GOP Attacks Me for Telling Truth

The conservative republican blog Political Party Poop (despite not being able to come up with a polite name for their blog) is attacking me for my account of the truth behind the attacks against ACORN in swing states across the country.

Interestingly the site does not refute any of the accusations and clearifications on election laws that I present in my argument. Instead it continues to call me names and point fingers at ACORN.

Much like the leader of their party, the law and the facts are inconsequential.

New evidence that this is a partisan ploy to disenfranchise thousands of voters in swing states is surfacing every few hours. Notably, this piece which talks about the Ohio Sheriff I mentioned in yesterday's post. The Sheriff has now been told that he is not allowed to follow students and ask them about their voter registration. Seems this is "unlawful intimidation" which is protected under the Voting Rights Act and National Voter Registration Act.

"Fischer, a Republican, told reporters in Ohio that he was launching an investigation into concerns about college students who took advantage of a week-long window in Ohio this fall where they could register to vote and then submit an in-person absentee ballot."

MSNBC reported on this but neglected to mention election laws and ACORN following them.... The piece quotes Doug Lewis, the executive director of the nonpartisan National Association of Election Officials who "testified before the House Judiciary Committee last month."

“This unfettered, unbounded, unregulated use of third-party registrations, where they sit on those registrations right until the end and try to turn them all in at the very last minute — it just screws up the system,” Lewis told the committee. “It disenfranchises voters. It's one of those things that just is frustrating to us as elections officials.”

Lewis added that in his years as an election official he has seen both Democrats and Republicans “dumping in” new voter registration cards at the last minute before a state’s voter registration deadline. “The problem is that these groups all think that they're going to surprise the other campaign with how many people they've registered.”

One should note that the National Association of Election Officials is an unfettered, unbound, unregulated, third party organization. If you read Mr. Lewis's testimony from 2007 (pdf) before the Senate Committee you'll find further need for concern. Mr. Lewis believes that election laws should never be the concern of the federal government because states have so many different laws and as such, regulations should be left up to Election Officials to handle. No disrespect to Mr. Lewis, but we've tried that... it doesn't seem to be working. It also wouldn't allow for regulation of people who believe that 3rd party voter registration is a bad idea.

Now, if we just had universal voter registration, that would certainly solve everything. Can we get the GOP on record of supporting this in efforts to avoid fraud?