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Philly Election Board Worker Arrested for Voter Fraud

balloA Philadelphia Election Board worker was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly tampering with voting machines and electioneering inside the polls.

In quick response, Pennsylvania GOP’s Philadelphia area Executive Director Joe DeFelice commented on the arrest.

“This is not surprising to us in the least,” said DeFelice. “Such voter fraud and tampering has been an ongoing problem in Philadelphia for decades.”

The press release from the PA GOP was entitled, “No Kidding.”

“The Election Board is the first line in providing free and fair elections, and unfortunately, this is where we see the majority of our election-related issues.

“How can voters feel confident that their votes are being counted – and how can we ensure the integrity of any election – if we allow this type of tampering and fraud to continue in Philadelphia? And how can we curb this problem if our inspectors aren’t even allowed inside the building?,” DeFelice said.

The voter fraud issue in Pennsylvania has largely been focused on personal voter fraud and not so much on the integrity of Election Board workers. But DeFelice claims that biased opinions and corruption are rampant in Philadelphia polling places.

“Consider that in 2012 in Philadelphia, the Republican Party of PA, under my leadership, appointed 300 Minority Inspectors in divisions with few Republicans. Of the 300 Minority Inspectors, 100 were denied entry to polling places and subjected to racial intimidation despite having a Court Orders signed by President Judge Pam Dembe. National news outlets, as well as local, highlighted these stories prominently and it is this coverage that forced the General Assembly to hold election reform hearings in the State Government Committee specifically dealing with Election Board issues in Philadelphia.”

This type of voter fraud is more common across the country than impersonation fraud which is the type of crime that Voter ID laws aim to prevent.

“What today’s indictment confirms is what people who are serious about in-person election fraud have long known: actual fraud is rare, small in scale, patently obvious, and completely ineffective. Most importantly, it has nothing to do with whether voters are carrying photo IDs,” political law expert Adam Bonin told PoliticsPA.

“I’m glad to have participated with Mr. DeFelice in bipartisan efforts with Judge Dembe over the past year-plus to streamline the process for filling vacancies on election board, clarifying who has the legal right to sit on these boards, and to help ensure our elections are run safely and fairly.”

19 Responses

  1. there should be something done about the way things are reported, innocent people are made to look guilty when things are reported and posted in the news without consulting with all partys involved. it seems that as soon as they get some dirt to spread, it is quickly spread, and believed then your put on the defence to try to defuse the situation

  2. Terrible reporting! Rather than explain what the person allegedly did, you just block quote GOP press releases?

  3. I’m always glad to see it when anyone conducts themselves illegally at the polling places getting caught and convicted. But I have to laugh that any Republican, particularly in the city of Philadelphia, who starts pointing fingers at Democrats. Caging convictions, GOP operatives telling minorities that Election Day is on a Wednesday, attempts to disenfranchise the poor by writing restrictive election laws, and conservatives like James O’Keefe or Charles P. White committing felonies seems to be their problem more than Democrats’. Still, whoever does it, I’m grateful when they don’t get away with it.

  4. I grew up in a Democrat family and community in S Philly, voter fraud has been rampant since at least the 1960s when my grandfather (Democrat ward leader for 39th ward) used to use old age homes for voting to get the senile residents to vote easier..and here as a kid I thought he fundraised for the home because he was a humanitarian guy. Not to mention the people going in to vote in the names of dead people.

  5. My daughter and I work for a polling place in Philly, she is an elected official for the GOP there. We saw a neighbor festooned with Obama buttons come in to vote in 2008 and I had always been told people cannot enter the polling place with partisan buttons on, but the Dems there told us its allowed now. They said to me, “She works for the party, so its allowed”. Since when?

  6. I have seen election fraud going on in the 62nd ward 9th division with regards to a poll worker openly campaigning for Obama, the ballot signature books being torn apart by two other poll workers at the 62nd ward 9th division, all the activities were reported to committee of seventy, the district attorney’s office, the republican party of pa-Philadelphia division, led by joe defelice. This went on during November 2012’s General election! Made my statement to committee of seventy as well as all the other poll workers present that day!

  7. Atheist-
    “nuts” isn’t justifying what anyone did. He/she is pointing out that the type of “voter fraud” the GOP has been wasting tax payer dollars on with voterID is completely different than the type of fraud in this case: crimes committed by election official

    The voterID nonsense has always been about suppressing the vote. “nuts” is then pointing out that promoters of voterID will attempt to conflate the stories to confuse people about the actual issues.

  8. Are you nuts, so that somehow justifies what this election official did? Voting fraud is fraud, regardless of what anyone else is doing that you don’t approve of.

  9. Corbett has spent well over a million dollars trying to stop voters from voting. Now one person is charged. Not even convicted of anything that has to do with ID voting and you morons jump up and down screaming. See see. Get a life. People are homeless starving but well over a million tax Dollars spent to stop you from voting. Don’t be hoodwinked into this game.

  10. According to ABC story
    “The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office announced Thursday that 65-year-old Dianah Gregory has been charged with Fraud by Election Officers, Tampering with Records, Criminal Mischief, and Tampering with Voting Machines.”

    She votes out of Ward 28 Precinct 10.

  11. @behonest, I would hope Vince’s argument is that Voter ID wouldn’t be effective because we already have systematic issues with Philadelphia E-boards not actually doing their jobs.

  12. Vince- that was amazing. You took an instance of voter fraud being outed and made the article about how voter id laws are ineffective. Way to go. Gosh. I wouldn’t want to know anymore about how they were caught and how long this went on or anything.

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