Jokes about vote fraud in Missouri are as old as, well, as old as jokes about vote fraud in Chicago. Now, the Democrats have a court decision to crow about, as the federal district judge Nanette Laughrey ruled against the Justice department in a recent case concerning voter fraud in the 2004 election.
The ruling was taken as a victory by Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, who released the following statement Friday night.
"This ruling concluded that my office not only complied with federal law, but also went beyond its requirements through our many efforts to assist the county clerks and election boards with their responsibilities. The ruling also confirmed that there is no evidence of voter fraud in Missouri."
At issue was the question of inflated voter rolls, mostly in rural counties. The Justice Department found it suspicious that voter rolls were larger than the voting age populations in several places. (Reynolds County was at 151%).
Although Secretary Carnahan was correct in observing that the judge found no evidence of voter fraud, it doesn't mean it didn't happen. It seems the Justice Department was unable to provide evidence of what the voter rolls should be, and the judge find it convincing that "clerk error" was at fault.
Which goes to show you that either the Justice Department was foolish to proceed without better evidence, or else voter fraud is just too hard to prove. The truth of the case, as opposed to the results of the case, depends on whether or not you believe that clerk error explains large discrepancies in voter registration.
The real question is, with the first victory behind her, what will Robin Carnahan do to clean up the voter rolls in these counties? Are accurate voter registrations a priority, or will this legal victory spun to say that vote fraud is simple a political witchhunt?
Are the examples of inflated registration rolls in Milwaukee, Chicago, St Louis, Kansas City, Philadelphia and most other urban areas simple clerk error? If so, can someone please fix those errors?
For more, read the pdf of the Daughrey's ruling.
Update: The Post Dispatch disagrees, and says there is no such thing as Vote Fraud in Missouri.
Also, they manage a swipe at Karl Rove.
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