The Bogus Voter Fraud Issue

Click on the title above for a post by Josh Marshall on the "voter fraud" issue that has driven the Bush Administration to ostensibly replace two US Attorneys in the recent purge. You will read some heartbreaking stories about productive people who were deported or jailed because of technical infractions of the law. Stories like this:

Another example is that of Pakistani immigrant Usman Ali. He'd been in the US for ten years and owned a jewelry store. He was in line one day at the DMV when a clerk put a registration form in front of him along with other forms. Ali hastily filled it out. He never made any attempt to vote. But the mistake got him deported back to Pakistan where he's now trying to rebuild his life with his US citizen wife and daughter.

We're certainly lucky to be rid of Mr. Ali and his efforts to undermine our democracy.

Most of the examples, like these, are genuinely disgusting -- non-malicious errors for which people get serious punishment because federal prosecutors are under immense pressure to find someone to indict for voter fraud.

You know, they could have just taken Mr. Ali's name off of the voter rolls. But I guess that just wasn't malicious enough.