Postal Vote Embarrassment In The US

Dog Taken Off Voter Rolls -- After Three Elections!A dog has been taken off voter rolls after receiving absentee ballots for three elections, said officials in King County, Washington.

Elections Director Sherril Huff said she cancelled voter registration Tuesday for Duncan M McDonald, the Australian shepherd-terrier mix owned by Jane K Balogh (pic).

Balogh, 66, registered her pet to protest a change in the law that she said made it too easy for non-citizens to cast ballots.

Balogh put her telephone in the dog's name, then used that as identification when she mailed in the registration form in April 2006. In November she wrote "VOID" across Duncan's ballot and returned it with an image of a paw print on the signature line.

An election official called and she admitted what she had done, but the dog still was sent absentee ballots for school bond elections in February and May.

"Quite frankly, the process did take too long, and it should have been addressed after the November election," said Bobbie Egan, an elections office spokeswoman.

County election procedures are being reviewed to provide speedier action "whenever fraudulent activity is apparent," Egan said.

The removal came three weeks after Balogh was charged in King County Superior Court with making a false or misleading statement to a public servant, a misdemeanor. A sheriff's investigator wrote that she admitted registering the dog under false pretenses "to make a point that anyone could vote, even an animal."

***** There is a lesson in the above report for the proponents of postal votes here in Malaysia.
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