Phony voter forms swamp county clerk

CHICAGO, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- The Lake County, Ill., clerk's office says it has been swamped with fraudulent voter forms -- including one from a dead goldfish.

"This is unprecedented. We've got a serious problem," said County Clerk Willard Helander.

More than 1,000 voter registration forms have been submitted with non-existent addresses or for people who don't live at the given recorded address, Helander said, noting one form had information for a local resident's dead goldfish, whose name somehow landed on a mailing list.

Helander warned the sheer number of fraudulent forms could create doubt about the results of close races on Election Day, Nov. 4, reported the Daily Herald newspaper in Arlington Heights, Ill.

Investigators from the state attorney's and sheriff's offices are examining the circumstances behind the suspicious voter registration forms, Meg Marcouiller, chief deputy state's attorney for the civil division, told the newspaper.