Stone Cold Shocka: Vote fraud could be “problem” in Illinois Senate Race

Here’s something I bet you never saw coming.  Two current election workers have been tried and convicted of vote fraud in recent years. 

What could go wrong?

Some of the tales remind you of the good old days of Chicago elections. One (from 2002) includes a group of seasoned citizens applying for absentee ballots, only to learn that the man “assisting” them in obtaining the ballots had already cast their votes.  When the irate elders asked the young thug WTF he thought he was up to, he replied: “Don’t worry.  You’re voting Democrat, anyway, right?” 

The story comes via the Daily Caller:

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A local government in Illinois is warning about potential voting fraud in the Chicago area, noting two election voters were convicted of such fraud just last spring.

The warning, from the director of elections for Cook County, Ill., raises the prospect that voter fraud could become a potential problem in the race and contradicts Illinois Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias, who was dismissive of the issue at a recent debate.

Cook County includes Chicago and surrounding suburbs.

“This past spring, two election workers were prosecuted by the State’s Attorney General and convicted of vote fraud for violating voter privacy by supervising voters as they completed ballots,” a memo from Cook County’s director of elections, Jan Kralovee, says.

At an Oct. 19 debate, Giannoulias slammed his Republican opponent, Rep. Mark Kirk, for his “voter integrity” program that is intended to prevent voting fraud.

“There’s never been an accusation of fraud on the West and South side of Chicago … you’re trying to suppress the African-American vote,” Giannoulias said.

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The potential for abuse isn’t lost on Kirk’s campaign.  Earlier this month, Kirk funded and launched a voting integrity program, which included hiring lawyers and planning to deploy them to “key, vulnerable districts.”  Of course, those districts are heavily populated by minority voters and of course, Democrats promptly played the race card.

Kirk currently leads most polls, and Nate Silver’s Five Thirty Eight gives him about a 60-40 chance of winning the seat once held by Barack Obama.  But the race is close and if the Democrats can get enough zombies to stick around after Halloween and vote, who knows what could happen.