E!! The True Conservative Story™

This morning Megyn Kelly on Fox News reported that Norm Coleman was protesting the counting of absentee ballots in the recount for his senate race with Al Franken.  I couldn’t imagine how Coleman could object if the ballots were valid so assumed they had already been rejected for one reason or another

I now have a more detailed report in my Inbox saying the Hennepin County Canvassing Board unanimously rejected Franken’s demands that absentee ballots which had been previously invalidated/rejected now be validated and counted. 

Cullen Sheehan, a staffer in Norm Coleman’s MN campaign, also sent out this brief release:

“The Al Franken campaign today tried to stuff new ballots into the ballot box in a brazen, last minute act of desperation.  We have raised concerns repeatedly about these types of tactics by the Franken campaign.  Today is further evidence of their intent to use whatever means necessary to counter the decision of the people of Minnesota.  We applaud the actions of the Hennepin County Canvassing Board in rejecting this blatant, desperate act.”

I’ve said it before, though not on this blog: 

It is amazing to me that the MN senate race was/is so close considering what a snarky, dishonest tax-evading louse Al has proven himself to be.  Even worse, he was a terrible talk radio host during his brief stint with the short-stinted Air America.  (Memo from E!! to Franken and Friends:  Nasty is never funny.) 

If you think fraudulent voter registration cards can’t turn into votes and that all the “vote fraud” stories are just Hype, you should read this excellent new piece by WSJ columnist John Fund writing for Politico.  As usual, John’s fact checking and research is stellar. Here are some excerpts from his article:

ACORN’s second line of defense has been that fraudulent registrations can’t turn into fraudulent votes, as if the felony of polluting voter lists was somehow not all that serious. But that defense goes only a short distance. “How would you know if people using fake names had cast votes in states without strict ID laws?” says GOP Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita, who this year won a major Supreme Court case upholding his state’s photo identification law. “It’s almost impossible to detect and once the fraudulent voter leaves the precinct or casts an absentee ballot, that vote is thrown in with other secret ballots there’s no way to trace it.”

AND

Anita MonCrief, an ACORN whistle-blower who worked for both it and its Project Vote registration affiliate from 2005 until early this year, agrees. “It’s ludicrous to say that fake registrations can’t become fraudulent votes,” she told me. “I assure you that if you can get them on the rolls you can get them to vote, especially using absentee ballots.”

AND

There are already documented examples of fraudulent registrations being converted into fraudulent votes in Ohio, where ACORN and other groups were active. Darrell Nash, an ACORN registration worker, submitted an illegal form for himself and then cast a paper ballot during the state’s “early voting” period.

Franklin County prosecutor Ron O’Brien also cracked down in the case of 13 out-of-state registrants who came to Ohio to register voters in Columbus for the group Vote From Home. The group all lived out of the same rented 1,175-square-foot house in Ohio, registered to vote and then most of them either cast early voting ballots or submitted applications for absentee ballots before leaving the state. They have agreed to have all of their ballots canceled in exchange for the prosecutor’s decision not to file charges.

AND

Perhaps the clearest look at how fraudulent registrations can be converted into votes comes from Wisconsin. Earlier this year, the Milwaukee Police Department’s Special Investigation Unit released a stunning 67-page report detailing an “illegal organized attempt to influence the outcome” of the 2004 presidential election. 

It noted many documented cases of staffers for a presidential campaign and an allied 527 group who illegally voted. Those involved in the scheme “represent multiple levels of both the organizations, from upper management to the street level canvassers.” The task force report found many ineligible voters had cast ballots, ineligible felons not only had voted but also worked at the polls, transient college students had cast illegal votes along with day-trippers from nearby Chicago, and homeless voters may well have voted more than once.

Read the whole thing!