Accusations grow of vote-buying Mexico election

OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press

Updated 06:17 p.m., Tuesday, July 3, 2012



  • A man holds up a sign that reads in Spanish "No to electoral fraud" outside a hotel where Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), gave a news conference in Mexico City, Monday, July 2, 2012. After official results showed Enrique Pena Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) winning 38 per cent of the vote with more than 92 per cent of the votes counted, Lopez Obrador has not conceded Sunday’s elections, telling his supporters Monday evening that, “We can’t accept a fraudulent result,” a reference to his allegations that Pena Nieto exceeded campaign spending limits, bought votes in some states and benefited from favorable coverage in Mexico’s semi-monopolized television industry. (Alexandre Meneghini / AP)



MEXICO CITY (AP) — Thousands of people rushed to stores on Tuesday to redeem pre-paid gift cards they said were given them by the party that won Mexico's presidency, inflaming accusations that the election was marred by massive vote-buying.


At least a few cardholders were angry, complaining they didn't get as much as promised, or that their cards weren't working. Neighbors at one store in a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Mexico City said the unusually large crowds had prevented them from doing their daily shopping.

Some of those lined up to use their gift cards said they got them for supporting the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, whose candidate Enrique Pena Nieto won Sunday's election, according to the preliminary official vote count. Some wore red T-shirts and baseball caps with Pena Nieto's name printed in white.

Maria Salazar, a 20-year-old university student, came with her 70-year-old father, Antonio Salazar, to cash three gift cards.

"They gave us the cards in the name of the PRI and Rep. Hector Pedroza (a PRI congressional candidate), and they said they were counting on our vote," Maria Salazar said outside the store, as she carried plastic shopping bags packed with toilet paper, cooking oil, rice, saltine crackers and instant noodle soups.
Her father carried another two packed grocery bags and her 8-year-old nephew carried another.

"They told us they were worth 500 pesos ($37.50), but when we got to the check-out, they were only worth 100 rotten pesos, ($7.50)" Salazar said.
Both she and her father said they had been told to turn in a photocopy of their voter ID card in order to get the gift cards.

Another woman interviewed outside the same Soriana grocery store also complained her card had only 100 pesos ($7.50) in credit.

"For helping them with votes and all ... they gave us a card for supporting them, and all that for 100 pesos," said the woman, who gave only her first name, Josefina, for fear of reprisals. She said she got the card for supporting Pena Nieto, but complained that "100 pesos lasts you about five minutes."

Inside the store, such long lines formed at card-reading machines as people tried to find the balances on their cards. Some grew angry and shouted insults against Pena Nieto.

Regular shoppers were vexed at the long lines. "I was going to buy bread right now, but you can see, the lines are tremendous, you can't even get in," said Maria Garcia Lobato.

Pena Nieto's campaign and the PRI press office said they had no immediate comment, and the press representative of the Soriana grocery store chain did not immediately respond to phone calls. In the final days of the campaign, PRI officials denied similar allegations that the party distributed pre-paid cash cards from a local bank.

On the Friday before the vote, the leftist Democratic Revolution Party — whose candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador came in second — issued a statement accompanied by photos of dozens of the Soriana cards, saying they had been distributed by a PRI-affiliated union, and it filed a complaint to electoral authorities.
Under Mexican election law, giving voters gifts is not a crime unless the gift is meant to condition or influence their votes. Also, the cost of such gifts must be reported to authorities, and cannot exceed campaign spending limits. Violations of those rules are usually punished with fines, but are not usually considered ground for annulling the elections.

On Tuesday, Alfredo Figueroa, a council member of the oversight agency known as the Federal Electoral Institute, said authorities are investigating the Soriana card complaint. Members of the institute have said they were aware of attempts to engage in vote buying.

Figueroa also said that irregularities in vote tallies may eventually lead to the opening and re-counting of votes from as many as 50,000 polling stations, about one-third of the 143,000 involved in Sunday's vote.

But on Tuesday, Lopez Obrador said his team had detected irregularities in 113,855 polling places, and called for a much wider recount. "This is a scandal ... They bought millions of votes," Lopez Obrador said, referring to the PRI. "Clearly, they far exceeded campaign spending limits ... this is a national embarrassment," he told a news conference.

Lopez Obrador has refused to accept the preliminary vote tallies, saying the election campaign was marred by overspending and favorable treatment for Pena Nieto by Mexico's semi-monopolized television industry.

Many also questioned why pre-election polls showed Pena Nieto with a double-digit lead, roughly twice as large as the margin he really won by. With 99 percent of the vote tallied in the preliminary count, Lopez Obrador trailed by just six percentage points.

The narrower-than-expected margin is fueling suspicion among Lopez Obrador's followers about the fairness of the vote, and he refused Monday night to concede defeat, just as he did when he lost a razor-thin race in the 2006 presidential race and set off months of political unrest. Although this time, he has not called his followers into the streets to protest.

Lopez Obrador argued from the start of the campaign that pollsters were manipulating surveys to to promote the idea that the PRI candidate was far out in front.

Pollsters deny that, saying they believe some voters switched to Lopez Obrador in the final week, a period when publication of new polls is banned by law.
Lopez Obrador said he would not accept the preliminary election results reported by the Federal Elections Institute and would wait until Wednesday, when the official results are to be announced, before deciding what he will do.
"We will not accept a fraudulent result," Lopez Obrador said.

