San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee in Voter Fraud Controversy
San Francisco’s mayoral election race has been marred by some shocking voter fraud allegations, with video evidence very clearly showing ballot workers filling out forms and voting for Mayor Ed Lee.
The independent group, called the SF Neighbor Alliance, is being accused of setting up voting stations inside the Chinatown district and casting absentee ballots.
Cell-phone videos record the illegal going-ons, where workers wearing “Ed Head” T-shirts, hid the names of all candidates besides Lee, coercing elderly people to vote for him, and directly filled out ballots in favor of the incumbent mayor.
Speaking to Fox News, one of the witnesses, Malana Moberg, shared: "I noticed that someone who was working at that booth, who had an Ed Lee shirt on, fill in an absentee ballot on behalf of the voter, and I was immediately shocked and couldn't believe that someone would actually fill in the ballot. I thought it was probably illegal, and if not at the very least, unethical,"
Adam Keigwin, a campaign official for State Sen. Leland Yee, who is one of Lee's direct opponents, added:
"Individuals were marking ballots for elderly voters. They would literally mark the ballot, seal it, and put it in bags behind them. There are so many violations there, almost too numerous to mention,"
He also went on to question how many such incidents have been occurring around the city, and petitioned for action on behalf of an investigating committee. Yee has accused the group and the mayor of orchestrating a coordinated effort that aims to derail the election.
Seven candidates for the mayor’s position in San Francisco have claimed the allegations broke election laws and urged California state officials to take action. They jointly signed and sent a letter which calls for election monitors to be deployed, and warned that failing to act now will destroy voter confidence and place the entire voting system into question.
However, the case might not be as clear cut as expected. John Arntz, who is the director of the San Francisco City and County Department of Elections, has warned that there might not be much the state can do about the matter, since the workers are not official election employees and it was not a sanctioned polling site.
Lee has moved to distance himself from any connection with the SF Neighbor Alliance, claiming he has no involvement or prior knowledge of the group. He has also come out in support of any investigative actions that may be taken over the allegations, and called for stricter monitoring of the voting process.
