Honest Voting

Did you know you can make big bucks by disbelieving in vote-fraud? Just call 1-800-FAKEVOTE. Fake votes now, ask me how.

It makes me want to bang my head against the wall when I watch the entirely predictable, widely announced, even, Republican wave of claims that voter fraud is rampant across America. I’m reminded of the way they told me to write essays, way back in junior high school: first, tell us how you’re going to lie to us, then lie to us, and finally remind us of how you lied.

This article in the Wall Street Journal, written by Corey Dade and John D. McKinnon, says that the rising numbers of new registrants are giving Republicans the cold whibbies, especially in Virginia and Pennsylvania. To protect against successful Democratic registration drives voter fraud, Republicans are beginning to comb thousands of new registrations in those states for ineligible applicants.

I’m very glad to read, further down the page, that the Obama campaign and the Democratic Party planned ahead and already have people talking directly to local election officials to combat vote suppression.

My favorite quote appears near the end. Foley & Lardner lawyer Cleta Mitchell told the WSJ that she deplored efforts by Democrats and others to spike their anti-fraud campaign:

“What we’re not for is registering fake people at fake addresses, and creating barriers to trying to identify voter fraud where it exists, which is everywhere. It’s a growing problem, because of the professional vote-fraud denier industry.”

According to the Republican Party’s own voter fraud page, which doesn’t seem to have changed materially since I wrote about it on June 19th, they couldn’t find fraud in 30 U.S. states or territories, and of the news listings on that page, many of the articles are ongoing coverage of single cases. Just how big is that industry again? I don’t even think it can afford its own trade magazine.