Will vote fraud guilty pleas and court dates of AC Dems affect Corzine’s GOTV efforts? Posted: 14 Oct 2009 09:39 AM PDT
electionjournal.com Ronald Harris of Atlantic City, pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiracy in an absentee-ballot fraud case. He was among 13 people charged with engaging in ballot fraud on behalf of City Councilman Marty Small’s mayoral campaign, including David Callaway and Small himself.
In his plea, Harris said he conspired with others involved in Small’s campaign to submit false documents related to absentee voting.
Small and the indicted members of his campaign staff allegedly sought to maximize the number of absentee ballots messengered by the campaign by enlisting operatives and campaign workers to engage in fraud and by paying campaign workers based on how many messenger ballots they collected. The workers allegedly were told to direct voters to vote for the Small ticket, or simply have the voters sign the ballots so the workers could fill them out as votes for the Small ticket.
The charges are pending against the remaining defendants. Small and the other defendants are each charged in the indictment with conspiracy, four counts of election fraud, absentee ballot fraud, tampering with public records, falsifying records, and forgery. Four defendants are also charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution.
The indictment alleges that Small and the other defendants conspired to commit election fraud through the following schemes, among others:
They allegedly solicited applications for messenger absentee ballots from individuals not qualified to receive them and had the voters not fill in the name of the messenger, so they could fraudulently designate themselves as the authorized messengers or bearers.
They allegedly obtained messenger ballots from the county clerk and submitted them to the board of elections as vote s on behalf of voters who, in fact, never received or voted the ballots or, in some cases, were given only the security envelope for the ballot and were told to sign it. Those voters were not given the opportunity to vote in most instances.
They allegedly picked up sealed absentee ballots from voters, unsealed them and, if they were votes for mayoral candidates other than Small, destroyed them, thereby disenfranchising those voters. If they were votes for Small, they allegedly resealed them and submitted them as votes.
They allegedly illegally instructed voters to fill in messenger ballots as votes for Small.
They allegedly submitted voter registration applications and messenger ballot applications on behalf of individuals who were not residents of Atlantic City, falsely representing they were.
They allegedly forged the signatures of voters on messenger ballots.
They allegedly fraudulently delivered messenger ballot applications and messenger ballots to voters simultaneously and instructed the voters to fill out both during the same visit.
Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that Harris be sentenced to a term of probation, conditioned upon him serving up to 364 days in the Atlantic County Jail. He may face a fine of up to $15,000.
Eleven of the people charged in the indictment are scheduled to appear in court tomorrow for a status conference on the case, but it is not clear if that date will stay. Two of the men who are supposed to be there that day - David Callaway and Floyd Tally - will be in another courtroom. They, along with Callaway’s brother Ronald, are on trial in an alleged blackmail scheme to try to get Atlantic City Councilman Eugene Robinson to resign by hiring a prostitute to seduce him, then taping the two engaged in a sex act.
With the New Jersey gubernatorial election just 20 days away, can the Democratic machine in Atlantic City and surrounding areas continue with politics as usual while so many of their lieutenants are busy with court hearings surrounding vote fraud charges?
