Yet for all of those claims and even with the Republican Party’s concentrated focus on the idea during the past six months, there remains no credible evidence that any significant fraud occurred. There’s lots of putative evidence, sure, random affidavits in which nonexperts allege weirdness or claims about ballot nefariousness that is quickly debunked. But even after months and months and months of formal and informal scrutiny, there have been no demonstrated examples of systemic efforts to commit voter fraud.

In fact, a review of local news reports shows there aren’t many examples of even individual voter fraud. By our count, there have been only 16 incidents in which someone has faced criminal charges stemming from their attempt to vote illegally. This includes instances in which it isn’t clear whether a ballot was cast but excludes failed efforts to obtain absentee ballots.


Those incidents:

Thurman, above.
A man and woman from Austin who allegedly tried to vote in Illinois by claiming residence in that state. It’s not clear whether they obtained ballots.
A man in Lisle, Ill., who allegedly signed a ballot certification with someone else’s name.
A man in Carol Stream, Ill., who allegedly filled out an online ballot application for someone who shared his last name. It’s not clear whether the ballot was provided.
A woman in Naperville, Ill., who allegedly signed a ballot certification with someone else’s name.
A woman in Buckingham, Pa., who allegedly signed a ballot declaration for her dead mother.
A woman in Quakertown, Pa., who claims to have accidentally mailed a ballot for her mother after she died.
A woman from Milford, Maine, who reported herself for voting twice, once by absentee at home and once in person at college.
A woman from Bowdoinham, Maine, who allegedly voted with an absentee ballot for a former roommate.
A woman in Cedarburg, Wis., who allegedly submitted a ballot for a dead person.
A man in Stockton, N.J., who allegedly submitted a ballot for a dead person.
A man in Carteret, N.J., who allegedly voted twice with different names.
A man in Woodbridge, N.J., who allegedly registered at his business instead of his home.
A man from Media, Pa., who admitted to casting a ballot for his dead mother.
A man from Canton, Mich., who admitted to filling out his daughter’s ballot when she was at college.

That’s it. That’s the total.

Womp womp, Ron DeSantis.

After the Republican governor insisted on banning the use of "vaccine passports" by businesses in Florida, Norwegian Cruise Lines is threatening to leave the state high and dry.

Norwegian doesn't expect customers to return to ships without a 100% vaccination promise for both passengers and crew, and the only way to ensure compliance with that rule is to require proof of vaccination from everyone.

If DeSantis and the Florida legislature won't budge on "vaccine passports," Norwegian will find a port in another state. The Miami Herald reports:

If Florida won’t allow Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings to require proof of COVID-19 vaccination for passengers and crew, the company’s CEO says it will take its ships elsewhere.

CEO Frank Del Rio made the threat during an earnings call Thursday, just days after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill passed by the Republican-controlled state Legislature that bans businesses, schools and government entities in Florida from asking anyone to provide proof of a COVID-19 vaccination.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings is the world’s third largest cruise company, parent to cruise brands Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas. Miami-Dade County spent $263 million building a terminal for Norwegian at PortMiami that finished construction last year.

Members of the Federal Election Commission tend not to agree on much. The nation's top watchdog agency for election laws is divided evenly between Democratic and Republican members, and since they tend to vote along party lines, the FEC routinely deadlocks on important issues.

Indeed, we learned this week that FEC officials recommended further investigation into Donald Trump's alleged campaign-finance misdeeds, but nothing happened because of the stalemate between the divided commissioners.

With this context in mind, it was striking to see FEC members vote unanimously on an increasingly important issue. The New York Times reported:

The Federal Election Commission voted unanimously on Thursday to recommend that Congress ban political campaigns from guiding donors by default into recurring contributions through prechecked boxes, a month after a New York Times investigation showed that former President Donald J. Trump's political operation had steered huge numbers of unwitting supporters into repeated donations through that tactic.

FEC members, including those appointed by Trump, specifically asked Congress to protect the public and prospective donors by strengthen campaign-finance laws.