Election Fraud

The House has passed and the Senate is expected to pass the so-called Motor Voter Act. This legislation requires states automatically to register driving license applicants as voters, unless they are ineligible or decline. The bill also requires states to register as voters applicants for welfare and unemployment benefits. Mail-in applications would also be required.The goal is commendable. The United States ranks 23rd among industrial democracies in voter turnout. Last year, in an election that saw the most voter interest in 24 years, only 55 percent of the voting age population cast ballots.

WASHINGTON -- In politics as in prizefighting, a familiar complaint from the loser after the verdict is in is often "We wuz robbed." Candidates and their managers, just as fist-fighters and their corner men, can frequently be counted on to claim that a low blow or some subterfuge has resulted in their being jobbed.So it is with the group of 250 Oregon voters who complained to the Senate Rules and Administration Committee that Republican Sen. Bob Packwood of Oregon in effect hit them below the belt in his successful re-election campaign against former Democratic Rep. Les AuCoin last November.

ATLANTA -- Republicans seem to believe that if they lost an election, somebody cheated. That delusion not only has led them to chase after unsubstantiated rumors of fake voters, but also to put in place unconstitutional restrictions at the ballot box. Harsh voter ID laws have suppressed voting by people of color around the country. Now, the GOP's paranoid insistence that countless votes have been illegally cast has mired them in legal and political quicksand. It was the party's determination to prosecute voter fraud, even if it didn't exist, that forced some conscientious U.S. attorneys out of office.

Acting on new information of possible election fraud, federal investigators have opened a preliminary inquiry into possible criminal misconduct during November's general election.The information -- which sources say centers on activities at the Baltimore polls -- is an outgrowth of accusations made after the election by Ellen R. Sauerbrey, the Republican gubernatorial candidate who lost to Parris N. Glendening by 5,993 votes.Earlier information brought to investigators "neither contained the specificity nor the corroboration for us to go forward at that point," said Timothy McNally, special agent in charge of the FBI's Baltimore-Delaware office.

WASHINGTON - I don't want to hear anything else about Ohio. My apologies to the Buckeye State, but I've had it up to here with overheated Internet postings purporting to prove that massive fraud swung the vote in the state that decided the election of 2004. If you haven't seen them, well ... I'm sorry your hard drive crashed and I hope it's fixed real soon. The rest of us have been unable to escape the nonstop conspiracy theorizing that began about 30 seconds after John Kerry conceded the election.

A bipartisan group of high-profile politicians took the witness stand Thursday to vouch for the honesty and integrity of Paul Schurick, a key Ehrlich campaign adviser, who faces charges of election fraud stemming from a 2010 Election Day "robocall" that prosecutors allege was designed to suppress black votes. The day began with testimony in Baltimore Circuit Court from MSNBC analyst and former Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele - who called Schurick "smart and careful" - and ended with Republican former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who praised his former campaign chairman.

State prosecutors rested their election fraud case Wednesday against a top aide to former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. after introducing matter-of-fact campaign documents addressing a plan to suppress African-American votes. The documents, seized by FBI agents through raids and subpoenas in their investigation of Ehrlich campaign manager Paul Schurick and political consultant Julius Henson, show the activities of Henson's company, Universal Elections Inc., in the buildup to the November 2010 gubernatorial election.

Political consultant Julius Henson must pay the state $1 million for putting out 112,000 robocalls intended to discourage black voters from going to the polls on Election Day 2010, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. "Voter suppression in Maryland will not be tolerated," Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler said in a statement. "The court's opinion and damages award will hopefully make political consultants think twice before using these types of illegal dirty tricks again. " Henson violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act with the "express purpose of suppressing the votes of a minority group in a contested statewide gubernatorial election," U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake wrote in a 13-page memorandum.

3 men shot, one fatally, on West Preston Street Three men were shot last night, one fatally, in the 500 block of W. Preston St. by an unknown gunman, Baltimore police said. All three victims were taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, police said. A man who was shot in the head died shortly after arriving at the hospital, while another man was in critical condition late last night, police said. The third victim was in good condition and was expected to survive. About 9:30 p.m., police said, the men were walking along a footpath between Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Elementary School and an apartment building when they were approached by someone who opened fire and ran. Police do not have any suspects.

A defense lawyer asked a Baltimore judge Monday to throw out election fraud charges against veteran political consultant Julius Henson, arguing that Henson was exercising his right to free speech when he composed a misleading Election Day robo-call. Defense lawyer Edward Smith Jr. told the court he did not dispute the facts in the prosecutors' case against his client. "Mr. Henson wrote the text of the call," he said. Smith argued, however, that Henson had a legal right to create the call - which prosecutors contend violated state law by using false information to try to supress the black vote.