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Was the election stolen? Remember all those lawsuits by Democrats demanding that any voter identification laws be repealed? Well, now we know why they filed them. They needed to steal the vote in certain key states so that Obama could be reelected.  Curiously, Obama lost in every state that requires a photo ID to be produced before voting. A list of closely contested state elections with no voter ID, which narrowly went to Obama include: Minnesota (10), Iowa (6), Wisconsin (10), Nevada (6), Colorado (9), New Mexico (5) and Pennsylvania (20).  This amounts to a total of 66 electoral votes....

Those of us who thought U.N election observers would be completely worthless or unhelpful today, were wrong. U.N. observers are expressing their surprise at how much trust Americans put into the election system without verification and cannot believe Voter I.D. isn't a national requirement to vote. "It's an incredible system," said Nuri K. Elabbar, who traveled to the United States along with election officials from more than 60 countries to observe today's presidential elections as part of a program run by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). Your humble Cable guy visited polling places with some of the international...

Since 2001, nearly 1,000 voter ID bills have been introduced in a total of 46 states. Thirty-three states have passed voter ID laws, and 30 were in place for Tuesday's election, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In order for a constitutional amendment to pass in Minnesota, the "yes" votes must represent a majority not of the votes cast on the amendment question but of the total ballots cast in the election -- a higher bar. On election night, the state uses the number of votes cast in the presidential election as the figure for total votes cast....

Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, writing about Indiana's voter ID law, said it was "amply justified by the valid interests in protecting 'the integrity and reliability of the electoral process.'" Stevens was a liberal justice writing on behalf of the Supreme Court, which found in favor of the law by a 6-3 margin. Stevens went on to say that "We cannot conclude that the statue imposes 'excessively burdensome requirements' on any class of voters." Polls suggest that Minnesota's Voter ID amendment will pass, perhaps easily. If so, it is because on the surface it just seems to make so...

The son of a prominent Virginia congressman agreed to help an undercover reporter forge documents in what he thought was an illegal voting effort aimed at re-electing the president, a just-published video reveals. After raising legal and practical concerns, Patrick Moran, son of Virginia Democrat James Moran, encouraged the reporter to create phony utility bills that would allow others to cast multiple votes in the November 6 election. Supporters of stronger voter ID laws seized on the video as evidence of widespread corruption among liberal get-out-the-vote organizations. “What he’s doing is soliciting fraudulent voter registrations and fraudulent ballots, and that’s...

Most Minnesotans are probably not aware that our state has recently seen more convictions for voter fraud than any other state since 1936. The overwhelming majority of those convictions stemmed from felons (rapists, murderers, gangsters, drug dealers, et al) voting while still under the supervision of the Department of Corrections. Thanks to a non-governmental organization, we brought some ineligible voters to justice, with 200 convictions since the 2008 election. Prosecuting felons who willfully voted while ineligible is difficult to do under Minnesota's election laws, since it must be proven not only that the person voted while ineligible, but also that...

Afghan Vote Plan Raises TensionsGovernment Decides to Issue Electronic ID Cards for Crucial 2014 Presidential Election, a Strategy the West Has Criticized. By MARIA ABI-HABIB and NATHAN HODGE Updated October 14, 2012, 8:15 p.m. ET KABUL—The Afghan government's plan to issue biometric ID cards ahead of the 2014 presidential election is raising tensions with international donors, who are concerned the ambitious project could tarnish the vote instead of eliminating fraud. As part of its preparations for the election, the Afghan government decided last month to issue to all Afghans an electronic national ID card, known as e-tazkira, which includes scanned...

MERIDIAN, Idaho (KBOI) - Idaho State University-Meridian as well as Renaissance High School were in lockdown mode Wednesday after there were reports of an armed subject on campus. Police tell KBOI-TV that a husband and wife went to the school campus. The woman apparently went inside the school, but the man stayed behind in the vehicle, but was parked improperly. A parking lot attendant later went to the vehicle to ask the driver to move, but saw the man put a gun on the passenger seat. (Photos from the Scene >>>) The attendant went back to the school and told...

A panel of three federal judges upheld a South Carolina law requiring voters to show photo identification, but delayed enforcement until next year, in a decision announced Wednesday, less than a month before this year's presidential election. In a unanimous ruling, the judges said there was no discriminatory intent behind the law, ruling that it would not diminish African-Americans' voting rights because people who face a "reasonable impediment" to getting an acceptable photo ID can still vote if they sign an affidavit.

Two Republican state senators announced Thursday, Oct. 4, that they have filed a complaint with the Office of Administrative Hearings over Secretary of State Mark Ritchie's conduct related to the state's proposed voter-ID amendment. Mike Parry of Waseca and Scott Newman of Hutchinson said they were filing the complaint on their own behalf. They say Ritchie, an opponent of the proposed amendment that would require voters to present a photo ID at the polls, has made false statements and improperly used his office to work against the amendment's passage. A spokeswoman for Ritchie said shortly after noon on Thursday that...

