By Associated Press
Published June 18th 2008
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - Alabama Secretary of State Beth Chapman has formed a new unit in her office to deal with reports of voter fraud.
A spokeswoman for Chapman, Emily Thompson, said Wednesday the unit will receive reports of suspected voter fraud from the public and turn those reports over to the Alabama attorney general's office.
Thompson said Chapman decided to form the new unit after receiving reports of possible illegal activities at polling places during the June 3 party primaries.
The attorney general's office seized voting records in Perry, Bullock and Lowndes counties while investigating reports of voting problems during the primaries.
Thompson said the new voter fraud unit would be staffed with people already working in Chapman's legal and elections divisions.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A spokeswoman for Chapman, Emily Thompson, said Wednesday the unit will receive reports of suspected voter fraud from the public and turn those reports over to the Alabama attorney general's office.
Thompson said Chapman decided to form the new unit after receiving reports of possible illegal activities at polling places during the June 3 party primaries.
The attorney general's office seized voting records in Perry, Bullock and Lowndes counties while investigating reports of voting problems during the primaries.
Thompson said the new voter fraud unit would be staffed with people already working in Chapman's legal and elections divisions.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers. Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections; the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.