Man, the Right is shameless. Following in the footsteps of
James O'Keefe, another Republican operative tried to commit voter fraud in order to prove voter fraud exists.
First came this sensational story out of New Mexico.
An Albuquerque man says he successfully registered his dog to vote in Bernalillo County.
The dog owner said he saw a voter registration booth on the University of New Mexico's campus a few weeks ago and decided to see how easy it would be to register his dog to vote.
He said he was trying to expose the problems with the registration system. He said he just received the dog's voter registration card in the mail Wednesday, and it was way too easy.
KOB Eyewitness News 4 contacted the Bernalillo County Clerk's Office. They said state law does not require proof of your social, your date of birth, or even your name. But they said what this man did is voter fraud.
And, of course, that "dog owner" who was just "trying to expose the problems with the registration system" is
Thomas Tolbert, husband of Heather Wade. Who just happens to be a senior staffer from Republican Heather Wilson's U.S. Senate campaign. Go figure.
Another Republican proves that the only problem this country has with voter fraud is the fraud manufactured by Republicans to justify their voter suppression efforts.
For more of the week's news, make the jump below the fold.
In other news:
- Texas Rep. John Culberson, a Republican, is very confused about his own state's voter ID law. At an appropriations hearing featuring Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday, Culberson wrongly insisted that there is "nothing in the law that prohibits a valid student ID issued by a state university from being used to vote." Which would be very wrong. You can use your concealed carry permit to register in Texas, but not your university ID.
- In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker has apparently enlisted the services of the notorious Texas-based King Street Patriots group, known for their blatant voter suppression efforts in minority precincts in 2010. Despite their involvement in trying to squash the recall, Walker has attempted to distance himself from the group. As Alternet says, "relying on out-of-state groups and individuals to do the legwork for his campaign may not play well, especially when upwards of 20,000 in-state-residents braved the cold and snow to gather recall signatures in the first place."
- Also in Wisconsin, teenagers will have a harder time registering if the House follows the Senate in passing a bill to repeal the state's requirement that voter registration be offered to students in high school. Because goodness knows, you don't want to be teaching young Americans to be good citizens.
- More controversy out of Nebraska, where the senate is locked in a fight over a stringent voter ID law. Local elections officials in Omaha have apparently decided the most effective way to prevent Democratic leaning voters is to close their polling locations.
Voters in a largely Black and Hispanic section of Omaha have been informed by their local elections officials that the polling places where they have cast their votes for years are likely to be shut down in the next election. [...]
Nebraska is a state that is overwhelmingly white. And Omaha, the state’s largest city, is roughly 14 percent Black. Yet, many in Omaha and beyond see the closure of polling places in African-American and Latino neighborhoods as part of a concerted effort by Republican officials to suppress the vote.
Ya think?
- The Iowa state senate will not advance a voter ID bill, says Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs.
Requiring voters to show photo ID has been the push of Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz, a former Council Bluffs City Council member who says it is a way to eliminate voter fraud — though cases of voter fraud have been rare nationwide.
"There is not a single county auditor who supports" the push, Gronstal said at Saturday's Legislative Coffee. "They all think it's an overreaction."
- A coalition of public interest groups in Kansas will likely file a legal challenge to that state's new voter ID law, likely basing their argument on the the cost to obtain the underlying documents needed to obtain the state photo ID.
The Kansas Voter Coalition won’t discuss specific legal strategies against the law, but Ernestine Krehbiel, president of the Kansas League of Women Voters, told The Wichita Eagle the group opposes “barriers to voting and requirement to have to pay for documents in order to vote.”
“Paying to vote is a poll tax,” Krehbiel said.
- The Virginia Senate narrowly advanced a voter ID bill that the Virginia Registrars Association opposes. The bill is expected to pass in the House.