Voter-ID backer catches Dems in the act

In the debate over requiring photo identification to vote, advocates claim it will help prevent voter fraud, while opponents dismiss fraud as too infrequent to justify such laws.

So imagine the surprise of a North Carolina Republican and voter-ID proponent when he reportedly caught the attorney suing the state to overturn its voter-ID rules violating election law.

Molotov Mitchell, also a WND video columnist, is running as the GOP nominee for North Carolina State Senate District 16 against incumbent Democrat Josh Stein. Stein's father, Adam Stein, is part of a team of attorneys suing the state to overturn its voter-ID law, set to go into effect in 2016.

A new video released by Mitchell purports to show a polling place with signs clearly marked forbidding the distribution of election materials, but a photo reveals Adam Stein well beyond the signs handing out voter guides.

"Two Republican candidates were there witnessing him handing out those flyers," Mitchell told WND. "A Senate candidate, Mary Lopez Carter, took the picture because she saw him standing there handing out voter guides. She didn't know it was Adam Stein until her husband asked the guy his name and then [Stein] started bragging about his son, Josh.

"In addition," Mitchell said, "another Democrat there with Stein contacted Carter about how disappointed he was that this video is out there of Adam Stein under the overhang handing out voter guides. He inadvertently confirmed that was Adam Stein and those were voter guides in his hand.

"I wish she would have responded by saying, 'I'm disappointed the guy suing our state over voter-ID laws is so brazen as to stand out there violating electioneering laws at the same time,'" Mitchell said.

In the video Mitchell created, he pressed the point even further.

"[Adam Stein] tells us that removing the voter-ID requirement won't enable more voter fraud, there's nothing to worry about," Molotov commented. "But I'm a little suspicious when I hear that coming from a guy who's already breaking voting laws."

Mitchell's video further points to evidence of rampant voter fraud already demonstrated in North Carolina.

For example, WRAL-TV in Raleigh reports North Carolina's Board of Elections found over 35,000 cases of people who voted in North Carolina in 2012 whose names and birthdates match those who voted in other states in the same election. In some of the cases, votes were cast under the names of those who were already dead.

And according to the Voter Integrity Project, the North Carolina voter rolls contain over 700,000 "phantom voters," names registered to vote at addresses where they don't actually live.

Jay DeLancy, founder and director of the Voter Integrity Project, explained to WND how those "phantoms" could be used to commit voter fraud.

"Without voter ID," DeLancy said, "anyone who walks into a polling place who can correctly recite the name and address of a registered voter, they will hand that person a ballot, no questions asked.

"The fact is Bill Clinton created a law that has caused surplus registrations on the North Carolina roll of over 700,000 names – that's 10 percent of our voter roll – people who no longer live at those addresses and no longer realize that they're registered at those addresses," he continued. "What I'm worried about is someone stealing those identities, just like they used to steal votes of dead people."

In an ironic twist, Mitchell invited DeLancy to his home to find out if any "phantom" voters were registered at his address, and DeLancy found one: a "Barbara Jo Allen."

"All Barbara Jo Allen has to do is walk into a poll, give them her name and my address and they will give her a ballot right there," Mitchell told WND.

"I think the evidence is overwhelming that voter fraud is a real concern in North Carolina," he continued. "First we discovered 35,000 voters who had identical birth dates and other pertinent personal information on voter rolls in other states. Then we find out that there's more than 700,000 people who have the wrong address listed on the voter rolls. The fact that we have the better part of a million people putting the wrong addresses down on the voter rolls should give people pause. There's definitely something worth investigating here.

"It all boils down to the common sense solution of presenting an ID when we vote," Mitchell concludes. "Requiring an ID at the polls is the least painful, least invasive, most common sense solution to real voter fraud in North Carolina."