A Stitch in Haste

Washington State:

Doris McFarland, 83, and Robert Holmgren, 59, each admitted in King County District Court that they forged the signatures of and cast ballots for their recently deceased spouses.

Each will have to pay $490 in fines and court fees but they won't spend any time in jail. Multiple voting is a gross misdemeanor that can carry up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine.

"My wife died just before this election," Holmgren told Judge Eileen Kato. "My judgment was clouded by the grief. I'm really sorry for what I did."

McFarland's lawyer, John Price, told the judge that she simply didn't know what to do with the extra absentee ballot after her husband of 63 years, Earl, passed away last October.

Um, throwing it away might have been a plan. "Clouded by grief"? Give me a break. These were conscious, intentional acts, and I'm not sure why forgery laws wouldn't also apply.

The first punishment for voter abuse should of course be permanent loss of the right to vote, as many states (properly in my opinion) do with convicted felons — see my previous post.

Anyway, this incident is a good excuse to remind readers about how serious dual voting can be in presidential elections. Specifically, the so-called "Snowbird Effect," in which retirees who have moved from Northeastern states to "retirement" states (or who maintain homes in both states) illegally vote in both states.

The best-documented example of snowbird voting occurs between New York City and Florida, among elderly voters (who overwhelmingly tend to vote Democrat). Had Al Gore narrowly won Florida (and the Presidency) in 2000 rather than narrowly losing it, it would have been a stolen election because so many snowbird votes for him would have been illegal and invalid.

As I have blogged previously:

This is probably the most underreported election story in years (does anyone actually read the Daily News outside of the Bronx?). But the bar has now been set, at 46,000 (and note that this number only reflects snowbirding between Florida and New York City, not the rest of the state). Any "unfair election" lamentations, especially from Democrats, that involve smaller numbers are brazen hypocrisy.

How to deter, detect and prevent snowbird voting remain difficult questions. But just because they're difficult questions doesn't mean that they should remain unasked and unanswered.

As the electorate ages and "retired mobility" increases, we should expect the pool of potential snowbird voters to only increase. They almost stole one presidential election. Are we going to wait until they actually steal another before the despicable, un-American practice is stopped?