Virginia is a key battleground state in this election, with polls showing Obama and McCain very close to each other in the polls.  My family has gotten many calls from political campaigns.  That includes my 18-month-old daughter Sarah.  The Obama campaign has repeatedly attempted to contact Sarah, as part of its get-out-the-vote-effort, despite my wife’s explanation that she is not old enough to vote.

I hope that no one has registered to vote in Sarah’s name.   I’ve called the Arlington County Office of Voter Registration to try to find out if she has been fraudulently registered to vote by an entity like the left-wing activist group ACORN, which has a long history of voter fraud and registering voters using the names of minors.  (When I called, I was instructed to leave a message, which I did).

In an effort to increase liberal turnout and influence the outcome of the election, Virginia state election officials appointed by Governor Tim Kaine have been disregarding state election laws, drawing objections even from electoral boards in liberal strongholds like Norfolk.  As the liberal Norfolk Virginian-Pilot reported,  

“Norfolk election officials on Friday reluctantly loosened procedures for registering college students to vote after protests from presidential candidate Barack Obama’s campaign and an admonishment from state election officials.  The Illinois senator’s campaign complained that the Norfolk registrar’s policy of sending a questionnaire to anyone applying to register from a college campus discouraged students from following through. The State Board of Elections asked general registrar Elisa J. Long to halt the practice.”

“The Norfolk Electoral Board agreed to that but said in a statement: ‘This compliance is with the understanding that the Board strongly feels that by doing so, we are out of compliance with Virginia Election Laws.’”

“Long said the questionnaire had been used to determine domicile and was based on suggested questions from the state elections office. Abode is address. ‘The frustration is that the code says you may ask questions to help you make the determination of domicile, yet now we’re being told we cannot use a questionnaire,’ Long said. ‘Domicile is a tricky question; we don’t consider any one thing,’ she said. Questions included whether the students pay out-of-state tuition, pay Virginia income taxes or have a Virginia driver’s license. Long said she does not know how a student’s residency status now will be determined.”

Some people have openly boasted of fraudulently voting in Virginia elections even while being registered to vote in another state as well.  One said, “I am a student at Old Dominion. I am registered to vote in two states. I own a house out of state, I rent in Virginia, and I have drivers licenses from both states . . . I go to school with many foreign students and I know two who are registered to vote, and they are not citizens.  I know Virginia gives out drivers licenses to thousands of illegal immigrants and it is not difficult to obtain the documentation to be able to vote.  I know the system cannot be fixed too, and honestly I don’t want it to. After 8 years of Bush we need change and a voice to represent those who are oppressed.”  Partisan manipulation of election law is occurring in other battleground states as well.