Messenger Ballots: More Proof That Voter ID Laws Are Needed

By Tommy DeSeno

What’s a “messenger ballot?”  Excuse me if my answer is a bit sketchy, but I’m just learning about it from a group of bad guys who appear to be illegally exploiting it.

I don’t know if other states are doing this, the history of it, the need for it, etc., but here in New Jersey we are learning the perils of not having people show up to vote in person and present identification.

Apparently a “messenger ballot” is allowed when one person acts as a “messenger” for a voter, picks up forms for the voter to be allowed to vote by messenger, then votes for the voter by absentee ballot.

Gee, what could possibly go wrong?

Does the phrase “penchant for fraud” even cross the minds of legislatures when passing such a statute? Or, in a Democrat-controlled legislature like New Jersey, is fraud the goal?

Goal or not, it certainly seems to be the result in Asbury Park, a city poorer than most and more liberal than San Francisco (with a fraction of the feigned sophistication).

Residents of Asbury Park vote for their entire governing body (5 people) all at once, in an off year and in May — when no one is paying attention.

There are 22 people running this year – four “tickets” of 5 people and 2 independents.

With apologies to George Peppard and Mr. T, one of these tickets refers to itself as the “A-Team.” I refrain from calling them a Motley Crew for fear of having to apologize to other Motley Crews for the insult.

One A-Team candidate, Duanne Small, sports a resume with more incarcerations for gang-like offenses than the lead character in a 1970s “black-sploitation” movie.

Another A-Team candidate, Remond Palmer, was removed from the Board of Education by the State because of a prior cocaine conviction.

Worse than those two, Jim Keady abandoned his previous position on the Asbury Park City Council mid-term after impregnating a woman who wasn’t his wife and abruptly leaving town with her (then subsequently leaving her and coming back — but not to his wife).

With that many sinister characters in one place, if the prosecutor’s office wants to find impropriety involving messenger ballots, all they have to do is raid the campaign office of the “A-Team.”

Which they did Saturday.

According to an online report of The Asbury Park Sun:

“In the 2009 municipal election, no messenger ballots were requested whereas for this election, 336 messenger ballots have been requested, according to records from the election offices of the Monmouth County Clerk.”

Turns out that all the other candidates in Asbury Park have stated they are not involved in messenger ballots, but this A-Team has campaign staffers acting as messengers. Good grief.

Right now there are unconfirmed reports, not yet connected to any campaign, that someone has used the names of displaced Hurricane Sandy victims and registered them in addresses in Asbury Park that don’t actually exist. Double good grief.

This brings me to the need for voter ID laws. You know the problem.  The moment you try to have someone show ID to vote, like they have to show ID to catch a fish, the Democrats scream, “Racist! The evil Republican is trying to stop black people from voting!”

In 2013, the moment anyone hears the shout of the word “racist!” the media amplifies it, white people cower from it, black people believe it, and the heavy hammer of political correctness destroys any chance of a discussion on the merits of a proposal.

Truth is, Voter ID laws will protect the votes of all people, black and white, from being stolen by the likes of Asbury Park’s notorious “A-Team” and the other ACORN-like groups they emulate.

Here is an opportunity for those who favor fair elections to bring the issue of Voter ID to the forefront and discuss it with America using this “messenger vote” fraud in Asbury Park as the conversation starter.

If this were an issue liberals favored, the mainstream media would spread the story of the Asbury Park incident and the need for voter ID laws for us. They would frame it as a civil rights problem (white man Jim Keady exploiting poor black voters in Asbury Park).

We can’t rely on a fair shake from media, so we’ll have to do it ourselves. Try to get everyone talking about the need for voter ID laws to protect all voters of every color, with this unfortunate event in Asbury Park as the exemplar of what will happen to fair elections if we fail to do so.

Posted: May 6th, 2013 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: 2013 Election, Asbury Park, Voter Fraud, Voter ID Laws | Tags: A-Team, Duanne Small, Jim Keady, Redmond Palmer, Tommy DeSeno, Voter Fraud | 3 Comments »

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