The attorney for those known as the “Madison Nine” for being defendants in a north Florida voting-fraud case says he plans to sue the Florida Department of Law Enforcement over their arrests

Full story at the link.

No voting crime shall go punished as the Left at the Huffingtonpost call it voter suppression.

A packed Washington D.C. courtroom this morning heard a panel of three federal judges debate whether certain parts of the country, including Alabama, still need federal government supervision of their elections to avoid discriminating against minority voters.

Shelby County’s argument that two key sections of the Voting Rights Act are outdated is not only a question of constitutional law, but also a politically-charged question over whether states with an ugly history of blatant race discrimination can be trusted to run fair elections today.

Bert Rein, a lawyer representing Shelby County, told the three judges that newer opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court require that Section 5 of the 1965 voting law – which puts every election-related detail in all or part of 16 states under strict supervision of the Justice Department – be justified by newer proof of discrimination.

“We’re not here to talk about that history, we accept it,” Rein said. “But current burdens must be justified by current needs.”

Full story at the Birmingham News.

This week I am at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Charleston.  I speak Friday, squeezed in between Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul.  I will talk about the DOJ and election laws, and will have some news to break.  I am told it will be on CSPAN.  Tabella seems to be picking up the slack here, as usual.

After review of the article in the Des Moines Register , the real lesson to be learned is that human error in counting paper ballots or slips of paper is very possible.  In fact, it is almost probable and that the tabuling of results in this way can cause confusion and errors.  Paper voting has its own set of issues over electronic voting and yes, humans make mistakes.  

In a wide-ranging critique, commissioner Scott Freeman called his service on the panel “largely a waste of time,” complaining the process was gamed from the beginning to favor Democrats.

He had suggested the commission bypass the Obama-run Justice Department: “Are they going to give Arizona a pass because Arizona has the Democratic dream map?”

Commissioner Linda McNulty, a Democrat, said the record will show the new maps were fairly drawn and called the accusations regrettable.

“I think those are wholly incorrect, wholly inappropriate,” McNulty said.  Fellow Democrat José Herrera and Chairwoman Colleen Mathis, a registered independent, joined McNulty in approving the maps.

GOP commissioner Richard Stertz joined Freeman in rejecting the plans.  Voters in 2000 created the independent commission.

Rancor has dogged the commission almost from the start. It culminated in November, when Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, removed Mathis, saying the chairwoman was guilty of substantial neglect of duty and gross misconduct. The Arizona Supreme Court overturned Brewer’s decision and reinstated Mathis.

Full story at the Arizona Republic.

When Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law in 1964, he lamented that Democrats might have lost the South for 30 years. In a sense he was wrong — the loss of the South was a slow-motion process that took more than 30 years to really get into the bones of the body politic. But Tennessee may now be seeing the final act of that transformation with the completion of the congressional and legislative redistricting processes. With this year’s process, Republicans can now fully say that they own the state.

Full story at the link

Kentucky Democrats target Republicans in the state House.

Kentucky Republicans have approved a state Senate redistricting plan that could force at least four Democrats out of office and end up giving two of the seats to Republicans, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal

and….

They also pointed out that Republicans will likely lose at least six seats in the Kentucky House races this year because of the new redistricting plan drawn up by the Democratic majority in that chamber.

Full story at the link.

Amazing.

Republicans call for photo ID legislation and Democrats call for prosecution of activists who exposed the vulnerabilities of the system.

The state Republican Party Monday formally stated “strong opposition” to what it labeled as efforts by Gov. John Lynch and Democratic state lawmakers to defeat legislation requiring voters to present photo identification in order to register and vote.

State Democratic Chairman Raymond Buckley countered a resolution passed by the New Hampshire GOP executive committee by calling for bipartisan support for prosecuting those who used the names of dead Granite Staters to receive ballots during the presidential primary.

Full story at the link.

Politico here.