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Politics

Las Vegas Columnist Meets Noncitizens Who Say Union Pressured Them to Register Then Cast Vote

Nov. 5, 2012 8:35am Sharona Schwartz

In his weekly column for the “Las Vegas Review-Journal,” writer Glenn Cook has been examining the problems of voter fraud, including felons, the deceased, and noncitizens registering to vote and casting ballots.

This weekend, he wrote about two such noncitizens who tell him they were pressured by their union, Culinary Local 226, to illegally register to vote and then cast ballots. Fearing reprisal from the union and deportation by immigration authorities, the two spoke to Cook as long as he agreed not to identify them. While they speak a modicum of English, the two say they didn’t understand the forms they were completing. He writes:

They say the Culinary official who registered them to vote didn’t tell them what they were signing and didn’t ask whether they were citizens. The immigrants said they trusted that the union official’s request was routine, thought nothing of it and went about their work.

Then the election drew closer. Then the Culinary canvassers started seeking them out and ordering them to go vote.

One of the immigrants was visited at home by a Culinary representative and said the operative made threats of deportation if no ballot was cast.

They didn’t understand how, as noncitizens, they could be registered to vote if it’s illegal for them to vote in a U.S. election. They didn’t understand that, upon being signed up, not only is their registration public record, but the record of whether they’ve voted is public as well.

Cook writes: “One of the immigrants validated my worst fears about Nevada’s weak voter registration standards and voting safeguards,” telling the reporter “There are others,” that is, other noncitizens in the union that are registered to vote. He writes:

The question, now that early voting is over and Election Day is just two days away, is how many of these ineligible voters have done the Culinary’s bidding and submitted ballots, whether out of ignorance or fear, and how many have the knowledge and courage to follow the law and stay away from the polls.

In Nevada you never have to prove you’re a citizen to register to vote or cast a ballot. Forget about showing government-issued photo identification at the polls, as several states now require. You don’t have to show a photo ID at any point in the process. The immigrants I met could vote Tuesday just by showing a Culinary health insurance card and a power bill.

Cook asked Yvanna Cancela, political director for the Culinary Local 226, about the allegations.

“This is very, very serious,” she said. “No one would train anyone to register noncitizens or threaten registered voters in any way.”

She said if a noncitizen were registered to vote by accident, and if they told a Culinary canvasser they weren’t eligible to vote, canvassers are trained to have the person fill out a form to revoke their registration with the county. That form is immediately submitted to the county.

Cook reminds his readers of the serious and very real implications of fraudulent voting. Nevada is a battleground state that not only can decide who is elected president of the United States but could also hold the key to a Democratic or Republican majority in the Senate.

Providing more insight into the issue of noncitizen and illegal alien participation in the election process, Matthew Vadum of FrontPage Magazine writes about the extensive get-out-the-vote effort being waged by illegals largely for the benefit of Democrats. In his Monday article titled Obama’s Army of Illegal Election Workers, Vadum writes:

Democrats have enlisted thousands of young illegal immigrants to drag their supporters to the polls on Election Day tomorrow.

These get-out-the-vote workers may or may not be breaking the law by helping with voter mobilization. Because the workers are already unlawfully present in the United States, presumably all employment they engage in –including electioneering— already violates laws against unauthorized employment.

He cites a story in the Wall Street Journal examining the issue, which said:

Thousands of illegal-immigrant youths are at the forefront of national efforts to get immigrant and Latino citizens to the polls next week, the latest demonstration of the increasingly organized and vocal group’s power.

In swing states like Florida, Ohio and Colorado, the young people—often referred to as Dreamers after the failed Dream Act legislation that would have offered them a path to citizenship—are running phone banks, going door to door and approaching students on college campuses to encourage voting. They also are active in California, a Democratic stronghold, and Texas, where Republicans have the edge.

Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform which favors limits on immigration levels tells Vadum: “For people who aren’t supposed to be in the country in the first place to be deployed for partisan advantage is the last straw.”

“’The strategic deployment’ of illegal immigrants who benefit from the Obama administration program is a ‘corruption of the political process,’” he said.

(H/T: FrontPage Magazine)

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Comments (50)

Rowgue
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:37am
The fact that a union even has a political director is all you need to know. They’re in it up to their necks just like every other union.

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- turkey13
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:47am
  How do you think Harry Reid overcame being behind by double digits and turned them aound in 2010. If the Republician had won the unions would have been put under control.
  
  “The penaty good men pay for indifference to public affairs, is to be ruled by evil men.” – Plato
  
  Report this comment
- Detroit paperboy
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 10:11am
  It was called the Soviet UNION for a reason…….all Commies …….
  
  Report this comment
- ComradeAdam
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 10:16am
  Even with the union influence and intimidation they had to shut off the lights and add votes for Harry Reid to win. Keep your cameras ready on election day.
  
  Report this comment
- rickc34
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 10:34am
  Boycott Vegas and save your money.
  
  Report this comment
- WEBWITHDEB
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 11:21am
  Years ago I was privy to a lot of what goes on in the casinos, including the culinary departments. I wonder if Obama goes to Vegas so often because he likes their spit in his food?
  
  Report this comment
- keepthefaith
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 11:42am
  They need to take a list of all the union members and find the non-citizens and check to see who voted. Then they need to cast out their ballot and the unions that participated need to be prosecuted.
  
  Report this comment
Oneirishman
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:35am
This is our last chance to save our country. If you don’t vote you are the problem.

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Dushman Kush
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:31am
Were these unfortunates pressured to “Vote Early and Vote Often”? Shouldn’t this have been included in Mr. Cook’s musings?

