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Seiffe writes about the very real specter of election fraud on Tuesday. "A counterfeit popular vote, perceived as fraudulent, would precipitate an unprecedented, genuine Constitutional crisis," says Seiffe. "What should the Republicans do if this happens?"

Friday, October 29, 2004

By Ralf Seiffe

If John Kerry captures the states I think he will, he’ll become president if he also wins either Ohio or Florida.

What would happen if he did win one or both of those states but soon afterward, unmistakable evidence of election fraud surfaced?

What if it became clear that Democrat operatives and their surrogates had registered enough phantoms to illegally tip the election?

Stealing next week’s election might not be as far-fetched as it seems.

In Florida, where the president won by 567 votes in 2000, some 60,000 absentee ballots have disappeared in Broward County. We know this because Republicans expecting them have complained. Democrat election officials say “they’re in the mail” but the Postal Service contradicts that claim.

Sympathetic lawyers have also loosed nine lawsuits in an attempt to overcome Florida’s requirements that voters be citizens, that they are who they say they are and that they not be felons. A federal judge, James L. King, has dismissed these suits on procedural reasons but will allow the Democrats to fix the defects and re-file their lawsuits.

The vote chiselers are also busy in every part of Ohio. Governor Taft says there may be more voters registered in four northern and central Ohio counties than there are adults living there.

The NAACP National Voter Fund coordinator operating in northwest Defiance, Ohio was reportedly trading rock cocaine for the brand new voter registrations of Mickey Mouse, Mary Poppins, Dick Tracy and Michael Jackson.

In southwest Cincinnati, the Enquirer reports that local election officials are investigating ACORN, the famous left wing activist group, for more suspicious registrations.

When asked about this situation, Diedre Murch, ACORN’s spokeswoman, claimed the group had an “extensive” fraud detection process. That’s about as credible as Claude Rains’ discovery of gambling at Rick’s Café Americain.

There are problems with other states but, if Florida or Ohio vote as they did in 2000, there appear to be enough fraudulent registrations to illegitimately recolor both states blue.

If so, Democrats would instantly declare themselves the victors next Tuesday and the Wednesday editions of the traditional media would dutifully report their “victory” as revealed truth. But even as even as Democrats celebrate, such a fraud would begin to unravel on the internet.

By week’s end, it’s conceivable that Kerry would have to switch from assembling a transition team to issuing instructions to his 10,000 lawyers.

A counterfeit popular vote, perceived as fraudulent, would precipitate an unprecedented, genuine Constitutional crisis.

What should the Republicans do if this happens?

On the one hand, any president pledges to support the Constitution, which means only one man, one vote. On the other, the rules for elections are supposedly the exclusive province of the states. Taking action against the states would have the unmistakable smell of bananas.

The founders anticipated such problems and left their instructions which include a Congressional showdown under Article II and Amendments XII and XX of the Constitution.

These instructions allow the House to pick the president and the Senate to “chuse” the VP after all other appeals have been exhausted.

Unfortunately, this method has not been tested since the late 19th century and never under the current rules. This uncertainty would arrest the economy and destroy the dollar.

Even with these constitutional imperatives, Democrats may accept nothing but the unchallenged popular vote. The transparent legal jousting over the 2000 election, the apparent low regard Democrats have for the Electoral College and Jimmy Carter’s righteous blessing of the Venezuelan election theft shows their expediency.

Add to that Kerry’s disingenuous campaign wind-up; he continues to peddle the thoroughly discredited Iraqi explosives story.

This “smarter and more sensitive” assault fails to injure its target but succeeds in dishonoring our troops. The New York Times, acting as an unregistered 527 organization, is enabling the challenger’s protracted dishonesty.

If Kerry will lie in the face of powerful, contrary evidence about the non-existent explosives, why would he suddenly develop scruples about a non-existent election victory?

The White House should be planning for this, now. The possibilities of an election stalemate based on fraud could become the most wrenching crisis in a generation, dwarfing even Watergate.

Regardless of the main character’s transgressions in that drama, it is worth remembering his example in another. When Democrats in Illinois and Texas stole the election in 1960, their bete noire, Richard Nixon quickly conceded specifically to avoid the kind of crisis to which we may be heading. It’s hard to believe that John Kerry, even faced with proof of election fraud, is capable of the same grace.

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Ralf Seiffe advises business start-ups and product launches from Chicago, Illinois and is a political analyst and columnist for the Illinois Leader.