MSM Discovers 'Voter Fraud' Fraud: Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Sunday 04/15/07

[freedomfries]

MSM Discovers 'Voter Fraud' Fraud: Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Sunday 04/15/07




All members welcome and encouraged to participate.
Please post Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.
If you can:
:argh:

1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.
2. Post stories using the "Election Fraud and Reform News Sources" listed here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x371233
3. Re-post stories and announcements you find on DU, providing a link to the original thread with thanks to the Original Poster, too.
4. Start a discussion thread by re-posting a story you see on this thread.
Please "Recommend" for the Greatest Page.
:patriot:

[freedomfries]

1. GA: Cynthia Tucker: GOP still can't find those FVs — fake voters

GOP still can't find those FVs — fake voters

Cynthia Tucker
The Atlanta Journal Constitution
April 15, 2007
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/tucker/stories/2007/04/15/0415edtuck.html

Republicans seem to believe that if they lost an election, somebody cheated. That delusion has not only led them to chase after unsubstantiated rumors of fake voters but also to put in place unconstitutional restrictions at the ballot box. Harsh voter ID laws have already suppressed voting by people of color around the country.

Now, the GOP's paranoid insistence that countless votes have been illegally cast has mired them in legal and political quicksand. It was the party's determination to prosecute voter fraud, even if it did not exist, that forced some conscientious U.S. attorneys out of office — a scandal reminiscent of Richard Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre.

The clumsy politicization of the Justice Department has created turmoil in its ranks. Democrats have issued subpoenas to try to get a straight story about the dismissal of competent attorneys such as New Mexico prosecutor David Iglesias; meanwhile, high-ranking Justice Department appointees have headed for the exits. The controversy may yet end the tenure of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

All this might have been avoided if Republicans were able to face up to a bitter truth: They lose elections because voters don't agree with their politics. That's especially true for black and brown voters, who find it difficult to get excited about a party that caters to xenophobes and mossbacks.

I find it hard to believe that Karl Rove doesn't know that. Surely, he's well-paid and highly respected in GOP circles because he grasps the essential realities of electoral politics.

Well, perhaps not. The Bush/Cheney/Rove axis of mendacity has dealt in distortions and dissembling for so long that it's not clear whether they are able to recognize the truth any longer. Faced with a well-researched scholarly report that concluded "there is little polling place fraud," the GOP-dominated Election Assistance Commission simply changed the report. The final version of the report suggests that many experts believe substantial voter fraud exists.
...
Why have leading Republicans invested so much credibility in spreading the canard of widespread election fraud? They use that fiction to push highly restrictive voter ID laws, which tend to block ballot access for poorer black and brown citizens. It's no coincidence that those voters are also more likely to support Democrats. Voter ID laws may not shave off more than a few hundred votes, but in close races, that may be enough to assure Republican victories.
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/tucker/stories/2007/04/15/0415edtuck.html

[freedomfries]

3. Nat: Yahoo: REPUBLICANS STILL PUSH FICTION OF WIDESPREAD VOTING FRAUD

REPUBLICANS STILL PUSH FICTION OF WIDESPREAD VOTING FRAUD

THANK YOU
Cythia Tucker
News.Yahoo.com
Sat Apr 14, 7:56 PM ET

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucas/20070414/cm_ucas/republicansstillpushfictionofwidespreadvotingfraud

Republicans seem to believe that if they lost an election, somebody cheated. That delusion not only has led them to chase after unsubstantiated rumors of fake voters, but also to put in place unconstitutional restrictions at the ballot box. Harsh voter ID laws have already suppressed voting by people of color around the country.

Now, the GOP's paranoid insistence that countless votes have been illegally cast has mired them in legal and political quicksand. It was the party's determination to prosecute voter fraud, even if it didn't exist , that forced some conscientious U.S. attorneys out of office -- a scandal reminiscent of Richard Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucas/20070414/cm_ucas/republicansstillpushfictionofwidespreadvotingfraud

[diva77]

21. oh no! did she mistakenly interchange the term " voter fraud" with

"election fraud" with this line:

Why have leading Republicans invested so much credibility in spreading the canard of widespread election fraud?

[freedomfries]

2. NY: H. Rosenfeld: A surge of Bush incompetence

A surge of Bush incompetence

H. Rosenfeld
Times Union, Albany, NY
April 15, 2007
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=580960&category=ROSENFELD&BCCode=&newsdate=4/15/2007

Reverses are piling up for the White House. However bad that might be for George Bush, it is scary for America, which is constitutionally compelled to endure another 20 months of presidential arrogance allied to deeply embedded incompetence. .

