Jeff Alan: Not dead yet.
Kari Chisholm
Last month, I blogged about the silly bill by Rep. Kim Thatcher (R-Keizer) that would require the state to match the Social Security Administration's death database to the voter registration system - and ensure that no dead people are voting.
As I noted then, it would take a bizarre series of steps for anyone to take advantage of this so-called "gap" to actually commit voter fraud on a massive scale. (Among the steps: visit the homes of dead voters and convince their families to give up the ballots. Yeah, right.)
Thatcher's bill is based on some "research" conducted by the Cascade Policy Institute, an anti-government group here in Oregon, that claimed that over 6000 names on the voter rolls matched the Social Security death database. More specifically, the chief investigator for Cascade was a former TV journalist named Jeff Alan.
On Sunday, the Oregonian revealed that Jeff Alan - the very same Jeff Alan who made those allegations about dead people voting in Oregon - was himself declared legally dead in 1983. The O's Peter Ames Carlin has put together an extensive three-part series that reveals the bizarre story of the former KOIN-6 news director:
Jeff Alan says, finally, that it’s all true.That Jeff Alan isn’t exactly his given name. And that the Social Security number he has used for most of the past 23 years isn’t exactly his either.
The former news director at KOIN (6) acknowledges he abruptly left his family in Los Angeles in 1986 and has since been distant from his three daughters. So distant that his ex-wife, the mother of his two youngest, had her vanished ex-husband declared dead in 1993. ...
These things are real. So is the wrongful termination lawsuit Alan is pursuing against KOIN, and the investigation of potential fraud being weighed against Alan by the Social Security Administration’s inspector general.
Of course, this all puts a much different spin on the comment he made here at BlueOregon last month:
There are very good reasons that Kim Thatcher introduced HB 3433. The state is currently conducting two different investigations into dozens of people who were reported as being deceased yet voted in 2008. These voters are both Democrats and Republicans. Simply, there needs to be accountability in any election. This bill will help to tighten up the integrity of the vote by mail system. It will also create a public service in the sense that people will be notified by the state if their name should appear on the Social Security Death List. ...
A guy who's been declared legally dead and has been using multiple Social Security numbers gets hired to write a report about people fraudulently voting.
Stunning, isn't it?
Of course, since he's actually alive, it's exactly the opposite of a dead person voting. (Perhaps someone who has access to a voter file can tell us whether Jeff Alan voted in 2008.)
Wow.
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Apr 21, '09
It doesn't change the fact that concern over dead and ineligible voters is nothing more and nothing less than a reasonable-sounding "stalking horse" to get a pass to create laws that disenfranchise minorities, liberals, the poor, and the elderly.
If there's anything a Republican politican hates, it's a chance a Democrat might win in a fair fight.
That Jeff Alan was actually declared dead in 1983 – that's just ironic icing on the whole sordid cake.
Apr 21, '09
Tongue-in-Cheek Alert!
Had the dead not voted in Cook County, Kennedy would never have been President.
Due to the bizarre story unfolding regarding Jeff Alan, (or is it Brent), this bill is DOA. Until or unless there are some studies showing systematic abuse other than anecdotal evidence, this is an area to leave alone.
Apr 21, '09
He's actually "The Chief Investigator," not "the chief investigator" according to Cascade's website.
7:19 a.m.
Apr 21, '09
I don't think my Voter File terms of service covers this sort of thing, and anyway, you'd need to match more than a name for "Jeff Alan" to match the person. I suggest checking with County Elections.
Apr 21, '09
@Kurt Champman While there was definitely some electoral fraud in Illinois in the 1960 Presidential Election (and probably before and after that year as well), it is a MYTH that it was what gave Kennedy the White House.
Do your research and you will see that Cook County (or even Illinois as a whole) was NOT the margin of victory.
9:44 a.m.
Apr 21, '09
Odd posting, Kari, since the Jeff Alan example would seem to support the rationale for the bill--such a check would have revealed a fraudulent voter registration.
Voter files nationwide are replete with errors, including many that actually disenfranchise low income voters. For example, a study of the Florida voter registration file by a colleague of mine showed that African Americans were disproportionately likely to have records with 5 zeroes in the zip code field or records that were missing apartment numbers.
There is nothing wrong in principle with checking a voter registration roll against the Social Security death database. The issue is what you do with the results of such a check.
Knee jerk reactions against any sort of voter registration modernization can be just as ill founded as poorly disguised attempts to suppress participation via voter caging and illegal purges.
Apr 21, '09
Charlie, get a clue man! I started with a tongue-in-cheek alert. Meaning, it was not really serious.
