Crosscut’s Arizona bureau chief Ted van Dyk was in Prescott, AZ over Memorial Day weekend, where he may have gotten a bigger scoop than he realizes. According to van Dyk, none other than Sarah Palin made an appearance Friday night at Prescott’s historic Courthouse Square, and it sure does sound like Palin crossed the line from electioneering to election fraud:
A friend of ours, the insurgent/reform candidate for mayor, running against the good-ole-boy GOP incumbent, approached Palin and asked that she sign her mayoral petititon.
Palin did so (even though, as a non-resident, her signature would of course be disqualified).
As Darryl at my alma mater HA points out, Palin’s signature would not just be disqualified, it would be illegal. Indeed, according to Title 16 of the Arizona Revised Statutes:
16-1020. Signing of petitions; violation; classification
A person […] who is not at the time of signing a qualified elector entitled to vote at the election initiated by the petition, is guilty of a class 1 misdemeanor.
I suppose, perhaps, Palin is a “qualified elector,” in that she has quietly switched her residence and voter registration to Arizona, which would be awfully big news. Though I’d wager Palin is not a “qualified elector,” and thus committed election fraud, which should be even bigger news. Ignorance of the law is no excuse, and all that.
And considering that Republican controlled legislatures are in the process of narrowing voting rights nationwide in the name of cracking down on nonexistent election fraud, you’d think this proven case of fraud committed by a GOP standard bearer would garner a little national attention, right?
Who the fuck cares?
Coming back to Prescott for summers just got that much less appealing.
LIke AZ needs another fucking idiotic nincompoop like Sarah Failin’ living there. At least the recall petition for the racist, Mormon, neo-Nazi supporting, liar-and-crook/legislator Russell Pearce had enough signatures that perhaps they can rid themselves of him. Luckily this happened in Yavapai County rather than Maricopa County, so if this is something that the county can go after, the probability of that is a tad higher than if it were Maricopa County, home of Joe Arpaio and his merry band of crooks.
Yet another reason not to go back to my home state… sorry NAU, but no homecoming (and Tequila Sunrise Services!) again this year.
This is silly Goldy. She probably thought she was just signing a ordinary petition. No way they could prove the intent necessary for a criminal charge. Maybe deserved half a throw away line in some other post…
At least for her, mental incompetence is a valid excuse….
@1, @4,
Right. Sorry to distract you from the important news about Rep. Weiner’s weiner. Meanwhile, hypocritical Republicans nationwide are busy using claims of election fraud to make it difficult for the poor, the old, and others to vote, but God forbid we should hold them accountable for obeying the existing laws.
My bad.
This matters because if you have held and/or intend to hold a position in a branch of the government, you ought to know how the process works. This is a part of the mechanics of the process that I expect people within the system to understand. An ordinary citizen may make a mistake like that, and it’s not a big deal. But a person holding office, having held office, or who intends to hold office – someone who has a position that interacts with such laws – ought to know them and follow them.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2011/05…
@8, buying a house doesn’t establish residency, especially not in a week’s time. There’s no way in hell to vote she’s registered in AZ yet.
Goldy, Glody, Goldy…
You silly goose,
don’t you know by now that republicans are above the rules, because they’re such “real Americans”
For Example:
When republicans have a fetishist reverence for the founding fathers, that’s good, but the Presidents father was bad because he was anti-colonist (against the British no less, it’s bad that he thought a country should be independent of Britain)
When a Rap singer sings a song about killing cops that’s bad (so bad in fact that the President becomes bad just by having him in the white house) But when Sharon Angle talks about “second amendment solutions” or Ted Nugent says that the President should “suck on his machine gun, that’s good.
consider that John Kerry and Oliver Stone are both decorated war heroes, but are “un-manly and unpatriotic traitors” but Rush Limbaugh, and Michael Medved are both cowardly draft dodgers and therefore patriotic macho men.
when will you learn…
This should be national news, absolutely. Of course, our sycophantic media would never want to be perceived as being mean to a conservative, especially an allegedly attractive one, so another pass will be given to the proto-fascist Palin.
