A ghostly, ghastly Friday, indeed

I know it’s Friday, and nobody wants to read a long blog post. But this is worth it. I found this on wftv’s web page. This was actually written. And published. By a person.

Personally, I think it should be called WTF TV. It’s not so much the content. It’s Haloween, so it shouldn’t surprise us that there are ghosts rising from their graves to cast votes in this all-important election. That happens. What is far more surprising is that this was actually posted by a Florida TV station. If you ever wondered the intelligence of our citizenry, look no further than the sources of their information.

I present you with Dead People Voting Throughout Florida, published Thursday, October 30, 2008, on Channel 9's wftv.com: (I have not altered anything from the original content).

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. –

Thousands of dead Floridians are registered to vote and some in Central Florida had ballots cast in their names long after their deaths.

"That is scary," said Jim Branch.

Branch's mother Marjorie died in 2004 but someone voted for her in 2006. Branch had tried to get his mother removed from the voter rolls.

"It was much easier for me calling Social Security and taking her off not getting any more checks here, than it was that (voter registration)," he sid.

County records show James Santiago voted in the 2006 general election. He too, was dead. His wife, Joann, sees this as an open invitation for voter fraud.

"I think it leaves it open to sign his name, during an election, especially an important one like this year," said Joann.

Channel Nine discovered 1,636 registered voters in Central Florida are dead.

"This is what makes Supervisors of Elections lose sleep at night," said Volusia County Supervisor of Elections Ann McFall.

McFall said it used to be easy to clear out voter rolls.

"We had two people who did nothing but cut obituary notices out of the papers," she said.

"That's how we found out someone died."

But 2002's Help America Vote act, which made it easier to register to vote, also made it more difficult to remove voters from the rolls. But Orange County Election Supervisor

Bill Cowles doesn't worry. "I think the mechanisms are in place. There's enough checks and balances in place," he said.

However, 90 days before the election, voter rolls can't be changed and if the state doesn't tell elections offices a voter has died, that voter can be on the rolls for years.

"The minute I said he was deceased, they should've made note, they should've done whatever they had to do, the people sitting behind that table, they should have done something," said Joann Santiago

Elections supervisors say they are pushing the state to allow them to accept death certificates from families as reasonable evidence to remove dead voters from the rolls.

If this doesn’t brighten (sarcastically) your Friday, I’m not sure what will. I’m cutting out of work early today. I’ve got some redistributionist regulatory work to do.