<p>About that grade The NAACP trotted out a "nonpartisan" report card on election reform this week at its annual convention in Houston. The report grades each state is on progress toward the NAACP's idea of election reform. Among these "reforms" are the purchase of new voting machines, an effort to restore voting rights to ex-felons and a minimum of a 10 percent increase in spending for voter registration and education programs. To ensure its nonpartisanship, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People commissioned an outside firm to compile this report. Their choice? Robinson and Foster, a Washington, D.C., company with deep liberal ties that include a co-owner who is a former legislative aide for U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, California Democrat. The group has also worked with the ACLU, the Sentencing Project and the American Bar Association. The company gave several states, including Texas, an "F" on its report card. When reporters asked about Texas' rating, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume informed them sadly that the state had failed to return the questionnaire it was sent some time ago. It appears Mr. Mfume was wrong. Reporter Steve Miller of The Washington Times obtained a copy of the response from the Texas governor's office. And when the reporter asked the NAACP to explain the discrepancy between Mr. Mfume's words and the completed questionnaire from the Texas governor's office, a spokesman quickly noted that "Robinson and Foster did the study, not us." But Alexander Robinson and Tyler Green, who were proudly attending the convention for the firm, looked at Texas' completed questionnaire as if it were a prehistoric relic. "I've never seen this before," Mr. Green said, adding: "They could have typed this all up and sent it out in the last couple of days." Mr. Robinson said the information on the election-reform report was "as complete as we could make it."</p>