The Erickson Report for Ocrober 14 to 27, Page 3: Voting footnotes

Oh, finally on this for now, two relevant footnotes.

First, there has indeed been voter fraud occurring in this year's election. And the source is exactly who you would expect.

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, the state's top election official, has announced his office is investigating reports that the state's Republican Party has set up illegal ballot drop boxes posing as "official" ones in several major counties. Only county election officials can set up ballot drop boxes and these phony ones could be a felony.

And second, we need to remember that GOPpers aren't the only ones whose declared devotion to free and open elections depends on what is to their benefit. So here's a reminder:

Again we go to Pennsylvania where on September 17, in response to a suit filed by a couple of connected Democrats, the State Supreme Court kicked the Green Party off the presidential ballot.

Why? Pennsylvania state law requires that third parties submit 5,000 signatures to appear on the ballot, together with an affidavit of candidacy. The Greens submitted the paperwork, by hand, in August - but they faxed the final affidavit so it was not turned in "together" with the signatures.

This seems like a remarkably trivial error, particularly since no one is disputing that the party gathered enough signatures, but it was enough to enable the Dems to get the party kicked off the ballot entirely with no opportunity to correct the error.