Across the country and on the Republican National Committee website, a handful of GOP office holders and party officers are trying to discredit recent voter registration drives and record-setting turnout by Democrats in 2008 primaries, saying efforts seen as benefiting Democrats are rife with "voter fraud."
Consider the following examples:
- The Louisiana Republican Party last month attacked Democrats for a "phony" registration drive because as many as 30 percent of applications were missing information -- an industry norm -- and called for an investigation. Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne, a Republican, launched that investigation; however, his office has since declined to comment.
- This past Sunday, Alabama Attorney General Troy King, a Republican, appeared on Fox News to complain that voter "fraud and systemic corruption" were rampant in a handful of mostly Democratic-majority counties. He said absentee ballots were being sold for $40 or traded for driveway gravel, but he did not announce any prosecutions.
- In Indiana, after that state's presidential primary, the East Chicago Republican Party chairman claimed that record turnout by Democratic voters included people from nearby Illinois, a charge that the local county election director rejected as unfounded.
- Most notably, the Republican National Committee has a page on its website titled ""You Can't Make This Up!" It features an interactive map on which states are linked to a list of "voter fraud" stories. The reports are a grab bag of almost anything nefarious concerning the voting process or elections, including allegations that may never be prosecuted or tried in court.
Since the 1960s, the Republican Party has raised "ballot security" issues in campaigns to justify a range of activities that critics have said lead to voter suppression. In recent years, fears of voter fraud -- which as defined by the GOP refers to people impersonating other voters -- have led state legislators to pass additional voting regulations, such as tougher voter ID laws and stiff penalties for errors by registration groups. Critics say the laws often are intended to shape the electorate to benefit GOP candidates.
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