In the latest twist to the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, the White House Wednesday acknowledged the deletion of an unknown number of e-mails written by some 20 operatives, most notably Karl Rove, who had political functions in addition to their governmental duties

These e-mails are sought by congressional committees probing the motives behind the discharge of the attorneys to explore whether some constituted unlawful or improper interference by the White House with the responsibilities of the prosecutors.
...

Also, The New York Times revealed last week that the federal Election Assistance Commission had revised upward the finding of experts that there was little voter fraud in elections.
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=580960&category=ROSENFELD&BCCode=&newsdate=4/15/2007

[freedomfries]

4. TMPCafe: Tall Tale of Voter Fraud Unravels

Tall Tale of Voter Fraud Unravels: Voting Rights & Election News

Erin Ferns
Project Vote
TMPCafe.com
April 13, 2007 Edition
http://houseoflabor.tpmcafe.com/blog/project_vote/2007/apr/13/tall_tale_of_voter_fraud_unravels_voting_rights_election_news_roundup_april_13_2007_edition

This an entry in a series of blogs to keep people informed on current election reform and voting rights issues in the news.

Featured Stories of the Week:

In 5-Year Effort, Scant Evidence of Voter Fraud – New York Times

Panel Said to Alter Finding on Voter Fraud – New York Times

This week, two New York Times stories expose the reality of voter fraud, which has recently surfaced in conjunction with the politicization of the Department of Justice.

On Thursday's front page news, reporters Eric Lipton and Ian Urbina add evidence to the fact that politically motivated policy-making under the guise of combating voter fraud has lead to voter disenfranchisement. On Wednesday, Urbina wrote of the Election Assistance Commission's (EAC) downplaying their voter fraud report findings, which actually showed little evidence of voter fraud.

Not only does the issue of voter fraud prove to be false, but evidence shows the issue of voter fraud is a smokescreen to a greater end: suppressing the vote and shaping the electorate to favor the GOP. It is now evident, due in part to the Times stories - some of which was based on the same research that Project Vote has recently released in our Politics of Voter Fraud report – that the issue of voter fraud is a myth. The scandal surrounding the firing for the eight US Attorneys has helped expose the subversion of institutions that are supposed to protect voting rights into agents of partisan politics. The Times reported on Wednesday that the EAC exaggerated prevalence of voter fraud in a recent report, in spite of the authors' findings.

“Though the original report said that among experts 'there is widespread but not unanimous agreement that there is little polling place fraud,' the final version of the report released to the public concluded in its executive summary that 'there is a great deal of debate on the pervasiveness of fraud,'” the Times reported.

Politics, again, seems to come before fact, even in the Department of Justice, which purportedly fired at least two U.S. attorneys for not rigorously prosecuting voter fraud cases, which they, in fact, investigated but failed to find evidence of wrongdoing. According to the recent testimony of former Chief of the Voting Section of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division Joe Rich, the roles of political appointees and civil servants have blurred since 2002 as politically motivated decisions overruled the recommendations of career staff, as occurred in the Georgia voter ID case (which was ultimately declared unconstitutional). He later referred to is as “fidelity to GOP interests” in an L.A. Times op-ed in March.

From firing US attorneys for not aggressively pursuing voter fraud cases to the EAC rewriting its voter fraud study, to the Department of Justice approving flawed redistricting schemes and state-level voter ID bills, it is obvious that the GOP has politicized every aspect of administering the nations elections and enforcing voting rights. In this context, it is easy to see how “voter fraud” is just a facade to fuel passage of laws and regulations that are, in fact, simply legalized voter suppression efforts.
http://houseoflabor.tpmcafe.com/blog/project_vote/2007/apr/13/tall_tale_of_voter_fraud_unravels_voting_rights_election_news_roundup_april_13_2007_edition

[freedomfries]

5. Nat: NYTimes Re-Post: In 5-Year Effort, Scant Evidence of Voter Fraud

In 5-Year Effort, Scant Evidence of Voter Fraud

THANK YOU
ERIC LIPTON and IAN URBINA
Better late than never!
The New York Times
April 12, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/washington/12fraud.html?ex=1334030400&en=277feccfa099c7d0&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

WASHINGTON, April 11 — Five years after the Bush administration began a crackdown on voter fraud, the Justice Department has turned up virtually no evidence of any organized effort to skew federal elections, according to court records and interviews.

