Voter Fraud!

Well, it's election time again, and so the rightwingnuts are all screaming voter fraud! It's like clockwork and it's a lie 99% of the time, if not 100%. I think a lot of these asses charge voter fraud to cover their own cronies who are electronically flipping votes in the hackable electronic voting machines. Similar to those who intone the loudest against homosexuality are in fact themselves gay.

In the final days before the midterm elections, following a very familiar pattern, conservative media have yet again turned to hyping baseless and misleading claims of voter fraud.

Right-wing media baselessly claim SEIU rigged machines to cast votes for Reid
Conservative media hype claims of voter fraud in Nevada to baselessly suggest SEIU is stealing votes for Reid. Several conservative media figures, including the co-hosts of Fox & Friends, The Washington Examiner, the Fox Nation, HotAir, Jim Hoft, and Michelle Malkin all promoted a Fox5 Las Vegas story highlighting claims from early voters that when they went to vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's name had already been checked on the electronic ballot. They cited this story to baselessly suggest that because the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) represents the technicians to repair the voting machines, SEIU is engaged in a conspiracy to fraudulently cast votes for Reid.

However, Fox5 Las Vegas also reported Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax called claims of fraud "patently false." Fox5 also reported that although "some voters complained that Sen. Harry Reid's name had been pre-selected" in Clark County voting locations, "election officials insisted on Tuesday that electronic voting machines were not malfunctioning." The article quoted Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax as saying "those claims were 'patently false' " and "at no time did any of those voters report the incident to staff at their polling location." From the article:

Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said those claims were "patently false" and
said at no time did any of those voters report the incident to staff at their
polling location.

"In fact, although over 160,000 people have voted early in Clark
County, those allegations that have been made have gone directly to the media as
opposed to election board officers," he said.

Lomax advised voters to be aware that touch-screens on the screens are
sensitive. For that reason, a person may not want to have their fingers linger
too long on the screen after they make a selection at any time.

"Especially in a community with elderly citizens (they have) difficulty
in (casting their) ballot," Lomax said. "Team leaders said there were complaints
(and the) race filled in."

Lomax previously called for an investigation into allegations that ACORN engaged in voter fraud. In 2009, The New York Times reported that Lomax called for an investigation into allegations that ACORN had engaged in voter registration fraud, noting that Nevada's Secretary of State "investigated Acorn at the behest of the Clark County registrar of voters, Larry Lomax, who noted a high number of forms turned in featuring the names of famous football players and cartoon characters."

Right-wing media hype Angle's fabricated claim that Reid is stealing election with bribes of free food.

Angle campaign attorney: Reid "intends to steal this election" by offering free food in exchange for votes. The Las Vegas Sun reported that Nevada GOP senatorial candidate Sharron Angle's campaign attorney, Cleta Mitchell, wrote a fundraising letter to supporters in which she asserted that "Harry Reid intends to steal this election if he can't win it outright" and that "Harry Reid has been offering free food" at "voter turnout events." Mitchell went on to say: "What Harry Reid is doing is clearly illegal. Nevada law (NRS 293.700) provides that, 'A person who bribes, offers to bribe, or use and other corrupt means, directly or indirectly, to influence any elector in giving his or her vote or to deter the elector from giving it is guilty of a category D felony and shall be punished as provided in NRS 193.130.' "

Conservative media picked up and ran with the Angle campaign claim. Several conservative media figures advanced Mitchell's claim. For example, Sweetness & Light blogger Steve Gilbert linked to the Sun article and added: "If Democrats didn't buy their votes, you have to wonder if they would win any elections anywhere." Similarly, the Fox Nation linked to the Sun article with the headline, "Reid 'Intends to steal this election.' "

NV Secretary of State: Angle's campaign "fails to cite any evidence of 'vote buying' "; offering voters free food regardless of who they voted for does not violate election law. In a statement responding to the Angle campaign's allegations, Nevada's Secretary of State Ross Miller wrote that the campaign "fails to cite any evidence of 'vote buying.' " Miller added that activities such as offering free food to voters "irrespective of how and for whom they voted" does not violate state law so long as "it is not connected to any specific candidate and does not compromise the will of the elector." Miller also wrote that actions which "promote the act of voting," such as offering food to voters, "support the democratic process." Additionally, a spokeswoman for the Secretary of State reportedly noted that despite Mitchell's allegations, the office "has not received a single report of voter fraud from someone who experienced it personally."

This is just so typical. The volume of outright lies coming from the FOX "network" should be a national scandal and embarrassment, but as we have seen countless times, there is simply no shame on the right, and the Democrats are too timid to stand up to the haters.

There is a lot more of this story, and you can go there by clicking here.