Votes from beyond the grave

By Melissa Wishart
With US President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney jostling for position in the coming elections, every vote counts, apparently.
Romney’s campaign recently accused Voter Participation Center of violating election laws in a letter to the State Board of Elections and the Virginia attorney general.
The organisation, it seemed, had been sending out pre-filled-out voter registration applications to cats, dogs – even deceased people.
The voter activist organisation said they had mailed the applications based on commercial data. When some people subscribed to magazines, they would list their pets, and others would often fail to cancel the names of their family or friends from mailing lists after they had passed away, according to the group.
Spokesman, Steve Hirsh, told dpa “If we caused inconvenience or upsetting we apologize for that.”
In an attempt to make light of the mistake, the center created a Youtube video. The video features a dog explaining to a cat why – even if it received an application to register – it may not vote.
The Virginia elections board did not let the situation ruffle their feathers, and were not planning a criminal investigation, a spokesman told the “Washington Post.”