Name that Party--Vote fraud in Alabama

NY Times:

Federal and state authorities are looking into accusations of voting fraud in three largely black counties of Alabama, including Perry and Lowndes Counties, which played a historic role in the struggle for black voting rights in the 1960s.

In May, a local citizens group gathered affidavits detailing several cases in which at least one Democratic county official paid citizens for their votes, or encouraged them to vote multiple times. The affidavits were presented to state officials in Montgomery, the capital, and after the June 3 primary, the Alabama attorney general, Troy King, a Republican, seized voting records from the primary election in Bullock, Lowndes and Perry Counties.

The United States Department of Justice posted a team of observers to monitor the primary, and the Alabama secretary of state, Beth Chapman, a Republican, reported hearing from one of the federal observers that a candidate had “free rein” of a polling place, where campaigning is prohibited, passing out sample ballots and instructing voters how to vote.

Ms. Chapman also raised questions about the possible abuse of absentee ballots. In the election on June 3, a quarter of the voters here, 1,114, cast absentee ballots, a percentage that is six times the state average and a figure that Ms. Chapman called “astronomical.” In Jefferson County, which includes Birmingham and has 60 times Perry County’s population of 10,600, there were 365 absentee ballots.

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The Democracy Defense League, a biracial citizens group that has been critical of voting abuses in the area for the last three years, submitted affidavits to Mr. King and federal officials saying that some people voted six times in the same election.

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Some Democrats here say the inquiries are motivated by racism and partisanship.

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Not all Democrats agree with the accusation of partisanship.

The Perry County district attorney, Michael W. Jackson, a Democrat and the first black to be elected to the post, called early in June for a federal investigation into possible voting irregularities, particularly focusing on absentee ballots.

“Just the volume, the sheer number of it,” Mr. Jackson said in an interview. “For there to be that many, it’s suspicious. When you get the absentee ballots, it’s a lot easier to pull that off, forge their names, vote for them.”

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The integrity of the vote is certainly in question. It appears to be such a massive problem that it is not clear that voter ID would be that effective because of the systematic abuse implied by the facts. The voter ID would in theory stop a guy from voting six times in the same election, but that assumes the election officials have integrity. That appears to be in doubt in these counties.

Fortunately, it appears the local District Attorney recognizes the problem. If he joins with the state and federal officials in investigating the vote and helps them prosecute violations perhaps they can find the truth.