Voter fraud alleged in Red Clay

Sen. Karen Peterson, D-Stanton, has asked Attorney General Matt Denn to investigate possible voter fraud in last Tuesday's referendum to raise property taxes in the Red Clay School District.

Peterson said in a news release that she had received a report that a group of parents who had just voted at one polling place said they were going to vote again at a second polling place.

The unofficial vote total released Tuesday was 6,395 for a tax increase, 5,515 against.

Unlike general elections, voters are not assigned a specific polling place for school referendums so there's no way for poll workers to know if someone voted multiple times, the release said.

"In an election where nearly 12,000 people voted and 880 votes decided the outcome, it would only take 441 duplicate votes to change the results of the election," Peterson said in the release. "Before Red Clay raises property taxes, I want to be assured that the election was not affected by fraudulent voting."

The Department of Elections requires each voter to sign an affidavit when they vote, and has 15 days to identify if any votes were duplicated before the vote tally is certified and becomes official.

"We are unaware of any irregularities," said Red Clay spokeswoman Pati Nash. "Certainly we did not encourage anyone to vote more than one time and we expect the results to be certified."

Unless that tally is overturned, property owners will see their tax bills grow by 35 cents per $100 of assessed property over three years. That means the owner of an average $80,100 property in that district will pay an extra $280 a year once the increase is fully implemented.

The increase is necessary, district officials say, to cover growing enrollment and operating costs, and the new money would prevent budget cuts. It would also allow the district to fund new technology in the classroom and boost reading programs and intervention programs, among other services.

On the same night that the Red Clay vote appeared to pass, the Christina school district saw two tax increase proposals resoundinlgy rejected, 2,119-6,076 and 1,826-6,348.

Christina officials announced shortly after that defeat that they trimming costs by doing things like implementing a travel and hiring freeze and trimming school budgets.

Contact Matthew Albright at malbright@delawareonline.com, 324-2428 or on Twitter @TNJ_malbright.