H/t to Dr. Robert Sklaroff and Civil_Truth for pointing me in the right direction.

Just when you think the Dems have thought of it all, another corrupt attempt at scamming the election process enters their heads. This time it involved PA US House #8, Bucks County, just north of Philadelphia. The race between Dem incumbent Patrick Murphy and his GOP contender Mike Fitzpatrick. When the Dems were fearing a loss of this seat they cooked up an elaborate scheme in an attempt to grab more Dem votes, their prey this time: absentee voters.

The scheme entailed a letter from the fictitious “Pennsylvania Voter Assistance Office” they conjured up, warning people “your vote may be in jeopardy if you don’t return the enclosed application by Oct. 20.” Only one little problem. The enclosed return envelope was directed to a Dem P.O. Box in Bristol, PA, not the county Board of Elections office. And if one didn’t respond the letter was mailed a second and third time. Anyone here see a problem with this? Alarm bells going off? Ballot and application tampering?

GOPer Fitzpatrick explains the “scheme” on this video, extremely well:

Key questions he asks are:

1. Who compiled and targeted the mailing list, and, why did they choose to prey on those specific voters?

2. Who paid for these bogus mailings? Where is it accounted on finance reports as the scheme appears to be initiated in August 2010.

3. For whom were the door knockers working, and, who coached them to break the rules? Who provided the door knockers with door-to-door lists? Where did they get the lists?

4. Where is a full accounting of what was done with all the applications they received? Did they throw out the applications of Independents and Republicans?

There also appeared to be fraudulent applications filled out by the Dems. The Bucks County Board of Elections and the county GOP office were alerted to this when the Board of Elections began receiving phone calls from agitated voters questioning this. Backed by the county GOP several concerned citizens filed a complaint with the Bucks County Board of Elections in Doylestown, copy below:

PA#8 Complaint

Page 7 shows the letter sent out by the fictitious “Pennsylvania Voter Assistance Office” signed by Frank S. Schultz, a Levittown resident who contributed $2,750 to Murphy’s 2008 campaign, according to Federal Election Commission records.

“The bogus letter seeks to trick voters into needlessly registering for absentee ballots and then, for reasons unknown, causes them to send those ballots to a post office box apparently controlled by the Democratic candidate for Congress,” the petition says.

Page 8 is the absentee application, and page 9 is the return envelope included showing the Bristol P.O. Box. Page 12 is a widely circulated e-mail from www.patrickmurphyforcongress.com outlining this project’s “goals.” Page 13 begins the sworn statements from several voters they did not sign their name to, or fill out an absentee ballot.

The remedy requested is that all absentee ballots be sequestered at the county courthouse in Doylestown until an investigation can be completed.

And wouldn’t you know it. The P.O. Box is signed for under the name of Tim Persico, Dem Murphy’s Campaign Manager. The GOP took this photo of the box through the post office window, and one can see a note attached to it “Tim Percico [his name is misspelled] or Paul Hampel only pick up the mail.” Hampel is a volunteer for the PA Democratic Committee.

When Persico was questioned about this “questionable” practice he replied the advantage of having all the ballots sent to a centralized location would allow the tracking of who had applied and who had received their ballots. Right, Persico. Don’t believe THAT ONE for a second. Patricia Poprick, Vice-chair of the Bucks County GOP had this to say about how the ballot scheme unravelled:

She believes this race was targeted because desperate Murphy felt it was close and she doesn’t believe this is happening in any other race in the state. Of course Murphy called for an end to the GOP challenge of the absentee ballots calling them “Fitzpatrick Republican Operatives.” The Board of Elections at the GOP’s request eventually decided to impound more than 8,500 absentee ballots and count them at the courthouse rather than distribute them to the polls to be counted on election night. Still at issue is whether or not Murphy knew of the “scheme” or it was just something cooked up by his campaign. Somehow this writer highly doubts he can claim he was unaware..

We do however have this commenter on a news piece although I have not been able to verify this.

“”Murphy deferred to the state Democratic committee on questions about the decisions to use the name of a fake agency and route applications through a post office box.”" Hey Murphy! The PRIVATE POST OFFICE BOX was only a few hundred feet from YOUR campaign office — NOT in Harrisburg!!!!

The state Democrat Committee didn’t set that up. YOU DID!!

You can’t even come clean even after lock-tight evidence proves your fraud.

You are truly an immature scam artist.

I did speak with Dr. Robert Sklaroff, a volunteer for the GOP and former Election Judge. He testified at a hearing and for those interested you can read his comments here.

Of all the voter fraud schemes I’ve seen this is one of the most worrisome. What kind of people think this stuff up? Let me guess. Those that follow “The Chicago Way.”

Fitzpatrick won the election by a wide margin and papers are reporting the GOP has dropped its bid to challenge 1700 absentee ballots, however Dr. Sklaroff tells me that’s not the case at all, that we will be hearing much more about this issue.

The case is still under investigation by various law enforcement officials, including the Bucks County DA. We need to see some people in handcuffs here guys.

And here’s a nice little tidbit for ya. Rahm Emanuel has chosen Murphy’s Chief of Staff, Scott Fairchild to head up his mayoral campaign in Chicago…All in the family.

Crossposted at Conservative Outlooks