(Not Just) Democrats vs. Fair Elections

Via Glenn Reynolds is a roundup at Gateway Pundit on a voter fraud indictment in Missouri over some 35,000 questionable voter registration forms attributable to the left-wing group ACORN. In addition, Instapundit links to an interview about voter fraud with John Fund, whom Myrhaf recently referenced on that very subject.

It hardly surprises me that the party that attempted "theft by lawyer" of the 2000 election would be involved in such shenanigans. And, although it does a little, it really shouldn't surprise me a bit that there are two instances in my own back yard of blatant attempts -- by Democrats or their supporters -- to purchase votes in this election.

First, state representative Hubert Vo has been ordered to halt radio ads touting five dollar coupons available from a polling place and good only during the election period.

A Vietnamese nonprofit organization has been ordered to stop running radio ads that urge people to vote early at an Asian-American community center while pointing out that $5 coupons available at the center can be used at a nearby mall.

Harris County District Judge John Coselli issued the permanent restraining order Saturday against the Vietnamese Community of Houston and Vicinity Inc., which ran ads on two Vietnamese-language stations.

Former state Rep. Talmadge Heflin, a Republican who lost his District 149 House seat two years ago to Democrat Hubert Vo by 16 votes, sought the ruling, saying the ads amounted to vote-buying.

Vo, a Vietnamese-American, said he had nothing to do with the ads, which were paid for by the nonprofit.

In a statement, Heflin campaign director Court Koenning said, "The coupons are only valid during the early voting period (October 23 to November 3) which is additional evidence of an attempt to unduly influence the election process. The Vietnamese Community of Houston and Vicinity, who sponsored the radio ads and whose logo is affixed to the coupons, is on record as supporting State Representative Hubert Vo."

And then Houston's mayor, Democrat Bill White has just put a halt to a vaccination program taking place at voting precincts in minority neighborhoods.

Mayor Bill White today ordered a halt to a privately funded drive to offer flu vaccinations at early voting sites in Hispanic and black neighborhoods, amid conservative criticism that the effort would boost Democratic votes.

Since Monday, the city had been offering the free vaccinations at four polling places around Houston under a national grant program, used in more than 20 other cities.

White defended the program at a news conference today, saying public health was the city's only motive in launching the initiative. Still, he said he decided this morning to abandon the plan after today to avoid perception that it could be viewed as an effort to draw certain voters to the polls. White is a former chairman of the state Democratic Party.

"There was no political motive whatsoever to do it," he said. "I don't want to have to spend more money in defending a baseless lawsuit than we're giving away in vaccine -- or allow anybody to question the integrity of the political process."

Critics of the program have been discussing the issue on conservative Web blogs and talk radio.

I applaud the watchfulness of the conservatives here in Houston. If conservatives were only fully consistent -- and would fight voter grand larceny (exemplified by such government entitlements as Bush's Medicare Drug Benefit) just as ferociously as they fight such relatively petty thefts -- they would truly deserve the support I am only reluctantly giving them in this election. But when the federal government can purchase votes on such a massive scale, who needs a few thousand false registrations? And who needs to hand out trinkets at the polls?

Only when the government gets out of the business of redistributing wealth will our elections be truly free from the threat of being stolen through bribery.

-- CAV