So the Wall Street Journal got Kirk’s people to respond to the audio from the other day:
The Kirk campaign denied any racial basis for the program.
“Congressman Kirk supports statewide efforts to combat machine politics and voter fraud that is well-known in Illinois,” read a statement Thursday issued by Kirk spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski. “Just this week, two individuals pled guilty to vote fraud in Metro East. Voter fraud dilutes votes and disenfranchises citizens.”
And how would voter integrity at the polls work for Mark Kirk to combat that vote fraud? It wouldn’t. Why not?
The four men were indicted by a grand jury in September 2009. Allegations in the charges include perjury, marking the absentee ballots of other people, soliciting others to apply for absentee ballots, falsifying applications for absentee ballots, unlawfully observing voting and mutilating election materials.
Suspicions were raised when an unusually large number of absentee ballots were cast in the election.
It’s not at the precinct level that fraud happens when it does happen. It’s in two areas. First, voter registration fraud is relatively common, though rarely leads to actual vote fraud. This is most often the result of canvassers being paid by the registration and without a quality control check. This seldom leads to actual voters voting since the names don’t match credentials or even addresses often. Second, as was in this case, absentee ballot fraud still occurs and even though it’s a problem, it’s didn’t even affect the outcome in the election mentioned. We should find better ways to watch out for absentee voter fraud, but when Mark Kirk talks about precincts, he’s not talking about that. And the only case I’m aware of in Metro East where someone voted twice was when they voted in both Missouri and Illinois.
So when Kirk’s spokesperson says:
The Kirk campaign denied any racial basis for the program.
She’s lying or stupid. Take your pick.
If Mark Kirk wanted to fight vote fraud he’d be worried about absentee vote fraud–something that happens most often in local elections and is more evenly distributed across the state.
No one cares.