voter fraud

Remember Michael Aaron Lay? He's Pat McHenry's former roomie and staffer who committed voter fraud in the 2004 primary McHenry only won by 86, no, 85 votes.

In August Lay got a "deferred prosecution." If he pays a fine, does 100 hours of community service and stays out of trouble, he'll never be charged. Nice lawyering, if you can afford it. Apparently, Lay didn't have to pay the bill. McHenry's PAC did.

It looks like our Pat is not so conservative when it comes to the interpretation of "political action."

Looks like things get better and better- Sigmon's got TV commercials running now. Admittedly few of us will see them as they will probably stick to Conservative news networks, but hey, I might just try to catch an airing.

Discovered via a new VoteVets post

Well, it looks like the Democrats are just having a plain out good week. In the words of Paul O'Connor, Do-It-Yourself Stupidity is in with Republicans, showing just how dumb representatives like Patrick McHenry are like. But hey, us Democrats aren't the only ones screaming it from the rooftops- apparently Lance Sigmon is the only Republican with the guts to actually say a Republican did something wrong, as he tears apart McHenry in this video. God, I love Republican infighting, especially when one of their own breed is the one pointing out McH's many flaws.

But it gets better.

Despite John McCain's anti-lobbying stance, he has a slew of them working for his campaign.

A BLUE NC EXCLUSIVE! Patrick McHenry, in response to Lance Sigmon's tech-based campaign (including a rather large website and e-mail system), has decided to counterattack and protect his record in his own way: having his staffers, friends, and even himself edit his Wikipedia page and other important records to hide key facts. Edits include getting angry at his nicknames (including the "littlest congressman"), trying to hide more names involved in his voter fraud scam, and just straight out trying to hide the voter fraud thing in it's entirety. Thanks to Wikipedia's history engine, the Wikiscanner, Archive.org, and various other tools, this article proves without a doubt that Patrick McHenry is working very very hard (using your tax dollars) to save his pudgy face.

If Pat didn't disclose the purchase and sale of his Hickory condo because it is his personal residence, then why has he been voting in Gaston County?

There's a lot left to be desired in his financial disclosures. Since he's on the House finance committee . . . well, it doesn't look so good. I'll post a sample LTE in the first comment.

The Southern Pines Pilot reports that the Moore County District Attorney's Office is continuing an investigation into state Rep. Joe Boylan's 2006 campaign to see if two workers illegally voted in the May 2006 primary.

By Scott Mooneyham

You'd think the U.S. Justice Department had more important worries, bosses to save or court cases to lose. But unfazed by public humiliation or courtroom defeats, the federal agency apparently has chosen North Carolina as the latest state to harass regarding how it maintains voter registration rolls.

The Justice Department sent a letter to state election officials in the spring implying that they are failing to properly purge registration lists of ineligible voters.

The letter stated that voter registration in some North Carolina counties exceeds the voting-age population.

To be fair, federal laws enacted in the aftermath of the 2000 election debacle require states to periodically review voter registration rolls and make "a reasonable effort to remove the names of ineligible voters."

But those same laws make clear that state election officials may not remove voters who have changed residence unless the voters have failed to vote in the last two federal elections and haven't responded to written notification.

The Help America Vote Act and National Voter Registration Act also provide no guidance on how states are expected to match databases to remove deceased voters or convicted felons.

The federal laws avoid such specificity for good reason.

According to liberal-leaning Project Vote, studies have found that even well-intended database matching efforts resulted in error rates between 20 and 32 percent. Those errors disenfranchise legitimate voters.

Revealing her partisan allegiances, Elizabeth Dole today voted against a no-confidence vote on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales even though Gonzales is directly responsible for the mismanagement and politicization of the Justice Department.

Over the past few months, an increasing number of bipartisan calls have been made for Gonzales to resign because of his incompetent leadership as the nation’s Attorney General.

Today's Charlotte Observer has a long puff piece about Patrick McHenry by Lisa Zagaroli that leaves me wondering how much he or Campaign Chair Jason Deans paid her.