(Originally published at Greater Democracy)

Yesterday, I attended a discussion panel sponsored by American Compass, a conservative book club. I will write a more general post about this in a subsequent message.

One of the speakers was John Fund. John is a member of the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, was the chief investigative reporter for syndicated columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novack in 1982, and has written a book, Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy

While some might view him askance with such a background, and he did wax polemic from time to time during the panel, I believe he has some very important things to say. During the panel, he made comments about the United States having the sloppiest voting systems of any major developed country. He spoke about the litigation explosion in the United States and how toxic the current situation is. He commented, “The forest is just as dry as it was four years ago, but this year everyone has matches.” He went on to state that if the election is close, we’ll have more than just Florida; the law suits will happen across the country.

While I may not agree with all that Fund has to say, I think he is spot on this time.

To day is the Florida Primary, a good test to see how much progress has made from its recent election debacles. It will be harder for Florida this time because everyone is watching so closely, and because so much of the state is still recovering from Hurricane Charley. With this as a backdrop, I was interested to receive the following message from the Jeff Fisher campaign in Florida:

Report from Jeff Fisher, Congressional Candidate regarding early
voting in Palm Beach County. Today at approx. 5:30 p.m. I arrived at
the main SOE office in Palm Beach County to cast my early vote. When
I tried to enter the building the door was locked. I knocked on the
door and the police opened the door and said they were closed. I
stated that could not be so, the office is supposed to be opened to
7:00 p.m. Mr. Joseph Korb, (policeman) said that Theresa Lepore had
told him to lock the doors at 5:00. I immediately called Kindra Muntz
to report the incident. I then went to the television station crew
that was about to leave the parking lot. I convinced them to stay. I
did this by explaining the mass mailing the SOE office sent
advertised early voting hours of 8:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the main
office. This was published and sent to all Palm Beach voters as a
flyer paid by Palm Beach taxpayers prior to the start of early
voting. They opened the door approx. 15 minutes later and let us all
vote. I asked the police officer how many people were turned away
before I came to vote. He said it was between 20 and 30 people. This
action is possibly a felony regarding Florida's voting rights.
Turning away voters by closing of the polls at the incorrect time.
Channel 12 filmed the event. I went to Channel 5 and spoke with the
producer and she did not feel that this story was newsworthy. I also
contacted the Sun-Sentinel and they seem to be interested in the
story.

. . .

I also stated to the newspaper that if any race is decided by 20 or
30 votes that I will be asking for a full investigation into Theresa
Lepore's action on August 30, 2004 regarding the closing of the polls.

Theresa Lepore is listed as the Palm Beach County elections chief who created the infamous butterfly ballot in the 2000 election. http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/politics/9519271.htm >The Miami Herald reports, “LePore has declared herself an independent and welcomed the steady stream of support from Republicans and others as she fights to retain the office where she has worked since 1971”

Perhaps John Fund is right, it will be a litigious election season. It is already starting off poorly.