Meet Princess Nudelman, of Chicago, Illinois. Why was she sent a voter’s registration packet? Especially since she is deceased? And a goldfish? Read more about it below and see a fun video.
We know of the voter fraud across the country – using the Dallas Cowboy’s names in Vegas, Mickey Mouse in Florida, and all those dead people in Houston. Now, election officials in Chicago’s northern suburbs want to know why voter registration material was sent to a dead goldfish named ‘Princess.’
“I am just stunned at the level of people compromising the integrity of the voting process,” said Lake County Clerk Willard Helander, a Republican, who said she has spotted problems with nearly 1,000 voter registrations this year.
Beth Nudelman, who owned the fish, said Princess may have landed on a mailing list because the family once filled in the pet’s name when they got a second phone line for a computer. Hmmm. Likely story! Sounds fishy to me… but read on.
She said she wrote election officials a humorous note explaining why the fish was ineligible to vote.
“There was no fraud involved,” said Nudelman, a Democrat who supports Barack Obama. “This person is a dead fish.”
The paperwork sent to ‘Princess Nudelman’ most likely came from the “Women’s Voices, Women Vote” project, which sent nearly 1 million mailings to Illinois households in August using a list that mistakenly included some pets, said Sarah Johnson, a spokeswoman for the not-for-profit group that encourages single women to vote.
The mailing list purchased from a vendor by the Project, included names from warranties, magazine subscriptions and other sources. The group attempted to screen out pet names but obviously poor little dead Princess made the cut and received a packet.
The mailing by the Project generated some 63,500 returned voter applications. Applicants were instructed to fill in a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number so election officials would be able to validate their identity. Of course we know how that goes don’t we?
“We obviously don’t want to add more work for any election official,” Johnson said. “At the end of the day, our goal is same as theirs: To give as many people as possible the chance to make voices heard in our democracy.”
The legal counsel for the Illinois State Board of Elections, said the mailing by the Project generated numerous complaints from residents throughout the state. In fact, Lake County election officials have already contacted the Illinois Attorney General’s office. It is however, unclear what they are doing about it.
Women’s Voices, Women Vote has worked with ACORN in the past, but the August mailing “has nothing to do with” ACORN, Johnson said. Of course it doesn’t! And interestingly, the Project has had to speak out publically about the Princess mixup on their website most likely from all the bad press. You can check it out here if you still need more information about this story!
Princess Nudelman “Burying a Goldfish” Video
October 21st, 2008 at 11:03 pm
That is pretty funny about the fish. But are you still lamenting about ACORN?? John McCain himself supported ACORN- he gave a keynote speech at an ACORN-sponsored Immigration Rally in 2006:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ9wy2MI1NI&feature=related
Ah McCain, such a wiley Maverick. Repelling former allies across the board, from the Republican “elite” to Acorn. Who will be next? Rightpundits.com?
October 21st, 2008 at 11:11 pm
June – that’s really stretching things isn’t it? Obama has used his experience as a Community Organizer with ACORN as the experience that qualifies him to be President.
I guess that sort of ‘experience’ qualifies one for Chicago politics, but the Presidency?
Comparing a keynote speech to years of association with an organization, contracting with the organization to help with his campaign and millions of dollars in donations is really a pathetic attempt at minimizing the importance of Obama’s associations.
The foundation of a democracy is a fair and accurate voting process. ACORN and groups like it undermine democracy when they try to subvert the will of the ppl by skewing the vote.
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:44 am
june
bo also represented acorn as legal council…. big difference.
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:52 am
To me, the fact that he was Acorn’s counsel indicates nothing at all, because I would never judge a lawyer by who s/he chose to represent. Upstanding lawyers from both parties choose to represent criminals and other malignant elements of society for a variety of reasons, but most often out of the belief that everyone deserves legal representation. (this is not to suggest that I believe Acorn is a malignant element) If you have a problem with the link between Acorn and his campaign, that’s one thing, but that he chose, long before he was campaigning for president, to represent an organization that advocates for low-income members of society only says to me that he did pro bono work, like most lawyers.
As for my “pathetic” attempt to minimize the link between ACORN and the campaign, color me pathetic. I think it’s downright loopy to minimize the greater problems facing Americans by fussing about an organization that tries to register unregistered voters. Judging by the polls, most Americans just don’t care about ACORN, and McCain’s constant harping about it turns them off.
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:43 am
Anyone who thinks ACORN is just about registration fraud is either ignorant or completely blind.
Heres some insight that will clearly show how Annenberg, ACORN, Ayers and Obama are tied up in one cluster with a radical agenda that has already impacted our country from voter registration to our childrens eductaion right up to the housing crisis that was in part responsable for crashing our economy.
