Scottsdale couple indicted for voter fraud

Turns out the years of Republican hysteria over imagined but rampant (oh-so-rampant) voter fraud by Mexicans and Democrats, warranting all kinds of restrictive laws on voter registration, identification at the polls and worse, has a basis in fact.

Well, except for the fact that it doesn't involve people from Mexico.  Or Democrats.

From the Arizona Republic -

Two Scottsdale residents have been charged with voter fraud after a cross-search of voter rolls in Arizona and Nevada revealed they had voted once in each state in the November 2008 general election, according the Secretary of State's Office.

Peter Canova and Gina Thi Canova were charged March 4 with 15 counts of voter fraud, including false registrations, illegal voting and filing false instruments, according to Maricopa County Superior Court documents.

As readers can see from the above story, the Canovas aren't from Mexico, they're from Nevada, the home of Sharron "Second Amendment Remedies" Angle and Sen. John "I'll Use My Parents To Funnel Hush Money To My Girlfriend And Her Husband, Who Is Also My Close Friend" Ensign.

What readers can't see from the above story, but can be gleaned from a check of voter registration records is that Peter Canova is a registered Republican.

One of the charges involves Gina Canova and use of a fake name, so her partisan registration status is murkier and warrants further research.

At least one good thing has come out of this already.

From a press release from Ken Bennett, Arizona's Secretary of State (emphasis mine) -

“When we find the rare instance of voter fraud, rest assured we are vigorously prosecuting the offenders to the fullest extent of the law."

Either he's being honest about the prevalence of voter fraud, or he's down-playing it because the alleged perpetrators in this case aren't the typical boogeymen in Republican tall tales.

Either way, however, he's on record as acknowledging an already well-documented fact - incidents of actual voter fraud are few and far between.


More info:

The case number in Maricopa County Superior Court is CR2011-005543.  The current defense attorney of record is Alfred Donau.

The Canovas face 15 counts between them -

8 for illegal voting - 3 for Peter, 5 for Gina

5 for filing a false instrument - 2 for Peter, 3 for Gina

2 for false registration - 1 count each


I attempted to search the Douglas County (Nevada) website for more information, but it seems to be down.