Coulter’s election analysis is dramatically wrong – legally and politically. See “Coulter is Just Wrong About McDaniel” at http://t.co/zc4kKlqV25.

Her factually-challenged polemics ruin the reputations of good people and damage the Conservative Movement. Her legal and political analysis cannot be trusted. See Never Trust Ann Coulter - at ANY Age, at www.coulterwatch.com/never.pdf.

Peter Castle -

While I'll agree with you that Ann Coulter should never be "trusted" for anything, your analysis of her op-ed includes a number of pretty serious flaws.

Most notably, your assertion that "The election results should be invalidated" is, at very best, premature. You write: "There are ample reasons for invalidating this run-off and redoing it. Among them, credible accusations of fraud, bribery, destruction of records, illegal crossover votes, and absentee ballot fraud."

I've been doing my best to follow the various reports from McDaniel supporters and, to date, there seems to be little more than largely unsubstantiated allegations. If there is something you think I'm missing, of course, feel free to share it. To date, beyond allegations of some voters who voted in the June 3 Dem primary voting in the June 24 Republican runoff (without evidence that there were enough to change the results, or that they voted for Cochran), there seems to be a lot of smoke, but not a whole lot of fire yet. Though, as I noted in the article above, McDaniel himself seems to have violated MS law when he voted for himself in the runoff.

Also, including something like this in your analysis doesn't much help either:

First, if you know anything at all about TTV, you should know that they do nothing "credibly". Here's just a few of our stories that may help you understand that point:

• "'True the Vote' Fakes the 'Voter Fraud'"
• "Disgraced Former Members of Bush Justice Department Challenge Order Denying 'True the Vote' Intervention in Texas Photo ID Case"

Much more on our coverage of the phony "election integrity" group TTV and their various fraud and pratfalls can be found here.

Secondly, their case in MS was summarily dismissed by the Court earlier this week because they "picked the wrong venue, the wrong defendants and the wrong complaint." See the Judge's full ruling here.

Beyond that, your analysis of Coulter's op-ed is a strong argument for why a McDaniel supporter would want to see the election tossed out (and every single legal Republican vote with it), and why you may believe McDaniel is a better candidate who you wish had won. But it's a far cry, as of now, from making the case that "The election results should be invalidated".

If you'd like to see elections in MS improved, you might consider calling for verifiable voting systems (which most of the state still does not have), closed primaries, and enforcement of actual campaign finance laws by the FEC, since most of the complaints I've seen on that score --- concerning coordination between PACs supporting Cochran --- are the very same complaints that Republicans and Rightwing PACs elsewhere have dismissed and, indeed, up in Wisconsin, are claiming to be a violation of their First Amendment rights.

Ya'll can't really have it both ways. If you want to have campaign finance laws that keep what happened in MS from being able to happen, you can't spend years stacking the FEC and the Supreme Court in the hopes of allowing groups and candidates to do exactly what McDaniel folks are now complaining about.

Brad,

I'm still trying to get my mind around the "legality" or should I say the enforceability of locking out a voter in an open primary system from switching parties for a DIFFERENT election.

Lets say I wanted the conservative Democrat to win but the liberal won why should I be blocked for switching my vote to the next preferable conservative who may be in the run off election.

How the hell does this pass legal muster? Yes I know it's on the books in MS but this seems like a very "questionable" law. to accomplish this effectively they are going to ban me from casting a vote in a SEPERATE election which seems like a classic disenfranchisement issue.

I agree, to some extent, StumpTownHero. The law is really bad in MS. You'd think if voters who voted in the other parties initial primary were to be barred from voting in the party's runoff, that they'd, somehow, accomodate for that, like noting that they had voted on the poll books. That way, they'd be able to tell them they are not qualified to vote in the runoff, if they showed up to vote.

On the other hand, I don't even think that bit about not being able to vote in the runoff, if you voted in the other party's primary, is even on the books. I'm fairly certain that's an administrative rule rather than an actual statute.

Their premise, it seems, is that a runoff isn't actually a different election. It's like "overtime" for the same election. Thus, if you self-identified as a Democrat when the election started (by voting in the initial primary), then you can't switch parties before the election is "over" to vote in the other party's primary.

I concur, it's ridiculous. But so is the entire idea of "open primaries" frankly --- especially if you're going to have runoffs, and not do the job of tracking who voted the first time in the other party.

Now MS is reaping what they sowed, however.

Voter fraud accusations coming from this hypocritical attention whore? Oh, that's a good one. Everything that spews forth from her poisonous mouth is akin to dumping raw sewage in a pristine lake. From politics to football, her idiocy is part of the reason for this nation increasing inability to think critically and see through the extraneous crap being spoon-fed to lumpenproletariat like pablum. Frankly, I wouldn't give what she has to say the time of time given the choice, but I also refuse to live in a world where her vituperative imbecility is allowed a forum without a challenge. Thank you and keep up the good work.

