New Coulter Voter Fraud Investigation Reveals Danger To Domestic Abuse Victims

Investigator Joseph Culligan tells me "It was never really about Florida. Ann Coulter must have been laughing about that the whole time." Culligan is talking about the story he helped break in Rush & Molloy's column today in the New York Daily News, Ann Coulter Addresses Voting Issue.

Remember the Ann Coulter "Voter Fraud Felony" story from 2006? Breathless headlines accused Coulter of giving an incorrect address and voted in the wrong precinct. Because so much attention was being paid to the Florida story, it seems that a much bigger, more obvious and easily provable voter discrepancy was overlooked; Ann Coulter appears to have voted twice in the state of Connecticut while living in the state of New York.

That would seem to be a violation of Connecticut law and unlike the Florida allegations, Culligan points out, this isn't a precinct difference - it's an entirely different state with different state and local elections.

Oddly, much of this information was available and even reported in The Daily News during the initial kerfluffle about Coulter's Florida voting address. Nobody seems to have pursued the case or filed a complaint with the state Connecticut. Culligan, an investigator with over 25 years of experience, went a step further.

First, he established that Coulter had claimed her parent's address in New Canaan, CT as her own on voting records. Then he contacted Connecticut to confirm the law. Culligan posted on his website WebOfDeception.com an email from Connecticut staff attorney Ted Bromley that states "It is not enough to claim a relative's house where you may visit. The address must be your residence and the place you live and call home.."

The Rush & Molloy article shows that Coulter's response to these serious allegations is no response at all. She doesn't deny that she lived in New York during the period in question Instead, Coulter launches into her shtick of insulting Culligan and Bromley and then portraying herself as a victim. She refers to Culligan as a 'stalker' and in a passage that makes one question Coulter's grip on reality, says about Culligan and Bromley ' Tell them both thanks for the flowers and also to please stop killing my pets.'

Coulter's 'poor me' routine is particularly ironic given her well publicized attacks on 9/11 widows, single mothers, and women voters. Her pattern of vicious verbal assaults on women may be topped by another aspect of Coulter's victim / attack dog duality - she's taken actions that could actually put abused women in Florida into jeopardy of real physical harm.

In 1999, the state of Florida began a program called 'Address Confidentiality For Victims Of Domestic Violence'. The goal of the program was straightforward; to help keep the whereabouts of victims a secret from their abusers. One aspect of the program allowed victims to redact their names from public records. Another allowed them to use a central 'drop box' address to recieve mail. A p.o. box was established for the program and any mail sent to it would sorted and sent on the program's participants.

During his investigation Culligan discovered Ann Coulter, now a Florida resident, was using this shared p.o. box address. The reasons Coulter uses the address are unknown.

Obviously many celebrities have problems with real life stalkers and Coulter sells books by making provocative statements about all sorts of people. However, the Florida law seems to indicate that the program is for the use of victims of domestic violence only; people the victim has a relationship with, not 'celebrity stalkers'. Again, the reasons Coulter is using this drop box address aren't clear.

What is clear is that Coulter herself is the one who revealed the address publicly. She listed the address herself - though not it's purpose - in a work related and publiclyy accessible database that Culligan was able to access easily. Through standard investigative techniques, Culligan then found a number of other people associated with that same address. After tracking some of those people down, he found out that they were part of the Florida Confidentiality program.

Culligan, who authored the book When in Doubt, Check Him Out: A Woman's Survival Guide told me he was disturbed that a deliberately controversial celebrity like Coulter with the means to protect her own privacy would use a system meant to protect those who don't have the means and then use that supposedly anonymous drop box address for business purposes.

Culligan says that women he spoke to who are part of that program are both outraged and worried for their own safety. He told me, "Some of them are missing limbs from the abuse they've suffered. They don't want anyone to be able to track them down and having high profile Ann Coulter using the same drop box they are for her public business potentially puts them at risk."

Culligan notes that the fact that he was able to track these supposedly anonymous women down through his investigation of Coulter means the anonymity of the entire Florida program is threatened.

Will Republican Governor Charlie Crist act quickly to solve the dangerous situation that GOP hearthrob Coulter and the state of Florida seems to have put these women in? Will anyone file a complaint in Connecticut? Ann Coulter loves controversy but she may end up here with much more than she can handle.

Lee Stranahan blogs at LeeStranahan.com. Without irony. Lee did a 15-minute interview with Joseph Culligan about the Coulter Voter Fraud on BlogTalkRadio

Comments

[liberal]

in ancient history, didn't they cut out the tongue of a shrew?

[provgrays]

Celebrity trumps everything in this country and celebrities are seldom held accountable.

[quindy]

Can she be prosecuted?

[Sandy248]

I hope so.

[schatsie]

For tax evasion someplace... maybe New York...She might have submitted her tax returns with the parents address... why else...

[a2burns]

she got racked over the coals today on the view !!!!!!!!!!!! she even insulted barbara walters !!!!!!!!!!!! it was my happy new year present !!!!!!!!!!!!! i am sorry she insulted you barbara since you opened the door to her and she walked in !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[stateretiree]

I loved it when Whoopie told her she could dish it out but she couldn't take it. Coulter just loves playing the victim, but demonizes anyone who is a real victim.