Ms. Prude’s daughter Nicole with her children, Anthony Bibins, 4; Nashawna; and Narvelle Handley, 1, at home last week in Milwaukee.
Although Republican activists have repeatedly said fraud is so widespread that it has corrupted the political process and, possibly, cost the party election victories, about 120 people have been charged and 86 convicted as of last year.

Most of those charged have been Democrats, voting records show. Many of those charged by the Justice Department appear to have mistakenly filled out registration forms or misunderstood eligibility rules, a review of court records and interviews with prosecutors and defense lawyers show.

In Miami, an assistant United States attorney said many cases there involved what were apparently mistakes by immigrants, not fraud.

In Wisconsin, where prosecutors have lost almost twice as many cases as they won, charges were brought against voters who filled out more than one registration form and felons seemingly unaware that they were barred from voting.

One ex-convict was so unfamiliar with the rules that he provided his prison-issued identification card, stamped “Offender,” when he registered just before voting.

A handful of convictions involved people who voted twice. More than 30 were linked to small vote-buying schemes in which candidates generally in sheriff’s or judge’s races paid voters for their support.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/washington/12fraud.html?ex=1334030400&en=277feccfa099c7d0&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

[freedomfries]

6. Nat: NYTimes Editorial: The Fantasy Behind the Scandal

The Fantasy Behind the Scandal

Editorial
The New York Times
April 15, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/opinion/15sun1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

The more we learn about the White House’s purge of United States attorneys, the more a single thread runs through it: the Bush administration’s campaign to transform the minor problem of voter fraud into a supposed national scourge.

In 5-Year Effort, Scant Evidence of Voter Fraud (April 12, 2007) When the public first learned about the firing of eight United States attorneys, administration officials piously declared that many of the prosecutors had ill served the public by failing to aggressively pursue voter fraud cases (against Democrats, naturally). But the more we examine this issue, the more ludicrous those claims seem.

Last week, we learned that the administration edited a government-ordered report on voter fraud to support its fantasy. The original version concluded that among experts “there is widespread but not unanimous agreement that there is little polling place fraud.” But the publicly released version said, “There is a great deal of debate on the pervasiveness of fraud.” It’s hard to see that as anything but a deliberate effort to mislead the public.

Sound familiar? In President Bush’s first term, a White House official, who had been the oil industry’s front man in trying to discredit the science of global warming, repeatedly edited government reports to play down links between climate change and greenhouse gases. And then there was the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, which turned reports on old, dubious and false tales about weapons of mass destruction into warnings of clear, present and supposedly mortal dangers.

It’s obvious why the Bush administration would edit those documents, but why the voting report? Because charges of voter fraud are a key component of the Republican electoral strategy. If the public believes there are rampant efforts to vote fraudulently, or to register voters improperly, it increases support for measures like special voter ID’s, which work against the poor, the elderly, minorities and other disenfranchised groups that tend to support Democrats. Claims of rampant voter fraud also give the administration an excuse to cut back prosecutions of the real problem: officials who block voters’ access to the polls.

There is one big catch, as Eric Lipton and Ian Urbina reported in The Times last week. After a five-year crackdown, the Justice Department has not turned up any evidence that voter fraud actually is a problem. Only 86 people were convicted of voter fraud crimes as of last year — most of them Democrats and many on trivial, trumped-up charges.

The Bush administration was so determined to pursue this phantom scourge that it deported a legal Florida resident back to his native Pakistan for mistakenly filling out a voter registration card when he renewed his driver’s license. And it may well have decided to fire most of the eight federal prosecutors because they would not play along.

It is vital that Congress get to the truth about these firings. Last week, the Republican National Committee threw up another roadblock, claiming it had lost four years’ worth of e-mail messages by Karl Rove that were sent on a Republican Party account. Those messages, officials admitted, could include some about the United States attorneys. It is virtually impossible to erase e-mail messages fully, and the claims that they are gone are not credible.