But since you leaped so vigorously to defend; I have a friend whose father was part of the Daily Machine. Her stories would make your eyes bug out regarding the wholesale manipulation of votes that went on in Chicago and Cook County.
9:52 a.m.
Apr 21, '09
Odd posting, Kari, since the Jeff Alan example would seem to support the rationale for the bill--such a check would have revealed a fraudulent voter registration.
Well, no. It might have revealed an inaccurate death notice. Jeff Alan is a US citizen, a resident of Oregon, and he's alive. He gets to vote. (Again, I have no idea if he actually did.)
Knee jerk reactions against any sort of voter registration modernization can be just as ill founded as poorly disguised attempts to suppress participation via voter caging and illegal purges.
Agreed.
But the point of the Cascade "report" released immediately before the 2008 election was not to help the Elections Division modernize their data management practices. It was part of a national campaign to preemptively undermine confidence in the election of Barack Obama. (And it might have worked if it hadn't been a landslide.)
Apr 21, '09
So, the Cascade Policy Institute, a local think tank has hired a "dead guy" to make sure other dead guys don't vote.
It takes one to know one!
Apr 21, '09
Since vote by mail began here in Oregon, I think there have been 3, 7, 10, I don't know ... maybe 20 total occurances of invalid ballots (for one reason or another). Given the tens of millions of total votes tallied, that puts it around a 99.99999% rate of accuracy.
A much higher rate of accuracy than Paulson's numbers for MLS revenue forecasts (per yesterdays O article).
Apr 21, '09
All of which supports Thatcher's bill and none of which undermines it. What was your point again, Kari, other than to try to personalize an issue that should be about the facts?
Apr 21, '09
I don't think that Kim Thatcher or anyone else pushing for this bill wants to disenfranchise anyone. I am guessing that instead people don't want to feel disenfranchised by diluting valid votes with fraudulent ones. I don't want my vote diluted by dead people or anyone else who cannot legally be voting in Oregon. I am not naive enough to think that someone won't at least try. Aren't you afraid that some evil corporation will try and win an election for their candidate by voter fraud?
Apr 21, '09
"Aren't you afraid that some evil corporation will try and win an election for their candidate by voter fraud?"
Actually, yes!
Just a couple of years back an evil corporation by the name of Sproul & Associates was investigated by Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury and the SOS of Nevada after receiving numerous complaints that the evil corporation was destroying registration forms filed by Democratic voters in both states.
Of course the evil corporation was managed by Nathan Sproul, former head of the Arizona Republican Party. Sproul & Associates had received nearly $500,000 from the Republican National Committee at the time.
Apr 21, '09
I think this is a law in search of a non existent problem to solve. By every account except that of the questionable, "Cascade Institute" the Oregon system works very well. There are better areas to focus our energies on such as increasing voter turnout.
1:53 p.m.
Apr 21, '09
"But since you leaped so vigorously to defend; I have a friend whose father was part of the Daily Machine. Her stories would make your eyes bug out regarding the wholesale manipulation of votes that went on in Chicago and Cook County."
Yeah, they were almost as bad as the fixes done on Nixon's behalf, downstate! Next canard, please.
2:34 p.m.
Apr 21, '09
The only Jeff Alan registered in Oregon voted in the 2008 election.
Interestingly, he re-registered as a Democrat shortly after the November '08 election. The Jeff Alan I am referring to was born in 1951, so there is a pretty good chance that we are talking about the Jeff Alan mentioned in the Oregonian article.
2:41 p.m.
Apr 21, '09
For what it's worth, although I agree that this is a solution in search of a problem in Oregon, I do not believe that Kim Thatcher is out to disenfranchise anyone. I may not always agree with Thatcher, but she has never been anything other than straightforward and conscientious in my dealings with her.
Whether Cascade Policy Institute is being similarly honest and straightforward on this issue is another matter entirely.
Apr 21, '09
Well, maybe jeff Alan's not dead yet, but never forget that Franco is still dead.
Apr 21, '09
"The report of my death is greatly exaggerated."--Mark Twain
Got to wonder what he'd make of Jeff Alan.
Apr 21, '09
Remember what they did in The Holy Grail after "Not dead yet" was uttered....
Apr 22, '09
Hey, don't knock dead voters!
They helped elect John F. Kennedy president in 1960.
I used to live down the street from Chicago's Graceland cemetery... on Clark Street... the only one in the whole world with its own precinct captain!
Apr 29, '09
I think the story was most interesting may God Bless him. only in his heart he knows whats best.
Apr 29, '09
I really bet he missed his family and only he knows what when on at Koin TV.