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Do absentee ballots increase the potential for vote fraud and corruption?
A case that might help shed light on that question is now unfolding in California’s Bell city, a low-income Latino municipality of 37,000 where fewer than 400 people voted in a 2005 election that opened the way for city officials to arrange huge increases in their own compensation.
Former city manager Robert Rizzo was paid more than $1.5 million a year in salary and benefits.
California Attorney General Jerry Brown, who is the Democratic candidate for governor, said Monday he is broadening his investigation of Bell officials to include potential absentee ballot abuse.
Brown said his office “has received several reports from residents of Bell indicating that city officials encouraged them to fill out absentee ballots and then collected the ballots. We have seen similar reports in the Los Angeles Times. If these allegations are true, this could be a serious violation of state law."
His statement said “improper procedures may have been followed by public officials in the very election that allowed the city to give out these outrageous salaries.” Brown referred to the 2005 election in which Bell converted to a charter city, which allowed city officials more leeway to increase their salaries.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Steven Cooley, a Republican who is running for the job Brown now has, is also investigating allegations of voter fraud and conflicts of interest in Bell.
The city has 9,395 registered voters, about 25 percent of its total population. In contrast, statewide about 46 percent of California’s residents are registered voters.
According to the Census, 88 percent of Bell’s residents speak a language other than English at home and 91 percent of residents are of Latino origin.
The case resembles one in 2003 in East Chicago, Indiana, where widespread fraud using absentee ballots led to several convictions. The East Chicago case was later cited by Justice John Paul Stevens in upholding Indiana’s voter identification law.
Schemes such as the one in East Chicago “demonstrate that not only is the risk of voter fraud real but that it could affect the outcome of a close election,” Stevens wrote in his opinion for the majority.
The Bell case allegedly involves city officials visiting voters’ homes to collect ballots.
California allows for permanent absentee voting in which people who could physically show up a polling place instead vote by mail. In California’s June primary, 58 percent of all ballots were cast by mail.
Could the Bell controversy have any spillover effect on elections in California this year?
Longtime Los Angeles elections expert Allen Hoffenblum said, “I don’t think so, other than making the voters even more cynical than they are now – if that’s possible.”
“The type of fraud being alleged in Bell is extraordinarily rare, and is best combated by the type of vigilance shown by those who have stood up to be counted,” said Matt Dunlap, Maine’s Secretary of State who is president of the National Association of Secretaries of State, the group representing the officials who administer elections in most states.
He said, “The balance between security and access is a delicate one; obviously, if you're concerned about the chance of any fraud at all regarding absentee ballots, then the solution might be to do away with them. But then, what about those folks who can't get to the polls? You wind up disenfranchising the many because of the possible activities of the few.”
Those who abuse absentee ballots “should be aggressively prosecuted so that the public doesn't lose faith in the process,” he said, noting that that’s what appears to be happening in California.
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I heard that all the people on tne City Council in Bell were Democrats
Say it's not true!!!!!!!!!
There are crooks everywhere.
In California, all mayors, city council members, and city attorneys seats are all officially non-partisan by state law. There are a few right-wing sites that are claiming that all of the Bell City council members are Democrats.
Yes, the leaders of Bell were Dems. A prime example of the abuse of CA local government. But, this isn't the level of abuse used by the Spending Party liberals in the CA State Government. Our dysfunctional state leaders cannot agree on a budget that is required by state law to be completed in June. Governor Hollywood is attempting to use layoffs to reduce cost in state gov. but is consistently over-ruled in court. State Employee UNIONS win.
We need to change our state moto from the Golden State to:
1. The State of Dysfunctional Legislators; 2.The Union Owned State; 3. The State where your vote will be overturned in court. Pick one.
Absentee voter faud is not rare. It is quite common. What is uncommon is prosecutions since quite often the local prosecutor is unwilling to prosecute for political reasons.
Is Chuckels Todd really a reporter?? Hey Chuckels ask real questions!!! What happens when the repuklicans lose what will it mean for the non stop destroy this POTUS THAT THE LEFT AND RIGHT ARE DOING!!!