The only solution is to get these issues out into the open. It is good that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will finally testify in the Senate this week. But Mr. Rove, who seems to be at the heart of this affair, should also be required to testify under oath — and in public. Even the Wizard of Oz eventually came out from behind the curtain.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/opinion/15sun1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[freedomfries]

7. Nat: Atlantic Monthly: Karl Rove's Voter Fraud Fetish

Karl Rove's Voter Fraud Fetish

Joshua Green
Atlantic Monthly
April 12, 2007
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200704u/rove-voter-fraud

The Bush administration cracks down on a phantom menace

Until Alberto Gonzalez testifies next week, the main area of interest in the ongoing attorney general scandal is the White House’s seemingly odd fixation with “voter fraud.” At least two of the U.S. attorneys at the heart of the scandal were removed for failing, in the estimation of Bush officials, to adequately pursue and prosecute voter fraud. The trouble is, there doesn’t seem to be much fraud to prosecute.

Today’s New York Times reports that despite a five-year-old crackdown, the Justice Department has turned up “virtually no evidence” that organized fraud exists. The few people who have been convicted of voter fraud, the piece makes clear, are mostly confused felons and immigrants. And yet the White House, again per the Times, was anxious enough about the issue that it obscured the conclusions of a federal panel that found little evidence of fraud—the panel report’s conclusion was changed to allow for the (apparently baseless) possibility that rampant voter fraud is a real problem.

What gives?

Allowing for the possibility that someone, somewhere in the White House genuinely believes voter fraud is a problem, I think a much likelier explanation is that administration officials—and one official in particular, Karl Rove—see the issue of voter fraud as a handy political weapon at election time. Voicing concerns about fraud often paves the way for intimidation tactics like poll watching that depress turnout, especially among minorities and less educated voters who tend to vote Democratic.

Rove never passes up an opportunity to seize an electoral advantage. But I have a better reason for suspecting his handiwork. The closest race of Rove’s career—the 1994 election for chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in which Rove’s candidate actually trailed the morning after the election—hinged on the issue of voter fraud. As I discovered from Rove’s own staff while doing a profile of him in 2004, Rove himself pushed the voter fraud issue aggressively and ultimately won the race. Here’s an excerpt from my piece that picks up on the morning after Rove’s candidate, Perry Hooper, appeared to have lost the election:

Newspaper coverage on November 9, the morning after the election, focused on the Republican Fob James's upset of the Democratic Governor Jim Folsom. But another drama was rapidly unfolding. In the race for chief justice, which had been neck and neck the evening before, Hooper awoke to discover himself trailing by 698 votes. Throughout the day ballots trickled in from remote corners of the state, until at last an unofficial tally showed that Rove's client had lost—by 304 votes. Hornsby's campaign declared victory.

Rove had other plans, and immediately moved for a recount. "Karl called the next morning," says a former Rove staffer. "He said, 'We came real close. You guys did a great job. But now we really need to rally around Perry Hooper. We've got a real good shot at this, but we need to win over the people of Alabama.'" Rove explained how this was to be done. "Our role was to try to keep people motivated about Perry Hooper's election," the staffer continued, "and then to undermine the other side's support by casting them as liars, cheaters, stealers, immoral—all of that." (Rove did not respond to requests for an interview for this article.)

The campaign quickly obtained a restraining order to preserve the ballots. Then the tactical battle began. Rather than focus on a handful of Republican counties that might yield extra votes, Rove dispatched campaign staffers and hired investigators to every county to observe the counting and turn up evidence of fraud.

The charges of voter fraud led to an Election 2000/Florida-style recount and naturally wound up in court. The case dragged on for nearly a year and eventually was settled by the United States Supreme Court—in favor of Rove’s client (sound familiar?). What I remember most from reporting this piece three years ago are the vivid, and largely fictional, tales that Rove peddled to help keep his candidate’s hopes alive:

Mindful of public opinion, according to staffers, the campaign spread tales of poll watchers threatened with arrest; probate judges locking themselves in their offices and refusing to admit campaign workers; votes being cast in absentia for comatose nursing-home patients; and Democrats caught in a cemetery writing down the names of the dead in order to put them on absentee ballots.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200704u/rove-voter-fraud

[freedomfries]

8. Nat: Rolling Stone: The Voter Fraud Myth

The Voter Fraud Myth

Tim Dickinson
The Rolling Stone
April 13, 2007
http://www.rollingstone.com/nationalaffairs/index.php/2007/04/13/the-voter-fraud-myth/

The only substantive note of interest to emerge from the esoteric U.S. Attorney scandal is the Karl Rove-driven effort to force USAs to prosecute “voter fraud”.

