The Obama campaign raised a vast haul of money from individuals who must not be reported or disclosed in FEC reports. Naturally this means that the
usual speech regulators and campaign finance crusaders have fallen silent. What is interesting about this haul is that since so much of the money not subject to FEC reporting comes in through
the internet, it raises questions about who is actually making the contributions, and whether they are legitimate contributors.

In 2008, the Obama campaign failed to implement safeguards against illegal contributions by
foreigners. Whether or not those failures have been remedied remains to be seen. I’m sure the usual speech regulators and campaign finance crusaders in academia will be all over the issue
shortly. …

Fox News  target="">has the story: 

“Absentee ballot voting is by definition open to possible fraud in that the individual who gets the ballot could be subject to either intimidation or manipulation in some fashion,” Pastor said.
“This is not very easy to determine.”

J. Christian Adams, a former Department of Justice official, recalled how he litigated a 2005 absentee ballot fraud case in federal court in Mississippi. A judge ruled that Mississippi’s
former Noxubee County Democratic Party leader, Ike Brown, in collaboration with the Noxubee Democratic Executive Committee “manipulated the political process in ways specifically intended and
designed to impair and impede participation of white voters and to dilute their votes.”

“It’s sophisticated people preying on the unsophisticated,” Adams said of the “boleteros” problem. “It’s persuasive people preying on the indifferent.”

It is humorous that in a story that has absolutely nothing to do with Voter ID, some can’t help themselves and are compelled to trumpet their biases against voter ID, no matter the intervew
topic.

…

Fox News  target="">has the story: 

“Absentee ballot voting is by definition open to possible fraud in that the individual who gets the ballot could be subject to either intimidation or manipulation in some fashion,” Pastor said.
“This is not very easy to determine.”

J. Christian Adams, a former Department of Justice official, recalled how he litigated a 2005 absentee ballot fraud case in federal court in Mississippi. A judge ruled that Mississippi’s
former Noxubee County Democratic Party leader, Ike Brown, in collaboration with the Noxubee Democratic Executive Committee “manipulated the political process in ways specifically intended and
designed to impair and impede participation of white voters and to dilute their votes.”

“It’s sophisticated people preying on the unsophisticated,” Adams said of the “boleteros” problem. “It’s persuasive people preying on the indifferent.”

It is humorous that in a story that has absolutely nothing to do with Voter ID, some can’t help themselves and are compelled to trumpet their biases against voter ID, no matter the intervew
topic.

…

Link – an excerpt from an SCOTUSblog online VRA symposium:

There is no question that in 1965, when there was widespread, systematic, state-sponsored discrimination against black voters in states like Alabama and Mississippi, that the Supreme Court
could justify an abrogation of “our historic tradition that all the states enjoy ‘equal sovereignty’” and subject states engaging in such illicit behavior to special rules. As the Court said in
NAMUDNO, “the problems Congress faced when it passed the Act were so dire that ‘exceptional conditions [could] justify legislative measures not otherwise appropriate.’”

But the conditions that existed in 1965 have almost entirely disappeared. No one can rationally claim that there is still widespread, systematic discrimination in the voting context in the
covered states or that those “exceptional conditions” still exist. As the Court recognized in NAMUDNO, “Things have changed in the South.”  The turnout of voters “and registration rates now
approach parity…discriminatory evasions of federal decrees are rare. And minority candidates hold office at unprecedented levels.”   As Justice Thomas said in his dissent, “[t]he extensive
pattern of discrimination that led the Court to previously uphold § 5 as enforcing the Fifteenth Amendment no longer exists.”  Not only has the disparity in black and white registration and
turnout “nearly vanished,” in some states like Mississippi “black voter registration actually exceeded white voter registration.”

The actions of Congress in 2006 and the enforcement history of the Justice Department have only worsened the grave constitutional flaws of Section 5.
…

From my PJ Tatler analysis:

A federal court in Washington D.C. has refused to preclear Texas’ photo voter identification law under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. "https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2012cv0128-340">The opinion is here.

Glenn Reynolds in the "" class="">New York Post:

Americans will fight and die for democracy, but when it comes to the actual business of elections, stuffed ballot boxes and cemetery voters are the subject of jokes more than outrage — though a
democracy in which elections are decided by fraudulent votes created by corrupt politicians is no democracy at all.

That contradiction is the subject of “Who’s Counting: How Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote At Risk,” by journalist John Fund and former
Justice Department attorney Hans von Spakovsky.

Many of America’s largest and worst-governed cities suffer from entrenched and corrupt political machines that maintain their position in no small part via voter fraud. Corrupt machines (like
that of Detroit’s disgraced ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick) siphon off money that should go to essential services and instead divert it to political fatcats and their supporters. Efforts at reform are
often defeated with fraudulent votes. As we approach a presidential election that may prove to be as close as 2000’s, Fund and von Spakovsky’s book is a wake-up call. If democracy in America is to
survive, something must be done. Will we do it?

…

The Union Leader reports
that the new law “requires voters to present a valid photo ID to vote at the
polls or be photographed and sign an affidavit saying they are who they say they are.”  … The new law also requires preclearance from the
U.S. Department of Justice. A Justice spokesman did not reply to a request for comment Friday. New Hampshire — the only Northern state affected — and 15 other states are subject to Section 5 of
the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which seeks to eliminate discriminatory voting practices that bar or hinder voting by minorities.

We will see if New Hampshire gets the same treatment as the Southern states with the new photo ID law.
…

The Union Leader reports
that the new law “requires voters to present a valid photo ID to vote at the
polls or be photographed and sign an affidavit saying they are who they say they are.”  … The new law also requires preclearance from the
U.S. Department of Justice. A Justice spokesman did not reply to a request for comment Friday. New Hampshire — the only Northern state affected — and 15 other states are subject to Section 5 of
the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which seeks to eliminate discriminatory voting practices that bar or hinder voting by minorities.

We will see if New Hampshire gets the same treatment as the Southern states with the new photo ID law.
…

 Ann Althouse reminds us: 

“Since the reports were made in a manner and at a time when it served the interests of Walker opponents, I always suspected
Walker opponents of either faking the reports or generating the calls to cause the reports. I’m even more suspicious now that the subject has been dropped. If the calls were real and really made by
Walker supporters, the opponents who claimed they got the calls or claimed they heard complaints about the calls would have an interest now in laying out the evidence. The silence is telling.”

Instapundit concludes:

“It was battlespace preparation, intended to provide shouting points in the event of a close enough election to spur a recount. Since it wasn’t close, the shouting
points weren’t needed and the whole thing became inoperative.”

A warning for the fall. Deceptive tactics such as concocting phony calls are likely to be used again.

…