In line with the article referenced below, does anyone have any experience investigating and/or prosecuting election fraud involving multiple votes by the same individual? If so, one of your fellow prosecutors (not from Harris County, btw) would like to know the best way to go about such an investigation -- you can help him out by replying with your experience here or by emailing me (edmonds/at/TDCAA/dot/com) your contact information to pass along to the requestor.

Thanks!

-----------------------------

DA gets 1,148 names to check in illegal-voting probe
Questionable cases arose from March 4 primary

By CAROLYN FEIBEL
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
March 26, 2008

Robert Duran Jr. said he walked into the wrong room to vote in the March 4 primary. But he said he should not be indicted for it.

"It was an innocent mistake," said Duran, who works for an oil services company. "I just failed to read the sign."

Duran's name appeared on a list of "questionable voting cases" released Tuesday by Harris County Clerk Beverly Kaufman. The 1,148 individuals may have voted illegally, Kaufman said. She turned the list over to the district attorney's office for investigation and possible indictment.

For the rest of the article, click HERE.

Is the problem that a voter is suspected of voting in more than one precinct on election day, or voting both early and on election day? The second type of fraud should be quite easy to prove as both lists of persons voting are sorted by precinct and alphabetically. But, you should also be able to sort the overall lists of voters by name and pick up on double voting. The roster lists should have signatures to compare (to see if the same voter name/number was used by the same persons or different persons).

I would be interested to know other's interpretations of "criminal conduct in connection with the election" as used in 273.001 of the Election Code and also whether anyone has experience with the "adjoining county" provision of 273.024.

I would suggest that the two statues do not imply that filing the appropriate affidavits in an adjoining county does not necessarily invoke the mandatory provision that an investigation launch.

If filing two affidavits immediately requires the DA to investigate, then the accuser could simply pick any adjoining county and shop for a DA of their choice.

As forum shopping is a No-no, I can only conclude that DA shopping with affidavits to invoke a mandatory investigation would also be improper.