The presidential election is going to be decided in a few key swing states. And, within these swing states, the election results will likely be very close, as both campaigns focus all their resources there. The campaigns will not just focus their appeals on existing voters but will spend considerable energy identifying and registering new voters. The efforts of one Democrat-aligned company have raised serious questions about potential fraud and have sparked calls for a full investigation by the Romney campaign.
From Richmond Times-Dispatch:
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign is asking Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to launch an investigation into voter-registration forms that are being sent to Virginia residents and addressed to deceased relatives, children, family pets and others ineligible to vote.
The errant mailings from the Washington-based nonprofit group Voter Participation Center have befuddled many Virginia residents, leading to hundreds of complaints.
The organization has been mass-mailing the forms — pre-populated with key information such as names and addresses — to primarily Democratic-leaning voting blocs such as young adults, unmarried women, African-Americans and Latinos.
The Voter Participation Center has blamed the problem on “imperfections” in vendor lists, which isn’t unreasonable. But, they also say that they have mailed out over 200,000 registration forms, which have resulted in over 15,000 new registered voters.
The Romney campaign is right to ask for an investigation of these newly registered voters. If the mailing universe contained some number of names of people who were ineligible to register, and the process to register didn’t amount to much more than simply turning in the form, it is possible some of these registrations are illegal.
Close elections are hard-fought, emotional campaigns. It is critically important that the public can trust they are at least fair.