Battlegrounders
NRO
[ archives email ][Jerry Agar 10/21 08:38 AM]
MISSOURI: PLENTY OF VOTERS TO GO AROUND
The outcome of the presidential election may still be in doubt in Missouri, but at least we have found all the voters.
According to a report by the AP yesterday the state has less than 4.3 million eligible voters, but 4.2 million are registered, an astounding 98 percent.
AP reports that, "The result is that in 36 of Missouri's 114 counties and in the city of St. Louis, more voters are registered for the November elections than were residents age 18 and older in the July 2003 Census Bureau estimate."
St. Louis has 246,320 voting-age residents and 281,316 of them are registered to vote. It is like the loaves and fishes story from the Bible, but probably not as immaculate.
How has this happened? Likely due to people moving and not having their name removed from the list. The fear is that people could then vote in two locations, committing voter fraud.
You may remember that long lines formed in St. Louis in 2000 when poll workers could not match voters with voting lists, causing a judge to order the polls to stay open longer. That decision was later reversed.
One county in Missouri recently sent out absentee ballots that omitted George Bush and Dick Cheney as candidates.
What will happen this year? More controversy? More accusations? Another disputed election? Oh joy!
MINNESOTA: SUPREMELY SINISTER
[Scott W. Johnson 10/20 06:53 PM]
In Minnesota the state Republican party has brought suit to enforce the state law requiring partisan balance among the election judges at polling places. (Click here for the Minneapolis Star Tribune story on the case.)
Sounds fair, but for some reason — I can't imagine what it might be — the thought appears to strike fear into the heart of Democratic operatives. The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party is fighting the lawsuit as though victory hinges on noncompliance with the law. The Minnesota supreme court has scheduled an expedited hearing on the matter for Thursday afternoon.
Perhaps most ominously, I have been told that in papers it has filed with the court, the DFL attorneys have asked the court to take the unprecedented step of adopting special procedures for hearing issues the DFL may choose to bring before the court on Election Day. Call them crazy, but to state Republican party officials, the DFL response is a dead giveaway that the DFL has formulated a strategic plan to mess with the election. |
