Also, what's up with the name "Thor"? What's going on there? Does he think he's some kind of "superhero" or something?

I AM THOR! FROM THE UN-JUSTICE LEAGUE OF VOTE FRAUD FRAUDSTERS! HERE TO SUPPRESS DEMOCRACY AND BLACK VOTERS...OUR MORTAL ENEMIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Big Dan, #1
Super-Jackass is more like it! These fucking republicans. Sheesh! I feel like I have to take a shower after just looking at them.

It was so great to hear you on NPR this morning. I was cheering! And I sent a note to a bunch of lists to listen - thanks for posting the link/clip. My question is how did this ACRV group appear from nowhere and get invited to testify to Congress? Who arranged all of that - there's the real key. Please keep doing all that you are doing.

It's too bad Overby didn't cite any of the recent studies debunking the Republican Myth of Voter Fraud that show it is not only NOT an epidemic, but that there were only 20 or so verifiable, legitimate cases of voter fraud in the entire nation over the last several elections. Then again, there is only so much shameful anti-democratic, anti-American wrongdoing that can fit in a short 4-minute report.

The amount of money involved in keeping the Republican Myth of Voter Fraud alive is evidence that it is central to the Permanent Republican Majority Plan and it's big money funders.

Spending millions to protect their Billions --- that's the (Republican) American Way.

Michelle Gabriel - Thanks for the kind words and for doing something with today's report, like using it to make noise with your friends. That's the only thing that keeps moving this story forward.

As to your question:

My question is how did this ACRV group appear from nowhere and get invited to testify to Congress?

The quick answer is that now-jailed Ohio Republican Rep. Bob Ney invited them to speak before his committee back in March of 2005 in the only official Congressional "oversight" hearings that looked back at the debacle that was the 2004 election.

Of course, the ACVR was the only "voting rights" group called to testify at those hearings, just three biz days after the ACVR came into existance, and Thor represented himself as "a long time voting rights advocate" in his testimony, apparently forgetting to add, "...Oh, yeah, I was also the national general counsel for Bush/Cheney '04"

Who pulled the string to get Thor into Ney's hearings, we don't know still. It may well have been Thor (or Rove) himself pulling those strings to create the hearings in the first place as what seems to have been a purposeful attempt to whitewash and distract from the real problems in Ohio in '04.

Anyway, I'd refer you to the original stories on ACVR from way back in March of 2005 for the contemporaneous reporting and details as they emerged. All available at https://BradBlog.com/ACVR.

And thanks again for both giving a damn, and spreading the word...

It bugs me that the MSM feels the need to be partisan about this issue. Vote caging should be a concern to any American voter regardless of party. With a little thought the same process could be used to exclude members of any "non-approved" demographic.

--> Insert obligatory Animal Farm reference here

Brad is on record as saying he is not a "librul" nor a democrat nor a republican.

Get the story straight NPR.

Other than that, great work NPR. Whew! (Some of the bloggers here were afraid that you were being sucked into the neoCon vortex of perverted anti-americanism.)

Back to the story ... actually the ACVR has moved to Dubai to be close to Dickey Boy Haliburton, Thor's "daddy".

... Michelle Gabriel short answer
'It's a setup ' by Rove via the WH

It was just last week that Greg Palast responded to my email about his reporting on Griffin and caging coming up on The Diane Rehm Show, and how this may just be the time that Diane is ready to hear him out. He (my paraphrasing) let me know that he'll never get on NPR, that they're too stuck with the standard DC folk they always talk to, but thanks.

And now, good man, by George, YOU'VE DONE IT! As they talked about the politics in Missouri, I began to take a note to send them your recent articles connecting Thor to it all, when they sequed into...

THE AMERICAN CENTER FOR VOTING RIGHTS!!!!!

I was ecstatic, wishing I had a number to call you, Brad, and say "LISTEN TO WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT!" when, a heartbeat later, there you were.

In my mind's inner stereo, I could hear Jim Morrison --- "Break on through to the other side..."
This makes the 2nd time in less than a week that I've gone giddy over voting news (the first being when Griffin suddenly resigned as Greg and Conyers conferred).

The sunlight feels so very very good.

Brad: Great to see you getting much-deserved credit on this.

Not meaning to nitpick, but I am posting to correct the wording of one of your quotes from the NPR report, (which I had to admit, didn't make any sense to me when I read it).

You render the quote thus: "One of the staunchest advocates for voter fraud has simply disappeared...."

The actual quote is: "...one of the administration's staunchest advocates in the voter-fraud debate has simply disappeared."

