Obama campaign counsel Robert Bauer is again doing what he did in 2008 – attempt to get government officials on the side of the Obama campaign.  In Wisconsin, it appears to have made a difference.   The Washington Post:

“Pronouncing Election Day observers “the first line of defense” against illegal voting, the primer gives trainees some questionable or conflicting advice. At one point, for example, it says that convicted felons are ineligible to vote in Wisconsin. Not exactly true, according to Reid Magney, spokesman for the state’s Government Accountability Board, which administers elections. Felons who are out prison and have completed probation can vote, he said.

“Once you have completed the terms of your sentence your voting rights are restored in Wisconsin,” Magney said. A few pages later, it mentions that felons who have not had civil rights restored can be challenged at the polls.”

Bauer got exactly what he wanted – a public statement from Wisconsin election officials that the GOP training materials were in error. This is part of a calculated nationwide strategy.  Obama campaign officials have contacted other state election officials and demanded action.  In other instances, the state election officials have complied with the request without even first contacting the authors of the training materials. 

Bauer is notorious for making demands on election officials.  In speeches I give across the country, I describe how Bauer did the same thing in 2008.  He attempts to leverage law enforcement to the benefit of his campaign.  To the extent that so many inside election administration are partisan democrats (names later), this strategy often works. 

Pat Moran stays in the news, this time in his alma mater’s paper, the Yale Daily News.

A former councilwoman for Morrisville, NC, has been charged with attempted double voting.‘

“Voter integrity group True the Vote has issued a formal request to Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings asking him to retract defamatory statements he made about the Houston based group on national television and in writing.

The Nation takes credit for there being no “vote suppressors” at the polls.  Next think you know, they’ll take credit for no witches or goblins at the polls to scare people.  One cannot take credit for scaring away that which never existed.  You simply must read it to believe it.

“News reports [like the LA Times] from other areas like Ohio also showed no intimidation in play, but erroneously concluded that was because it was never a problem to begin with. That’s a silly if not naive interpretation. If intimidation isn’t showing its face, it’s because a legion of voting rights reporters exposed the plans and intentions of ballot bullies and voter harassment artists like True the Vote and their tea party affiliates. “

Accurate re-write: If intimidation isn’t showing its face, it’s because it never existed except in the minds of the racially paranoid who needed a way to stoke up a disenchanted base.

Gallup finds a 22 point collapse in Democrat support by early voters compared with 2008.

Congressman Joe Wilson pens an editorial on how military voters deserve better.  This is not the message that DoD wants to be hearing from a leading member of the Armed Services Committee, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Military Personnel.

…the Pentagon has not implemented these requirements set forth in the
MOVE Act. Many of voting assistance offices were never created and our
brave men and women serving in uniform have not been given the access to
voting assistance that was promised to them. These failures have had a
tremendous impact on our troops’ ability to vote.

As chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military
Personnel, I am committed to taking an active role in getting to the
bottom of this inability to provide fairness to our military personnel,
the ones who dedicate their lives to protect our freedoms.

Next year, there may be a number of hearings with questions and explanations.

The census, along with previous population surveyshere.