At the beginning of 2012, the Executive Director of the South Carolina State Election Commission demolished the claim, put forward by the state’s Republican Attorney General, that some 953 votes in the state had been cast in recent elections by “dead people”.
They hadn’t, of course, and the claim was little more than a transparent ruse to try and “stuff the ballot boxes” in support of polling place Photo ID restrictions meant to disenfranchise largely minority, poor, elderly and student (read: Democratic-leaning) voters.
Unsatisfied with actual facts and stuff at the time, state Republicans tasked the State’s Law Enforcement Division (SLED) with investigating the matter and, what do you know — despite claims happily aired by Fox “News” from every Republican in the state, from the Governor to the AG to the party apparatchik last year — it turns out zombie voters are still not voting in SC, no matter how many times the pretend claims are investigated.
After an 18-month probe, just before last week’s holiday, when few suckers, chumps, pawns, stooges, Republican Fox “News” viewers might notice, SLED quietly issued a report recommending no further action, and closed its investigation into the completely bogus claims after concluding none of the accusations were true — as MSNBC’s Al Sharpton was kind enough to highlight…
There once was a day when the Republican Party actually fought for legislation concerning actual, real things, right? I seem to recall such a day, though it seems so long ago now…
Query: How many taxpayer dollars were wasted in So. Carolina searching for the voting dead? Does it exceed the monies squandered in So. Carolina on their worthless and 100% unverifiable e-voting systems, which are the real election-integrity scandal?
I’d love to know. Paging our friend and public records request expert in SC Frank Heindel! Wonder if he’s done a PRR on that. I’ll check!
Far enough in advance of the 2014 mid-terms to be useful, and since Republicans show no signs of slowing down perhaps for the 2016 elections as well, I’d LOVE to see a grand total of how much ALL of the Repubs bullshit legislation — whether passed or not — has cost this country.
Like, per the Brennan Center, “At least 180 restrictive (voting) bills introduced since the beginning of 2011 in 41 states.”
And from a July post at Blog for Arizona: “In the first six months of this year, states have passed 106 provisions related to reproductive health, including 43 that specifically restrict abortion access.”
Then, of course, there are the House Republicans’ 37 attempts to repeal Obamacare … the fight against marriage equality …
It’d likely be VERY shocking to compare all THAT with just how much time, effort and expense they’ve spent trying to make things BETTER — like to create jobs !!
And, though it’s unlikely to be necessary, let me be clear that “I’d love to see (all this info)” is meant in a “dream-wish” sort of way and NOT like “Do all this free research for me and have it on my desk by Monday !”
For some reason, that reminds of the famous story from MANY years ago — when an incensed letter to the National Review ended with “Cancel my subscription !” and then-editor William F. Buckley responded: “Cancel your own Goddamned subscription !”
(Gad, I really shouldn’t comment until the Propofol’s worn off.)