Free Republic

Two Republican state senators announced Thursday, Oct. 4, that they have filed a complaint with the Office of Administrative Hearings over Secretary of State Mark Ritchie's conduct related to the state's proposed voter-ID amendment. Mike Parry of Waseca and Scott Newman of Hutchinson said they were filing the complaint on their own behalf. They say Ritchie, an opponent of the proposed amendment that would require voters to present a photo ID at the polls, has made false statements and improperly used his office to work against the amendment's passage. A spokeswoman for Ritchie said shortly after noon on Thursday that...

BURLEY, Idaho -- Fire officials believe it was spontaneous combustion that made a gun room explode at the home of an Idaho state lawmaker last weekend. The blast sent Representative Fred Wood's wife to a burn center in Salt Lake City on Saturday night. Burley Fire Chief Keith Martin believes a gun room below Fred and Amy Wood's house exploded after rags with gun cleaning chemicals on them sat in a garbage bin and slowly produced enough heat to ignite on fire. “He cleaned his guns, and we are thinking maybe the cleaning solvent and the rags that he used...

HARRISBURG — A Commonwealth Court judge on Tuesday kept most of the voter ID law intact, ruling the state can ask for photo ID in the Nov. 6 election but people without it still can vote. The November election will be similar to the “soft rollout” used in the April primary when voter ID was optional. Judge Robert Simpson also blocked language that would have discounted provisional ballots for voters without ID who could not verify their identity within six days. Opponents of the law asked to block it entirely over concerns it would disenfranchise voters. Simpson granted a preliminary...

An Idaho state representative’s wife was injured Saturday after a room converted to a gun safe exploded at her home. Amy Wood, wife of Rep. Fred Wood, R-Burley, was taken by air ambulance to an unspecified Utah hospital suffering from second-degree burns to her face and hands. The incident occurred at 8:11 p.m., according to Burley Fire Chief Keith Martin. On Saturday evening, Martin said the owners of the home at 100 S. 147 E. were eating dinner when “they heard a sound like a 747 coming from the basement.”

NEZPERCE, Idaho -- Coming up Sunday, the long-standing rivalry between Boise State and the University of Idaho will be renewed on a little-known battlefield in northern Idaho. We're not talking football. Instead, you can expect high consequences, punishing hits, and plenty of strategy ... at the annual combine demolition derby in Nezperce.That's when the drivers of ten combines will attempt to destroy each other at the Cecil Hill Arena. The rules are reportedly few, with the last combine standing -- so to speak -- taking home the top honor.Fans should expect to see the small town of just over 500 people swell...

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie was a vocal opponent of the Voter ID bill throughout the legislative session. But once the Legislature passed the Voter ID amendment and put it on the ballot, he had an obligation to cease his resistance to the measure. As our chief elections official, Ritchie will be responsible for tallying the ballots on the Voter ID amendment this November. His continued advocacy against Voter ID undermines the credibility of his office. Ritchie has gone beyond simply campaigning against Voter ID. He is now actively seeking to dupe voters into voting against Voter ID using false...

The city of Detroit plans to remove a citizenship question from ballot applications before the November election - another direct challenge to the Republican secretary of state's authority to require the check-off box. "There's no mandate," Detroit Elections Director Daniel Baxter told MLive on Wednesday. "The governor vetoed that part of the bill. There's no legal requirement for electors to declare their citizenship when they go to vote. That's the bottom line." Election workers will black out the box ordered by Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, he said. Johnson spokeswoman Gisgie Gendreau said Johnson still expects local clerks to use...

The Associated Press WASHINGTON — The presidential election is Nov. 6, but it could take days to figure out the winner if the vote is close. New voting laws are likely to increase the number of people who have to cast provisional ballots in key states. Tight races for Congress, governor and local offices also could be stuck in limbo while election officials scrutinize ballots, a scenario that would surely attract legions of campaign lawyers from both parties. "It's a possibility of a complete meltdown for the election," said Daniel Smith, a political scientist at the University of Florida. Voters...

With just six weeks until the presidential election, a judge raised the possibility Tuesday that he would move to block Pennsylvania's controversial voter ID law. "I'm giving you a heads-up," Commonwealth Court Judge Robert E. Simpson Jr. told lawyers after a day's testimony on whether the law is being implemented in ways that ensure no voters will be disenfranchised. "I think it's a possibility there could be an injunction here." **SNIP** Critics of the law have argued that it is being rushed into effect - it was enacted in March - and will disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters, particularly...

