During a teleconference Wednesday, the N.C. State Board of
Elections voted unanimously to deny Fleming El-Amin’s appeal to open two
additional early voting sites for the Winston-Salem primary election. Low voter turnout at previous Winston-Salem primary elections was
a key theme in the discussion by the five members of the state board,
which has a Republican majority.

…Paul Foley, a Republican from Winston-Salem who serves on the state
board, said he attended the Forsyth County Board of Elections meeting
and had a good perspective on the request. He said only 297 voters
showed up for early voting at the 2009 municipal primary election, with
overall voter turnout at 3.66 percent.

…State board member Joshua Malcolm, a Democrat from Robeson County,
said the Forsyth County Board of Elections would not be out any money if
it offered additional sites since the city is responsible for the
election costs.

“Wasting taxpayer money is wasting taxpayer money, regardless of where it’s coming from,” Foley argued….

When Texas voters head to the polls in November, they will be required
to present one of seven specific forms of photo identification before
they are able to cast their ballot. 

Link to full story.

Don McGahn interviewed by Greta Van Susteren.  In-depth analysis and discussion on the suspect emails and the collusion between the FEC and the IRS.   Enter Lois Lerner and Bob Bauer. 

The IRS scandal is anything but “phony,” as President Barack Obama has labeled it, and is instead an assault on the Constitution’s First Amendment, says Bradley Smith, former chairman of the Federal Election Commission.

“The IRS scandal is part of a long-term assault on First Amendment rights,” Smith, now chairman of the Center for Competitive Politics, writes in the Wall Street Journal.

The scandal involved the targeting of conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status, giving their applications more scrutiny than others. The groups sought 501(c)(4) tax status, which requires a group to be engaged in “the promotion of social welfare.” 

Via CNN, The Vice-Chair of the Federal Election Commission comments on the potential investigation into collusion between the FEC and the IRS.

“Things seemed weird to
me” after examining the undisclosed e-mails, McGahn told CNN. “The FEC
has not had a good track record with calling balls and strikes. They’ve
been criticized for not playing fair.”

If nothing else, he
added, this “creates the appearance that people are being selectively
targeted. And that’s something that should never happen.”

American Future Fund
founder Nick Ryan argued in a written statement last week that the
publicly released correspondence between the IRS and the FEC “indicates
questionable behavior.”

“We will cooperate with
(the) ongoing investigations to root out the bad actors in the
politically driven, out-of-control bureaucracy the IRS and the
government has become.”

Unsolicited and anonymous text messages sent just prior to the 2012 election by an individual, his company and his PAC are the subject of a new complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission.

The messages expressed advocated the defeat of President Barack
Obama. Articles about the messages from The Washington Post, USA Today,
The Atlantic and The Hill, were attached to the complaint. The messages
were sent as emails to phone numbers as texts, not phone-to-ph one texts. 

Link at RollCall.

Pete Olson, the Congressman from the 22nd District in Texas, pens an opinion piece on H.R. 1280 which increases the penalties of election fraud crimes and addresses the handling of official election materials by the postal service.

Every vote is sacred. Throughout history, people have sacrificed
their lives to make sure that their voices count when determining who
will govern them. Congress has a duty to monitor and ensure the
integrity of the federal electoral process throughout the country. To
better address voter fraud, I introduced the Voter Fraud Prevention Act,
H.R.1280, a bill that stiffens the penalties for individuals convicted
of voter fraud or tampering with official election materials, such as
voter registration cards and absentee ballots. The bill increases the
jail sentence from 5 years to 10 years, and anyone convicted of either
of these offenses would permanently lose their right to vote in federal
elections.

My legislation also specifically addresses the
handling of official election materials by the US Postal Service, the
issue highlighted by the loss of the 22,000 voter registration cards in
Fort Bend County. It directs election officials to employ the existing
tracking system available to the US Postal Service for ballots and all
official election materials. Using this tool will better ensure that
election officials can track voter registration cards and absentee
ballots, and the likelihood of election materials being lost or stolen
will be greatly reduced.

Regardless of anyone’s personal political views, we can all agree that
the integrity of our democracy is critically important. As the world’s
oldest democracy, we must lead by example in ensuring every citizen’s
right to cast their vote is protected.

The 2002 Democrat redistricting map was neither fair nor equitable in terms of state Senate representation. The 55,000 Republican voter registration advantage was buried in a 10-10 Senate in 2010.

Today, Democrats have dwindled to 69,925 in Alaska while Republican registrations have swelled to 133,317. With a 63,392 registration advantage, Republicans have elected twenty-six representatives and thirteen senators.

The 2012 Alaska Redistricting map reflected both our changing demographics and our politics. The July 14, 2013, proclamation map created districts with even smaller population deviations for strict compliance with our Alaska State Constitution.

Let’s acknowledge this political change. Alaskan voters deserve this fair and equitable map for the balance of the decade.

CNN reports on potential collusion between the FEC and the IRS.  It wouldn’t surprise conservatives. 

The vice chairman of the Federal Election Commission told CNN on
Monday he has seen numerous undisclosed e-mails between FEC staffers and
the Internal Revenue Service that raise new questions about potential
collusion between the two federal agencies in the alleged targeting of
conservative political groups.

Don McGahn, a Republican
FEC commissioner, said an investigator from his agency contacted Lois
Lerner, the IRS employee at the center of the political storm now
engulfing that agency.

He said the contact was made to discuss the status of one such conservative political advocacy group, the American Future Fund.

Shortly after Lerner was contacted, the IRS sent a questionnaire to the American Future Fund, McGahn added.

“Who’s the dog and who’s
the tail (in this case)? Who knows,” McGahn said. But “dealing with Lois
Lerner is probably out of the ordinary.”

The answers, McGahn stressed, “could be benign (or) could be more sinister.”