The Star Tribune got the memo too.  Voter ID in Minnesota is also a “solution in search of a problem.”

More here.

PJ Tatler has a story  on the New York voter fraud indictments, plus a video of the perp walk of the indicted officials.  Too bad Eric Shawn didn’t catch up with Tova Wang or Justin Levitt at the Brennan Center for comment.  Bob Mirch deserves a medal.


Another PJ Tatler post  about American elections and Egypt.

Daily Caller.

Michael Yaki and a lapdog blog has made much of the fact that the Black Panther investigation obtained a video from someone who runs a website and sought information from Republicans about the identity of eyewitnesses.  We truly have entered an age of journalistic tempests in real world teapots.  Mike Roman was in possession of videotape.  Therefore any reasonable person would recognize you contact people who are possession of evidence, regardless of their identity.  Mike Roman and other Republicans also knew the identities of particular people who were at the polls and were possible eye witnesses.  Obtaining the identity of individuals allowes for interviews to be conducted.  That the individuals who knew the identity of the eyewitnesses happened to be Republicans was of no import.     Any investigation into a similar event would do precisely the same thing.  The Department of Justice routinely relies on the aid of groups who have agendas other than the particular investigation conducted by the Department.  For example, the ACLU, Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF) and the NAACP LDF routinely contact the Department with information that may be relevant in a case.  The Department even seeks out their help in investigations.  Certainly the broader agenda of these groups, including their political agendas, should play no part in whether or not information about witnesses and evidence is received, at least to rational people.  Justice lawyers routinely meet and obtain evidence from groups many Americans would disagree with, and those contacts should not be subject to scrutiny, unless of course it is necessary. 

The author of a blog inferring to the contrary has a long history of distorting facts and publishing inaccurate statements.  If the broad agenda of organizations providing evidence and information to the Department of Justice is properly subject to scrutiny, then reporters certainly have a fertile environment to write hit pieces about investigative communications with third party groups.  To the contrary, I believe it is perfectly acceptable for the Department of Justice to accept information and the names of witnesses and obtain evidence like videotapes from groups regardless of whether or not they are fringe left wing groups, civil rights organizations or mainstream political parties.  There was a time when reporters understood this fact.  Thankfully the credible ones still do.

Denver Post.   “New Secretary of State Scott Gessler wants to change Colorado’s voter-registration laws based on his fear that 16,000 or more registered voters in the state might not be citizens. But that number is being questioned by some who say Gessler is manufacturing a voter-fraud scare to push civil-rights-constricting legislation.

Voter fraud related to the Working Families Party.  Fox has more:

“A 59-page, 116-count indictment charges Troy Democratic City Councilman Michael LoPorto and Edward McDonough , Democratic Commissioner of the Rensselaer County Board of Elections, with forgery and criminal possession of a forged instrument. The two men arrive in court in handcuffs on Friday and pleaded not guilty.

Seven other public officials and political operatives are said to be targets of the continuing investigation. The Fox News Voter Fraud unit first reported the brazen allegations just over a year ago, with reports that absentee ballots and applications were forged to try to stuff the ballot box and steal an election.”

Bryan Preston has more at PJ Tatler.

KXLH. “A bill before the Montana Legislature that would require elections to be conducted via mail divided the Republican Party on Thursday, but managed to pass a second reading.”

Brian Coy, Virginia Democratic Party flunkie, should chill out. He decides to attack Governor Bob McDonnell’s picks for the State Board of Elections on Day One. Coy bristles  to the Washington Post:

“’If Bob McDonnell ever had an interest in nonpartisan handling of elections, it’s safe to say it ended when he chose a former executive director of the Republican Party and a former adviser to a Republican congressman who had questionable ties to Jack Abramoff to run the State Board of Elections,’” said Brian Coy, a spokesman for the Democratic Party of Virginia.

This is not a fight Brian Coy wants to have. Besides Coy being factually wrong, people in glass houses shouldn’t be lobbing rocks. The outgoing SBE Secretary, Nancy Rodrigues, is hardly the model of nonpartisanship. This blog has been covering her antics  for over six months – and left a great deal on the sidelines. Nothing says her tenure can’t be examined more carefully just because she is gone, and by lots of print media. Nothing says that all of the media requests people have gotten to unload on Rodrigues by various people can’t be met. Let’s hope one of the last things outgoing Secretary Rodrigues does is take advantage of her Democrat party connections and call Coy and Company off.