Jewish World Review Jan. 21, 2005 / 11 Shevat, 5765

Why they're still alleging fraud where none exists

By Jack Kelly

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | As an ex-presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry is combining the most unlovely characteristics of Jimmy Carter and Al Gore.

When Congress went back into session, Kerry was in the Middle East, bad-mouthing U.S. policy to American troops in Iraq and to Arab despots in neighboring lands.

"Kerry, who repeatedly charged during the presidential campaign that President Bush botched the war effort, was greeted warmly by U.S. soldiers in Baghdad," said a story in the San Francisco Chronicle Jan. 6 by Borzou Daragahi.

Much deeper in the story Daragahi reveals that Kerry was warmly greeted by "about 20 soldiers based in his home state." Most soldiers had a rather different view of Kerry's visit, said "Greyhawk," an Army officer stationed in Iraq.

"The hero of Ho Chi Minh strikes again," said Greyhawk in his web log (Mudville Gazette). "Some cheering was heard from several of the few thousand troops who voted for Kerry over here, but they were drowned out by the cheering of the 'insurgents.'"

Then Kerry used the occasion of Martin Luther King's birthday to bitch about his 119,000 vote loss in Ohio.

"Thousands of people were suppressed in the effort to vote," Sore Loserman II charged at Boston's annual Martin Luther King Day breakfast, at which he was a speaker. "Voting machines were distributed in uneven ways. In Democratic districts, it took people four, five, 11 hours to vote, while Republicans went through in 10 minutes — same voting machines, same process, our America."

This wasn't true. Voting machines were distributed on the basis of how many registered voters there were in each precinct. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that in Cuyahoga County, lines were longer in the suburbs than in the inner city. The Columbus Dispatch reported that in Franklin County, there were more voters per machine in the suburbs than in the city.

Even if things had been the other way round, Kerry surely is aware that in Ohio — as in every other state in the Union — the location, equipping and staffing of polling places is the responsibility of county government. And in heavily Democratic counties, election officials are Democrats.

Kerry is not alone in alleging fraud where none exists. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Cal), the senate's shrillest voice and dullest wit, joined the moonbats in the House to delay the casting of the electoral college vote in order to make the same baseless complaints.

The triviality of the charge — people had to wait in line to vote — indicates that those making it know there was no vote fraud in Ohio. But Democrats are silent about two instances of fraud that may have changed outcomes.

In the race for governor in Washington state last year, Republican Dino Rossi bested Democrat Christine Gregoire on election night and in a machine recount. Gregoire inched ahead by 129 votes in a hand recount when election officials in heavily Democratic King County (Seattle) "discovered" additional ballots they said they hadn't counted before.

Web logger Stefan Sharkansky (Sound Politics) noted there were nearly 1,800 more ballots cast in King County than there were voters. In addition, 348 provisional ballots were mixed in the general pool before an effort was made to determine if they were valid, and more than 100 felons were permitted to vote, in violation of the law.

John Kerry carried Wisconsin by 11,384 votes, less than a tenth of the margin by which Bush carried Ohio. Milwaukee had 492,000 registered voters in 2004 (out of a voting age population the U.S. Census Bureau estimated at 426,000 in 2000). Of these, 84,000 registered on election day. Milwaukee County's election commission could not send out registration cards to more than 10,000 same day registrants because they failed to provide a proper address.

Wisconsin's Democratic governor has twice vetoed bills that would require people registering to vote to prove that they are who they say they are (by showing a picture ID) and live where they say they live. Meanwhile, Democrats in the legislature in Washington state blocked a measure to cross check a list of felons against voter registration rolls to make certain the ineligible don't vote.

There's a reason why, and it has nothing to do with protecting the purity of the electoral process.