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Prank Lands Maryland Voter in the Doghouse
By Raymond McCaffrey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 17, 2001; Page C03
When Holly Briscoe received her voter registration card in 1999, then didn't vote in the next presidential election, she appeared to be one more American without a dog in the race.
Now, state officials have discovered just the opposite was true.
Informed that Briscoe was unable to fulfill a summons to serve jury duty, they also learned her reason for not voting had less to do with opposition to the candidates and more to do with opposable thumbs.
Briscoe doesn't have any -- not much of a problem when you're fetching a stick or chasing your tail, but something of a stumbling block to signing your name before going into a voting booth.
Yes, Holly Briscoe is a dog -- a brown and white Jack Russell terrier mix, to be exact. And that got Holly's owner, Mabel Briscoe, in trouble with the law.
After discovering last month that Mabel Briscoe had falsified a voter registration card by signing the dog's name -- albeit to prove how open the system was to fraud -- Calvert County election officials notified the state's attorney's office, which in turn threatened to file criminal charges.
The prosecutor's bark turned out to be worse than his bite.
The state's attorney's office issued a statement last week saying it "will not be proceeding on the criminal charges," since Mabel Briscoe agreed "to perform volunteer community service during the next election."
The deal was brokered by Briscoe's lawyer -- state Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Prince George's).
"Mrs. Briscoe is a very independent woman," Miller said.
"She multiplied the dog's age by 7 to get the correct age," he explained, "and then registered Holly Briscoe to prove a point, that people could actually register to vote without presenting a picture ID.
"Of course, the hard workers at the Board of Elections . . . didn't think this was funny," he added.
Robert B. Riddle, the state's attorney in Calvert County, admitted that another factor for not pursuing charges against Briscoe is her age. Mabel Briscoe's voter registration card identifies the long-standing Democrat as 82.
"I'm going to dismiss the case, and that's the end of it," Riddle said.
Not so, according to Briscoe, who maintained that the case pointed out that the state's method of voter registration -- and the motor-voter method in particular -- opens the door to fraud. It would have been relatively easy, she said, for someone to use Holly Briscoe's registration card to vote.
"I just think the system is broke and needs some fixing," Briscoe said. "Anybody can register. I can register a dog. And they never would have known if I hadn't told them."
Briscoe's attorney said his client "made a very valid point," though he wishes she had made it in a more appropriate fashion. That said, Miller said he supports changes in the law, possibly requiring those registering at motor vehicle offices "to present a picture ID."
But, he said, "we also need to make certain people are not turned away from the polls who are registered to vote."
Ironically, he said, most complaints about motor-voter laws in Maryland came from people who thought they had legally registered at motor vehicle offices, but found that when they went to the polls, their paperwork hadn't gone through properly.
"Here we are in efficient Calvert County . . . a country work ethic . . . somebody signs up to vote, and guess what? They're registered to vote."
Briscoe discovered that when she went to have her driver's license renewed in July 1999 at a motor vehicle office in Prince Frederick County. After hearing a clerk ask another applicant if he wanted to sign up to vote, Briscoe decided to test whether the system was as fouled up as had been asserted in what she called "conservative propaganda" she received in the mail.
"I could have put down any name," Briscoe said. "My dog's name happened to be the first thing I thought about. I didn't want to be impersonating a person."
When she received her dog's voter registration card in the mail, she showed it to her associates at the League of Women Voters -- her point proved -- and assumed that the name would be stricken from the rolls eventually when Holly Briscoe didn't vote.
"But [Holly] got jury duty. . . . I was honest. I said, hey, this was enough."
She went to tell Calvert election officials about what she had done -- and that Holly's name should be purged from the voter rolls.
Calvert County Elections Supervisor Gail L. Hatfield acknowledged that if Briscoe had not come forward and told them about the dog, "we would have been unaware of this to this day."
Hatfield added, "We just tried to explain to her that what she did makes a mockery of the election system.
"There are ways to change it. This is not a way."
