Hundreds Of Potentially Fraudulent Voter Forms Filed
POSTED: 11:58 am MDT October 12, 2004
UPDATED: 12:01 pm MDT October 12, 2004
DENVER -- A review of voter registration forms in five counties has revealed hundreds of potentially fraudulent forms.A TV station reported Monday that it found 719 forms in Denver, Douglas, Adams, Boulder and Lake counties that had the wrong names, social security numbers and dates of births for voters. Many of the forms were turned in by voter registration drives which pay their workers based on the number of people they sign up. Some forms were found to be completely made up and other forms belong to real voters but have a few facts, like their precinct, changed -- a switch that could prevent the voters from casting regular ballots on Election Day.
"Everyone here at the commission has never seen anything like this. In the state we've never seen anything like this before," said Karon Hatchett, Denver clerk and recorder. In Boulder County, more than 2,000 voters have had eight or more changes to their registration forms made in recent months. In Douglas and Adams counties, several prisoners, including alleged child molester John Turner, have registered from behind bars. Kym Cason admitted to signing up three of her friends to vote 40 times to help her boyfriend, who earned $2 for each voter he signed up for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. She said she forged their signatures and filled out their information to the best of her knowledge. She also signed herself up to vote 25 times. "I was just helping out downtown. Everybody needs an extra dollar here now and then to make their quota for the day," she said ACORN's state director, Ross Fitzgerald, said his organization didn't encourage workers to commit fraud and that they were cooperating with investigators. Suspicious forms have been turned over to prosecutors. If voters discover their information has been changed when they go to the polls, they will still be allowed to vote using a provisional ballot. However under new voting rules, which are currently being challenged in court, people voting by provisional ballot will only be allowed to vote for president. Provisional ballots are given to voters whose eligibility is in question and are counted after it is verified.
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- August 20, 2004: Man Charged With Forging Voter Registration Forms
Copyright 2004 by TheDenverChannel.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.