Dear god, I wish to hell there really was a ‘liberal media’.
Besides Goldy, I mean.
Ummm… not that I care, and especially not that I give a shit about Palin, but I’m wondering just when the election she signed the petition for would be held. Because, according to what you quoted, it seems like if she’ll be able to vote in that election then, then it might be legal to sign that petition now.
Otherwise, not so much.
IOKIYW
It’s OK If You’re White
Hey, fuck you too Goldy. @6 You are the one with the microphone wasting it on this today instead of the massive structural attacks the the Republicans are engineering right now, and real crimes they are committing right now with intent. Palin is a unavoidable fucking energy diversion and you know it, or should know it.
On the other hand, you are awesome and appreciated, so that is a friendly respectful “fuck you.”
@13, read the law quoted: “at the time of signing”.
Just another example of IOKIYAR. As they’ve proven time and again, they simply cannot be held to the same standards of conduct they demand from the rest of us, because that would be unpatriotic, un-American, and the terrorists would win.
Or, um, something like that…
I am in favor of applying the Bush Doctrine to all Republicans as they clearly pose a very real threat to the continuation of the republic.
Arguing about Sarah Palin? What a waste
of time.
Purge the dead Democrats VOTING in Chigago, then we’ll go after the live out of state Republicans SIGNING petitions in Crosscut. Um-K?
@20, Prove to me that there are dead Democrats voting in Chicago, and then I’ll take you seriously, asshole. K?
@16 yeah, but read this: entitled to vote at the election initiated by the petition.
Look. I don’t know. I don’t live in Arizona, and I’m not a lawyer. From a purely logic standpoint, it’s not the best written piece of law I’ve seen.
One way to read it is that if you’ll be eligible to vote in the election, you’re okay to sign the petition. Those are two different times. The time of signing and the time of the election. I’m reading it as you don’t have to be eligible to vote UNTIL the election and you’re reading it as you have to be eligible NOW to vote in that election if it was held TODAY.
I really hope you’re right. I’d love to see Palin charged with electoral fraud. Even if my reading of the law is right, she could still be charged, if the candidate’s petition she signed was for a district that she’s not going to be eligible to vote in.
If you dig really deep, you might find out that her bus traveled, at times, at as much as 8 miles over the speed limit. Heavy, heavy stuff, indeed.
In the meantime, go right on ignoring Obama’s signing an extension of the Patriot Act, fighting against revisions to decrease civil liberties violations. And who needs to hear abou the most recent violent deaths of innocent men, women, and children in Afghanistan from NATO forces? That stuff’s a bummer!
Right. So it’s okay for republicans all over the country to try to make election laws tougher in an attempt to disenfranchise low income and minority voters, but we shouldn’t apply those very same laws to Palin because why?
As much as I’d love to see her cause a shitstorm of her own doing, she didn’t illegally VOTE, she just signed a petition. The title quoted categorizes VOTING in the election FOLLOWING (initiated by) a petition as illegal, not signing a petition she wasn’t supposed to.
@25,
Did you click through the link and read the appropriate section? It defines knowingly signing a petition while not a qualified elector as a class 1 misdemeanor. It has nothing to do with voting.
Brooklyn Reader @ 22,
You are a fucking sniveling moron.
First…you cannot read it as “that if you’ll be eligible to vote in the election, you’re okay to sign the petition” because the WORDS DON’T SAY THAT. The words are, “A person […] who is not at the time of signing a qualified elector entitled to vote at the election initiated by the petition, is guilty of a class 1 misdemeanor.” Pretty! fucking! clear!
Secondly, Sarah Palin will not be a qualified elector entitled to vote in Prescott considering the house bought by a holding company on her behalf is in Scottsdale. Let me spell it out: A Scottsdale voter is not eligible to vote for a Prescott mayor. Any questions?