© 2001 The Washington Post Company
By Raymond McCaffrey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 17, 2001; Page C03
When Holly Briscoe received her voter registration card in 1999, then didn't vote in the next presidential election, she appeared to be one more American without a dog in the race.
Now, state officials have discovered just the opposite was true.
Informed that Briscoe was unable to fulfill a summons to serve jury duty, they also learned her reason for not voting had less to do with opposition to the candidates and more to do with opposable thumbs.
Briscoe doesn't have any -- not much of a problem when you're fetching a stick or chasing your tail, but something of a stumbling block to signing your name before going into a voting booth.
Yes, Holly Briscoe is a dog -- a brown and white Jack Russell terrier mix, to be exact. And that got Holly's owner, Mabel Briscoe, in trouble with the law.
After discovering last month that Mabel Briscoe had falsified a voter registration card by signing the dog's name -- albeit to prove how open the system was to fraud -- Calvert County election officials notified the state's attorney's office, which in turn threatened to file criminal charges.
The prosecutor's bark turned out to be worse than his bite.
The state's attorney's office issued a statement last week saying it "will not be proceeding on the criminal charges," since Mabel Briscoe agreed "to perform volunteer community service during the next election."
The deal was brokered by Briscoe's lawyer -- state Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Prince George's).
"Mrs. Briscoe is a very independent woman," Miller said.
"She multiplied the dog's age by 7 to get the correct age," he explained, "and then registered Holly Briscoe to prove a point, that people could actually register to vote without presenting a picture ID.
"Of course, the hard workers at the Board of Elections . . . didn't think this was funny," he added.
Robert B. Riddle, the state's attorney in Calvert County, admitted that another factor for not pursuing charges against Briscoe is her age. Mabel Briscoe's voter registration card identifies the long-standing Democrat as 82.
"I'm going to dismiss the case, and that's the end of it," Riddle said.
Not so, according to Briscoe, who maintained that the case pointed out that the state's method of voter registration -- and the motor-voter method in particular -- opens the door to fraud. It would have been relatively easy, she said, for someone to use Holly Briscoe's registration card to vote.
"I just think the system is broke and needs some fixing," Briscoe said. "Anybody can register. I can register a dog. And they never would have known if I hadn't told them."
Briscoe's attorney said his client "made a very valid point," though he wishes she had made it in a more appropriate fashion. That said, Miller said he supports changes in the law, possibly requiring those registering at motor vehicle offices "to present a picture ID."
But, he said, "we also need to make certain people are not turned away from the polls who are registered to vote."
Ironically, he said, most complaints about motor-voter laws in Maryland came from people who thought they had legally registered at motor vehicle offices, but found that when they went to the polls, their paperwork hadn't gone through properly.
"Here we are in efficient Calvert County . . . a country work ethic . . . somebody signs up to vote, and guess what? They're registered to vote."
Briscoe discovered that when she went to have her driver's license renewed in July 1999 at a motor vehicle office in Prince Frederick County. After hearing a clerk ask another applicant if he wanted to sign up to vote, Briscoe decided to test whether the system was as fouled up as had been asserted in what she called "conservative propaganda" she received in the mail.
"I could have put down any name," Briscoe said. "My dog's name happened to be the first thing I thought about. I didn't want to be impersonating a person."
When she received her dog's voter registration card in the mail, she showed it to her associates at the League of Women Voters -- her point proved -- and assumed that the name would be stricken from the rolls eventually when Holly Briscoe didn't vote.
"But [Holly] got jury duty. . . . I was honest. I said, hey, this was enough."
She went to tell Calvert election officials about what she had done -- and that Holly's name should be purged from the voter rolls.
Calvert County Elections Supervisor Gail L. Hatfield acknowledged that if Briscoe had not come forward and told them about the dog, "we would have been unaware of this to this day."
Hatfield added, "We just tried to explain to her that what she did makes a mockery of the election system.
"There are ways to change it. This is not a way."
© 2001 The Washington Post Company
