Morning Jolt - You Can Cast Eric Holder's Vote in November!

NRO Newsletters . . .

Morning Jolt

. . . with Jim Geraghty

April 10, 2012

In This Issue . . .

1. If You Live in the District, You Can Cast Eric Holder's Vote in November!

2. Another Great Chapter in the Most Basketball-Focused Administration in American History

3. The Sterling-Silver-Platter-of-Pizza President

4. Addendum

Here's your Tuesday Morning Jolt!

Enjoy.

Jim

1. If You Live in the District, You Can Cast Eric Holder's Vote in November!

Wow:

In a new video (below) provided to Breitbart.com, James O'Keefe's Project Veritas demonstrates why Holder should stop attacking voter ID laws -- by walking into Holder's voting precinct and showing the world that anyone can obtain Eric Holder's primary ballot. Literally.

The video shows a young man entering a Washington, DC polling place at 3401 Nebraska Avenue, NW, on primary day of this year -- April 3, 2012 -- and giving Holder's name and address. The poll worker promptly offers the young man Holder's ballot to vote.

The young man then suggests that he should show his ID; the poll worker, in compliance with DC law, states: "You don't need it. It's all right. As long as you're in here, you're on our list, and that's who you say you are, you're okay."

The young man replies: "I would feel more comfortable if I just had my ID. Is it alright if I go get it?" The poll worker agrees.

"I'll be back Faster than you can say Furious," the young man jokes on his way out, in a reference to the Fast and Furious gunwalking scandal that has plagued Holder's Department of Justice.

The sophisticates at New York magazine roll their eyes and scoff:

The question is whether anyone should really care. Yes, if you wanted to, you could risk five years in prison and a $10,000 fine to vote for someone else, but we're not sure why you would, since a single vote, or even a few votes, will never make a difference. (Okay, almost never.) Could a group of hundreds or thousands of fraudsters be mobilized to go around to different polling stations on election day and vote for one particular candidate or issue, possibly altering the outcome of an election? It would be difficult to organize surreptitiously, but sure, it's probably doable. But it has never happened.

Seriously? Am I the only person who remembers this story?

Some 46,000 New Yorkers are registered to vote in both the city and Florida, a shocking finding that exposes both states to potential abuses that could alter the outcome of elections, a Daily News investigation shows.

Registering in two places is illegal in both states, but the massive snowbird scandal goes undetected because election officials don't check rolls across state lines.

The finding is even more stunning given the pivotal role Florida played in the 2000 presidential election, when a margin there of 537 votes tipped a victory to George W. Bush.

Computer records analyzed by The News don't allow for an exact count of how many people vote in both places, because millions of names are regularly purged between elections.

But The News found that between 400 and 1,000 registered voters have voted twice in at least one election, a federal offense punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

The News' investigation also found:

Of the 46,000 registered in both states, 68% are Democrats, 12% are Republicans and 16% didn't claim a party.

There's a shock! The article continues:

Nearly 1,700 of those registered in both states requested that absentee ballots be mailed to their home in the other state, where they are also registered. But that doesn't raise red flags with officials in either place.

Efforts to prevent people from registering and voting in more than one state rely mostly on the honor system.

The honor system is proving insufficient.

Why should we care if a few people -- say, 400 to 1,000 -- voted twice in an election in a state with millions of people? Simple: Because all of those people got two votes and the rest of us got one. A state administering a system where one group of people -- the sneaky and the devious -- get two or more votes, and the rest of us get only one represents a classic violation of the Equal Protection Clause. It's particularly egregious when you realize that almost all forms of voter fraud could be eliminated with some simple changes: having states cross-check their voter-ID lists and asking voters to verify their identities.

