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It’s mea culpa time. I’ve stated on this blog more than a few occasions that so-called “voter fraud” was a right-winger myth created to prop up Republican efforts to suppress votes among just about anyone likely to vote for Democrats.

Turns out I was wrong. It wasn’t a myth, not everywhere, anyway.

In Nevada last week, a woman pleaded guilty to trying to vote twice — once in Las Vegas and a second time in Henderson — in the presidential election.

Guess what? She’s a registered Republican. They can be so clever, you know?

Her name is Roxanne Rubin and she works in a casino. She was incensed on Election Day that polls workers ask for her ID, like she thought they should have — because of all that mostly nonexistant voter fraud, you know.

From the Associated Press:

“This has always been an issue with me. I just feel the system is flawed,” Rubin said in the court hallway after agreeing to plead guilty to a gross misdemeanor that in Nevada that could carry a penalty of up to a year in jail.

“If we’re showing ID for everything else, why wouldn’t we show our ID in order to vote?” she said.

Rubin, a 56-year-old registered Republican, originally faced a felony charge of voting more than once in the same election. She could end up with a misdemeanor disorderly conduct conviction if she meets the conditions of her plea deal.

So after she voted in Vegas, she tried to vote in Henderson — to demonstrate, she claimed later, how easy it was to commit fraud at the polls. Problem is, they caught her. Turns out it’s not that easy!

Who cares what she “feels,” anyway? It was costly lesson — $2,481 to be exact. Plus, Rubin as to go to “impulse control” classes (which should also be required for certain bloggers here). And, she has to do 100 hours of community service.

Here’s an idea for that: She should go around to school in Nevada, and tell her story, to teach the students there that it’s a lot harder to get away with voter fraud than she had imagined.

Maybe wear a dunce cap, too.

A demonstration following Ukrainian parliamentary elections in October, which international observers deemed unfair. | AP Photo

Guest Post

Note from Dan: Dave Gresham posted this as a comment on Oct. 28, and it attracted little attention that day. But it’s an interesting concept nonetheless, and it asks the question: What would our government look like if elections were free from the sort of corporate-money influence they’re rife with today?

By Dave Gresham

A one-party political system is a dictatorship. A two-party political system is the same tyranny if an outside group controls both. And this is the situation the United States is dangerously approaching, because corporate billionaires now choose the candidates in every national election. In other words, no politician can afford to run for the higher offices without the support of the wealthy, so candidates promote policies that favor the tiny minority of rich people – at the expense of the vast majority of regular citizens

A fair political arena would not only allow, but encourage, a multitude of opinions, instead of just two versions of the same monopoly. Indeed, a proper election system would have numerous candidates, all running as an independent without parties. In this way, politicians would stand or fall on their own merits, rather than their promoters.

One solution for getting independent people into government again is to have all elections begin with lotteries. In addition, all losing votes should rollover until just one candidate remains with the most ballots cast in their favor. Read more »

RealClearPolitics.com

A week before the election I wrote a post questioning whether Rasmussen was the most inaccurate swing state pollster in the nation, based on its consistently bad predictions in the 2008 presidential election.

If you’ll recall, Rasmussen’s 2008 predictions in 11 battleground were heavily skewed toward McCain, with the average “skew” at 4.08%, compared to the actual results. Rasmussen also called four states wrong, and five of its predictions were outside the margin of error, which left Rasmussen with a reliability rate of 55 percent.

Believe it or not, Rasmussen’s performance was WORSE in the 2012 election. Their polls were skewed toward Romney by an average of 4.28 percent. Rasmussen called 5 of 11 states wrong, and they blew the margin of error in 6 of 11 states, for a reliability rate of 45 percent. Read more »

Dean Chambers, of UnskewedPolls.com

Note from Dan: When I embarked on this column, it was on a weak hunch that Dean Chambers might be a liberal pulling a devilishly clever stunt that would a) lure conservatives into an argument that would backfire badly on them; and b) make some money for himself at the same time. But as you’ll discover below, that wasn’t exactly the case.

Once upon a time nine weeks ago, there was a guy nobody had ever heard of in Duffield, a teeny Scott County town deep in the heart of Virginia coal country. As the crow flies, it’s about 40 miles or so west of Abingdon.

His name is Dean Chambers, he’s 45, unmarried, with no kids and he grew up on Cape Cod. Years ago, he earned a political science degree from a college in Maine, and later did some graduate work at the University of Tennessee.

His ardent hobby was writing about politics from a conservative perspective. Chambers published his work on The Examiner, a citizen-journalism website that pays authors about six-tenths of a penny each time someone reads one of their stories.

