LBN Cross-post: US Sues Missouri Over Voters in 2004 Election

[Up2Late]

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1943544>

US Sues Missouri Over Voters in 2004 Election

The U.S. Justice Department has sued Missouri, a swing state won easily by President George W. Bush, for voting violations in the 2004 election, including registering more people to vote in some counties than their entire voting-age population. The complaint, filed on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, said 29 Missouri counties and election jurisdictions had more people registered to vote than there actually were people of voting age living in those areas. One Missouri county, for instance, showed voter registrations that amounted to more than 150 percent of the true voting-age population in that county.

Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan acknowledged the voting irregularities in the 2004 federal election but said in a statement that the Justice Department's decision to file suit was costly and unjustified as the state was working to correct its voters rolls.
``Clearly, a problem exists. It defies common sense that we would have more registered voters than people of voting age in any Missouri county,'' said Carnahan. ``The Secretary of State's office and the Department of Justice share the same goal of ensuring fair and accurate elections.''

The lawsuit also alleges that some voters were removed from registration lists without notification, in violation of the law, while some ineligible voters were not removed. Missouri was considered among a number of potential swing states in the 2004 election, but ended up with 53 percent voting for Bush and 46 percent going to challenger John Kerry.

<http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-election-missouri-lawsuit.html>

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. A few important details are left out

1. This problem was a problem before Carnahan took office as secretary of state a year ago.

2. It was not addressed by the former secretary of state who was indeed advised by the feds that it needed to be fixed.

3. That former secretary of state was dubya's campaign manager in Missouri.

4. That former secretary of state is the son of Tom (corrupt) DeLay's successor as House Speaker.

6. That former secretary of state who ignored this problem and ran dubya's campaign in Missouri is none other than the current governor, who has been in office a year and is the 3rd least popular governor in the country.

[Botany]

It wasn't just Ohio

Wyoming for instance had a 106 voter turn out.

"One Missouri county, for instance, showed voter registrations that amounted to more than 150 percent of the true voting-age population in that county."

Indiana a straight party ticket resulted in votes switching to a 3rd party presidential
candidate ..... but only if the vote was democratic.

[freeroo]

3. Another explanation

This often happens because it takes years for people who move away to be dropped from the registration list. Repubs have used this same anomaly to suggest Democratic registration fraud in college towns.

[Botany]

2. dupe

[Land Shark]

4. Remember that social phenomena often have MULTIPLE explanations

and do not fall for the plausibility of a single explanation as explaining the TOTALITY of the facts.

E.g., it is not "the extra helping of turkey" that added your Thanksgiving five pounds. And we should not get into debates with the dudes that think it's the cream on the pumpkin pie.

This is a primary reason legitimate investigations get derailed or never started, the seeming "easy disputability" of the premise, even though multiple causation is often the fact.

[Up2Late]

5. To me, this just looks like a deliberate effort to divert DoJ resources...

...to an election that didn't make any difference in the 2004 Election. The Money and people that are being used to investigate this SHOULD be going to investigate Florida AND Ohio's "flawed elections."

Flawed Election?!? Would that mean it gave Flawed Results? We'll never know I guess.