Maryland’s U.S. attorney’s office is readying a task force to review allegations of election fraud as officials gear up for a chaotic turnout at the polls Nov. 4.
A team of federal prosecutors and FBI agents will be on duty while the polls are open and will respond to complaints before Election Day, said U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein. The task force isn’t new — the office has established one almost every election — and complaints are few, but Rosenstein said the high stakes and strong emotions of this year’s election could provoke allegations of wrongdoing.
“It’s better to be prepared for these things,” said his spokeswoman, Marcia Murphy.
Election fraud has already made its way into the national spotlight as one advocacy group comes under fire for allegedly submitting voter registration applications with duplicate and fake names in about a dozen states.
But officials from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now said they stand by their submissions, and insist voter fraud allegations are more about politics than reality. ACORN leaders said their voter registration drives in Maryland have been extremely limited while they concentrate on helping families facing foreclosure.
“Voter fraud doesn’t happen” at ACORN,” said Stuart Katzenberg, the group’s head organizer in Maryland. “The reality is, we quality control every application that comes into our office and 99 percent are good. The remaining 1 percent that we catch, we turn over to local election boards to investigate.”
In Maryland, more than 250,000 new voters have registered since Jan. 1, and some election experts are predicting two-hour lines at some locations. The sheer volume has created problems already, said Thomas Longnecker, a Catonsville resident who said the local election board never processed his 63-year-old wife’s first-ever application to vote.
Longnecker said his wife, Barbara, filled out an application at a community festival in September, but never received her registration card.
“She’s never voted before, but this time she felt like she ought to,” Thomas Longnecker said. “I wonder how many more people signed up but won’t have their right to vote.”
Rosenstein is urging anyone with complaints to contact the task force at 410-265-8080.
E-mail election fraud complaints to [email protected]
