Larry johnson - Paul Ryan had one job tonight–prove to the vast majority of Americans
that do not know him that he could be trusted to be President. What did
America see? An intelligent, measured man who treated a buffoon with
respect. He was knowledgeable and articulate. He did not say anything
stupid. He did not say anything [...
Friday, October 12, 2012
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Obama Campaign Workers Helps Undercover Reporter Vote Twice
New video from Project Veritas shows an Obama for America campaign
staffer providing advice and a ballot to an undercover reporter posing
as an Obama activist about how to vote twice in the upcoming
presidential election. The activist tells Obama for America Houston
Director Stephanie Caballero, who is a salaried employee of the
Democratic National Committee, she wants to vote in Texas and in
Florida.
UPDATE: Watchdog.org has more information about the violation of statutes.
Former DOJ Attorney Christian Adams explains the legality of the situation.
Obama campaign attorney Robert Bauer should be emailing memos to every paid staffer detailing 42 USC 1973i(e) and 42 USC § 1973gg–10(2). The former federal law makes it illegal to vote twice. The latter law prohibits fraudulent voting in a federal election. 18 USC 2 makes it illegal to aid and abet election fraud.The Obama for America will spin this story by throwing Caballero under the bus and will say she is an inexperienced staffer. The problem is, Caballero is the director of the Obama for America Houston office pulling a salary. Caballero isn't an inexperienced staffer or volunteer, not to mention, Caballero's response to the questions about voting twice should have been, "You can't do that and it's illegal." Instead, Caballero giggled and encouraged double voting in Texas and the swing state of Florida.
Encouraging voter participation of marginal legality is nothing new for the Obama campaign. In 2008, they had an elaborate web portal for college students, encouraging some to register to vote where they went to school, discouraging others. The overall goal was to get students attending college in battleground states registered to vote in those states regardless of their actual domicile. If a student from a battleground state went to college in a safe red or blue state, they were encouraged to keep their registration in their home battleground state.
The Obama campaign website in 2008 never told the students to cancel their original voter registration. Nor did it provide guidelines for what constituted bona fide domicile.
Currently, voter watchdog groups like True the Vote are conducting data crunching to determine who may have violated federal election law in 2008 by voting in two states for President. If someone does it again in 2012, it will eventually be caught thanks to the efforts of private parties combing voter rolls.
UPDATE: Watchdog.org has more information about the violation of statutes.
Federally, 42 USC § 1973gg is the strongest as it penalizes attempts to deprive residents of a fair election through false voter registration forms. 42 USC 1973i(c) is your other strong bet. There are more (like the antiquated 18 USC 597), but these 1973gg and 1973i(c) are your strongest federal options.
Remember, policing election integrity occurs first at the state level, then goes up to the federal level. Under Texas law, pay attention to Section 273.001 of the Texas Election Code. It provides that if two or more registered voters present affidavits alleging criminal conduct in connection with the election to the county prosecutor, he shall investigate the matter. If the conduct concerns activities beyond one county, the state attorney general may be properly involved. And Texas imposes duties upon state registrars to ensure that voter registration forms are complete and true -- see Tex. Elec. Code 15.021, 15.112, 15.051(a). Texas election law also permits voting contests to occur when there is evidence of fraud or mistake in connection with the administration of an election (e.g. registering false voters). See Tex. Elec. Code 221.003
Monday, October 8, 2012
Pew Poll: Romney 49%- Obama 45%
2012 Election Voter Preference Trends
Track voter preferences for Obama vs. Romney overall and by demographic group among registered voters.Fully 66% of registered voters say Romney did the better job in last Wednesday’s debate, compared with just 20% who say Obama did better. A majority (64%) of voters who watched the debate describe it as mostly informative; just 26% say it was mostly confusing.
In turn, Romney has drawn even with Obama in the presidential race among registered voters (46% to 46%) after trailing by nine points (42% to 51%) in September. Among likely voters, Romney holds a slight 49% to 45% edge over Obama. He trailed by eight points among likely voters last month.
The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Oct. 4-7 among 1,511 adults, including 1,201 registered voters (1,112 likely voters), finds that 67% of Romney’s backers support him strongly, up from 56% last month. For the first time in the campaign, Romney draws as much strong support as does Obama.
Coming out of the debate, Mitt Romney’s personal image has improved. His favorable rating has hit 50% among registered voters for the first time in Pew Research Center surveys and has risen five points since September. At the same time, Obama’s personal favorability rating has fallen from 55% to 49%.
In the presidential horserace, Romney has made sizable gains over the past month among women voters, white non-Hispanics and those younger than 50. Currently, women are evenly divided (47% Obama, 47% Romney). Last month, Obama led Romney by 18 points (56% to 38%) among women likely voters.
Views of Candidates’ Traits, Issue Strengths
Conversely, Obama continues hold leads as the candidate who connects well with ordinary people and takes consistent positions on issues. And Obama leads by 10 points (49% to 39%) as the candidate who takes more moderate positions on issues.