BURLEY, Idaho -- Fire officials believe it was spontaneous combustion that made a gun room explode at the home of an Idaho state lawmaker last weekend. The blast sent Representative Fred Wood's wife to a burn center in Salt Lake City on Saturday night. Burley Fire Chief Keith Martin believes a gun room below Fred and Amy Wood's house exploded after rags with gun cleaning chemicals on them sat in a garbage bin and slowly produced enough heat to ignite on fire. “He cleaned his guns, and we are thinking maybe the cleaning solvent and the rags that he used...

HARRISBURG — A Commonwealth Court judge on Tuesday kept most of the voter ID law intact, ruling the state can ask for photo ID in the Nov. 6 election but people without it still can vote. The November election will be similar to the “soft rollout” used in the April primary when voter ID was optional. Judge Robert Simpson also blocked language that would have discounted provisional ballots for voters without ID who could not verify their identity within six days. Opponents of the law asked to block it entirely over concerns it would disenfranchise voters. Simpson granted a preliminary...

An Idaho state representative’s wife was injured Saturday after a room converted to a gun safe exploded at her home. Amy Wood, wife of Rep. Fred Wood, R-Burley, was taken by air ambulance to an unspecified Utah hospital suffering from second-degree burns to her face and hands. The incident occurred at 8:11 p.m., according to Burley Fire Chief Keith Martin. On Saturday evening, Martin said the owners of the home at 100 S. 147 E. were eating dinner when “they heard a sound like a 747 coming from the basement.”

NEZPERCE, Idaho -- Coming up Sunday, the long-standing rivalry between Boise State and the University of Idaho will be renewed on a little-known battlefield in northern Idaho. We're not talking football. Instead, you can expect high consequences, punishing hits, and plenty of strategy ... at the annual combine demolition derby in Nezperce.That's when the drivers of ten combines will attempt to destroy each other at the Cecil Hill Arena. The rules are reportedly few, with the last combine standing -- so to speak -- taking home the top honor.Fans should expect to see the small town of just over 500 people swell...

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie was a vocal opponent of the Voter ID bill throughout the legislative session. But once the Legislature passed the Voter ID amendment and put it on the ballot, he had an obligation to cease his resistance to the measure. As our chief elections official, Ritchie will be responsible for tallying the ballots on the Voter ID amendment this November. His continued advocacy against Voter ID undermines the credibility of his office. Ritchie has gone beyond simply campaigning against Voter ID. He is now actively seeking to dupe voters into voting against Voter ID using false...

The city of Detroit plans to remove a citizenship question from ballot applications before the November election - another direct challenge to the Republican secretary of state's authority to require the check-off box. "There's no mandate," Detroit Elections Director Daniel Baxter told MLive on Wednesday. "The governor vetoed that part of the bill. There's no legal requirement for electors to declare their citizenship when they go to vote. That's the bottom line." Election workers will black out the box ordered by Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, he said. Johnson spokeswoman Gisgie Gendreau said Johnson still expects local clerks to use...

The Associated Press WASHINGTON — The presidential election is Nov. 6, but it could take days to figure out the winner if the vote is close. New voting laws are likely to increase the number of people who have to cast provisional ballots in key states. Tight races for Congress, governor and local offices also could be stuck in limbo while election officials scrutinize ballots, a scenario that would surely attract legions of campaign lawyers from both parties. "It's a possibility of a complete meltdown for the election," said Daniel Smith, a political scientist at the University of Florida. Voters...

With just six weeks until the presidential election, a judge raised the possibility Tuesday that he would move to block Pennsylvania's controversial voter ID law. "I'm giving you a heads-up," Commonwealth Court Judge Robert E. Simpson Jr. told lawyers after a day's testimony on whether the law is being implemented in ways that ensure no voters will be disenfranchised. "I think it's a possibility there could be an injunction here." **SNIP** Critics of the law have argued that it is being rushed into effect - it was enacted in March - and will disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters, particularly...

<p>BOISE -- The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission says Idaho Power's long-term purchase agreement with wind farms means that it must buy electricity from the farms even when demand for power is low.</p> <p>The commission's decision, reached Thursday, is good news for Idaho wind farms but a loss for the state's largest utility.</p>

By 2011, voter ID was "the hottest topic of legislation in the field of elections," according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In Minnesota, voters in November will be deciding whether to move from having no voter ID requirement to adopting one of the strictest in the nation. In 2001, only 14 states even asked for ID -- and it was a request, not a requirement. Since 2001, nearly 1,000 voter ID bills have been introduced in a total of 46 states. Thirty-three states have passed voter ID laws, and at least 30 will be in place for November's...