The Soprano State: Tactics out of the Obama Playbook

Elections and politics are a cottage industry in the Mile Square City of Hoboken NJ. If there were such a stat, the hometown of Old Blue Eyes would have the highest political per capita. 2009-2010 has been a tumultuous string of election cycles, exacerbated by the resignation of an elected mayor after only one month in office. And each election brings a new controversy over campaign tactics.

The recent special election in Hoboken's Fourth Ward was no exception. The winning campaign capitalized on the Soprano State's new mail-in ballot law, stuffing the ballot box with over 500 mail-in ballots. The winning campaign took approximately ninety per cent of the mail-in votes. The proud winning candidate declared in the Hoboken Patch: "We took a play right out of the Barack Obama playbook . . . "

Maybe he should clear such comments with the White House communications director because the victory is now under a cloud of voter fraud.

Why?

The usually laissez-faire Hudson County Board of Elections excluded approximately twenty percent of the total mail-in ballots submitted due to chain-of-custody issues and signature issues. That same board has referred a number of ballots to the Hudson County Prosecutor for criminal investigation. And yet to be addressed is the allegation that 79 Fourth Ward residents were paid to vote by mail.

The fact that the Hudson County Board of Elections excluded twenty per cent of the mail-in ballots and referred two for criminal investigation speaks volumes.

These are the tactics that the Left has used to keep an iron grip on urban counties such as Hudson County. This is not an isolated case in New Jersey. Voter fraud is endemic. There have been criminal prosecutions of voter fraud in the urban areas of Atlantic and Essex Counties. It looks now like there may be one in Hudson.

From: Tim Howes