Annie "Get Your Guns" Coulter is a unique virus.

sigh

why in the world would dems in ms have voted to help the sitting repub stay in power?

we would have a much better chance of a dem picking up that senate seat with the repubs hosting a tea party candidate

answer....they didn't (or at least i don't think they did)

as your reporting (monroe ky promary 2010) proves, many times the result numbers flip around with no rhyme or reason or explanation......is there any reason to think the same thing can not happen with the "ballots cast list"?

party insiders could easily have electronically added dem names to list of "who voted" so the numbers in theory could balance out

true the vote needs to talk to those dems and ask them, not accusing them of voter fraud but to discover they may have been used in repub party election fraud

we still have the ability to count ourselves, we better use it before it is too late

after reading this..who knows?

A black reverend stiffed by the Cochran campaign has exposed an alleged criminal conspiracy by Cochran staffers to commit massive voter fraud ahead of Tuesday's controversial U.S. Senate Republican runoff election in Mississippi.

Reverend Stevie Fielder, associate pastor at historic First Union Missionary Baptist Church and former official at Meridian's redevelopment agency, says he delivered "hundreds or even thousands," of blacks to the polls after being offered money and being assured by a Cochran campaign operative that Chris McDaniel was a racist. "They [the Cochran campaign] told me to offer blacks fifteen dollars each and to vote for Thad."

It is illegal under several provisions of Mississippi law and federal law for campaign officials to bribe voters with cash and punishable up to five years in jail. (MS Code 97-13-1; MS Code 97-13-3 (2013) (Federal Code 18 U.S.C. 597, U.S.C. 1973i(c)) Voter fraud schemes are not unusual for Mississippi. In 1999 Mississippi's attorney general reported massive voter fraud allegations throughout the Magnolia state. In 2011, a Mississippi NAACP leader was sent to prison for voter fraud, according to the Daily Caller.

It would seem that laws were broken here, too. At the direction of the Cochran campaign, Reverend Fielder went "door to door, different places, mostly impoverished neighborhoods, to the housing authorities and stuff like that," telling fellow blacks that McDaniel was a racist and promising them $15 per vote. "They sold me on the fact that he was a racist and that the right thing to do was to keep him out of office," Fielder says.

Text messages released to Got News and a recorded interview with Reverend Fielder confirmed that Saleem Baird, a staffer with the Cochran campaign and current legislative aide to U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, and Cochran campaign manager, Kirk Sims, were involved in a $15-per-vote cash bribery scheme to target members of the black community.

"They said they needed black votes," said the Reverend Fielder on the phone. He says Baird told him to "give the fifteen dollars in each envelope to people as they go in and vote. You know, not right outside of the polling place but he would actually recruit people with the $15 dollars and they would go in and vote." Fielder said he received thousands of dollars in envelopes from Baird and distributed them accordingly. Fielder also says he went to the campaign office on another occasion to pick up $300 in cash and was among a room full of people who were doing the same thing he was.

Fielder said that Saleem Baird was doing the same thing with people all over the state. Fielder believes that the racism charge against McDaniel and the promise of $15 a vote motivated 'thousands' of black Democrats like him to vote for Cochran in the runoff. When asked if Fielder would have been more suspicious of Baird's promises had he been white, Fielder replied, "Yes, definitely."

/////////////////////////

my main point remains the same, as long as elections are non transparent, insiders can "install" any winner they want

Because the media, (and this includes NPR), keeps bringing up the "tea party", without ever telling us it isn't an actual, registered party, makes people think there are actually THREE political parties in America.

While this is a good strategy, if you're a liar, it isn't helping Americans understand that both R and D's aren't pointing that out. In our corrupt system, both the R's and D's have nothing to say about a fake party in their midst.

Every time I hear the words, "a tea party favorite", I lose my lunch.

@karenfromillinois
The story you post originates here from Got News, which is apparently solely written and run by Charles C. Johnson (I don't know if he's the same Johnson formerly of "Little Green Footballs"). Anyway, his "reportage" was blasted all over the Baggersphere (just Google any sentence from your post to see). Here's some background on Charles C. Johnson's Mississippi election bullshitscapade:

'On Wednesday evening, a conservative blogger who earlier in the day may have helped derail an unusual media call held by Cochran aides on alleged voting irregularities accused the National Republican Senatorial Committee's spokesman of culpability in the suicide of Mark Mayfield, a Mississippi tea party leader and McDaniel supporter.'

'The spat began when the NRSC's Brad Dayspring criticized Charles C. Johnson, a Breitbart acolyte and former Daily Caller writer with a lengthy history of antics, for reporting on allegations that the Cochran campaign bought black votes in the contentious primary runoff against McDaniel, who has yet to concede the race. Johnson compensated the source of the allegations, the Rev. Stevie Fielder, for the interview. A spokesman for Cochran has since denied the vote-buying allegation.'

'Dayspring further urged Johnson to cease his antics, adding on Twitter that he was "delusional" for trying to "exploit others."'

'To which Johnson replied, "Says the man who helped kill Mayfield. I owe you nothing. It's over when the people say it's over, loser."'