<p>BOISE -- The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission says Idaho Power's long-term purchase agreement with wind farms means that it must buy electricity from the farms even when demand for power is low.</p> <p>The commission's decision, reached Thursday, is good news for Idaho wind farms but a loss for the state's largest utility.</p>

By 2011, voter ID was "the hottest topic of legislation in the field of elections," according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In Minnesota, voters in November will be deciding whether to move from having no voter ID requirement to adopting one of the strictest in the nation. In 2001, only 14 states even asked for ID -- and it was a request, not a requirement. Since 2001, nearly 1,000 voter ID bills have been introduced in a total of 46 states. Thirty-three states have passed voter ID laws, and at least 30 will be in place for November's...

For months, Ramsey County Elections Manager Joe Mansky has been predicting the costs and complications of the state voter ID amendment if it passes in November. Mansky has made public appearances at civic events and spoke at a state House news conference, where he's cautioned voters that Ramsey County will foot a heavy price to correct a problem that he says does not exist: widespread voter fraud. Now, some St. Paul Republicans are sending him a message of their own: Please be quiet and resign. In a public statement Thursday, Sept. 13, Greg Copeland, chairman of the St. Paul Republican...

After George W. Bush defeated Al Gore at the ballot box and in a rare show of fortitude for a Republican, didn't stand by haplessly wringing his hands when Gore tried to lawyer his way into the White House, liberals were outraged. Sure, Gore had never been ahead at any point, but OBVIOUSLY voter fraud had cost Democrats the election. Afterwards, Democrats DEMANDED that we do more to insure the integrity of our elections. Republicans agreed and for a while, we finally had an issue where there was genuine bipartisan agreement. Then came the 2004 elections and many of the...

LOS ANGELES—Illegal immigrants in California's largest city could use library cards to open bank accounts and access an array of city services under a plan being considered by city officials. Under the plan, anyone with proof of Los Angeles residency could get a library card, the Los Angeles Times reported (lat.ms/P967MO). The idea is to provide a form of ID to those who cannot get a driver's license because of their immigration status.

A Mexican who was deported decades ago for drug trafficking pleaded guilty this week to living illegally in Escondido under a false identity and fraudulently voting in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, federal authorities said Friday. Ricardo Lopez-Munguia, 45, pleaded guilty Thursday to attempted entry to the U.S. after deportation, making a false claim to U.S. citizenship, and voter fraud by an illegal alien, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office. Lopez-Munguia faces a maximum term of 28 years in federal prison, followed by deportation. He is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 19 in San Diego. In 1986,...

A Maryland Democratic candidate quit her congressional race Monday after her own party told state officials that she had committed fraud by voting in both Maryland and Florida in recent elections. Wendy Rosen, a small-business owner running against freshman Rep. Andy Harris (R) in the Eastern Shore-based 1st Congressional District, released a statement saying that “with great regret, and much sorrow” she was resigning from the contest. “Personal issues have made this the hardest decision that I have had to make,” Rosen said Rosen’s announcement came the same day the state Democratic party released a letter to state Attorney General...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Tonight, tonight, tonight's the big night. Tonight's the night everybody's been waiting for. It's the Star Wars bars scene come to life in Charlotte, North Carolina. That's exactly what this is going to look like. I can predict it right now. You can, too. You know exactly what this is going to look like. You know what it's going to sound like. And the contrast between what's going to happen the next three nights and what happened last week in Tampa at the Republican convention, is going to be stark. It's going to be profound. BREAK TRANSCRIPT...

RALEIGH A Raleigh-based group devoted to reducing the potential for voter fraud presented the N.C. Board of Elections on Friday with a list of nearly 30,000 names of dead people statewide who are still registered to vote. The Voter Integrity Project compiled the list after obtaining death records from the state Department of Public Health from 2002 to March 31 and comparing them to the voter rolls. “Mainly, what we’re concerned about is the potential [for fraud],” said project director Jay DeLancy. “Since there is no voter ID law in North Carolina, anybody can walk in and claim to be...

Federal court rejects Texas voter ID law Updated 11:14 a.m., Thursday, August 30, 2012 WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal court has ruled against a Texas law that would require voters to present photo IDs to election officials before being allowed to cast ballots in November. A three-judge panel in Washington ruled Thursday that the law imposes "strict, unforgiving burdens on the poor" and noted that racial minorities in Texas are more likely to live in poverty. The decision involves an increasingly contentious political issue: a push, largely by Republican-controlled legislatures and governor's offices, to impose strict identification requirements on voters.

A few years ago, state leaders got the idea to promote Idaho to the outdoor industry, including gun manufacturers. After all, Idaho is a more firearms-friendly place than most. More than half of Idahoans own guns, and state law shields firearms manufacturers from liability. One North Idaho town — Potlatch — is honing its pitch to attract the gun industry and jobs. Local economic development official BJ Swanson is key to the effort. Not long ago, Swanson drove through an overgrown patch of ground on the outskirts of Potlatch, population 800. It’s a humble spot, but in it she sees...