The traditional Democratic objection to voter-ID laws is that a small segment of the voting electorate does not have photo identification. So let's get those folks a form of photo identification. South Carolina bends over backwards to give a voter without a photo ID a way to ensure his ballot gets counted, and Eric Holder is still opposed:

South Carolina passed a voter ID law that is almost identical to those implemented by Georgia and Indiana six years ago. It requires a voter to present a South Carolina driver's license or other photo ID -- a passport, military ID, or a voter registration card with a photo issued by South Carolina election officials. Even if a voter shows up at a polling place without an acceptable ID, he can still vote a provisional ballot that will be counted if he brings an ID to election officials before the results are certified. South Carolina's law is more lenient than either Georgia's or Indiana's. If a voter has a religious objection or a "reasonable impediment" that prevents him from getting a free photo ID, then the voter can simply fill out an affidavit in which he outlines his objection or impediment and swears that he is who he says he is. His provisional ballot will then be automatically counted unless local election officials have evidence that "the affidavit is false.

John Fund -- now joining Team NRO, I hear, hurrah! -- writes that "voter fraud is a scandal, and the attorney general can't look away anymore." Pardon my cynicism, but just watch him.

2. Another Great Chapter in the Most Basketball-Focused Administration in American History

Yawn. It's just another White House event featuring the easily handled, often-flying, and overinflated.

Using a special basketball festooned with his own image, President Obama shot some hoop today with former NBA players, Harlem Globetrotters and kids attending the White House Easter Egg Hunt. The balls with the presidential face were brought by the NBA players who came to the event, White House officials said.

Because a regular orange-and-black-striped basketball just wouldn't do, of course.

My first thought is, "Ah, there's our president, hard at work again, and on a day the stock market plummeted after disappointing jobs news, Yahoo laid off about 15 percent of its workforce, Syria's military fired weapons across the border at refugees in Turkey and Lebanon, South Korea accused North Korea of preparing a new nuclear test, and gas averaged $3.90 per gallon across the country." But at The Atlantic, Eric Randall watches the president's trouble with his perimeter shooting and sees ghosts of attack ads to come:

In your frivolous but fun future attack-ad footage of the day: As part of Monday's White House Easter Egg Hunt, President Obama took several three-pointer shots using a basketball emblazoned with his face, and he missed all of them. So, at long last, the Republican National Committee has a metaphor they can work with. Dylan Byers at Politico posted video of Obama missing his shots, writing, "If you don't think the RNC has already flagged this one, you're crazy." And indeed, RNC communications director Sean Spicer quickly replied on Twitter, "Thanks for the heads up @DylanByers -- yeah we flagged it."

Yes, basketballs with Obama's face bouncing off the rims. . . . We can see them easily working as an accompanying image to a voice-over about "Obama's failed policies" or something.

3. The Sterling-Silver-Platter-of-Pizza President

The Obama campaign has chosen another shining venue for him to tell Americans he stands with the 99 percent against the 1 percent:

President Barack Obama is coming to the Motor City for a $1 million pizza party being thrown for him compliments of Denise Ilitch, daughter of Little Caesars' founders Mike and Marian Ilitch. Ilitch is opening her home April 18 for the fundraiser where movers and shakers are being asked to pony up thousands to add to his re-election coffer while getting a chance to rub shoulders with the most powerful man on the planet. "I'm honored to have been asked," by the Obama campaign to host," Ilitch said of the event she and husband, Jim Scalici, will hold at their Metro Detroit home. She made the comments on "Michigan Matters" when asked about media reports.Watch the full episode.

When asked what she planned to serve, she said: "Pizza! But, we'll be serving it on sterling silver plates!"

The good guys at the Free Beacon spot another irony:

First lady Michelle Obama is a vocal opponent of unhealthy foods and launched her "Let's Move" campaign to fight childhood obesity.

Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner tweeted Monday that the first lady has decreed that fried chicken will not be served at her table.

4. Addendum

Kevin Eder offers a thought to Barack Obama: "You know what's not 'fair?' That future generations will have a lower standard of living [because] you were an irresponsible Marxist."