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- Ilikepeople
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:41am
  Well early voting should have never been allowed to happen in America (because voting is a privilege, and people are generally excited about having a privilege), but your first mistake was making voting [a right], because people don’t exercise rights because they think it’s always going to be there.
  
  Report this comment
Tigress1
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:31am
Take your camera with you when you vote tomorrow. That way if you see any funny business going on you will have actual EVIDENCE in the form of pictures/video. BE PREPARED.

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- 702TruthSeeker
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 7:50pm
  exactly what i was thinking, planning on recording my entire voting process (in henderson, nv)
  
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Ilikepeople
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:29am
The odd thing about Americans and it makes me think of Hurricane Sandy is that when Americans don’t get something from the government or it doesn’t work like a well oiled machine people blame Republicans, and suddenly all government workers are unto Republicans, but when it works like a well oiled machine, and they get handouts from the government they mechanically credit Democrats.

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- Ilikepeople
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:37am
  American citizens allowed the minds of American citizens to be destroyed, and their thoughts travel like water taking the easiest path.
  
  Report this comment
gyro
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:28am
If they are giving away free stuff count me in

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Moozmom
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:28am
And those involved in this travesty? How about arrest, jail, trial, and then to the big house for 5 to 10 years? No tv, computers, phones, nothing. Meals, bed, work, religious instruction, courses in the constitution and civics.

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dadsrootbeer
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:24am
No, let me put on my shocked face. I am sure Eric Holder will be all over this just like the black panther case in Phili in 2010.

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Proverbs17-12NLT
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:12am
Amazing what a free obamaphone will buy you these days.

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- HKS
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:23am
  Yes and there is a tax on your phone bill to pay for it.
  
  “Remember Benghazi”
  
  Report this comment
GrayPanther
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:07am
Communism has been active in labor unions from west coast seaports to east coast garment workers. A closer relationship with the Marxist controlled Democrat party has tightened the grip on political funding and dirty tricks. A “real” attorney general in Washington would fight to keep these forces at bay. We have to hope the United Nations inspectors will come to Nevada and catch the bad guys. Yea, right.

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Florida_firefighter
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:07am
@ Tri-ox. Not all non-citizens are illegals. I have been in the country now for 5 years, and am a legal permanent resident. I am just days away from being sworn in as a citizen, which is unfortunate, because I would love to vote for Romney. But I will just have to sit this one out, and vote to re-elect Romney in 2016.

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stotlaat
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:06am
If there were no devil, there’d be no unions. But there is, and there are.

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- LoneRanger26
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 5:05pm
  Great comment, and I agree!
  
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Rock_Paper_Bullets
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:05am
This is EXACTLY why we need to enforce our nations Citizenship Laws…then they would “have had a clue” about what they were signing and WHY!!

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Bookster
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:02am
#2 item on President Romney’s agenda (Repealing 0bamacare is #1) needs to be an executive order to outlaw and abolish all unions nationwide. Unions are un-American , un-patriotic, and safe havens for criminals.

Liberalism is a mental disorder. Progressives are a virus. Democrats are Godless.

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Tri-ox
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:01am
“NONCITIZENS”? Uh, you mean illegals?

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- HKS
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:25am
  Shhhhhhh, if ya don’t say it, it doesn’t exist.
  
  “Remember Benghazi”
  
  Report this comment
Banter
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:00am
“In Nevada you never have to prove you’re a citizen to register to vote or cast a ballot.”

This is how Harry stays in power. Well, this and free stuff. Oh, and union activism too.

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randy
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 8:56am
email address: info@culinaryunion226.org

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tj1961
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 8:54am
The other problem for these people …illegal registering and voting can cost these people the chance to become citizens and may even get them deported
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commonsenseguy
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 8:49am
harry reid will be proud, all that union bail out { vote money } was well spent.

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- HKS
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 8:55am
  Your tarp money at work, in case you were wondering where it went. Borrowed from China and paid for Obama votes, is this a great country or what.
  
  “Remember Benghazi”
  
  Report this comment
Cataclysm
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 8:46am
There is no such thing as voter fraud…..

Nothing to see here…..

Move along…….

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Zipit
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 8:46am
Got a sister in law who lives in Nevada! Die hard dem. if I showed her this story, she would look at me and say, “SO WHAT”!!!!!!!

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- Konservative PUNK
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:03am
  Most Lib Dems have NO respect for the rule of law… unless of course it benefits them.
  It’s a double standard. They paint themselves as the party of compassion, but deep down they are filled with hatred.
  
  Report this comment
Jenasus
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 8:45am
Obama is just like an illegal alien.
Obama is a fraud and has no right to be POTUS or run for re-election.

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progressiveslayer
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 8:44am
Just another reason why all unions should be abolished,bunch of thug criminals who have protection from prosecution from the regime.

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- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:30am
  PROGRESSIVESLAYER, You are so right there. Seems to me you could cover them all with the RICO Act.
  
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TheMajority
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 8:44am
The communist forces of seiu devalue our voting system, and nothing will happen,—-to them.

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- Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 9:00am
  Absolutely right, and wit another term Obama will reward them across the board.
  
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raderby
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 8:41am
well gee…… that is illegal, huh? No doubt part of the bigger plan dems have on illegals……How about some law enforcement on this? That asking too much?

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- commonsenseguy
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 8:53am
  there is not a damn thing that can and will be done, just look at what happened in the al frankin election, he lost after all the votes were checked and a lot of them were illegal but since he was already in office before the votes were checked there was nothing they could do to get him out,this is going to happen with obama, i pray i am wrong but we have already seen how laws work and how they are not even enforced.
  
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