NYT: In 5-Year Effort, Scant Evidence of Voter Fraud...Most of those charged have been Democrats

[ProSense]

Darren Hauck for The New York Times
Nashawna Prude, 9, with a family photo that includes her grandmother, Kimberly, second from left, , jailed for more than a year for voter fraud.

In 5-Year Effort, Scant Evidence of Voter Fraud

By ERIC LIPTON and IAN URBINA
Published: April 12, 2007

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.

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.

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[maggiegault]

1. This Isn't Voter Fraud. It Is VOTER INTIMIDATION By The GOP And It Is RACIST And CLASSIST

The GOP steals not one, but TWO presidential elections and they have the gall to jail innocent people who make honest mistakes?

Of course. That keeps Whitey on top. Whitey made the forms, Whitey builds the jails, Whitey runs the system.

If Brown People cannot vote, or Poor People or Foreigner or other GOP-determined Untouchables cannot vote, or rather, WILL NOT VOTE for fear of these ridiculous charges, well, Whitey stays on top, doesn't he?

I mean, for Christ's sake. Isn't it OBVIOUS what is going on here? It's the oldest story in the world as far as criminals are concerned: it's a common ploy to somehow get close to the investigation of a crime when YOU are the one who committed it. By seeming as thoug you are "concerned" for the outcome of the case, you keep the cops off your tail as the perpetrator.

Well, Rovine The Bovine is doing the same thing. They have their hands bloody from raping every single goddamned election they have sullied with their odious presence, but they keep John and Jane Sixpack from seeing that by DEFINING the message with their lie, by ACCUSING us of doing exactly what they have done so many times, and CONTROLLING the media that puts out their lies.

[Vincardog]

2. CAn we have some investigation of ELECTION THEFT NOW?

[ProSense]

3. Karl Rove's Voter Fraud Fetish -- The Bush administration cracks down on a phantom menace

Atlantic Unbound | April 12, 2007

Dispatch | by Joshua Green

Karl Rove's Voter Fraud Fetish

The Bush administration cracks down on a phantom menace

<...>

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:

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