One final friendly question: Now that we're making progress on this and other important issues, when are we EI advocates going to get back to pressuring that Congressional Task Force to expeditiously carry out independent black-box testing of those Sarasota County Florida voting machines so that we can prove that pervasive machine failure cost Christine Jennings her seat in Congress?

Perhaps another Brad Blog special section would be in order.

Until then, your readers are always encouraged to check out the efforts of a few of us at the web site below. (There's also a link there to the Wikipedia Article on Florida 13 that I've been doing some updating to with source documents, etc.)

All the best....

Mike Ridgway, www.voteroversight.org

FYI, I just posted this at NPR --- always ready to further inform and push the dialogue...

Kudos to Morning Edition and Peter Overby for bringing the sunlight of NPR to the American Center for Voting Rights, and to the investigatory work of Brad Friedman of www.bradblog.com.

Brad was instantly on top of this brand new organization of expertise when it suddenly appeared in time to testify before felon and HAVA author Bob Ney's committee.

It was late March 2005 when at last Congressman Ney managed to call a hearing about the procedures and problems that occurred in the 2004 election (too late, on purpose, rather than before the state votes were certified, back in December 2004, when John Conyers, Jr. , as the ranking minority leader of the House Administration Committee (and Judiciary Committee) was holding hearings in Ohio.

Conyers' hearings brought forward publicly testimony and evidence about the voting machines, the handling of voters, impossible tabulations, strange behaviors by voting officials, etc., leading to the undeniable concern that efforts were consciously made to manipulate election results.

But the majority party refused to participate, and without them, the hearings could not be official, and thus the media did not show up.

Brad Friedman was there, and for those of us aching to know what was going on, Brad was our window. Thank God.

It is, of course, those December hearings that were the basis of Conyer's report, "What Happened in Ohio" that Stephanie Tubbs Jones presented to Congress on January 6, 2005 when she stood up to VP Cheney and told him that Ohio was not going to certify their vote. Beside her was Senator Barbara Boxer, to provide the signature from the other side of Congress that forced the count to stop (unlike the heartbreaking scene we saw in Fahrenheit 911 about the 2000 vote.

It was another spectacular moment in history that was barely mentioned by the mainstream media. I'm sorry, but I was on my headphones with NPR for 8 hours that whole work day, and the coverage was minute and patronizing.

I'm sorry. I've loved NPR for over 30 years, and my heart broke that day when I heard Neal Conan speak briefly, glibly, and unknowledgeably about the contesting of the election.

Then came the March posturing when Ney pretended to be investigating. The sudden rise of the ACVR came in time to also be listed as one of the important panelists at the supposedly large and important Election Reform Panel led by George Bush appointee Jimmy Carter (great history of studying and defining fair elections on a global scale), and James Baker III (infamous history of leading the legal team that put George Bush in power in 2000 using highly questionable methods).

Back then, it was was Brad who brought this dangerous hypocrisy to the attention of John Conyers, who was able to confer with Jimmy Carter and at least be watchful to not let the misinformers take over in the Panel's findings.

Just thought you'd like to know a bit more of the effect of this "liberal blogger."

Now, perhaps you could also turn your microphones to Brad's friend, Greg Palast, the BBC reporter that Karl Rove hopes you are dismissing, and his reporting on Rove friend and recent U.S. attorney, Timothy Griffin, and his illlegal "caging" strategies (mentioned by Ms. Goodling in her opening statement) to get rid of Democratic voters. Just last week, Palast interviewed Conyers for the BBC and, in turn, presented Conyers with the emails of caging lists sent out by Griffin. Just as news of the interview was about to hit the air, Griffin has suddenly and quieted resigned. You can find Greg Palast at www.gregpalast.com. It’s not that hard to reach him, I assure you.

It's time for Mr. Overby to enjoy another exploration into what has really been happening to our democracy. I encourage you --- please --- carry on, carry on!!!!

Mike Ridgeway #11 -

Thanks for the correct wording on that quote. Have corrected the original article. Apparently I had jotted down that note quickly to go back and get the exact wording, but had missed it.

As to FL-13, thanks for all you're doing, and I hope folks will check out your site, and your updates to Wikipedia on it. Doing what I can here, though often in the backround (behind the blog), even as it's getting harder and harder to keep up with all of these stories which never seem to end! Urgh...

Barbara -

Wow. Great post and thank you for those exceedingly kind words. You have been paying attention haven't you? Perhaps you should be nominated as Official BRAD BLOG Historian! While you're at it, please feel free to write a book on it, since lord only knows when the hell I'll ever have time to do one myself!

ACVR:

A - Against
C - Colored
V - Voting
R - Rights

"Thor" being made into movie:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/...ntertainment/6729307.stm