But his efforts languished there in relative obscurity, buried under a mountain of more provocative stuff.  Last week, The Examiner had 492 article about contrails, 3,500 about bigfoot, 45,000 about the Tea Party, and 368,000 that mentioned Britney Spears. Read more »

From HappyPlace.com

There are lots of ways to slice and dice election results, and this one is particularly interesting. Behold the GOP’s electoral strategy!

The chart on the left shows how states voted in the presidential election, compared to the percentages of people in those states who have college degrees. And there are few surprises.

Of the 10 states with the highest proportion of college-educated residents, all 10 went for Obama in the election.

Of the 10 states with the lowest proportion of college degrees, 9 of 10 went for Romney in the election. Only Nevada kept them from a perfect, 10-for-10 score.

What conclusions can we draw from this? Read more »

This is real good stuff. Hat tip to Laura, who posted the link to this in the comments.

Sheldon Adelson, Karl Rove, Charles Koch

I had another tacky and disrespectful dream — man, these things get me in trouble.

I was a fly on the wall of an opulent conference room at American Crossroads up in Warrenton.

GOP financiers Sheldon Adelson and Charles Koch were sitting silently and grimly at a polished walnut table.

Before them were large, solid gold platters, and heaped on each were huge salads made from shredded $100 bills.

As they choked down that paper they sipped from large crystal tumblers full of tea.

In walks Republican election genius Karl Rove. Read more »

Shot by Dan

Virginia law impedes, rather than helps, voting in elections

Note from Dan: The following letter was sent by E. Duane Howard of Roanoke, who worked the polls Tuesday, to City Councilman Sherman Lea. It relates to this story, and this editorial, in today’s paper.

Dear Sherman:

I hope you might consider the problem of inexperienced poll workers.  The problem has to be changed in Richmond.  The greatest resource of poll workers are people like myself who do not work, we are an aging group with numerous health problems.

I enjoyed my experiences working the polls, but the requirement that one MUST work the entire shift is simply to much for many of us with health problems.  A 13-15 hour day, and in this past Tuesday’s fiasco up to 17 hours or more. And I think its only a flat fee, no matter hour many hours one wounds up working. Read more »

Grafic by Dan

Note from Dan: Republicans scored some victories in Tuesday’s election. They managed to hang onto the House of Representatives, they picked up some governor’s seats, and they flipped two states (North Carolina and Indiana) from Obama’s 2008 win column. Also, Tea Party-favorite Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minnesota, eked out a win to save her House seat from a strong challenger. But for the most part, it was a big, big night for Democrats and progressives. Our own regular Shrillary recounts the ways.

By ‘Shrillary’

Great news for Democrats – and democracy – the short list [long post] of races you might not have followed:

☻Every top elected seat in New Hampshire – the Governorship, two House seats, two Senate seats are now held by women.

☻Minnesotans booted many of the 2010′s teabagger contingents out of office, and the MN Senate and House are now both back in Democratic hands;

☻Colorado Democrats have retaken control of the Colorado House of Representatives and Democrats control the Colorado state Senate and the governor’s office; Read more »

Okay, I’ve been down at the Roanoke County Registrar’s office watching the county votes come in. Bot back just as the first swing state got called.

Things are looking good for Presoident Obama, who’s running strong in Florida, Ohio, Colorado and perhaps some other states. We’ll update this throughout the night. Here we go, along with some other interesting races:

New Hampshire — Obama projected to take that, with 4 electoral votes. Mitt’s road to 270 gets dicier.

Massachusetts — Elizabeth Warren projected to beat Scott Brown

Indiana — Joe Donnelly beats Tea Party champion Richard Mourdock, who screwed the pooch for his campaign with his silly comments about rape.

Wisconsin — Obama projected to win this one. This means Romney HAS to win Ohio, AND Florida. Vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan loses his own state.

Missouri — Claire McCaskill holds onto her Senate seat, which not too long ago seemed like a sure loss to Rep. Todd Akin. He’s the other Tea Party senate candidate who has weird ideas about rape and pregnancy.

Virginia – Tim Kaine projected to win over George Allen, who now appears to be a two-time loser. Allen concedes.

Illinois — Democrat Tammy Duckworth dethrones Tea Party hero Rep. Joe Walsh.

North Carolina – Mitt Romney takes it, according to the Associated Press.

Colorado — goes to Obama, according to the Denver Post.

Iowa — projected to go to Obama, according to NBC and CNN and ABC News.

Ohio — projected to go to Obama, according to NBC and Fox News.

Obama wins re-election, according to NBC News and CBS news.