Free Republic

The Maryland Senate narrowly overrode Gov. Larry Hogan's final veto from last year's General Assembly session, paving the way to reinstate voting rights to felons before they complete probation or parole. The 29-18 vote on Tuesday puts the law on the books 30 days from now and represents a political defeat for Hogan, a Republican. The bill was the sixth that Hogan vetoed last year, and the sixth the Democrat-controlled General Assembly reinstated. The vote, twice delayed in order to muster enough support, followed an expansive debate that touched on resolving racial disparities in the criminal justice system and protecting...

WOODBRIDGE, Va. — The decision this week by John Thune, the Republican candidate for senator from South Dakota, to concede to his rival, Tim Johnson, the Democratic incumbent, virtually guarantees that Mr. Thune's narrow defeat will go down in conservative lore as the one lost to voter fraud on an Indian reservation. This charge probably won't ever be proved, but people on the right will continue to believe it — just as many people on the left think corruption in Florida cost Al Gore the presidency. In both cases, however, there's a better explanation for what happened. George W. Bush...