In today’s episode of TPM TV, we took a hard look at just where Karl Rove got the bulk of the voter fraud stories he imparted at an April 7, 2006 speech before the Republican National Lawyer’s Association. We noted that three of the seven “hot spots” he mentioned in that speech appeared to come directly from a 2000 New York Post op-ed by Stephen Bronars and John Lott, Jr. entitled, It’s the Fraud, Stupid.
We’re sure you took our word for it, but in case you’re incredulous, here’s a direct matchup of Rove’s words from the speech and the corresponding quote from the Bronars and Lott piece, so you can see for yourself.
What Rove said in the speech:
With all due respect to the City of Brotherly Love, Norcross, uh, Rome Blank’s home turf, I do not believe that 100 percent of the living adults in this city of Philadelphia are registered, which is what election statistics would lead you to believe.
Bronars and Lott article:
Take Philadelphia, where people apparently take their civic responsibilities seriously … Preliminary numbers show some precincts had 100 percent of the registered voters voting, with 99 percent of their votes going for Gore.
What Rove said in speech:
The efforts in St. Louis to keep the polls opened — open in selected precincts — I mean, I would love to have that happen as long as I could pick the precincts.
Bronars and Lott article:
In St. Louis, a judge, who was a former aide to House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, ordered city polls held open for an extra three hours. The suit filed by Democrats on behalf of two voters claimed that they had insufficient time to vote.
What Rove said in speech:
You know, the practice in Oregon is everybody gets their ballot mailed to them and then you fill it out. And one of the practices is that people will go to political rallies and turn in their ballots. And we received reports in the 2000 election — which, remember we lost Oregon by 5000 votes — we got reports of people showing up at Republican rallies and passing around the holder to get your ballot, and then people not being able to recognize who those people were and not certain that all those ballots got turned in.
Bronars and Lott article:
Similarly, at a Bush rally in Oregon, voters who tried to hand in their ballots to Republican officials were apparently deceived into giving them to people not connected with the campaign.
And for more John Lott fun, feel free to check out Scholar Invents Fan To Answer His Critics.
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