[goofmanjoe]

She sure is hot though.

[leatherneck1971]

Time will tell if Ann Coulter gets special treatment for violating the law! Guess time will tell this story in the end!

[SJHS]

Ann Coulter has no respect for women. In a recent, unfortunate interview on CNN (Lou Dobbs), she referred to herself as one of the only "men" in the Republican party; referred to female candidates as "girls"; and referred to Democratic protesters as "screaming banshees". Ann Coulter is truly disgusting.

[pjlowry]

If I applied for a government program that I did not qualify for (ie unemployment insurance) and did so fully aware that I didn't qualify for it but lied and pretended that I did qualify and still applied... then I am guilty of defrauding the government and that is a crime. What Anne has done to the state of Florida is no different and she should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Ditto for voter fraud. No exceptions. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Go directly to jail.

[Mulvaney]

Coulter voted twice in Connecticut while living in New York? I can only imagine that ACORN must have registered her.

[SpoxLogic]

BA DAM BAM!

[biglover]

Brilliant comment!!

[girlgoneriled]

Why are right-wingers so unfunny? Is it 'cause good humor requires a basic grasp of reality?

Acorn employees submitted voter registration forms for fictional people. Those fictional people did not show up and vote anywhere.

See if you can find one instance--just one--of somebody voting twice because of ACORN. I won't be holding my breath.

[RealityBaseCamp]

Actually, I suspected all along that those bogus names like Mickey Mouse (which, I remind the Repubs out there, didn't get to show up and vote because they were FAKE NAMES) were foisted on volunteers by people who thought framing ACORN was funny. I'm thinking those weren't Democrats.

[PatCcj]

I've been waiting for her big, vitriolic mouth to trip her up--maybe this is it. Thank you Mr Culligan (& Mr Stranahan) for investigating her comments, it all could have slid by & not been noticed-- very easily. She needs to be prosecuted (since they have made such an issue of voter fraud). I wonder how many other Repubs have used the same program to get a 2nd vote?

[AngelaQuattrano]

If she is not part of the program, why are they forwarding her mail to her? Let her come to them and ask for it in person.

[randyjet]

I hope that any CT residents who see this post write to the Secretary of State and the DAs office to demand that Coulter be prosecuted for voter fraud. If they refuse to act, then I suggest going to state court to SUE Coulter and demand that she be tried for voter fraud. It is high time that we close the loop holes rich GOPers have been using for years to vote multiple times in the same national elections.

[protagonia]

Her fans are dull-wit cattle.

[MarvBitesBack]

Sounds like a rather weak "protection" system if it was so easily infiltrated. There are a lot of "seeminglys" and "aren't clears" in this post. Gee, might Lee be doing exactly what he's accusing Ann of doing?

[Lee Stranahan - Huffpost Blogger]

No, I'm not doing what I accuse her of doing. I vote in the state where I live and I get my own mail.

[MarvBitesBack]

Yours is clearly a "viscious ... assault". You're basically saying that Ann's actions could result in attacks on limbless domestic abuse victims. Unlike Ann, who usually references her sources, you've given us a boatload of "maybes".

[ANGEL53545]

SOUNDS LIKE CULLIGAN BROKE THE LAW BY ACSESSING INFORMATION HE HAS NO LEGAL RIGHT TO HAVE. HE WAS TO GET INFORMATION SOME OF THESE ABUSED WOMEN. SO I GUESS HE COMMITTED A CRIME. HOW ABOUT PERSCUTING HIM.

[Clavis]

Ann Coulter is no different from any of these other radicals. Right-wingers today are all extremists. They relentlessly hate on Democrats and liberals and progressives -- their whole philosophy is based upon demonization -- look at the RNC website during elections; it's always a "Rogue's Gallery" of boogeymen like Rosie O'Donnell and Markos Moulitsas and Michael Moore -- OOOOOOOH, scary figures!

The right gets away with nonstop hatemongering, and then they scream like babies whenever they want to pretend that they're offended, even when they're obviously BSing -- and they demand apologies for things they know weren't real offenses!

Until Coulter and the Right's tactics are exposed as dishonest and un-American, they will continue to use them and mess up our discourse!

I've decided to start using "coulter" as a common noun to describe anybody for whom conservatism is a weird cultish fan club!

[goofmanjoe]

I saw the book in the store and read the inside flap and you are doing exactly what she claims liberals do.

[RealityBaseCamp]

I saw the book in the store, and was delighted to finally see the word GUILTY below her picture.

[democracy7]

Why are there so many repugs that seem to typify the say anything for attention? Do they have no dignity? No dedication to truth?

[GonzoFactor]

You're just now noticing?

Sorry, that's unfair. I think most of us have known this for decades, but a fat lot of good it's done us. When you're the party of power, business, money, and blind self-righteousness, you can get away with almost anything and expect to be loved for it.