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/08/19/more-attention-on-annenberg-ayers-and-obama-finally-and-how-you-can-help/
Throw in some Rev. Wright, a little Farrakhan whom he marched with,”spread the wealth” and his buddy Ayers mand I would seriously take a real close look at this guy and try to determine his character a little better.
Its all too evident to me that the last thing we need is someone as far left of center as Obama.
I dont even want to go into the consequences of the one state party we will be subjected to for at least two years if hes elected at this point in time.
God help us all
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:37 am
Fake voter registrations does NOT constitute voter fraud..
Many paid voter registration people fill out fictitious names on registration forms to meet quoteas or to just get paid for doing nothing..
vote fraud is when someone actually shows up to vote who is not registered or entitle to vote or is voting under an assumed name…..
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Greetings, all. I’m an owner of the fish in question. Actually, since I’m the only one in the family who ever fed the fish or cleaned out the fish tank, I think I’m entitled to say I’m the owner. (My daughter, who named the fish, disagrees.)
Most everything in this article is deliberately designed to take a simple case of a civic-minded group providing a service and turn it into some sort of conspiracy. (I apologize if the article was meant to be ironic or sarcastic. I don’t know enough about this site to really tell what their slant is meant to be.)
The headline is misleading – no fraud took place. I guess that’s why there’s a question mark after it. (And it also didn’t happen in Chicago.)
Despite Helander’s claim, the voting process was not compromised. No registration took place.
Yes, Princess was listed as the phone’s contact. We didn’t want people calling us on the computer line who we actually wanted to talk to. And we didn’t want to pay for an unlisted number.
Why put mistakenly in bold if you didn’t want to say WVWV was trying to hide something? Why not put it in quotes too? Of course it was a mistake. Their mission is to get single women signed up to vote. Why would they want to send registration materials to a goldfish?
WVWV erred on the side of sending out too many mailings when they sent Princess a packet. It was up to us, the recipients, to decide whether Princess was eligible to apply. She wasn’t, so the card didn’t get completed, signed, and submitted. WVWV was doing a service sending out these cards. We did the right thing in not completing the process. (I don’t remember seeing WVWV in the mailing. If I had, we would have sent the card back to them for correcting the list, not to the Lake County Clerk’s office.)
And finally, yes, WVWV needed to speak out and explain what happened. With the hook of a dead goldfish registering to vote (which didn’t happen), this story has some legs. If they don’t respond, people will make up their own stories about why it happened. Not that an explanation stops the innuendo. But at least it lets rational people who can actually listen to an explanation and deal with it intelligently to get their side of the story.
So to answer the question at the lead: Why was she sent a voter’s registration packet? Especially since she is deceased? And a goldfish? Because she could have been a potential voter, and if she was, WVWV would have been providing her a nice service in making it easy fo her to register to vote. Thank you, WVWV, for your efforts.
(Incidently, any attempt to register someone in Lake County, Illinois would more than likely garner a conservative vote.)
I do have to say I did enjoy the video. And the picture actually does look a lot like how I remember Princess. (The fish been dead for about three years now.)
Again, I apologize if the article was meant to be humorous. It just didn’t strike my funny bone. (Would that be called my humorus?)
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:18 pm
lol goldfish owner!
of course it was an attempt at humor… everyone can relate to naming things after their pets. we do in my household all the time as the rp gods can attest to.
sorry about the loss of your beloved princess.
:cough:
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Sashimi.
October 22nd, 2008 at 4:33 pm
my dog Boner is writing in the Lassy on his ballot….. (i dont own a dog)
October 22nd, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Well that just leaves your boner to do the dirty work.
October 22nd, 2008 at 5:23 pm
W’08 amend the constitution……
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:11 pm
boner? snicker
heres an interesting video, since someone brought up ACORN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vJcVgJhNaU
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Ron.
There are many polls that use voter registration as a means to determine their results.
There are actually people out there that are stupid enough to vote for someone just because they see that they are leading in the polls.
It paints a deceptive picture for these morons who could actually cost the right man the election.
It also gives an innaccurate depiction of what the field looks like for each candidate.
Would you condone that no matter what your political standing ?
It also, without a doubt, leaves opportunity for fraud at the polls.
So please, lets not approach this with so much complacency as it is truly a means to diminish one of our most treasured rights.
I’m a convicted felon that never hurt anyone or stole anything and I am not allowed to vote.
It pi$$es me off to no end to see this happening, our voting system being treated as a means for some punk to run up a quota so he can make an extra 5 or 10 bucks a day when I myself cant even place a vote that concerns my son and wifes future.
I hope you understand
October 23rd, 2008 at 9:16 am
kate says: (October 22nd, 2008 at 12:18 pm)
….of course it was an attempt at humor… everyone can relate to naming things after their pets. we do in my household all the time as the rp gods can attest to.
sorry about the loss of your beloved princess.
:cough:
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Thanks for the clarification, Kate. It’s sometimes hard for me to tell the difference between umbrage and humor.