While GOP voter suppression — which recently led to criminal convictions in New Hampshire — has been amply documented, Republicans have long countered that, well hey, liberals are drumming up criminal conspiracies to create voter fraud that skews elections in their favor.
Indeed, preventing fraud has been used to justify the recent wave of restrictive voter-ID requirements that — despite their pre-clearance by the Justice Department — have been found by judges around the country to pose an unconstitutional barrier to the franchise.

If there’s a silver lining to Rove’s tenure it may be that we can finally put this he-said/she-said story to rest. After five years of aggressively targeting voter fraud under guidelines that make inadvertent paperwork errors grounds for prosecution, the Rove/Gonzalez/Aschroft Justice Department has turned up nothing to support allegations of wide-spread fraud.

From an excellent NYT piece:

Five years after the Bush administration began a crackdown on voter fraud, the Justice Department has turned up virtually no evidence of any organized effort to skew federal elections, according to court records and interviews.Although Republican activists have repeatedly said fraud is so widespread that it has corrupted the political process and, possibly, cost the party election victories, about 120 people have been charged and 86 convicted as of last year.

Those convicted, according to the story, are mostly poor people who’ve passed through the penal system and were evidently unclear about whether their voting rights had been restored.

With any luck, before all is said and done, Karl Rove will become intimately familiar with the restrictions on voting rights of ex felons, himself.
http://www.rollingstone.com/nationalaffairs/index.php/2007/04/13/the-voter-fraud-myth/

[freedomfries]

9. Tom Paine: The 'Voter Fraud' Fraud Exposed

The 'Voter Fraud' Fraud Exposed

Bill Scher
TomPaine.com
April 12, 2007
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/04/12/the_voter_fraud_fraud_exposed.php

A long-overdue investigative article appears in the Thursday New York Times that shreds the Republican Party's claims of rampant voter fraud:

Five years after the Bush administration began a crackdown on voter fraud, the Justice Department has turned up virtually no evidence of any organized effort to skew federal elections...
...
3. The remaining question: How does the media treat voting irregularities now?

Republican claims of Democratic voter fraud were intended to turn stories about their own systematic voter suppression into he-said-she-said setups, playing on the media's tendency to give "both sides."

Now, one side has been discredited, and there's no obligation to keep giving it a platform.

The media's only obligation is to the truth. Any attempt by politicians to regurgitate the voter fraud talking point should be directly rebutted.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/04/12/the_voter_fraud_fraud_exposed.php

[Kurovski]

16. They're not going to let go of the "voter fraud" fraud.

It's going to serve to muddy the waters and deflect from the very real and far more present and widespread danger of election fraud as practiced by Republicans and republican owned voting machine companies.

They're purposefully attempting to confuse the American people. We should Counter and correct it wherever we can.

It never ends.

[freedomfries]

10. WI: Biskupic didn't fly under Rove's radar

Biskupic didn't fly under Rove's radar

Daniel Bice
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
April 14, 2007
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=591267

The only thing U.S. Attorney Steve Biskupic says he knows about high-profile GOP strategist Karl Rove is, as the saying goes, what he reads in the papers.

"I've never met him," Biskupic said last week. "I don't know him at all."

But Rove, the brains behind President Bush's campaign machine, has certainly been keeping his eye on Milwaukee's top federal prosecutor. This takes on added importance now that we know Biskupic was once on the list of U.S. attorneys to be fired.

Among the records released recently by the U.S. Justice Department are two pages on Milwaukee voter fraud. Both contain a line at the bottom of the page that shows they came from somebody's C drive and carry the script "Rove_K."

The pages are printouts of a Journal Sentinel graphic that accompanied a Feb. 2, 2005, story on Milwaukee wards that recorded 100 more votes than voters. On one of the pages, someone has circled the word Milwaukee, underlined a few facts and jotted the handwritten note "discuss w/ Harriet." Then-White House counsel Harriet Miers was immersed in the now-controversial decision to dump eight U.S. attorneys in the middle of the term.

"So as early as February of 2005," wrote Paul Kiel, deputy editor of the blog, "Rove was paying close attention to Milwaukee."
...
The Senate Judiciary Committee now is digging into whether the Milwaukee prosecutor, a Republican Bush appointee, scored points with the Bush team by charging Georgia Thompson, an official in Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's administration. An appeals court recently tossed Thompson's conviction, saying the evidence was "beyond thin."

