent by a county political group should not constitute "proof" of anything related to address. Actual voting materials sent by the government would be a different story, but I don't get the claim that just sending back unsolicited and unwanted political mailings proves an invalid address.

Gee, I wonder if Elvis got the gal who kept returning his love letter in "Return to Sender" kicked off the voting rolls?

[annabanana]

10. This is actually one of their favorite disenfranchisement techniques..

It's been used for years. It's completely low-tech, so it's been a useful tool for them for decades.

[struggle4progress]

11. I just looked at the Cumberland County election results -- Ralph Reagan is wasting his time:

There were 3 Ds and 3 Rs on the ballot for the 3 District 2 county commissioner slots: it was a "vote for 3 of 6 & top 3 win" game. The highest R caught 38 000 votes and the lowest D caught 42 909, so to upset the results, the top R would have had to strip at least 4909 votes from the bottom D

Ralph says he's checking about 5500 early voters with his apple pie recipe. If 90% of his recipes come back undeliverable, he'd get nearly the right number of voters. But the county election results indicate that about 60% of local voters voted D, no matter what the race was. That means that even if all of the recipes came back undeliverable, one would expect the votes to have split R:D in about the proportional 3300 : 2200 -- which wouldn't have been enough to change the election results. In fact, he'd need about 8200 demonstrably ineligible voters to convince me that ineligible voters might have made a difference

Bottom line: Rs got their butts kicked in Cumberland county last November

But I really do like the idea of Ralph spending his time and money in this Quixotic quest to find 8200 demonstrably ineligible voters by sending 5500 apple pie recipes to voters whose addresses cause his tummy to feel woozie. Maybe I'll try to encourage him

http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/NC/Cumberland/7963/14109/en/summary.html

[sofa king]

12. Interesting analysis.

It's less logical and elegant, but I'd like to add that failure to maintain a proper address may be related to the voter's educational background and overall competence.

Putting it mildly, I don't think those factors will break heavily in favor of Republican voters, either.

[struggle4progress]

13. Actually, I would bet that many of his returned recipes will reflect

voters who moved a short distance away, felt too busy to update their info, but remained eligible to vote where they voted. Some could be less competent than normal. But over the years, more than one person has said to me (in the course of conversation about some civic matter or other) I moved a few years ago, and I haven't gotten around to updating my address -- and they weren't ever ignorant, undereducated, or particularly dull, though they always did seem surprised when I remarked that it was probably a violation of election law

[bemildred]

14. Denial is not just a river in Egypt, is it? nt

[TygrBright]

15. Dang, North Carolina has some WEIRD laws...

>>Under state law, a returned letter is proof that a voter has an invalid address.<<

Shortly after Christmas, because my Mom raised me right, I sent a thank-you note to my in-laws for the Christmas presents they had mailed to my esposo and myself.

My in-laws have lived at their present address since about 1976 or thereabouts.

More than three weeks later, the thank-you note came back to me marked "Attempted, not known, unable to forward."

Seriously.

Called the in-laws. "You guys moved?"

"uhh... No."

"Your address still (reading it off the envelope)?"

"uhh... Yes."

"Well, the Post Office thinks you're gone and they don't know where. You might wanna clue them in."

I'd hate to think that my in-laws would be denied the right to vote based on that, but fortunately they don't live in North Carolina.

amazedly,
Bright