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VOTE FRAUD FRAUD UPDATE. New evidence suggests that the failure of U.S. Attorneys to pursue bogus vote fraud changes was an even bigger factor in the DOJ's political purge than was previously known:
Nearly half the U.S. attorneys slated for removal by the administration last year were targets of Republican complaints that they were lax on voter fraud, including efforts by presidential adviser Karl Rove to encourage more prosecutions of election- law violations, according to new documents and interviews.Of the 12 U.S. attorneys known to have been dismissed or considered for removal last year, five were identified by Rove or other administration officials as working in districts that were trouble spots for voter fraud -- Kansas City, Mo.; Milwaukee; New Mexico; Nevada; and Washington state. Four of the five prosecutors in those districts were dismissed.It has been clear for months that the administration's eagerness to launch voter-fraud prosecutions played a role in some of the firings, but recent testimony, documents and interviews show the issue was more central than previously known. The new details include the names of additional prosecutors who were targeted and other districts that were of concern, as well as previously unknown information about the White House's role.And, of course, this emphasis makes perfect sense. Not only because the disenfranchisement of votes based on spurious "fraud" claims can directly put the GOP over the top, as it did in 2000, but because it can also be used against rules that would make voter turnout in the United States much closer to the higher turnout in virtually every other liberal democracy. It's instructive that the GOP thinks that a wider electorate is not in its interests.--Scott Lemieux