Last week, Biskupic said he was unaware of the documents linked to Rove or the speech in which he mentioned Milwaukee voter fraud.

"I had no idea that happened."
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=591267

[freedomfries]

11. WI: Biskupic was on chop list

Report: Biskupic was on chop list

Jacon Stein
Wisconsin State Journal
April 15, 2007
http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/top/index.php?ntid=129453&ntpid=2
608-252-6129
[e-mail]

A media report late Friday that U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic may have been on a list of prosecutors to be fired, only to later receive a reprieve, could put the spotlight on Wisconsin next week as Congress continues to look into the firings of U.S. attorneys in other states.

The report by McClatchy Newspapers, which cited one anonymous congressional lawyer, said congressional investigators saw Biskupic's name on a Justice Department document that had not yet been made public.

The timing and reasons for Biskupic's change in status were unclear. But the report raised fresh questions about whether Biskupic, who heads the U.S. Attorney's office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, was pressured by his bosses to take on politically charged cases.

In a statement Saturday, Biskupic fired back at both his Democratic critics and his bosses in Washington, repeating assertions he was never pressured to take on those cases.

"Until the recent controversy surrounding the firings of the eight U.S. Attorneys around the country, it was never communicated to me that my job could be in jeopardy or that I was considered to be disloyal to President Bush's agenda," Biskupic said.

He questioned the credibility of the list, noting the same list characterized "esteemed" Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald as mediocre.

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, including Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, last week requested records relating to the cases Biskupic handled, saying they were "concerned whether or not politics may have played a role" in their prosecution.

The cases involved allegations of voter fraud in Milwaukee and the prosecution and conviction of a state worker on charges she illegally steered a contract to a firm with political ties to Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle.

The questions about Biskupic represent a shift in the Democrats' inquiry, which had previously focused on U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' motives for the December firings, said Joe Wineke, chairman of the state Democratic Party.
http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/top/index.php?ntid=129453&ntpid=2

[freedomfries]

12. WI: Wis. U.S. Attorney Defends Prosecution

Wis. U.S. Attorney Defends Prosecution

Carrie Antlfinger, AP
Washington Post
Sunday, April 15, 2007; 3:15 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/15/AR2007041500141.html

MILWAUKEE -- U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic said he believed his job was safe when he decided to prosecute a former state worker whose conviction was recently overturned.

However, he also said Saturday that he has been told his name appeared on a list of targeted prosecutors whose performance and loyalty to President Bush was questioned.
"The decision to charge (her) was based solely on the facts, and was not made with any consideration of my job status," he said. "To my knowledge at the time, my job status was entirely secure."

Congressional Democrats are trying to determine whether political pressure was put on Biskupic to indict Georgia Thompson, whose bid-rigging conviction last June was vacated April 5 by a federal appeals court for a lack of evidence. She had been accused of steering a travel contract to a company that donated to Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's campaign.

The inquiry is part of a larger investigation examining whether the firings of eight U.S. Attorneys last year was improper.

Biskupic said he hasn't seen the list, but suspected he was on it after news arose of the eight U.S. attorneys being fired last year. He said he was told by people who had seen the list that he was on it, but declined to say who told him or when he found out.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/15/AR2007041500141.html

[yourout]

13. The whole "voter fraud" issue is about knocking several million Dems off the voting rolls.

Nothing more.....nothing less.

[livvy]

14. Wheee...I get to be the first K&R. G'mornin' freedomfries. n/t

[Kurovski]

15. Second one up, here.

Thank you freedomfries. :bounce:

[freedomfries]

17. We need new words to talk about the real crime now!

Thanks livvy & Kurovski!
The trouble for the election integrity movement with this whole belated exposure of the 'voter fraud' canard is that it also vaccinates the public against real election fraud. The GOP word smiths knew that when they hid their corrupt election theft schemes behind the bogus 'voter fraud' mantra. Now that the public is immunized against anything that sounds like 'vote/r fraud', we are going to have to craft new words to talk about the organized stealing of elections.

[livvy]

18. Any of these feel right?

election subterfuge
election chicanery
election deception (think I've heard this one somewhere before...LOL
election dissimulation
election humbuggery
election duplicity

[freedomfries]

19. save all of the above, livvy!

and let's drop vote/r fraud and election "irregularities" into the trash bin!
:toast:

[Kurovski]

20. This is one hell of a superb ERD, ff.

:thumbsup: Bookmark worthy.

