Free Republic

MEMPHIS, Tenn. Attorneys representing state senators plan to appeal a federal judge's ruling on Senator Ophelia Ford's disputed election victory. The senators want to void the special election amid allegations of vote fraud. State Attorney General Paul Summers' office is representing the Senate in the lawsuit filed by Ford. He filed a notice of appeal with Memphis federal District Court Judge Bernice Donald. Summers' spokeswoman Sharon Curtis-Flair told The Commercial Appeal (newspaper) the attorney general plans to file the full appeal within days. The notice of appeal did not give specifics, but the state plans to claim that the Senate...

TRENTON, Sept. 15 - The joke has long been that dead people vote in Hudson County, New Jersey's legendary enclave of machine politics. But now the joke may be on New Jersey, according to a new analysis of voter records by the state's Republican Party. Comparing information from county voter registration lists, Social Security death records and other public information, Republican officials announced on Thursday that 4,755 people who were listed as deceased appear to have voted in the 2004 general election. Another 4,397 people who were registered to vote in more than one county appeared to have voted twice,...

OLYMPIA — Democratic lawmakers are pushing legislation that would take a multimillion-dollar bite out of one of their party's biggest political enemies — the Building Industry Association of Washington. The move sets up a bitter showdown between the BIAW, a powerful conservative force, and the liberal Washington State Labor Council, which has been trying for years to clip the association's wings. And it comes at a time when the home-builders group is at the forefront of the state's biggest political controversy, temporarily dedicating its operations to unseating Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire. Rep. Cary Condotta of Wenatchee, the ranking Republican on...

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana - In a state infamous for political chicanery it has become a well-worn joke: Even the dead can vote in Louisiana. The new punchline: Soon, it may even be legal — at least in a few rare cases. A Louisiana law in effect at least since 1921 says if a person casts an absentee ballot, then dies before election day, the vote doesn't count. State Sen. Reggie Dupre says that isn't fair. "If someone casts a ballot, whether at the polls or absentee, their vote should count," he said Thursday. After all, he added, if someone has...