Election fraud is certainly easier in those precincts that are dominated by one party or another. The Democratic Party in some cities is so dominant that voter fraud in places like Chicago have become legend. One wit has suggested that when he dies he would like to be buried in Chicago. Just because one is dead does not mean one should not be involved in politics.
In this election, the world and conventional wisdom are turned upside down. The greatest claims of voter fraud and voter intimidation are occurring in places where party registration is more evenly divided. Where voter irregularities are the most difficult to perpetrate is precisely where the most complaints will be lodged. Clearly, this is because it is in close elections in evenly divided electorates that a small number of votes can alter an election outcome.
No party is particularly pure about voter fraud, though Democrats have had a greater opportunity for such activity since they are more likely to control mono-party areas. So far, there has been a private group that has been charged with discarding collected Democratic registrations. At the same time, an individual was charged with generating fraudulent registrations on behalf of Democrats in exchange for cocaine.
These sorts of irregularities are bound to happen in a country as large as ours, but they need to be tracked down and the guilty parties appropriately punished. However, what is more worrisome is when the ostensibly responsible Democratic Party appears to be poisoning the upcoming presidential election. Even within an organized party, which with Will Rogers believed the Democratic Party not to be, there are rogue elements. In too many cases, however, irresponsible statements and written materials from Democratic Party operatives have not been repudiated, but accepted and even embraced.
A Democratic National Committee manual written for this election suggests that evidence is not particularly relevant to claims of voting irregularities. Specifically, it enjoined that, "If no signs of [voter] intimidation have emerged yet, launch a pre-emptive strike." It takes more mental gymnastics then most Americans are limber enough to execute to believe this is not an express exhortation to lodge charges unsupported by evidence. The manual is irresponsible at best and illegal at worst. Indeed, it is against the law to knowingly make such false accusations.
In a television interview, Eric Holder, a senior aide for Senator Kerry's campaign and a former Justice Department official for the Clinton Administration recently stated if the election is fair, then Kerry will win Ohio. In essence, he is irresponsibly asserting that if President Bush wins Ohio, there has been, by definition, some sort of voter fraud. Paul Krugman the loudest anti-Bush voice in the anti-Bush New York Times has repeated the party line. In a recent column he asserted, "If the election were held today and the votes were counted fairly, Senator John Kerry would probably win. But the votes won't be counted fairly, and the disenfranchisement of minority voters may determine the outcome."
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