Twitter twit Charles C. Johnson's trail of scumbaggery:

'The (Cochran) press conference (to rebut election fraud charges) went largely without incident. The same could not be said of a follow-up conference call with national reporters. At 3:46 pm ET, reporter Charles Johnson—who had reported the "vote-buying" story, which went viral on conservative media—tweeted the details of the call, encouraging followers to "crash it with me."'

More about the highjacked national media conference call:

'Racists and Conspiracy Nuts Turn Cochran Call Into The Biggest Campaign Sh*tshow of 2014'

'A week after defeating Chris McDaniel, the Republican campaign opened a line to reporters. Then all hell broke loose.'

Although votes may have been finagled (although there is no evidence), I wouldn't trust anything Charles C. Johnson said further than I could throw him (which right now would be quite far, but I still wouldn't trust him).

I forgot to link the "background on Charles C. Johnson" section:

Conservative Blogger Says GOP Operative 'Helped Kill' Tea Party Leader Who Committed Suicide

In case I haven't said it already, "my kingdom for an edit button."

Jim Spriggs says:

"my kingdom for an edit button."

That's just damn funny!

Edit buttons are a mixed bag though, and if somebody comments after you change YOUR comment, it could make her/him/you look like an idiot.

Not that any commenter at BradBlog would want to make anybody look like an idiot.

"no evidence"

funny phrase since with electronic voting, reporting there is NEVER any evidence (at least that WE THE PEOPLE) get to see of who the actual winner is

no human being has set eyes on those ballots to determine the voters intent

people did not count ballots in an open,transparent way.....cochran's sis in law pushed a few buttons and "announced" a result in the most populous county

now that the poll books are digital adding votes to balance the "ballots cast list" is just pushing a few more buttons

i have no favorite in this race but to have a free and fair election ANY person should be able to oversee and check the results for themselves,,,,clearly that is not the case in ms

@karenfromillinois
I couldn't agree more. "No evidence" cuts both ways.

@Larry Bergan
True about the edit privilege. That would sure phony-up the discussion. Although, I have seen one or two sites that give you probably 3 or 4 minutes to get it right before it locks. I think Disqus lets you edit with no time limit (or is it just Mother Jones?). Anyway, it should say, "this post has been edited" prominently displayed--but it doesn't. I do go on...

Brad, interesting argument about supposed voter fraud her in MN. Somali community is making push to replace long time Dem rep Kahn with one of their own, instead. they have big numbers in Mpls. Kahns lawyer freaked when they found one address had had 141 people registered to one address that was not a residence - claimed big voter fraud. I Repubs thought it was karmic payback for disclaiming voter fraud. Turns out it's a mailbox address at a business, that truck drivers and others wanting more permanent address were using and post office was automatically registering people who filed that address on a change of address form, not realizing it was essentially a P.O. Box. When looked into to,, there weren't 141 current voters registered there, just 14, and some of those likey resided very nearby. http://www.kare11.com/st...n-mpls-primary/12505803/

http://www.tcdailyplanet...spreads-voter-fraud-myth

http://www.minnpost.com/...dismissed-kahn-noor-race

Hi Brad,

Finally something that we can agree on. Back in 2011 you stated that there are no documented cases on voter fraud. Thanks for posting this story on Ann Coulter and proving proof. The truth will set us free. Have a blessed day! Your friend from Mississippi! Mary McLaurin

Re Mary McLaurin @18:

I believe you've mistated both Brad's and this author's position on "voter fraud."

While cases of in-person voter impersonation --- the only type of voter fraud that can be prevented by polling place Photo ID laws --- are about as scarce as hen's teeth, neither he nor I have ever suggested that there are no cases of voter fraud.

Those cases usually entail either absentee ballot fraud or, as in the case of Ann Coulter, False Residency: Epidemic Form of Elite Voter Fraud That Cannot Be Prevented by Photo ID.

Mary McLaurin said @ 19:

Back in 2011 you stated that there are no documented cases on voter fraud. Thanks for posting this story on Ann Coulter and proving proof.

Uh, that seems kinda unlikely, given that my first article on Ann Coulter's voter fraud was published in 2006 (as you can see on my BradBlog.com/CoulterFraud Special Coverage Page).

As Ernie noted above, I have always reported that voter fraud is exceptionally rare at the polling place --- particularly the type that could be deterred by Photo ID --- and that one of the problems with Republican polling place Photo ID laws is that they do nothing about where actual voter fraud takes place (via absentee ballot.)

I've also reported for over a decade now, on the concerns about insider election fraud, which is the greatest threat to the integrity of elections.

What you're talking about, I have no idea. But I'm sure you can cite when and where I said what you think I said. Right?

The truth will set us free.

Well, you may now consider yourself free!

Have a blessed day! Your friend from Mississippi! Mary McLaurin

And backatcha, Mary!

Jim Spriggs:

A couple of minute window to correct yourself works fairly well, but I think Brad has one of the best policy statements for commenting I've seen.

It's SO easy to rant and press that submit button without proofreading what you just said. That doesn't work on the street, but it works pretty well when you're typing.

Every other blog that allows comments should read Brad's policy. It's very simple and short. It's important for people to have their comments show up immediately, and if that's what you like, there's no better place.

And that's why I'm sending him twenty bucks right now.