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Voter fraud in Santa Barbara could mean Death Cab concert for UC Berkeley

With some chagrin, I must report that my crazy alma mater's allegedly fraudulent voter registration activities could result in a Death Cab for Cutie concert for us Berkeleyians.

I wasn't aware of this contest during the run up to the election, but apparently Death Cab offered a free concert to the school that registered the most students to vote. The contest led to a close race up to the finish with UCSB barely edging out UC Berkeley for the win. UC Berkeley appeared to be winning the contest, but the school's final voter count was reduced after contest officials discovered a number of duplicate entries (students registering online and on campus). UCSB had duplicate entries as well, but maintained a lead of 358 voters registered after the final count for each campus was adjusted.

However, Steve Pappas, loser of the race for Santa Barbara County's 3rd District Supervisor spot, is now challenging the validity of a large number of the voter registration forms from the UCSB campus and the adjoining town of Isla Vista. Facts laid out in a recent Daily Nexus article, here, seem to show that Pappas may be right. He points to some pretty strong indications that there was fraud involved in, at least, the registration process. The situation also brings up some pretty interesting issues in voter privacy (Pappas has subpoenaed the university to release personal information of student voters in his suit against the winner of the election, Doreen Farr).

So if some of the registration forms are invalidated, shouldn't that mean UCB gets the Death Cab concert?

Full post as published by Nuts & Boalts on February 03, 2009 (boomark / email).