Indiana Vote Fraud Conviction Means A Lot More

Liberals often downplay vote fraud when they aren’t using people like Al Sharpton who actually committed vote fraud to disclaim it.  So predictably the reaction to the convictions early this week of a Democratic Party official in the Indiana fraudulent petition scheme from 2008 is the same as it has always been to down play its claim that it was isolated and had no effect.

In the stories on it you have quotes about how the “victim” is the Democratic Party and it did not make a difference made by people with no clue on politics or protecting Democrats.

On Monday, there was some closure to the case, though, as the four defendants who were convicted or pleaded guilty in the state's presidential petition fraud scandal were sentenced. Only one received prison time for the illegal scheme that touched the race for the White House.

. . .In court, former longtime St. Joseph County Democratic Chairman Butch Morgan, Jr. was sentenced to one year behind bars, and is expected to serve half that, as well as Community Corrections and probation.

But, what does it really mean?

1.  Let’s say the Fraud had been uncovered at the time.  What could have happened?  Barrack Obama would have been kicked off the Indiana Ballot.  This would have resulted in a very different narrative for the great Obama campaign. 

·         The Obama campaign, which was so praised for its efficiency, would have instead had to answer questions about why it had to cheat to even obtain a measly 500 signatures in a Congressional District in Indiana.   If you think this is a non-story, fast forward to 2012 when Senator Santorum failed to obtain enough petitions to qualify for the ballot in Ohio and had his momentum dampened and campaign hurt.  Santorum had to deal with the story for a key week during the campaign.  Senator Obama, unlike Santorum, had money and no excuse for such a screw up. 

·         Senator Obama won Indiana by .9% in the general election.  The scandal almost certainly would have cost him some votes from Hooisers who don’t like that kind of activity.  Senator McCain would have likely won Indiana. 

·         One of Senator McCain’s best issues in 2008 was tying Senator Obama and his campaign to the corrupt and now defunct ACORN and its fraudulent voter registrations.  This would have been another log in that fire. 

2.  It took five years to bring this case to justice and there can be little doubt this was just the surface of what was going on for the Democrats were so blatant about it. 

·         Dr. Deb Fleming, St. Joseph County’s Republican chairwoman, said, “They’ve just never gotten caught. Because they’ve been in control of St. Joseph County for so long, they felt they could get away with it.”

·         The scandal was not uncovered by authorities, but a former Obama White House Intern Ryan Nees:  "What seems to have happened is that a variety of people in northern Indiana knew that this fraud occurred, and actively participated and perpetuated the fraud, and did so on behalf of two presidential campaigns," according to Nees. 

So it takes five years and the help of a Democrat to take down a party leader who cheats.  You have to wonder if liberals down play the importance of vote fraud to stop their own from reporting it.