There is a lot of talk of “disenfranchisement” of minority voters by Voter ID laws, which is another ridiculous attempt to cast common-sense, color-blind legislation in terms of race. The way Eric Holder and civil rights leaders carry on, you would think there was a legitimate argument. But there isn’t. There is no credible evidence to suggest that blacks are being denied the right to vote. It’s another race-based attempt to deflect the very real instances of voter fraud (benefiting Democrats) away from the Democratic party and onto good law-abiding Americans who demand integrity in the voting and election process. Americans who are standing up for an end to years of voter fraud are called racists. Racism is the Black Panthers standing at polling locations intimidating white voters with batons. We all remember Election Day 2008 in Philadelphia where members of the Black Panthers stood menacingly in front of a polling place, dressed in military-style uniforms and carrying night sticks, and hurled horrible racial slurs at whites. Racism is the US Justice Department refusing to prosecute the case, claiming there was no solid evidence that there were any violations of the Voter Rights Act, even though several videos surfaced clearly showing the intimidation and the racial slurs.

The Democrats won’t tolerate a reasonable law requiring people to show a valid ID because it might prevent blacks from voting but it will tolerate blacks beating up whites to physically prevent them from voting.

More at Beaufortobserver.net.

The Republican takeover of the Minnesota Legislature in 2010 has consequences for the 2012 ballot, as eager conservatives look to bypass Gov. Mark Dayton’s veto pen and bring some of their policy goals directly to voters.

In last year’s legislative session, Republicans set a statewide vote for later this year on whether to ban same-sex marriage in the state’s Constitution. But it’s likely not to be the only question on the November ballot.

Members of the Republican majority are weighing several more right-leaning constitutional amendments, meaning citizens may get to weigh on whether voting in Minnesota should require a photo ID

… Zellers and Senate Majority Leader Dave Senjem have called the voting photo ID requirement a near certainty. Republicans passed a bill last year to add the requirement to state law, but Dayton vetoed it. Some people speculated that sponsors would work with Dayton this year to approve it through the legislative process, but chief House sponsor Rep. Mary Kiffmeyer said last week she is more inclined to simply send it to the ballot.

“Do we want to go through that process again, given we know where it’s probably going to end up?” said Kiffmeyer, R-Big Lake.

Full story at the link.

@ Heritage Foundry.  Today, the Supreme Court tossed out the work of a district court that attempted to force its own electoral maps on the state of Texas, while ignoring the maps drawn by the Texas legislature. The unanimous decision is a major victory for constitutional federalism, and a blow to runaway judicial activism

Leading blog Powerline provides an outstanding analysis of why the identify theft and attempt to frame the Iowa Secretary of State with an ethics violation was not just a Democratic Dirty Trick, but a Crime.

A few years ago, as part of its strategy of facilitating voter fraud as a means of winning close elections, the Democratic Party undertook a campaign to secure as many Secretary of State offices in swing states as possible. From those perches, the Democrats would be in a position to oversee elections and enforce (or decline to enforce) election laws. That strategy has been quite successful, but the Democrats suffered a setback in Iowa in 2010 when conservative Republican Matt Schultz won an upset victory in the Secretary of State race. Since then, Iowa Democrats have targeted Schultz.

That targeting has taken a sinister turn–a criminal one…

South Carolina’s attorney general is asking the U.S. Justice Department for an investigation into potential voter fraud.

Attorney General Alan Wilson has sent details of an analysis by the Department of Motor Vehicles to U.S. Attorney Bill Nettles.

In a letter dated Thursday, Wilson says the analysis found 953 ballots cast by voters listed as dead. In more than 70 percent of those cases, ballots were cast between two months and 76 months after the people died

Full story at the link

The Bangor Daily News reports: Maine’s Secretary of State has levied new allegations of possible voter fraud and again called on lawmakers to address what he believes are deficiencies in the state’s election system.

In an annual report to the Legislature’s Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee on the state’s Central Voter Registration (CVR) system, Charlie Summers said his yearlong review of voter registration data was troubling.

He conceded that most of the problems are related to human errors by municipal officials rather than intentional fraud, but said those errors have contributed to inaccurate and unreliable state voter data.

The data “suggests that a substantial number of noncitizens (over 150) may have registered to vote, and approximately one-third of that number may have actually voted in elections over the past few years,” Summers wrote. “I have turned this information over to the Attorney General for further investigation and to pursue whatever action he deems appropriate.”

Find his written testimony at the link.  As they say statistics is just one of the category of lies.  The level of complexity of the statistical analysis bewilders the common man and one wonders if the Court will find that DOJ was trying to pull the wool over its eyes.  Best review your statistics final exam before following the link. 

In this instance, DOJ may have just entered the category of damn lies.  

The opinion can be found here.  In rejecting the judge-drawn maps, this is a huge victory for Texas.  Now the muddle by the lower court to finalize new lines and set a date for the primary election begins.

Bloomberg with the breaking story.

Reports from Fox and other sources here and here.

Alot of information in the articles but these are the main passages to take away.  The first is some comments from Michael LoPorto’s attorney:
 
“Jackals prey upon the weakest member of the herd. That’s what happened here,” LoPorto’s attorney Michael Feit said of the guilty pleas in which former officials admitted forging ballot applications and submitting them as legitimate votes.

Feit concedes “there is no question” that someone tried to steal the election. “It is awful, it’s despicable, it’s terrible,” he added.

But he insists his client was not a part of what happened, noting neither LoPorto’s DNA nor fingerprints were found on any of the allegedly faked applications. Forgery charges were dropped against LoPorto before the trial began, leaving 29 counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument.

“There is no proof, in my view, that will show … that he knew that what he possessed was a forged instrument,” said Feit, referring to the allegedly faked absentee ballot applications. “Michael LoPorto is not ‘a good ‘ol boy.’ He’s not been a politician all his life. He doesn’t rely on a political job to support himself and his family. He, in fact, got the most votes in this election. He didn’t need torig any election.”

While some will say that voter fraud is non-existent, the reports highlight how deep the fraud and corruption can run at times:

Two veteran Democratic political operatives in Troy said voter fraud is an accepted way of winning elections, and faking absentee ballots was commonplace.