So much out-of-state help raises alarm on vote fraud
By Flynn McRoberts and Rick Pearson, Chicago Tribune staff reporters. January 18, 2004
INDIANOLA, Iowa -- Wesley Woods, a Methodist church camp south of here, is the temporary home of more than 100 Howard Dean supporters who have traveled to Iowa to boost voter turnout for him in Monday's caucuses.
Camp Wesley Woods also will play host to one of those caucuses. Even a Dean-leaning voter like Rick Spellerberg can see the potential for mischief.
"I am surprised that they're there--because it's a caucus site," said Spellerberg, a math professor at nearby Simpson College, as he gazed from his driveway across farm fields to the camp site a couple of miles away. But "it would be impossible to pull that off around here. Everybody knows everybody."
The Dean campaign has vehemently denied any plan to have its flood of out-of-state volunteers participate in Monday's caucuses, a charge leveled recently by the rival camp of Rep. Richard Gephardt.
"They're well aware of the fact that they're here to help out but not actually caucus," a Dean spokeswoman said.
Hot line established
Such assurances aside, the unprecedented number of non-Iowans streaming into the state in recent days--not just for Dean but for Gephardt and other candidates--has campaigns and others watching closely. State party officials have established a hot line for local organizers to report suspected infiltrators instantly.
The conditions are ripe for shenanigans.
As always, no identification is required for one to vote at a caucus. To encourage turnout at the time-consuming events, officials allow people to register when they show up on caucus night. No matter how stiff the penalty--up to 5 years in prison and a $7,500 fine for submitting a fraudulent voter-registration application--there is nothing to keep an overeager out-of-state campaign volunteer from giving a false name and address.
The Iowa Democratic Party has told caucus chairmen and chairwomen to prepare for a record turnout. And recent polls indicate the race tightening to a four-way sprint, expanding beyond Dean and Gephardt to include Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and John Edwards of North Carolina.
Some fear that combination of factors could mean more dirty tricks.
Risky proposition
It would be risky for any campaign to organize such an effort, given the potential fallout for the candidate and the reputation of the caucuses.
"If you're a campaign, you don't want that allegation made because that taints the campaign, that taints the candidate," said Polk County Atty. John Sarcone. "That's why I think the campaigns will make every effort to keep their out-of-state people away from even thinking about doing that."
Besides, he said, "In the rural counties, everyone knows who their neighbors are."
Sarcone made headlines four years ago when he charged Dan Savage, an author and sex advice columnist, with voter fraud. Savage, who lives in Seattle, had posed as a supporter of Republican candidate Gary Bauer, attended a caucus and then wrote about it for Salon.com.
"I think it's interesting that Iowa officials are running around saying this wouldn't happen because in Iowa everyone knows their neighbor and anyone from out of state who showed up at a caucus would immediately be spotted as a non-Iowan and chucked out," said Savage, who pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and served 50 hours of community service.
"I managed to do it four years ago, and I did it at an old folks home. I was the only who wasn't being wheeled into the room by a campaign volunteer, and nobody said `boo' to me."
The Gephardt campaign has been the most vocal in protesting about Dean's out-of-state volunteers. Steve Murphy, Gephardt's campaign manager, said Dean aides "dismissed" their concerns about such supporters taking part in the caucuses.
"We're going to be prepared at each and every caucus location to protect the integrity of the Iowa Democratic caucuses," Murphy said. "We're going to be very diligent about trying to uncover out-of-staters who try to vote."
Party officials insist the integrity of the caucuses cannot be undermined.
`Statistically' insignificant
"Even a doomsday scenario of hundreds and hundreds of cheaters registering to vote and participating in the caucus statistically can't affect the statewide scenario enough by even a percentage point," said Jean Hessburg, executive director of the Iowa Democratic Party.
That strikes Savage as absurd.
"We just had a presidential race decided by [about] 300 votes," he said. "They're just whistling past the graveyard of 2000."
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