Payday lenders may come up short despite signing up deceased voters & others
Initial reports from Ohio's Boards of Elections suggest that the payday lenders may come up a little short in their first attempt to qualify Issue 5 for the November ballot. The payday lenders need 241,365 valid signatures. They turned in approximately 422,000 signatures on August 31st, but validity rates across the state are hovering around or below the rate that would be required to reach the 241,365 signatures.
The payday lenders appear unwilling to play by the rules, as a Plain Dealer story today quotes Montgomery County election officials as saying that potential fraud may be at work in the Dayton area. From the Plain Dealer:
"There are a lot of deceased voters that appeared to sign," said Montgomery County Board of Election head Steven Harsman. "We have already turned information on several people over to the county prosecutor's office for potential prosecution."
Read the Plain Dealer article here: http://blog.cleveland.com/openers/2008/09/payday_lenders_falling_short_t.html
Other county investigations are under way with one in Hardin County centering on an individual who says his signature may have been falsified on the payday lending petitions. Investigators say he's not alone. Read the article here: http://www.wfin.com/localnews201.asp?id=1377&storyno=9
Evidently this is not a new tactic, but one that has been utilized by some of the payday lenders' signature gatherers in the past. See this report from the Ballot Strategy Center:
/documents/Arno%20Report.pdf
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