Now go clean yourself up…your sniveling has made a rather disgusting mess of you.
Ballard @ 25,
You fucking dope. Goldy used the words “Election Fraud” not “Voter Fraud”.
There is a reason for that. Hmmmm….Any hypotheses on that, Squirt?
(Sorry…don’t bother answering. I didn’t mean to put you on the spot.)
@21
Oh please Bitch! Everyone knows there are more un-dead voters in Chicago than there are dead jews in Auswitch! An actual reporter wouldn’t have to look long or hard to dig a few up… Here’s a freebee: Chicago voter Berry T. Stevens (1927-2008) was issued an application for ballot in 2010.
Wow, I didn’t know I could still get shocked over internet comments but as an person with actual “dead Jews in Auswitch” family I hope you choke on a pretzel.
Fuck you.
She’s also using the money from her political action committee – SaraPAC – to pay for her bus, even though she’s not campaigning…..
At least she can’t claim to see Mexico from her (new) mansion; the pollution in Phoenix has gotten so bad sometimes even the local mountain ranges are lost in the brown cloud.
@29) Failing to purge dead people from the voting rolls does not necessarily indicate voter fraud. Did someone cast a ballot in Mr. Stevens’ name after he was dead? If so, that would be voter fraud. If not, it’s just a case of a bureaucracy that’s behind in updating its paperwork.
But wait, if she’s an Arizona resident, then she can’t legally have McCain be her Vice Presidential candidate. Won’t he be heart-broken at the elimination of the chance that he won’t get to run with her again?
@29:
Link please, or you just pulled that out of your ass…
@34
http://www.marinacityonline.com/news/vot…
@35
You might want to read this before making any more baseless claims, you might want to read up a little further on the voting rolls of Illinois. JonC pretty much nailed it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/21…
Also, just another tidbit. From 2002-2005 the Bush White House made a major investigative effort through the DOJ to prove that voter fraud was rampant throughout the country.
The results – a total of 38 cases – of which 14 were thrown out. Of the remaining 24, only 2 were cases of people fraudulently attempting to vote as someone else.
Those are the facts there Skippy.
@9: “Oh please, she was just caught up in the moment. Give the poor woman a break, or at least play by the same standard as if she was a dem.”
Go fuck yourself, I don’t want dems committing crimes either. I have much higher standards for people I respect.
@37
Then I’m guessing you must be outraged about this whole “Weiner” thing… I assume you will be calling for him to step down so we can hold a special election to replace him Chris Lee style?
Right?
@38 Least scandalous “scandal” ever! A & F ads are far racier. No skin. No minors. No one claiming harassment. No aggrieved spouses or girlfriends giving press conferences. No Craig’s List shenanigans. No assumed names or misrepresentations. No claims of legal violations, other than the possibility of hacker/fraud against the Congressman.
Go fuck yourself.
@39
Lots of conflicting allegations from Wiener (it’s fraud! hacker! hoax!) with no police report (it’s not illegal to lie to the press or the people, but lie to the police and ya got a problem) and no denial from him that it’s his crotch in the shot.
There’s a lot more here than meets the eye, and where there is smoke there is fire.
Go fuck yourself.
@40 Let’s say he did it. So the fuck what? There’s still no there there. And, I have two words for you: Andrew Breitbart. That fucking lying sack of shit just makes shit up; he’s nothing but a partisan character assassin and I don’t know why he gets any air or eyeballs after getting caught out twice so far. Anything he’s crowing about is probably flat-out bullshit.
Fuck you.
@41
I don’t know or follow Andrew Breitbart, and have no idea what the fuck your talking about. My only source on Weiner is Weiner via the series of bizarre interviews he’s done lately.
Fuck you.
You’re not your
Lot of haters on this site… I will go elsewhere to get thoughtful, insightful news, emphasis on “news,” and not spittle-infused ranting.