Messin’ with Ballots

ON April 15, a New York Times editorial declared that concerns about voter fraud—concerns that lay behind the Bush administration’s firings of some U.S. attorneys-are a “fantasy.” The Justice Department has investigated fraud allegations for five years, the Times wrote, and “has not turned up any evidence that voter fraud is actually a problem.” The Bush White House was not only wrong to be worried about some prosecutors’ less than-enthusiastic pursuit of fraud allegations, the paper concluded, it was wrong to be worried at all about such a non-issue.

It was an extraordinary position for the Times, given that, two years earlier, the paper commended a group of Ohio lawyers who went to court alleging that the Bush campaign had engaged in massive voter fraud in the 2004 presidential election. The lawyers accused the Bush team of engaging in a variety of illegal acts, including a scheme in which top political strategist Karl Rove was said to have personally hacked into Ohio’s electronic voting system, erasing thousands of Democratic votes. The lawyers had no evidence to support their allegations-the Times conceded that-but the paper said they had performed a “public service” by making the charges, because they had raised “concerns that many voters shared.”

About the Author

Byron York

Byron York is a former White House correspondent for National Review.

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ON April 15, a New York Times editorial declared that concerns about voter fraud—concerns that lay behind the Bush administration’s firings of some U.S. attorneys-are a “fantasy.” The Justice Department has investigated fraud allegations for five years, the Times wrote, and “has not turned up any evidence that voter fraud is actually a problem.” The Bush White House was not only wrong to be worried about some prosecutors’ less than-enthusiastic pursuit of fraud allegations, the paper concluded, it was wrong to be worried at all about such a non-issue.

It was an extraordinary position for the Times, given that, two years earlier, the paper commended a group of Ohio lawyers who went to court alleging that the Bush campaign had engaged in massive voter fraud in the 2004 presidential election. The lawyers accused the Bush team of engaging in a variety of illegal acts, including a scheme in which top political strategist Karl Rove was said to have personally hacked into Ohio’s electronic voting system, erasing thousands of Democratic votes. The lawyers had no evidence to support their allegations-the Times conceded that-but the paper said they had performed a “public service” by making the charges, because they had raised “concerns that many voters shared.”