Comments on: Pawlenty: I Support Sara Taylor-Style Focus on Voter Registration Fraud http://washingtonindependent.com/61881/pawlenty-i-support-sara-taylor-style-focus-on-voter-registration-fraud National News in Context Sun, 04 Mar 2012 13:30:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: webcelt http://washingtonindependent.com/61881/pawlenty-i-support-sara-taylor-style-focus-on-voter-registration-fraud/comment-page-1#comment-84298 webcelt Mon, 05 Oct 2009 04:37:35 +0000 http://washingtonindependent.com/?p=61881#comment-84298 The follow up to Pawlenty saying he thought Bush was right to go so hard after voter fraud: did he think to question his assumptions when the Bush DOJ found nothing over eight years? The follow up to Pawlenty saying he thought Bush was right to go so hard after voter fraud: did he think to question his assumptions when the Bush DOJ found nothing over eight years?

]]> By: mmcintee http://washingtonindependent.com/61881/pawlenty-i-support-sara-taylor-style-focus-on-voter-registration-fraud/comment-page-1#comment-83769 mmcintee Sat, 03 Oct 2009 04:34:12 +0000 http://washingtonindependent.com/?p=61881#comment-83769 There were 146,529 absentee ballots cast in Minnesota's 2006 election. Not 12,000 as Governor Pawlenty states. There were even more (200,000+) absentees cast in 2004... the previous Presidential election. See the MN Secretary of State's website here: <a href="http://www.sos.state.mn.us/index.aspx?page=452" rel="nofollow">http://www.sos.state.mn.us/index.aspx?page=452</a><br><br>Why doesn't anyone in the media call him on his numbers as he tries to see fraud where there isn't any? This is not the first time he has tossed out numbers that were off by a factor of 10 or even 100. In April 2008 he claimed that 20-30% of the money that the state collects for local governments is eaten up in bureaucracy. This was his rationalization for cutting back on local government aid. Less than 1% of the money goes to bureaucracy. I couldn't find anyone at the State Capitol who had the slightest idea of what the Governor meant. After months of not returning my phone calls, I finally asked the Governor at a public press conference what he meant by that statistic. He said that he probably "misspoke". There were 146,529 absentee ballots cast in Minnesota's 2006 election. Not 12,000 as Governor Pawlenty states. There were even more (200,000+) absentees cast in 2004… the previous Presidential election. See the MN Secretary of State's website here: http://www.sos.state.mn.us/index.aspx?page=452

Why doesn't anyone in the media call him on his numbers as he tries to see fraud where there isn't any? This is not the first time he has tossed out numbers that were off by a factor of 10 or even 100. In April 2008 he claimed that 20-30% of the money that the state collects for local governments is eaten up in bureaucracy. This was his rationalization for cutting back on local government aid. Less than 1% of the money goes to bureaucracy. I couldn't find anyone at the State Capitol who had the slightest idea of what the Governor meant. After months of not returning my phone calls, I finally asked the Governor at a public press conference what he meant by that statistic. He said that he probably “misspoke”.

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