From: kellyc@ul.ie
Newsgroups: soc.motss
Subject: Re: Two Hours and thirty seconds
Date: 13 Nov 92 00:00:05 GMT
Organization: University of Limerick, Ireland

In article <1992Nov3.145645.420@Princeton.EDU>, harvey@warbler.princeton.edu (Harvey Cohen) writes:

> In 1992 in New
> Jersey, one doesn't expect to encounter obvious examples of voter fraud, 

In 1992 in Ireland one does. I have been poll clerk (equivalent, I guess, 
to one of your Board of Elections people) at referendums and elections in
Ireland for seven or eight years. On about half of those occassions have we
had allegations of voter fraud.

The most famous case of alleged voter `fraud' (an acquital afterwards means 
it wasn't actually fraud, although the law was amended because of that 
particular case) involved the election agent of the then Taoiseach Charles 
Haughey. The agent was on the register at two different addresses and applied 
for and received two ballot papers. In his trial it was found that it couldn't 
be determined that he had actually _voted_ twice becuase his ballot papers 
were secret. The change in law made it an offence to apply for a second 
ballot paper if one has already been issued to you in that election.

> so one simply marks off the names of voters as they pass through.  Later 
> in the day,party operatives will call all those registered democrats who 
> haven't yet voted.

That is something Irish electoral law strives to prevent. Party officials 
are not allowed to take documents out of the station until after the poll has 
closed, nor are they allowed to communicate with anybody except the 
Presiding Officer or Poll Clerk. In practice that rule is ignored if 
conversations are neighbourhood gossip, or about what the party official wants 
brought at a meal time, or what the current level of voter turnout is. It is 
strictly enforced if an attempt is made to suggest how a voter should cast 
their ballot (either in terms of suggesting who to vote for, or talking to 
a voter about procedures relating to blind or illiterate voters, or speaking 
with a voter if an ID challenge is being made). It is also enforced if 
questions about who has or hasn't voted yet are asked, though less strictly 
so.

I've got to brush up on the various points of this next week for our 
forthcoming referendums and general election.

IMHO the worst abuse of the electoral process in this country occurs with 
mentally handicapped people being bussed out of hospitals by parties and 
being `aided' to vote by party members, all of whom are willing to swear 
that they are not agents for a candidate in the election

Some pieces of trivia from your only active (as far as I can see) Irish 
resident member of soc.motss

Cathal

---------------------------------------------
|     Cathal Kelly                             
|     Ollscoil Luimnigh (Uni. Limerick),    For the benefit of 
|     National Technological Park,          the non-Irish the
| IRL Limerick                              't' in 'Cathal' is       |
|                                           silent and the name      |
      (Ireland)                             is attached to the       |
                                            male of the species.     
       kellyc@ul.ie             --------------------------------------
Newsgroups: soc.motss,soc.bi