| But this works on several levels of course. As both Kaine and Swampland note, it will help intimidate unregistered (particularly black) voters. It will scare off the volunteers who register voters too.
It also turns out the State AG, Bob McDonnell (R) has already announced he's running for Kaine's job:
"It's a team effort," said Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell, a Republican candidate for governor next year and chairman of the Virginia delegation to the convention. "We want to do everything we can to build a strong organization to win for McCain, and hopefully, that carries over into a strong organization in 2009."
So it helps him set the stage for his election run in 2009, and if he wins, to engage in as much voter fraud branded vote suppression as he likes.
Now that earlier link to the Daily Press is a great article as it gets to the hollow bottom of yet another bogus "voter fraud" conspiracy:
Frederick said there had been 18 "incidents" of voter fraud in Richmond, although he provided specifics about just one case, in which a Richmond resident said she received a call from the city registrar asking if she had submitted a new voter registration card with a new address.
His call for a "Statewide investigation" was prompted by the arrest of 3 registration workers who had allegedly submitted 60-80 fake registrations. While factually this appears to be true, the article digs into whether this is evidence of a broad voter fraud conspiracy or just less scrupulous workers trying to keep up with their quotas:
Asked whether a strict quota system would encourage canvassers to invent names, Carroo said their employees were paid an hourly wage, but were required to register 10 names a day over a three-week period to keep their jobs.
They do even better, quoting this former worker for the group, who was fired for not keeping up with the quota:
A former canvasser named Neil who didn't want his last name used because he'd been fired expressed some reservations about the quota system but said the organization was professional and canvassers were told not to invent details.
Now this is good journalism!
One final note, it turns out that the State AG doesn't have the power to initiate a statewide investigation, and so far it seems to be the State Republican chair running with this ball:
Neither the governor nor the attorney general see a need for the statewide inquest Frederick demanded.
Still, since he doesn't have the power to start it up, Republicans (possibly including him) will conveniently forget he didn't think it was needed either come November and make Kaine out to be Virginia's answer to Katherine Harris and Kenneth Blackwell. Doubly so if Obama picks him as running mate.
I think the timing is interesting too, since the three registration workers were arrested last week and the Frederick only starts crying foul now that the Kaine as VP speculation takes off in earnest. I smell a rat. |
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