Economist recaps  the Shelby County (AL) hearings on Section 5.

At PJ Tatler. 

New York Post on Rick Scott’s quirky and creative refusal to submit the new redistricting panel to DOJ for preclearance.   Suppose he next files in United States District Court for preclearance.  He would still control the timetable as the plaintiff to some extent.   One might imagine scheduling conferences taking place weeks later, nice slow discovery, on and on it might go.

Sponsors have yanked the all-mail ballot legislation in Colorado.

Foiled FOIA.   A portion:

“The situation is actually worse than what this former Justice lawyer described. Even when nonliberal outlets received extremely belated replies, the results frequently were nonresponsive. Two of the 10 delayed responses involved requests from The Washington Times. On July 9, 2010, Justice informed Investigative Editor Jerry Seper that 82 documents, consisting of 155 pages, were applicable to his Jan. 4 request. However, the department claimed an exemption for all 155 pages. Not a single word of a single document was provided.

Justice bureaucrats made the mistake of stonewalling for five months a FOIA request from Rep. Frank Wolf, Virginia Republican, who now chairs the subcommittee that oversees the department’s budget. Yesterday, Mr. Wolf wrote to Justice’s inspector general demanding “an immediate investigation” into what he called “potentially, a violation of federal FOIA law.” Hopefully, the intrepid Mr. Wolf can get to the bottom of the Obama administration’s latest affront to limited government.”

Virginia Congressman Frank Wolf, citing my article today at Pajamas Media has demanded answers from DOJ about playing politics with freedom of information requests.  Pajamas Media had to sue the Department of Justice two weeks ago in Federal Court to obtain information which the DOJ provided to the Boston Globe in 2006.

Read Wolf’s letter here.

I am told that DOJ wanted to CHARGE CONGRESSMAN WOLF to comply with the FOIA he sent DOJ which I discuss in my article. 

Here’s an issue few anticipate.  Apparently voter ID laws cause problems for transexuals when they try to vote.  More at the Kansas City Star.

Scott has outfoxed the foxes it seems.  LA Times offers this fair and balanced report with extensive sourcing from both sides of the issue.

“‘This is extraordinary. I’ve never seen anything like it,’ said Richard Pildes, a New York University law school expert on election law.”

From the Pueblo Chieftain. Scott Gessler is onto something.  Mail-in and absentee ballots are the form of voting most prone to fraud.  Peruse 494 F.Supp.2d 440, at 455, if you have a few minutes. 

From Phillyburbs.com

“The Bucks County Republican Committee challenged more than 1,600 absentee ballot applications it deemed suspicious in the weeks leading up to the November election. Board of elections employees rejected almost 900 ballot applications that were incomplete or questionable, an unprecedented number that made elections officials suspicious.”

Then the story takes an interesting twist.

“The effort also included letters from a fictitious ‘Pennsylvania Voter Assistance Office’ that warned residents’ voting rights might be at risk if they did not obtain an absentee ballot. Applications were directed to the post office box of Congressman Patrick Murphy’s re-election campaign manager, instead of the county.”

Really?!  A shady letter from a phony sender warning voters about possibly losing their right to vote?

“Democrats, including Murphy, denied wrongdoing, saying the letter was legal.”

How about that.  Nothing wrong with tricking voters sometimes, but not all the time.   Maybe Senator Cardin can call Congressman Murphy up to the Senate next time he holds a hearing on deceptive voter practices.