Holy crap. I actually hope they do find evidence of voter fraud. The jerks that ripped the city off stand to keep HUGE pensions regardless of the fact that they no longer hold those offices. If criminally convicted they will surely lose them. I hope they clean the entire house. There is absolutely NO excuse for this.
This is just an incredibly disgusting story.
Common Sense Dude...
The highest paid con-artist in this bunch Robert Rizzo is a Republican from what I understand. I haven't checked out the rest of them. It doesn't really matter. Dem or Rep... this is outrageous and I hope to see some major jail time slammed down on all involved.
I agree, everyone of them should lose their pensions and spend some quality time in jail. I also heard that Rizzo is a republican. There's probably some of both.
Eris, "The highest paid con-artist in this bunch Robert Rizzo is a Republican from what I understand. I haven't checked out the rest of them. It doesn't really matter. Dem or Rep... this is outrageous and I hope to see some major jail time slammed down on all involved"
Rizzo is a democrat ripping off other democrats.
Chuck Todd A Day Late & A Dollar Short Here’s The Article On All The Corruption If You Missed It
California
Small Town of 40,000 Where One In 6 Lives In “Poverty” City manager Making $800,000 A year More Than The President & The Police Chief More Than The Commander Of Nearly 13,000 Member LABD Forces Resignations After The Press “Leaks” Their Salaries To The Public
Americans This Is What The Media/Press Should Be Doing Focusing On Doing Right By The American People Not Playing Politics For “Ratings”
Americans, This town is doing what all Americans should be doing Banning Together not Having Cultural Wars To Remove Those Who Serve At Our Pleasure and Don’t Do Right By The American People.
BELL, Calif. — Residents in this modest blue-collar Los Angeles suburb where one in six lives in poverty were angry: Their city manager was getting paid more than President Barack Obama and the police chief more than the commander of the nearly 13,000-member LAPD.
They demanded and got the manager, the chief and another high-salaried official to resign.
They looked for the culprits and found them in the very people they entrusted to lead their city of 40,000 people. Now, they're campaigning to boot them out of office.
Their mayor and three of their four council members, people they see every day at the grocery store or church, approved the contracts, and put an obscure measure on the ballot that allowed council members to pay themselves any amount of money.
And they did: collecting between $90,000 and $100,000 a year as part-time officials.
"This is America and everything should be transparent," plumber and longtime Bell resident Ralph Macias said.
In Bell, however, …………………not many people really paid attention. ………………………………….
The city of mostly small homes is like many American cities and towns: No newspaper covers them regularly, and the citizens spend what little free time they have with family and recreation.
A few who kept tabs on City Hall said they were suspicious because the officials were secretive, brusque and quick to act without explaining themselves.
"What caught us by surprise was the amount of money they were paying people," said Ali Saleh, who helped form the Bell Association to Stop the Abuse, whose acronym BASTA, translates to "Enough!" in Spanish
The salaries exploded into public view last week after a Los Angeles Times investigation, ……………………………based on California Public Records Act requests, showed that the city payroll was bloated with all sorts of six-figure salaries:
— Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo made $787,637 a year, getting a series of raises since being hired in 1993 at $72,000. President Obama makes $400,000.
— Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia made $376,288 a year.
— Police Chief Randy Adams earned $457,000. Hired just last year to oversee a force of fewer than 50 people, he was making 50 percent more than Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck's $307,000.
All three Bell officials resigned after a late-night meeting Thursday.
"To the residents of Bell, we apologize," Mayor Oscar Hernandez said.
Now, Hernandez and the council members may be next.
By law, the council would have had to approve the contracts in an open session, but several residents complained that officials are loathe to explain what they are doing and quick to race through matters at public meetings with little discussion.
The Times said Hernandez, Vice Mayor and Councilwoman Teresa Jacobo and Councilmen George Mirabal and Luis Artiga are paid $8,000 a year, plus about $8,000 a month for boards and commissions they sit on. The other council member, Lorenzo Velez, said he is only paid the base $8,000 salary.