Romney has gained ground on several of these measures since earlier in the campaign. Most notably, Obama and Romney now run even (44% each) in terms of which candidate is the stronger leader. Obama held a 13-point advantage on this a month ago. And Obama’s 14-point edge as the more honest and truthful candidate has narrowed to just five points.
In June, Obama held a 17-point lead as the candidate voters thought was more willing to work with leaders from the other party. Today, the candidates run about even on this (45% say Obama, 42% Romney).
Romney also has once again opened a double-digit advantage as the candidate who can deal with the budget deficit (51% vs. 36%). Romney led by 14 points on the budget deficit in July, but had lost that advantage last month.
By a 69% to 7% margin, swing voters say Obama is the candidate who connects will with ordinary Americans. Swing voters also tend to rate Obama as the more consistent, honest and moderate candidate, and as a strong leader. Swing voters also favor Obama on the issues of health care, Medicare and foreign policy.
But Romney continues to hold a decided edge over Obama on jobs and the budget deficit. By a 37% to 24% margin, more swing voters say Romney would improve the job situation. Swing voters favor Romney on the deficit by a two-to-one (41% vs. 20%) margin.
Obama, Romney Now Seen as Equally Likely to Help the Middle Class
A substantial majority of voters continue to say that Mitt Romney’s policies would help the wealthy, but he has made gains since the summer in the perception that his policies asThree-quarters of voters say Romney’s policies would benefit the wealthy (75%), basically unchanged from July (74%). Far fewer (31%) see Obama’s policies benefiting the wealthy. Conversely, two-thirds (66%) see Obama’s policies as likely to benefit the poor, compared with 39% who say the same about Romney’s policies.
Romney’s gains on the question of how his policies would affect the middle class have come largely among upper-income voters. Among voters with incomes of $150,000 or more, the percentage saying Romney’s policies would help the middle class rose from 47% in July to
Romney’s Image Improves, Obama’s Dips
Romney also has gained ground with younger voters. Today, 51% of those under 50 have positive impressions of the GOP candidate, up from 43% in September. Mirroring Romney’s improvement among these younger voters is an erosion in Obama’s ratings among this group: 49% of 18-49-year-old voters now view him favorably, down 10 points from September.
Views of Candidate Criticisms
About six-in-ten voters (62%) agree with the statement that “Romney is promising more than he can deliver,” while 35% disagree. Among swing voters, fully 75% agree, which is closer to the views of certain Obama voters (89% agree) than certain Romney voters (30% agree).
Just more than half of voters (53%) also agree that “It’s hard to know what Romney really stands for.” This includes two thirds (66%) of swing voters, 86% of certain Obama voters and just 16% of certain Romney voters.
Voters are divided in their reactions to the statement: “Obama thinks government is the solution to every problem” – 46% agree with it, while 51% disagree. The balance of opinion among swing voters mirrors that of voters overall (46% agree, 51% disagree), while Obama voters (78% disagree) and Romney voters (75% agree) hold opposing views.
Shifting Horserace
Similarly, Obama held a solid 56%-39% lead among likely voters under 50 last month. In the current poll, Obama runs even with Romney among voters in this age group (46% Obama, 49% Romney).
Romney picked up seven points among white voters over the past month (from 51% in September to 58% now), while the horse race is unchanged among black voters. Obama’s earlier edge among college graduates (53%-42% in September) is now gone (48% Obama, 47% Romney). And Romney picked up nine points among voters with family incomes of $75,000 or more.
Obama trailed Romney last month among whites who don’t have a college degree, but he has fallen further behind in the current poll. Romney led Obama 53%-40% among this group in September but now holds a much larger 28-point lead (61%-33%).
Debate Reactions
Among independent voters, Romney was the clear winner (78% vs. 14%). And views of swing voters mirror those of independents: 70% say Romney won, 14% Obama.
Nearly two-thirds of voters who watched the debate say it was mostly informative (64%) compared with mostly confusing (26%). Republican voters overwhelmingly found the debate mostly informative (83%); only 11% say the debate was mostly confusing. By contrast, about as many Democratic voters say the debate was confusing (41%) as say it was informative
Liberal Polls Collapsing For Obama After Debate
Both national and swing-state polls are beginning to tighten in the presidential race between President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney. It’s a signal that an expected Romney bump is starting to take shape after his consensus win in the first presidential debate on Wednesday.
Polls that track both national and swing state voting have shown nothing but bad news for the president over the last couple of days.
Here’s a sampling of the national polls:
- Gallup: Romney is starting to close in on Obama, trailing by only 3 points in the seven-day rolling average. And that average only reflects two days of surveys post-debate, so the full effect won’t be known until next Wednesday.
- Rasmussen: Rasmussen has had wild swings and tends to be Republican-leaning this election, but Romney holds a 2-point advantage here.
- Reuters/Ipsos: Here, the race has tightened from a 6-point Obama lead pre-debate to only a 2-point lead on Friday. But Saturday didn’t provide any further bounce for Romney in the online survey.
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