We set out NEXT the evidence of HOW Kevan Collins has gone about denying democratic accountability as he failed to answer some of the most urgent Qs.

1400 [1340] Hrs GMT
London
Sunday
19 September 2010

Editor © Muhammad Haque


Vote fraud is getting worse by the poll. It is happening as much in the USA as it is happening in some other 'symbols of democracy'.

No wonder that the 'special relationship' - as most recently illustrated via the BBC's promotion of two of 'western democracy’s most genuinely reviled tokens, Bill Clinton and Tony Blair' - is having a truly contagious effect. Injurious Infection of the adverse, wanton affection across the over hyped 'pond'.

From across the waters right back to the still authentically deprived inner city East London borough of Tower Hamlets, the de facto disenfranchisement of the overly mis-described and misrepresented demography remains in a state of unending denial and destitution imposed, foisted, perpetrated by the anti-democratic, unfruitful cabal of grotesque unaccountability that continues to control the already corrupted core in the local Tower Hamlets Council.

If there EVER had been a shred of doubt about the contemptuous complacence about the corrupt state of the Council, Kevan Collins has put paid to any such doubt whatever.

We set out NEXT the evidence of HOW Kevan Collins has gone about denying democratic accountability as he failed to answer some of the most urgent questions and issues raised with him in his undenied role ['power' 'use' and misuse and abuse] of ex officio Returning Officer.

[To be continued]
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from the sweb site: www.ajc.com as publioshed online from the USA


Absentee ballots abused

By Jim Walls
For the AJC
Georgia spent five years and countless dollars to win federal consent for a plan for citizenship checks for voters.
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Georgia Elections Central »Million moderate march set for Oct. 30… Anyone going?
Partisans dispute the value of the new mandate, which the feds approved a few weeks back. Supporters argue it blocks illegal aliens from corrupting our elections. Critics keep up the fight in court, railing about disenfranchising poor and minority voters.
While that debate plays out, though, the real election fraud continues. The kind perpetrated by Americans.
Although citizens must have photo IDs to vote in person, they usually may cast ballots by mail without IDs. More than 300,000 people — 7.5 percent of Georgia’s turnout — voted for president that way in 2008.
Who’s marking those ballots?
All kinds of folks, judging from records of the State Election Board. Members last month heard at least six cases alleging candidates, campaign workers, registrars and others had improperly marked and handled hundreds of absentee votes.
Some were accused of lying to say they were related to voters and therefore legally entitled to assist them. Others, investigators said, lied about voters’ need for help or failed to sign the necessary paperwork — effectively hiding their involvement.
In Twiggs County, the FBI crime lab found fingerprints of a former sheriff and his son, who was running for his dad’s old job, on envelopes containing absentee votes, officials said. A state investigation is continuing.
In North Georgia, Carlton Vines acknowledged helping round up and mail in ballots when he ran and won a race for judge of Chattooga County State Court in 2006. Vines, whose criminal prosecution on election fraud charges ended in a mistrial, denied wrongdoing.
Vines still faced a civil penalty of up to $100,000 for violating election rules. But the Election Board, which enforces those rules along with the Secretary of State, accepted a $15,000 penalty last month just to get the case over with.
“I personally would have had much more money in there to get the attention of the evil-doers,” board member Tex McIver said in an interview. “That was about as bad a way to violate the elections code as there was.”
Evil-doers, and the public at large, would have to pay close attention to appreciate the extent of vote fraud in Georgia and the penalties for such. News of a fraud case spreads quickly in the affected community, but often nowhere else.
Summaries of the Election Board’s meetings, posted online, are perfunctory and rarely mention the nature of the charges. Its website, when I asked the other day, was a year behind in posting consent orders.
Vote fraud also doesn’t make headlines in larger media markets, where sheer numbers make it much tougher to swing an election with bogus ballots.
Smaller communities, with fewer voters and less outside scrutiny, are wide open for abuse.
In Brooks County’s Quitman precinct, records show, 605 voters showed up for the July 20 primaries. But a remarkable 665 ballots had been mailed in, enough to unseat a county commissioner and two school board members. The GBI and Secretary of State’s Office are investigating.
The Legislature made absentee voting much easier in 2005, permitting Georgians to vote by mail without stating a reason. A first-time mail registrant must submit a photo ID before his or her votes is counted, but a previously registered voter may cast a ballot by mail without one.
State election officials have tightened oversight to catch abuses. A signature accompanying a mailed-in ballot must be triple-checked against a voter’s registration card and request for an absentee ballot before it may be counted.
The Georgia Secretary of State’s Office has also reached out to nursing homes, a notorious venue for absentee fraud, with instructional videos and training. The state has launched a new website and telephone hot line (877-725-9797) to report fraud.
Nevertheless, elections enforcers are still catching too many absentee abuses after the votes are counted.
That’s one reason, McIver said, that beneficiaries of vote fraud often take office and serve much of their term before the deception is detected and proven.
“That,” he said, “is a real frustration.”