How Not to Run a Sting
In order to prove the need for a voter ID poll tax, and to prove how easy it is for someone to procure and cast a false ballot, the kid who took ACORN down based on fabrications sent some people to New Hampshire to…well, to procure and cast false ballots.
The problem is that it’s a state and federal crime to do just that, and a pretty severe one at that – a felony. And it’s not a sting – it’s the commission of the crime itself; they didn’t catch people falsifying ballots or conspiring to falsify ballots – they actually did it.
“In either case, if they were intentionally going in and trying to fraudulently obtain a ballot, they violated the law,” Schultz said. “So right off the bat, what they did violated the law.”
Election law expert Rick Hasen, who writes the Election Law Blog, joked in an email to TPM that O’Keefe’s team should “next show how easy it is to rob a bank with a plastic gun.”
“Who in their right mind would risk a felony conviction for this? And who would be able to do this in large enough numbers to (1) affect the outcome of the election and (2) remain undetected?” Hasen wrote.
Of course, there was a spate of “Future O’Keefe Stings” on Twitter such as:
[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/TheDarklady/status/157252524464816128″]
[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/buffalopundit/status/157246918513274880″]
[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/MotherJones/status/157244859663654912″]
[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/d_pardee/status/157224694762831872″]
[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/fbihop/status/157223680294928384″]
The Schadenfreude over this kid’s ham-handed efforts to promote conservative causes and embarrass liberals is awesome. I look forward to his next effort to re-create what he did with ACORN, but the problem is it’ll never happen because everyone knows he’s a fraud with zero credibility.