Below the Fold for November 3

Let's check out some political stories we found in our You Decide 2002 edition of Below the Fold:

Fraud Watch

Vote fraud seems alive and well in this year's election campaign:

94 of the 163 residents of Coates, Minnesota listed Jake's Strip Club as their address on voter registration forms. At least 16,000 dead or otherwise ineligible voters still enjoy the franchise in Texas. Three county officials in Arizona have been charged with election fraud for helping illegal aliens to vote.

South Dakota papers continue to monitor a growing scandal on the state's Indian reservations, where Becky Red Earth-Villeda, also known as Maka Duta, reportedly registered a fair number of deceased or nonexistent voters -- and signed up one former living person twice.

Arkansas Democrats say two teenagers hired to register voters tried to cut corners by entering names from a phone book.

Two California Republicans have been sentenced for forging signatures. Some Wisconsin Democrats were caught luring mentally retarded citizens into voting by staging a party, offering candy and quarters -- and ballots. This trend -- which also has hit Louisiana, Kentucky, Iowa, Rhode Island, New York and no doubt other jurisdictions -- has inspired the Justice Department to investigate aggressively -- and to dispatch election monitors.

The crackdown has alarmed Democratic National Chairman Terry McAuliffe, who accuses Republicans of trying quote: "to chill voter turnout." But then again, some of the would-be voters have long since been just that... chilled.