ACVR: A "mainstream" news source catches up with a blog

Slate writer Richard Hasen has compiled a good overview of the American Center for Voting Rights, the el fake-o group founded by the mighty Thor Hearne, Rove's good pal. Thor, as you know, always seems to lurk in the corners whenever investigative reporters turn their attentions to Missouri governor Roy Blunt and various scandals afflicting that state.

ACVR, a group founded four days before it gave testimony before Congress on the pseudo-scandal of voter registration fraud, was designed to give credibility to Rove's ploy to disenfranchise poor people and minority voters in the battleground states.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, the idea of massive polling-place fraud (through the use of inflated voter rolls) is inherently incredible. Suppose I want to swing the Missouri election for my preferred presidential candidate. I would have to figure out who the fake, dead, or missing people on the registration rolls are, and then pay a lot of other individuals to go to the polling place and claim to be Mary Poppins or Old Dead Bob, without any return guarantee—thanks to the secret ballot—that any of them will cast a vote for my preferred candidate. Those who do show up at the polls run the risk of being detected ("You're not my neighbor Bob who passed away last year!") and charged with a felony. And for what—$10? As someone who's thought about this a lot, if I really wanted to buy votes in an enforceable and safe way, I'd find eligible voters who would allow me to watch as they cast their absentee ballots for the candidate of my choice. Then, I would pay them. (Notably, ACVR and supporters of voter-ID laws have generally supported exemptions from ID requirements for voters who use absentee ballots.) Or, I might find an election official to change the votes. Polling-place fraud, in short, makes no sense.

Damn straight.

Hasen's piece relies heavily on the great work done by Brad Friedman over the past two years. Fortunately, Hasen gives credit where it is due. Next time some mainstream pundit scoffs at the work of those pesky bloggers, write in and remind 'im that Brad Freidman got this story two years before the mainstreamers discovered it.