Crowing Over the Fight Against Voter Fraud

Even as Garry Trudeau, in his nationally-syndicated comic strip Doonesbury, tries to smear Conservatives and the GOP for fighting against voter fraud, accusing them of enacting Jim Crow laws, according to a report in today’s Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch, the Washington-based nonprofit group Voter Participation Center is under suspicion of mailing voter registration forms to children, family pets, and dead people.

Mitt Romney’s campaign is requesting that Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli launch an investigation into the errant mailings being sent to Virginia residents, leading to hundreds of complaints.

“The organization,” according to the Times-Dispatch, “has been mass-mailing the forms – pre-populated with key information such as names and address – to primarily Democratic-leaning voting blocs such as young adults, unmarried women, African-Americans, and Latinos.”

“In a letter to Cuccinelli's office and the State Board of Elections, Kathryn Bieber, an attorney for the Romney campaign, calls for an investigation into the matter by law-enforcement officials, claiming that the mailings appear to violate "at least one and maybe several Virginia laws aimed at ensuring a fair election.”

“Bieber refers to the mailings as ‘tactics that amount to, or at the very least induce, voter registration fraud’ and says the issue ‘presents a very significant risk to the proper administration of the upcoming general election.’

“Citing a Sunday Richmond Times-Dispatch story that brought the mailings to light, the letter also asks the State Board of Elections to require registrars to reject all pre-populated voter registration applications from the group and review the eligibility of all Virginians who have registered in the past two months.”

“’This is the only way for voters and other interested parties to regain confidence in the voter registration and electoral process that has been abused by the Voter Participation Center,’” the letter says.”

“On Monday, the Voter Participation Center responded to the Sunday Times-Dispatch story, stating in a letter on its website that ‘imperfections in the VPC vendors' lists — while regrettable and unfortunate — should not be the reason or the excuse to call an entire process that is working into question.’”

“Justin Riemer, the State Board of Elections' deputy secretary, said forms have been sent by the group to deceased infants, out-of-state family members, and non-U.S. citizens, among others.  In a letter this month, the State Board of Elections asked the group to cease pre-populating their forms and raised questions about how the group was obtaining lists of registered voters, citing the errant forms.  He noted that pre-populating the forms violates rules set forth in the state code and the Virginia Constitution requiring that voters fill out their own forms.”

Here in N.J., a committee within a Tea Party group set to the task of clearing the deceased and non-residents from the voting rolls in Passaic County.  The result of their assiduous and time-consuming work was the clearing of over 300 ineligible voters from the rolls.

Trudeau cites the number 750,000.  Guess that-there number is now 749,700, eh “Jimmy Crow”?  That’s in one small, though crowded, county in New Jersey.  Imagine if someone actually cleared the rolls in Chicago?

Mercy!