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In order to justify sweeping voting restrictions, Republican policymakers have had to argue that fraud is rampant throughout the American system of elections, necessitating a series of new barriers between the public and their democracy.
By every possible measure, the problems have been wildly and laughably exaggerated, but when evidence of fraud does appear, more often than not, it seems to involve Republican wrongdoing (thanks to my colleague Will Femia for the tip).
Two employees of a company once aligned with the Republican Party of Florida admitted to law-enforcement authorities that they forged voter registration forms.
It's the first result in a far-reaching voter fraud investigation that was launched last fall -- and initiated at the urging of the party after election supervisors started flagging questionable applications.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement reported Tuesday that the two ex-employees were charged with a third degree felony. But prosecutors back in January decided to place both of them on probation because neither has a criminal history.
Remember, this isn't an isolated criminal matter. On the contrary, it's part of a much larger controversy.
In this case, the two Republicans accused of election fraud worked for Strategic Allied Consulting. Why does Strategic Allied Consulting sound familiar? It's the company owned by Nathan Sproul -- the Republican consultant with a lengthy record of scandals and accusations of fraud, who nevertheless won a lucrative contract to oversee the RNC's 2012 voter-registration efforts in swing states.
The L.A. Times reported last fall that Sproul "created Strategic Allied Consulting at the request of the Republican National Committee because of the bad publicity stemming from the past allegations." Regardless, the RNC got stuck with the company and was forced to scrap all of its registration drives in swing states in September when local officials in multiple states found that Strategic Allied employees were allegedly committing registration fraud.
What's more, note that yesterday's news does not end the story -- there are several other cases and other Strategic Allied employees being investigated by Florida law enforcement.
Why the RNC contracted with Sproul's firm despite years of allegations of suspected fraud still remains unclear.
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Nothing to see here. IOKIYAR
no election fraud on the left, when someone votes for President Obama 6 times, that is just being patriotic.
More important, while we are talking about fraud is how Maddow was caught making false twitter accounts to boost her ratings
Unlike Mr. Benen, you've provided nothing to support your accusations.
Not surprisingly...
Agree
Hell, the GOP will just point to their abuse and use it as the example that proves them right that the minority franchise needs to be curtailed.
This sounds like a job for the US Justice Department criminal division. There is a possible RICO case with the Sproul organization. Holder should, at the very least, convene a grand jury.
I am sure that The Obomination would just tell him that we need to look forward, not backward. Just like he told Holder about any investigations of the Bush Criminal Enterprise.
I too have lost faith that Obama and the US Justice Department are ever going to bring the right people to justice for the torture that was committed, the Wall Street frauds by banks and mortgage companies, the massive theft of wealth by the aforementioned, and the wholesale violations of voters rights by various states.
Heck no they won't bring charges because they are actually killing American citizens. It wouldn't look good to bring criminal charges for a little waterboarding when he is using drones to kill American citizens and says it could be legal to do it right here on American soil. Over the top double standard.
Mike. Our DOJ is top secret. Nobody knows we've got one.
Being an "American citizen" does not automatically make anyone sacrosanct. You can bet your bottom dollar that if the President had not targeted the ones he did, the Teabags would be foaming at the mouth because he didn't.
And then there is the woman in Ohio (a poll worker, no less) who admits to voting for Obama at least twice and perhaps as many as 6 times. The conservative press is all over it, of course, as PROOF of VOTER FRAUD. *sigh*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAg3zDHn7pI
Last year, the repuknican secretary of state here in The Mississippi of the Midwest (Indiana) was convicted of multiple felonies, including real voter fraud. Even then, he would not resign and had to be forced from office.
Did not hear a peep from the corporately owned media about that and even less from the reich wing media.
I would compare what you see as the "reich wing media" as the complement to what is seen here on the MaddowBlog and on MSNBC. Here, for example, you will only hear the Bad Republican stories. I think you ought to listen to both sides so you're not setting yourself up to be manipulated by a skewing of the message.
The main difference is that the right-wingers are aggressively spreading malicious misinformation. There is no "both sides" equivalency. But you knew that, didn't you.
So, Strategic Allied Consulting is the Republican version of ACORN. How interesting...
What were the criminal acts that ACORN did? Being framed by Breitbart does not really count as a criminal act, except in repuknican minds.
http://frontpagemag.com/2011/matthew-vadum/sentencing-acorn/
If you and your company get caught in criminal acts, just change the name of your company.
Scalawags and ne'erdowells - the mainstay of modern Republican operatives!
Meanwhile, me thinks the Republican brand is coming close to employing tactics employed by that former newspaper publisher in Italy c. 1919-1921! -Kevo
As the nation evolves Center-Left, and right-wing politics becomes less and less relevant as extremist behavior, we're going to need a new political party as a credible challenge to the process.
At which point today's Democrats become tomorrow's Right-Wing.
And today's Republican Right-Wing becomes just an embarrassing, historical footnote.
The original Confederates didn't intend to become a footnote. That worked out so well for the US. :-/
Well, that response certainly explains a lot...
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Kenya should take a lesson from us we are the world leader in fixing elections..
GAME ON
I would add gaming the system seems to be the Tea Party mantra..
Gamesmanship divides the US... The VAST majority of all Americans are hard working, honest, patriotic democracy seeking citizens. We have elected leaders and wealthy private entities that game our basic majority interests.
Gerrymandering election districts , voter suppression , holding the economy hostage for a George Bush leadership deficit.
I would erg all Democrats contemplating running in 2014 to start there campaign now . Using little jabs in the free press and a few TV ads..We can not fall asleep at the switch while a 9% favorable Congressional rating continues..
This is no surprise to anyone is it? Voting is a national issue and should be treated as such. Anything that affects the country as a whole should be handled on a federal level not state. You can not trust the states to govern fairly. Let's get real and put a stop to this bull. Fix it for good.
Me voting for my Senator or my Representative or my county commissioner or mayor or school board member is not a national issue. And when you come right down to it, voting for President and Vice President is confined within each state to directing "Electors" to vote for one candidate or the other.
I find it unusual that you would make the statement that "you cannot trust the states to govern fairly", but that you feel the federal government will.
Classic "states rights" Neo-Confederate.
There does seem to be a certain amount of skullduggery going on in the states. Michigan is a good example. Now PA is playing around with the electoral college expressly to help repubs. The various voter ID programs are deliberate attempts to suppress voting as are changes in registration procedures.
I can see an excellent point made that the ninth amendment that says people have rights that aren't necessarily listed should apply to voting. There should be national regulations that supersede local ones that are too often directed at voter suppression.
As for other areas besides voting, ALEC and its various clones are attacking our society at the state level because they can't get what they want at the national level. That indicates that, yes, the national government IS more trustworthy than state governments. For all its cover ups, it is still a lot more transparent than state governments.
The responsible organization, Strategic Allied Consulting, is making the point that it is only two out of thousands of employees that have been charged. The two have made the point that they only got paid if they turned in a certain number of registrations and that they weren't supposed to register Democrats. SAC denies the claim, but too many people are making the same one.
What do you expect from those who create self-fulfilling prophecies of government failure...and then work madly to create the situation where it will fail?
Dear Rachel, I had no idea you had so many weird comments on your blog. Poor you. I would like to ask you to please follow Congressman Patrick Murphy. He is from Florida and beat Allen West into the ground. He and other freshman Democrat and Republican freshman had a couple of drinks together and found out they actually agreed on a lot of things. Both sides are frustrated and sad about the state of Congress and have formed a caucus together to actually get us moving forward. Please take note and check it out! It sure made me feel a lot better about the future of our country. Thanks for listening. Betsy Schiller