Voter Registration Scams Surround Medical Marijuana Petition October 26, 2004
News Summary
Students on several college campuses nationwide have reported voter registration scams in which their polling place or party affiliation were changed after they signed a petition to support the legalization of medical marijuana, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Oct. 23.A number of students at the University of Pittsburgh who signed a medical-marijuana petition said they had their party registrations and polling places switched. Some students said they were told to sign and address a section of a voterregistration form to verify their identity. It was later discovered that the rest of the form was completed by someone else, who registered the students as Republicans.
Other students said they never completed a voter-registration form. It is suspected that someone else copied their names, addresses, and other information from the petition onto the form.
Additional scams were reported by hundreds of students at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and numerous other colleges in eastern Pennsylvania. Colleges in Oregon and Florida reported similar scams.
"My polling place was switched to the basement of an apartment building in south Oakland," said Margaret Talarico, a University of Pittsburgh student who usually votes at home in Upper St. Clair.
She added that a large number of students signed the marijuana petition on their way across campus. "It's going to confuse a lot of votes," said Talarico. "They got a ton of people signed."
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