A strange tale from the New York Post today, which mostly caught my attention because I have some familiarity with a similar situation from earlier this year. It involves allegations of some people moving from politically demographic “safe states” into swing states in order to be able to cast votes in a tight election.
GOTHAM-TO-OHIO VOTE SCAM EYED
Four well-heeled New York Democrats are under investigation by an Ohio prosecutor for setting up a temporary home in the swing state – where two have already cast their ballots – just so that their votes will be counted there, The Post has learned.
The targets of the probe – including the daughter and son-in-law of a New York City real-estate titan, a former New York Sun reporter and a Bank of New York Mellon executive – are connected to Vote From Home, a Manhattan-based political action committee set up to get voters to the polls in Ohio, where residents are allowed to cast ballots 29 days before Election Day, investigators said.
The New Yorkers and nine other members from across the country are accused of packing themselves into a modest three-bedroom house in Columbus, waiting 30 days – and then registering, even though the Buckeye State is not their permanent residence.
As I said, this story might have passed by without notice except it sounds reminiscent of something I received a couple of times via e-mail this spring or early summer, along with one of my friends from out west of here. I live in the Southern Tier of Upstate New York, literally within sight of the Pennsylvania border. The rather strange e-mail I received dealt with a suggestion that people out in the Jamestown area (far to the west and near Ohio) consider moving temporarily over the border into the Buckeye State, and the title of it was something along the lines of “Kerry 2004 Ohio, never again.” It also noted that people in the Southern Tier could similarly move to the battleground state of Pennsylvania since Democratic votes were wasted in New York.
I discarded the e-mail and didn’t think any more of it until today. (I don’t keep my trash mail long enough, it seems and couldn’t find it this morning.) I’m on all sorts of mailing lists, but I’m not a Democrat. And even if I had any interest in such a scheme (which I don’t) I certainly do not enjoy the financial luxury of renting an apartment in PA while maintaining my home here. I recall thinking at the time – as I still do now – that it was unlikely that you could find enough people willing to take such an extreme action to significantly affect the vote totals even in a closely-divided state. In the case of the linked article, it seem that the dozen or so people in question didn’t move to Ohio just to vote, but went there to work on ‘Get Out the Vote’ efforts and then decided to register to vote there themselves.
Ohio’s laws on this matter are poorly written, as I read them. As the linked article notes, they specify some conditions which may be rather hard to nail down.
Under Ohio law, a person who comes to the state for “temporary purposes only,” without the intention of making it the “permanent place of abode” is not considered a resident. New permanent residents must live in Ohio 30 days before registering.
In the case of the New York City workers under suspicion, apparently they managed the 30 day waiting period. The tricky part is trying to convince a jury what some person’s intentions were concerning their future residency plans. Even if it seems “obvious to the casual observer” that they were only there for the election, it’s a bit of a gray line in terms of what jobs they might claim they would seek in Ohio once the election was concluded, etc.
I present this story only because of the interest it raises regarding those earlier e-mails. I still find it difficult to see how you could get the thousands of people needed to make a meaningful difference to make such a move, but it’s curious none the less.