Chicago Tribune.

Lunch.  Off.

A Dignified President in a Tawdry Hall.

“Are future memorial services to be tainted with trumpet flourishes, cheers for political friends and boos for political enemies?  From whence does this loss of national dignity come?”

River Falls Journal story.   For some of the examples of voter fraud in Wisconsin cataloged by ELC, click here.

Daily Caller has the story.

“Judge Donald Mosley sentenced Busefink to two years imprisonment but suspended the jail time provided that she abides by the terms of her probation. She was also fined a total of $4,000 and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service.  Prosecutors had argued for a fine of just $1,000.”

A rare case where the judge imposes a sentence greater than what the prosecution was seeking.  Alas:

“The criminal complaint filed against Busefink by the Democratic attorney general of Nevada, Catherine Cortez Masto, in May 2009 stated that as ‘ACORN Regional Director for Voter Registration’ Busefink ‘did aid, abet, counsel, encourage, hire, command, induce or procure ACORN to commit the crime of Compensation for Registration of Voters’ by approving a bonus program called ‘Blackjack’ or ’21.’ Voter registration canvassers were given cash bonuses for exceeding a daily quota of 20 registrations.”

Believe it or not, litigation surrounding the 2010 Senate election in Alaska continues.

KS SOS Kobach targets mail-in voter fraud.  Absentee ballots are voter fraud magnets.  Very little has been done to address fraud associated with absentee balloting while in person fraud gets most of the attention.  From the Wichita Eagle:

“Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach said Wednesday that he will include provisions dealing with mail-in ballots in his plan to enact the nation’s toughest election fraud law.”

Just the headline you want to see.  A great example for the students in Brooks County Georgia.  From WALB:

“Suspect selected as school board president

A suspect in a voter fraud case in Brooks County is now the new school board president.

Board member Nancy Dennard was elected in a 4 to 3 vote Tuesday night.

Dennard was one of ten people arrested last month on charges of illegally distributing and turning in absentee ballots for voters.”

National Journal has this interview with Arturo Vargas, the head of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials:

Hotline: This is the first time since the Voting Rights Act was put in place that there will be a Democratic Justice Department in place during redistricting. How differently do you think the Obama Justice Department will handling this than George W. Bush‘s Justice Department did?

AV: I’ve had meetings already with Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez and the attorney general. They’ve been very clear to us that they intend to be very vigilant and very active in this redistricting process. However, this is the same Justice Department that approved the Georgia Voter ID law, which we thought was really problematic. So the track record isn’t necessarily there, but the rhetoric is.

Another example why states should go directly to United States District Court in DC to have their legislative plans approved.  There should not be a “volume dial” on Section 5 reviews inside the Justice Department.  There should be one setting – follow the law.  There should not be a dial that can be cranked up to a “vigilant and very active” setting.  The Section 5 process should not be politicized.  States could avoid all of the risk by going though the faster, fairer and more transparent preclearance process in USDC in DC.

Here.