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> Myers acknowledged in court that on almost every Election Day, Myers transported Beren to the polling station to open the polls. During the drive to the polli

by darawk 4y ago

> Myers acknowledged in court that on almost every Election Day, Myers transported Beren to the polling station to open the polls. During the drive to the polling station, Myers would advise Beren which candidates he was supporting so that Beren knew which candidates should be receiving fraudulent votes. Inside the polling place and while the polls were open, Beren would advise actual in-person voters to support Myers’ candidates and also cast fraudulent votes in support of Myers’ preferred candidates on behalf of voters she knew would not or did not physically appear at the polls. > Beren and her accomplices from the Board of Elections would then falsify the polling books and the List of Voters and Party Enrollment for the 39th Ward, 2nd Division, by recording the names, party affiliation, and order of appearances for voters who had not physically appeared at the polling station to cast his or her ballot in the election. Beren took pains to ensure that the number of ballots cast on the machines was a reflection of the number of voters signed into the polling books and the List of Voters. After the polls closed on Election Day, Beren and her associates would falsely certify the results.

tptacek 4y ago
and also cast fraudulent votes in support of Myers’ preferred candidates on behalf of voters she knew would not or did not physically appear at the polls. Obviously, I believe this actually happened. But: how? What is Philadelphia not doing that we do in Chicago? You couldn't do this here; it's hard for me to even imagine how someone could walk into a precinct and cast multiple votes. And how would they cast their second and third vote? Do you give them a list of no-show registrations from the precinct? And then they just sign the pollbook multiple times?
- happyopossum 4y ago
  Unless you're checking IDs, yeah - a single person could drop in a dozen signatures that all look different enough to fool a poll taker. I don't see how you're so incredulous here - a person with access to ballots filled them out and literally stuffed them in a box, it's not difficult!
  - tptacek 4y ago
    They can't just make people up. They need to have the name and address of the registered voter who's voting. They can't just re-vote at the same precinct. The EJs will absolutely notice a person coming in and voting more than once. If that gets noticed a single time, the EJ calls the sheriff (in Cook County, at least). It takes, like, best case, 10-15 minutes to vote in a precinct. There are lines! How many votes can you cast this way? 10? 20? I'm not saying you couldn't manage to cast a fraudulent vote by doing this. I'm saying that your odds of influencing the election by doing it, while at the same time not guaranteeing you end up in prison for trying, are so low that my mind boggles that anyone would try.
    - Izkata 4y ago
      > They can't just make people up. They need to have the name and address of the registered voter who's voting. To quote further up: > and also cast fraudulent votes in support of Myers’ preferred candidates on behalf of voters she knew would not or did not physically appear at the polls. And: > They can't just re-vote at the same precinct. The EJs will absolutely notice a person coming in and voting more than once. If that gets noticed a single time, the EJ calls the sheriff (in Cook County, at least). From the article: > Beren, who was charged separately and pleaded guilty in October 2021, was the de facto Judge of Elections and effectively ran the polling places in her division by installing close associates to serve as members of the Board of Elections. The election judge was the one doing this, didn't have to get past anyone.
      - tptacek 4y ago
        There isn't one election judge. There's a team of 4-5 of them.
- tgb 4y ago
  I was a machine operator in the 2020 election in Philadelphia. It’s as you describe, everyone there (4-6 people) have to sign off at the end of the night on the totals. Two people are specifically one from each of the major parties, so it should be bipartisan. The numbers from the machine have to add up to the number of voters in the book. You’d need multiple accomplices to hide the mismatch, at least three people I think? Even then, you’d have to write down the names of who “voted” so it could come to light if any of those voters checked and saw that they had an unexpected vote. The machines did change so it may have been easier before.
  - tgb 4y ago
    And further if these people were apparently also telling voters who to vote for, then they must have had all the election officials there in on it. Supporting a candidate like that is absolutely not allowed for the poll workers so this was blatant and didn’t care about whether it was uncovered. Any voter could have reported that behavior at any point. It was done out in the open.

by darawk 4y ago

tptacek 4y ago

and also cast fraudulent votes in support of Myers’ preferred candidates on behalf of voters she knew would not or did not physically appear at the polls. Obviously, I believe this actually happened. But: how? What is Philadelphia not doing that we do in Chicago? You couldn't do this here; it's hard for me to even imagine how someone could walk into a precinct and cast multiple votes. And how would they cast their second and third vote? Do you give them a list of no-show registrations from the precinct? And then they just sign the pollbook multiple times?

happyopossum 4y ago
Unless you're checking IDs, yeah - a single person could drop in a dozen signatures that all look different enough to fool a poll taker. I don't see how you're so incredulous here - a person with access to ballots filled them out and literally stuffed them in a box, it's not difficult!
- tptacek 4y ago
  They can't just make people up. They need to have the name and address of the registered voter who's voting. They can't just re-vote at the same precinct. The EJs will absolutely notice a person coming in and voting more than once. If that gets noticed a single time, the EJ calls the sheriff (in Cook County, at least). It takes, like, best case, 10-15 minutes to vote in a precinct. There are lines! How many votes can you cast this way? 10? 20? I'm not saying you couldn't manage to cast a fraudulent vote by doing this. I'm saying that your odds of influencing the election by doing it, while at the same time not guaranteeing you end up in prison for trying, are so low that my mind boggles that anyone would try.
  - Izkata 4y ago
    > They can't just make people up. They need to have the name and address of the registered voter who's voting. To quote further up: > and also cast fraudulent votes in support of Myers’ preferred candidates on behalf of voters she knew would not or did not physically appear at the polls. And: > They can't just re-vote at the same precinct. The EJs will absolutely notice a person coming in and voting more than once. If that gets noticed a single time, the EJ calls the sheriff (in Cook County, at least). From the article: > Beren, who was charged separately and pleaded guilty in October 2021, was the de facto Judge of Elections and effectively ran the polling places in her division by installing close associates to serve as members of the Board of Elections. The election judge was the one doing this, didn't have to get past anyone.
    - tptacek 4y ago
      There isn't one election judge. There's a team of 4-5 of them.
tgb 4y ago
I was a machine operator in the 2020 election in Philadelphia. It’s as you describe, everyone there (4-6 people) have to sign off at the end of the night on the totals. Two people are specifically one from each of the major parties, so it should be bipartisan. The numbers from the machine have to add up to the number of voters in the book. You’d need multiple accomplices to hide the mismatch, at least three people I think? Even then, you’d have to write down the names of who “voted” so it could come to light if any of those voters checked and saw that they had an unexpected vote. The machines did change so it may have been easier before.
- tgb 4y ago
  And further if these people were apparently also telling voters who to vote for, then they must have had all the election officials there in on it. Supporting a candidate like that is absolutely not allowed for the poll workers so this was blatant and didn’t care about whether it was uncovered. Any voter could have reported that behavior at any point. It was done out in the open.