Battlegrounders
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MICHIGAN: FRAUD WATCH [Henry Payne 10/22 02:41 PM]

As Election Day approaches, there is an underlying unease here that Michigan's Democratic party is setting the state up for a Florida-style election debacle.

"There is a huge potential here for fraud," pollster Steve Mitchell told the Frank Beckman radio show Thursday, which was devoting its lead segment to a Democratic federal judge's ruling that provisional ballots do not have to be filed in the precinct where the voter lives — a reversal of existing Michigan law.

The Detroit News also devoted a lead editorial to the subject Thursday, warning that "state election officials make the valid argument that the judge's ruling disrupts the carefully crafted and orderly electoral process." State Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer protests that the suit was brought for reasons of fairness — that no citizen should have his vote rejected. But Michigan's election code is already generous to confused voters, allowing six days for voter verification and requiring that poll workers give directions to a voter's correct precinct.

In fact, Democratic judge-shopping for the decision and a late court filing to maximize confusion point to a more cynical political ploy. As The News editorialized: "the suit is intended to garner the most possible presidential votes for Sen. John Kerry."

Or worse — lay the groundwork for post-election lawsuits.

Elected officials here are proud of Michigan's history of clean elections (see "Recounts, the Michigan Way" NRO 12/19/00), and lament the legal tactics being imported by Democrats. Michigan, of course, is not alone. As the Wall Street Journal's lead editorial Friday points out, Michigan is part of a national Democratic political strategy "to create enough confusion at the polls to justify legal challenges that will cloud any presidential outcome."