Outside the Beltway

PARTY OF LINCOLN

James Joyner · Tuesday, October 28, 2003 · 1 comment

Brad DeLong notes that the GOP is sending poll watchers to monitor some heavily black precincts in Kentucky for voter fraud. This is apparently a form of intimidation and, of course, racist. Either that, or they’re trying to make sure that local officials in one-party precincts don’t turn a blind eye to, well, voter fraud.

The information is via Electrolite, a site which appears to be a haven for the insane, at least judging from the comments section.

The flyer (PDF format/Adobe Acrobat Reader required) used as proof of this invidious plot is rather illegible but appears innocuous.

Josh Marshall adds:

At the moment, there̢۪s a close-fought race for the governorship in Kentucky and, as often happens when these races come down to the wire, Republicans are at it again.

(In South Dakota last year these efforts were directed at Native Americans, but in this case African-Americans are the targeted group.)

But wasn’t there indeed legitimate concern of widespread corruption in the voting on the Indian reservations? ABC News reported,

The wild card in all of this could be the native American vote. While about 65,000 people on the reservations are eligible to vote in South Dakota, traditionally only 10,000 or so actually do. This time around, the Democrats have mounted a major push to register native Americans who tend mostly toward Democratic candidates.

But the registration effort is controversial. Currently, South Dakota’s attorney general and the FBI are investigating charges that the Democrats have engaged in fraud, registering dead people or those who no longer reside on the reservation. The investigation is important to a race that both sides believe could be decided by fewer than 10,000 votes.

A quick Google search reveals several useful articles on both sides of that question: