NY Times Exposes GOP “Voter Fraud” Fraud

Eric Lipton and Ian Urbina for the NY Times report: 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. (…) Voter fraud is a highly polarized issue, with Republicans asserting frequent abuses and Democrats contending that the problem has been greatly exaggerated to promote voter identification laws that could inhibit the turnout by poor voters. The report provides examples of "successful" prosecutions - against the most innocuous and unintended minor technical mistakes - which resulted in phenomenally grotesque punishments, like the resident alien who had lived in the US for over 10 years but who was deported when he erroneously filled out a voter registration form he was given by the clerk at the DMV, which was reserved for US citizens only. Your George Bush/Dick Cheney/Karl Rove/John Ashcroft Republican Party at work.