Ezra covers the mendacity of the whole Republican voter fraud meme:
EzraKlein Voter Fraud Fraud | The American Prospect
CNN has been running a story about bogus voter regsitrations by ACORN today. They emphasize invalid registration forms without balance. ACORN, or any organization that assists voter registrations, must turn in every form. This includes incomplete and obviously bogus forms. ACORN separates and labels these problem forms before turning them in. Republicans then scream about bogus registration forms without noting that turning them in is required and that they were labeled. It’s an attempt to attack the legitimacy of the election and the subsequent administration that arises from nasty turn the polls are taking against the GOP. It’s part and parcel of the usual election year voter suppression tactics so beloved by Republicans. Also, note that the registrations do not constitute election fraud in the first place. An illegal vote has to be cast before election fraud can exist. The point is to leverage these accusations into a new round of voter requirements that would disproportionately impact likely Democratic voters. Cases of actual voter fraud are very few, against tens of millions of votes cast in federal elections. The DOJ reports that only 24 cases were brought from 2002 to 2005 after they claimed that voter fraud was a high priority. There’s a better chance of being struck by lightning.
Update: Josh Marshall at TPM ties all the voter fraud nonsense to the US Attorney firing scandal. The point of the firings were to get people in place who would prosecute non-existent voter fraud claims and further GOP vote suppression efforts.