Earlier in the week, both Hernandez and Artiga said they deserved their salaries, adding that in addition to council meetings twice a month they are constantly on call for city business.
"That would be obscene, to think we're getting paid for only two meetings a month," Artiga said. "But that's only half the story."
The residents' group is demanding that the big salaries be cut by 90 percent or that the officials resign.
If they don't resign, Saleh said, his group will initiate a recall. He gave the council until Monday's meeting to respond. In the meantime, organizers planned to paper Bell with 12,000 flyers over the weekend, urging people to attend the meeting.
City officials have declined to respond to the recall threat. A message left on City Hall's public information line was not returned nor were messages left for Hernandez at the grocery store he owns or on Artiga's cell phone.
The Los Angeles County district attorney's office and the state attorney general are looking into the salaries.
Artiga said earlier in the week that while some employees may be overpaid, no one, at least so far, has accused officials of stealing money or shaking down contractors. Instead, its officials boast of the city's $22.7 million budget surplus, its well-kept parks, clean streets and programs at the community center for people of all ages.
Still, the salary scandal has left residents suspicious. "You Think"?
"I think they're a bunch of crooks," said Macias as he left City Hall after picking up a permit to install a water heater. "They should all be investigated by the feds."
This Is An Awesome Example Of What Ordinary Americans Can Do If We pay Attention, Get Involved, And Research The Truth For Ourselves Culture Wars Only Serve To Hurt Us While Those In Power Continue To Take Advantage Of Us While We Let The Distractions Continue.
Great post. Thanks for reminding us of the details. I saw the reports before and found it hard to believe than NONE of the town's elected officials said "this is wrong"--blatant greed run amok.
Bell, California, is an example of what happens when voters do not pay attention or worse when they don't bother to vote. This is what Pres Obama means when he talks about change from the bottom up--WE must pay attention and check the facts, get involved and do whatever it takes to hold politicians accountable for not just what they say but what the actually do.
There's Been No Absolutely No Reporting or confirmation that all the people were DEMS!
Even so any Crook in government should be sent directly to jail
Unfortunately that's how lies get started and they take on a life of their own
It's time for the American People to wake up to the distortions, lies and distractions and do whats best for their families, get the facts, talk to others, read, read, read!
I am a poll worker so I have permanent absentee even though I get around just fine.
Somebody ought to check and see how many cars the CITY of LA has in their fleet for personal/business use including all the vans and trucks with this name and that dept name slapped on the side"Dept of This and Dept of That". I bet they don't even know but there sure are a lot of them driving around downtown LA I suspect they are in the thousands-not talking about police and fire vehicles but "city" vehicles. LA Times needs to check that out too
Oh by the way the average salary and benefit package for a federal employee is $134,000.00 per year. America has been very good to me. Let us bow to the wonders of marxism.
Its just a little flavor coming from south of the border called third world country fraud. Get used to it California its already state wide.
Check out small town America. Quitman, Brooks County, Georgia elections are under investigation for voter fraud. Seems over a hundred absentee ballots were all post marked within minutes of each other. Seems a bit "fishy" to me.
What's new? After the 1960 election a Cook County Illinois grand jury indicted 677 people on charges of election fraud. It was Cook County though, and Judge John M. Karns, a soldier in the Daley machine dismissed the charges. An editorial in the Chicago Tribune observed that when an election is stolen in Cook County, it stays stolen.
Growing up in Cook County was an education of politics, local government and staying out of that darn Cook County jail!!
Jezzzz…Dems or Repubs…it doesn’t matter..this is what happens when people get too much power with no checks or balances…but under all the anger…the people of Bell deserve some of the blame..only 25% of the people vote?
Hopefully this will motivate a few more to vote and research what they are voting on!!
I wonder if this city/town was going broke and looking to reduce police, fire and teaching positions to balance the budget and also asking for an increase in property taxes to make up the difference!