Read more: Accusations grow of vote-buying Mexico election - Times Union



Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Harry Reid has been offering free food and, according to other reports, some Democratic allies such as teachers' unions are offering gift cards in ret


Democrats-in-Desperation-Mode
"win it outright"
By Jon Ralston · October 26, 2010

As Sharron Angle's campaign attorney, I am sorry to report that the Democrats and their cronies are up to their same old tricks, of trying to manipulate the election in hopes of skewing the results in their favor.

Two days ago, the Democratic Secretary of State announced that voters can be provided "free food" at "voter turnout events." Harry Reid has been offering free food and, according to other reports, some Democratic allies such as teachers' unions are offering gift cards in return for a vote for Reid.

Before we were even able to document the reported infractions to report to the authorities, the Democrat Secretary of State slammed the door shut on preventing this behavior and issued a public statement permitting these ACORN-style tactics. THESE are the kinds of shenanigans that can turn this race.

Harry Reid intends to steal this election if he can't win it outright. As a result, we need to deploy literally dozens of election law attorneys and poll watchers to combat these tactics at a cost of nearly $80,000. That's over and above our current budget. We need to raise $80,000 and we need to do it RIGHT NOW, because even as I am writing this, Harry Reid and his Machine are trying to steal this election. I'm sorry that we have to come to you yet again and ask for you to reach deep and contribute, but we must.

Understand, EVERYTHING we have worked for in the last year could be destroyed by dirty tricks and criminal acts in the next 8 days. As Sharron's first line of defense on these matters I am absolutely committed to making sure this won't happen.

What Harry Reid is doing is clearly illegal. Nevada law (NRS 293.700) provides that, “A person who bribes, offers to bribe, or use and other corrupt means, directly or indirectly, to influence any elector in giving his or her vote or to deter the elector from giving it is guilty of a category D felony and shall be punished as provided in NRS 193.130.”

We've seen evidence of this sort of voter 'enticement' by groups such as ACORN - where, in 2008, two ACORN workers in Milwaukee were accused of offering pre-paid gasoline cards or restaurant gift cards to people in exchange for registration.

John Fund wrote in his book Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy, cited reports from the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader (South Dakota) and the election in 2004, where certain residents were quoted saying that "people on the streets were saying you go vote, they would give you gas money, $10, maybe a pack of cigarettes..."

Now, this week in Las Vegas, at our election hotline, we received reports that some teachers' union representatives were offering Starbucks cards to people to get them to vote for Harry Reid. It is even more disturbing and may be possible that they are using their influence and authority as educators to entice students on behalf of Reid.

Here’s the bottom line: when the powerful are threatened, they will do anything to retain their position. It's clear now that Harry Reid's campaign is even willing to skirt the laws of Nevada to do it.

Is there any question that they will do the same on Election Day?

Will you help us raise this $80,000 today? With it we can fight the election-stealing tactics of Harry Reid and his corrupt cronies.

The right to vote is a precious one - and it carries with it somber responsibilities. The Democrats' willingness to allow voters to be enticed with a promise of any thing of value is a debasement of the process- and it may just destroy everything we've worked for.

Please send an urgent contribution so our work will not be in vain. We’re going to win this race as long as we don’t let Harry Reid steal it. Can you help us today?

Sincerely,
Cleta Mitchell
Counsel to Friends of Sharron Angle
Republican Nominee for U.S. Senate, Nevada
Angle campaign attorney: Reid "intends to steal this election if he can't win it outright" - Politics: Ralston's Flash - Las Vegas Sun
P.S. I've been in this business a long time. I have never before been so convinced that a candidate would reach so low in order to be victorious.

Truth On Target: Harry Reid has been offering free food and, according to other reports, some Democratic allies such as teachers' unions are offering gift cards in ret
Report: Sharron Angle Files Voter Intimidation Complaint Against Harry Reid

by Ray Rahman | 6:54 pm, November 2nd, 2010
» 8 comments

The polls have yet to close in Nevada, but it looks there are some allegations of foul play. Already! Politco reports that the Sharron Angle campaign has filed a complaint against the Harry Reid campaign. Angle is accusing the Senate Majority Leader of illegal voter intimidation.


According to Politico:
Supervisors were instructed to track down employees who hadn’t voted and find out why, according to e-mails obtained by reporter and conservative blogger Elizabeth Crum.


Reid’s campaign offered money and buses to get the workers to the polls, proposed that Reid personally intervene and told the bosses at Harrah’s to “put a headlock” on supervisors to make sure they got workers out to vote, according to the e-mails between an unnamed Reid staffer and Harrah’s executives. A casino executive distributed a spreadsheet with the names of employees and asked supervisors to track whether they’d voted.


Angle lawyer Cleta Mitchell decried what she called “union intimidation tactics” and called on the Justice Department to investigate possible election-law violations.
Check back for more updates on the Reid-Angle race
Sharron Angle - Harry Reid Voter Intimidation | Nevada Race | Mediaite
This last one is especially telling since the first bill Reid introduced after the election was an internet gambling bill that would benefit "established" gaming houses.