Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Editorial: Widespread voter fraud? Hardly
The new head of Virginia's Republican Party is letting desperation lead him.
From the RoundTable blog
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Coordinated and widespread voter fraud throughout Virginia! Yikes! Virginians would expect Attorney General Bob McDonnell to crawl all over the case -- especially since the person alleging such felonies is none other than Del. Jeff Frederick, chairman of the state Republican Party.
But Republican McDonnell isn't investigating for good reason: It's not true.
Here's Frederick's evidence:
n An affidavit from a Richmond woman claiming someone used her name and phone number to register to vote and that the registrar told her there were similar forms filled out in the same handwriting, indicating false filings. Note: Frederick doesn't proffer an affidavit from the registrar.
n The arrest last week of three young adults in Hampton who were hired by a nonprofit firm to canvass for new voters. The threesome invented 60 to 80 names in a stupid -- and criminal -- attempt to meet their employer's quota to receive a larger paycheck.
Frederick failed to note that the company discovered the fraud and notified authorities. Hardly a coordinated, widespread voter fraud worthy of a conspiracy theory. But Frederick hasn't let that stop him.
He claims the nonprofit group -- remember, it reported the fraud -- has ties to a group "which seems to be a front group for a number of left-wing causes, has a documented history of attempting to add fraudulent, phony or duplicative names to the voter registries across the nation."
That is a strong and damning allegation, so we asked Frederick to substantiate his claim. In response, we received a hodgepodge of eight news stories, including the Hampton one, that have no discernible connection except in Frederick's imagination.
Frederick is allowing his desperation to show. The new state Republican Party leader is grappling with a deep division within his party and is up against strong Democratic presidential and senatorial campaigns. Faced with the possibility that Virginians will for the first time in 44 years select a Democrat as president, Frederick cries "fraud."
He might consider a more effective strategy and direct party faithful to engage in the same style of grass-roots campaigning -- that, yes, includes registering new voters -- Democrats have deployed.
