Ohio? What about Philadelphia?

I remember during the 2004 elections, some Democrats kept saying, “Ohio – things were not right in Ohio!”

And I recall some Republicans replying, “Ohio? What about Philadelphia? What about St. Louis?”

I admit, I hadn’t followed up on it. Charges of voter fraud just upset me, no matter who makes them.

But this is not a charge, but what appears to be a fully researched report, and it is not good news for the Democrats…which means, I guess, that we won’t see this in the NY Times or on the Today show. Or anywhere in the mainstream press.

The American Center for Voting Rights Legislative Fund today released the most comprehensive and authoritative review of the facts surrounding allegations of vote fraud, intimidation and suppression made during the 2004 presidential election.

The ACVR Legislative Fund report, “Vote Fraud, Intimidation & Suppression In The 2004 Presidential Election,” finds that while Democrats routinely accuse Republicans of voter intimidatio

and suppression, neither party has a clean record on the issue. The report finds that paid Democrat operatives were far more involved in voter intimidation and suppression activities than were their Republican counterparts during the 2004 presidential election. Examples include paid Democrat operatives charged with slashing tires on GOP get-out-the-vote vans in Milwaukee and an Ohio court order stopping Democrat operatives from calling voters telling them the wrong date for the election and faulty polling place information.

The report further finds that thousands of Americans were disenfranchised by illegal votes cast and a coordinated effort by members of certain “nonpartisan” organizations to rig the election system through voter registration fraud in more than a dozen states. Examples include a law enforcement task force finding “clear evidence of fraud in the Nov. 2 election in Milwaukee,” including hundreds of felon and double voters and thousands more ballots cast than voters recorded as having voted in the city and multiple indictments and convictions of ACORN workers for voter registration fraud in several states.

This is really troubling. This is such a basic, fundamental idea: you don’t CHEAT during an election, because in doing so you do a tremendous disservice to your country and to the ideals for which it stands. If you cheat to put your unwanted guy or gal in office, all you are doing is fomenting unrest, distrust and (if the press is playing along) incipient tyranny.

I hope bloggers write about this, because – as I said – the MSM will not.
UPDATE: Is ACVL a “front” for the GOP? The Moderate Voice – while groveling just a little too much, I think – is looking into that possibility (I wish I had – I admit my own gut was telling me to check it out further, but I didn’t listen – bad Anchoress).

Captain Ed has done a bit of research and concludes:

It appears that the report, at least, has some bipartisan credentials, even if the Democrat has some lobbying baggage. (More on Lunde can be found on this Google search.) It doesn’t mean that it’s completely unbiased, but it doesn’t appear to be the fraud that some commenters claim it to be, either. (h/t: John R.)

But allow me to point out, as does Ed Morrissey that even if it is not quite as “non-partisan” as we might like, the findings being reported are compiled from stories most of us remember from the 2004 elections – the tire slashings, etc. My own memory from that time was that there were many more reports of such incidences coming from the left than the right, but that’s just memory.

The question might be better asked then, how much screwing around did GOP’ers do during the election, and is this report correct that more such behavior came from the left?

But…the bottom line is, NO fraudulent or intimidating behavior by one party gives the other party the right to defraud the voting process – the whole concept and practice is despicable and both parties should be taking measures to insure that no one from their side is busily reducing our electoral process to strong-armed gang-wars. As I said yesterday: you don’t CHEAT during an election, because in doing so you do a tremendous disservice to your country and to the ideals for which it stands. If you cheat to put your unwanted guy or gal in office, all you are doing is fomenting unrest, distrust and (if the press is playing along) incipient tyranny. One simple solution that the left – not the right, but the left – resists is requiring VOTER IDENTIFICATION.

Sigmund Carl and Alfred have a few thoughts about the utter dismissal of the report, by the left.

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