A local reader writes in:

I live in Yuppie Acres, Alexandria, Virginia as well. My neighborhood is a sea of Democrats stunned at the election result, especially Alicia Hughes. Ms. Hughes is a federal employee who ran as an independent, though it is pretty clear that she has ties to the local Republican Party. An Afican-American Republican drives the local Democrats bonkers (remember Bill Cleveland?). Since Tuesday, I have been told through several Democratic sources that the local Democrats are gearing up to attack her election as improper under the Hatch Act. The claim seems bogus to me but the complaint goes to the Obama Office of Special Counsel so who knows what will happen.
Do not underestimate how stunned and angry the local Democratic machine is at having lost two seats in a very blue city.

The Hatch Act states federal employees may not “be candidates for public office in partisan elections”; how running as an independent constitutes partisan activity is beyond me. When the local GOP says, “we like her,” what, pray tell, was Hughes supposed to say? “No, please don’t vote for me”?

Having said that, I also saw a few blog posts and Tweets from angry liberals contending that the Alexandria Republican Party was engaging in “voter fraud” with their “plunking” strategy. The “plunking” strategy consisted of urging their supporters to vote for the two Republicans and their preferred Independent, and for no other candidates; as the top six vote-getters are elected to the council, any vote for any Democrat made it less likely one of the local GOP’s preferred candidates would get one of the top six spots.

“Fraud” has a particular meaning, at least in the English language. Voting for three candidates out of ten is not fraud; there’s no rule or law that says a voter must pick six.

By contrast, below, you’ll find the latest of a seemingly endless string of indictments of ACORN workers for actual fraud — filing hundreds of fraudulent voter-registration cards. The people listed on those cards don’t exist; that’s “fraud.”

Words have meanings, as the wise philosopher nicknamed “El Rushbo” says frequently.

UPDATE: Alicia Hughes can rest easy, and Alexandria Democrats should quit before they start. The relevant regulation:

The Office of Personnel Managment may designate a municipality or political subdivision in Maryland or Virginia and in the immediate vicinity of the District of Columbia, or a municipality in which the majority of voters are employed by the Government of the United States, when OPM determines that, because of special or unusual circumstances, it is in the domestic interest of employees to participate in local elections.
(b) Information as to the documentation required to support a request for designation is furnished by the General Counsel of OPM on request.
(c) The following municipalities and political subdivisions have been designated, effective on the day specified:
VIRGINIA
… Alexandria (April 15, 1941).

Game, set, match. (And in fact, it would seem rather silly to ban federal workers from running for local office in this region, as it would eliminate vast swaths of the population from being involved in local government.)