Per the Miami Herald, that’s a lot of inquires for something that doesn’t exist.  Or it only exists with voter fraud inquiries into voter fraud allegations into Republican voter fraudsters by voter fraud deniers.

The greed drips off the pages of the Washington Post today.  After the Supreme Court found Section 4’s exercise of federal power unconstitutional, the Left uses the ruling to seek… more federal power. Norman Ornstein’s greedy wish list for expanding federal power:

●A separate federal ballot. Congress has the clear constitutional right to manage federal elections. A separate ballot for federal races strengthens that control. Other advantages include no more confusing butterfly ballots; there would be no more than three races (president, Senate and House) on a federal ballot. No more provisional ballots or access denied if someone shows up at the wrong polling place; the vote would still count only for those federal offices.

Lonnie Randolph, leader of opposition to South Carolina voter ID and head of the South Carolina state NAACP was arrested for not paying his dry cleaning bill, then flipping out on the police when they showed up.

Fear not, however.  The diabetes made him do it.

A judge in Mississippi has ordered a new election after voter intimidation and bullying infected a Mississippi election. 

Johnson ruled that Kimberly Readus, a member of the Canton Democratic Municipal Executive Committee, used “profanity and bullying tactics to create a breach of the peace, intimidate voters and poll workers to disrupt the election process.”

You can read the whole story here at the Clarion Ledger.  But if you work for the DOJ Voting Section (and we appreciate all the traffic every day, we really do), don’t waste your time. This is an exercise in throwing a dog an imaginary bone.  If you chase the story, you’ll be deflated.  Wrong skin color.

Nobody at DOJ will do anything about this judicially determined case of voter intimidation.  Of course you know why.  In this case, the perp did his deeds to help a relative of Ike Brown, so he’ll get a pass from all of those attorneys desperately combing for a new Section 2 case while a Section 11(b) case may be a phone call and plane ride away.

Hat tip to Morning Vent.

 Delicious Irony.

Two candidates who appeared to lose the Republican primary election for
seats on Parsippany’s Township Council are alleging that illegal mail-in
votes were cast and have filed full-blown legal challenges to the
results.

Link to story here.

The New York Times couldn’t help themselves. So the Demolition Derby between North Carolina and the New York Times continues with one additional pearl of wisdom from the Editorial Page Editor’s Blog.  Gentlemen, start your engines. 

An editorial last week lamented North Carolina’s abandonment of progressive policies in the
seven months since Republicans took control of both the executive and
legislative branches in the Tar Heel State for the first time since
reconstruction. The piece cited backward slides in areas such as public education,
tax fairness, voting, abortion rights and the mean-spirited slashing of
federal unemployment benefits for roughly 70,000 residents.

To that depressing list, I would add one more item: the destruction of North Carolina’s public financing system for judicial elections.

...The Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizen United ruling and subsequent
campaign-finance decisions diminished the program’s effectiveness. Now,
instead of making changes to strengthen it, North Carolina is on the
verge of eliminating it. The state legislature is finalizing a budget
that eliminates financial support for the program, making it a hollow
shell.

There’s also a chance the legislature will compound the damage to the
judiciary. A bill expected to be introduced this week would turn the
state’s non-partisan judicial elections into partisan elections with
heightened involvement of the political parties.  Just what North
Carolina needs.

Another loss for election integrity.  Sixth Circuit opinion here.

NBC29.com out of Virginia reports:

A judge has dismissed all the charges
against Colin Small, who was accused of voter fraud. The judge said
Small was careless but none of his acts were criminal.

The political operative was charged with
misdemeanor voter fraud after investigators say he dumped a bag with
eight voter registration forms into a recycling bin last October.

Small, 23, took the stand in his own
defense. After a judge dismissed eight felony counts of misusing Social
Security numbers, five misdemeanor voter fraud charges were brought
against Small, but those too were dismissed Tuesday.

The Corner is following the back and forth between the New York Times and North Carolina. My only comment:  I doubt any member of the New York Times editorial board has ever been to a demolition derby. 

On July 9, the New York Times editorial page portentously announced “The Decline of North Carolina.” “The editors warned that ever since last November, when Republicans won
the governor’s mansion and both legislative houses for the first time
since Reconstruction, the government of the Tar Heel state has become “a
demolition derby, tearing down years of progress in public education,
tax policy, racial equality in the courtroom and access to the ballot.”

The response from North Carolina.

…..Although, your “demolition derby” of hyperbole did miss the mark on our
legislative agenda. The voter ID laws we’re “rushing” through have
actually been in the works since January. The convicted death row
inmates you defend – those guilty of some of our state’s most egregious,
violent crimes – already have an avenue to prove discrimination, one
that doesn’t rely on faulty political science research. What was it, exactly, about North Carolina that you found so
“farsighted”? Was it double-digit unemployment? Horrendous dropout
rates? Declining wages? The highest taxes in the Southeast?