[druidity33]

26. drop chicanery

It's an offensive term to some...

[livvy]

28. Noted. I wasn't aware of that. Thanks. n/t

[Kurovski]

32. Why is that?

"Deception by quibbling" It's an excellent word. From the French. what does the root mean?

[Jane Austin]

22. How about Election Crime, or Republican Mob Activity, or Repblican

Criminal Activity?

I realize the last two are redundant, but "Fraud" doesn't begin to cover it.

[rumpel]

24. Agree

the true concerted election crime...

k&r

[Kurovski]

23. Kick.(nt)

[freedomfries]

25. MO: TMP: DoJ sued MO D-SoS for her lax purging of "inflated" voter rolls

Jo Marshall connecting the dots -again:
Check DU Post by Pirate Smile:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x657241
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/
D0J letter of complaint:
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting/nvra/mo_nvra_comp.htm

[freedomfries]

27. MO: Carnahan wins federal lawsuit over voter rolls

Carnahan wins federal lawsuit over voter rolls

Associated Press
Columbia Tribune
April 14, 2007
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2007/Apr/20070414News009.asp

KANSAS CITY (AP) - Missouri’s chief election officer has fulfilled her legal obligations toward keeping local election authorities’ voter registration rolls up to date, a federal judge ruled yesterday in a defeat for the U.S. Department of Justice.

U.S. District Judge Nanette Laughrey, in ruling for Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, also said Missouri’s 116 local election authorities - not the state itself - are responsible for removing from their rolls the names of voters who have died or moved.

The justice department sued the state and Carnahan’s office in November 2005 for alleged violations of the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, which requires "reasonable efforts" to purge ineligible voters from registration lists.

But under Missouri law, the secretary of state has no enforcement power over the local election authorities, which are not units of state government, Laughrey noted. The "reasonable efforts" required of Carnahan and the state have been more than fulfilled by the training and equipment they have provided to the local authorities, the judge said.

If the justice department hoped for a declaration that Missouri violated the federal law because some local elections might have done so, the department "has sued the wrong parties," Laughrey said.
...
"It is also telling that the United States has not shown that any Missouri resident was denied his or her right to vote as a result of deficiencies alleged by the United States," Laughrey wrote. "Nor has the United States shown that any voter fraud has occurred."

Yesterday in a statement, Carnahan said the ruling "concluded that my office not only complied with federal law but also went beyond its requirements through our many efforts to assist the county clerks and election boards with their responsibilities. The ruling also confirmed that there is no evidence of voter fraud in Missouri.

"This is the culmination of 18 months of an unnecessary, unwise and costly lawsuit by the Department of Justice," Carnahan added, "and I am glad my office can now direct all of its attention on continuing to ensure fair and accurate elections in Missouri."
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2007/Apr/20070414News009.asp

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

29. hey Freedom Fries

just a comment, off topic, but about your DU handle.

Did you know that Congressman Walter Jones (R-NC) who had
the french fries renamed "freedom fries" has been a big
critic of the war for some time now?

Hes fairly conservative, but this discovery that
the administration lied us into war - seems to be turning
Jones into a bit of a populist.

Amazing conversion, he referred to a tape or video his daughter
or grandaughter gave him to listen to while on a flight.
It was about the lies that led up to the war.

You will be able to find quotes about Jones criticizing
the "neo-cons" etc..

He's been more anti war than some of the Dems in our state.

[freedomfries]

30. Hi Will Your VoteB Counted

Thanks for your note about Walter Jones. There were other reasons for my name, but I'd heard about his book and change of heart.
:hi:

[Algorem]

31. Nigerians protest over 'flawed' polls

http://www.bruneitimes.com.bn/details.php?shape_ID=27087
ABUJA


16-Apr-07

...Local newspapers estimated about 50 people were killed in fighting linked to irregularities in last Saturday's poll, which should give Nigerians an idea of what to expect at the presidential election on April 21.


The opposition Action Congress said there were "massive irregularities and fraud" in the vote across Africa's most populous nation and top oil producer...

Problems included late and non-arrival of ballots, fake results sheets, armed thugs snatching ballot boxes, kidnapping of election officers, voter intimidation, mistakes in the voter register, faulty ballots and under-age voters, witnesses said...

Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999 after three decades of almost continuous army rule, and these polls should bring the first handover from one elected president to another since independence in 1960.

Reuters