Lieberman has no problem with absentee ballot scandal

Seems like today's bomshell article regarding Lieberman and absentee ballot is gainign traction in the press.

Here's what Joementum had to say about it today.

Mr. Lieberman, asked about the matter at a campaign appearance today, said that he had discussed it with his staff. "We certainly don't know of anything illegal that that person is doing. We hired a company, and she's working for the company but you know, we've been reassured that she is not doing anything contrary to the court order," he said.

Ahem...lets go back to today's article.

A Hartford Democrat who was fined and barred from involvement in absentee ballot activities last year is working for a company hired by Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman's campaign to do voter outreach in the city - including the distribution of absentee ballot applications.

Prenzina Holloway was fined $10,000 in July 2005 and ordered not to distribute absentee ballot applications or to assist voters with the ballots for two years, after the State Elections Enforcement Commission found that she had forged a voter's signature in the 2004 election.

Holloway acknowledges working for Urban Voters and Associates, a company paid $17,550 by the Lieberman campaign since September to do "field work." But she said she isn't involved in the company's absentee ballot operations.

"That is just a no-no," she said. "And I know it is a no-no."

But five people at a Vine Street housing complex for the elderly have told The Courant that Holloway and another person came to their doors to give them absentee ballot applications, and a security worker at another complex on Woodland Street said Holloway tried to get into the building to distribute applications there. Holloway was barred from the building after getting into a verbal altercation with the worker after he made supportive comments about Lieberman's main challenger, Ned Lamont.

[...]

Holloway committed absentee ballot fraud in the 2004 election when she voted on behalf of, and forged the signature of, at least one voter, according to the State Elections Enforcement Commission. The commission also found evidence that Holloway was in the same room with at least two other voters as they filled out absentee ballots, a violation of state election law.

Holloway was fined $10,000, but because of financial hardship was made to pay only $2,000. She also signed an agreement saying she would "refrain from distributing absentee ballot applications and shall not assist with absentee ballot applications for a period of two years," starting April 1, 2005.

In the agreement, the commission said it has historically treated absentee ballot abusers "very severely," adding that Holloway's violations in 2004 were serious enough to prosecute.

"If [Holloway] in the future is found to have committed violations of this nature again, she will be referred to the chief state's attorney for criminal prosecution, and the maximum criminal penalties shall be sought," the agreement said.

[...]

But Claudia Dismuke, 85, was one of five voters at Mary Mahoney Village on Vine Street who said Holloway and an older man came to their doors several weeks ago to give them absentee ballot applications. Dismuke said she has known Holloway for years.

"She came by with another man," Dismuke said. "She helped me fill it out and then I put the stamp on it. I mailed it in."

Four other residents at Mary Mahoney Village - James Hightower, Olga Morales, Angelito Vazques and Dorothy McKinley - said they did not know Holloway personally but recognized her when shown a picture. All four said Holloway had given them applications.

[...]

The Rev. Albert Bell, who works the security desk at the Betty Knox complex on Woodland Street, said Holloway came to the facility a little more than a month ago to try to distribute absentee ballot applications.

Bell said Holloway was wearing a Lieberman T-shirt, and that when he went outside on a break he approached her at the entrance of Betty Knox to say, jokingly, "Lamont! Lamont!"

"She went ballistic," Bell said. "Just ballistic, and then said some really nasty things."

Although ALL OF THESE people claimed Holloway broke the law, Lieberman has no problem. I guess he thinks they're lying.

Makes you wonder about that unusually large 387,000 in COLD HARD PETTY CASH the Lieberman campaign was dishing out days leading up to the primary (how does one hand out all that cash in 12 days)?