It’s election time, so Newsmax’s David Patten is in full-fledged shill mode.
Patten begins his Oct. 25 article ominously:
Like the mythological hydra that grew two heads for every one cut off, the controversial ACORN group has been reborn under a swarm of new names and poses an “epidemic” voter-fraud threat that could alter the outcome of midterm elections, GOP leaders warn.
But Patten quotes only one “GOP leader”: David Norcross, chairman of the Republican National Lawyers Association. Patten gives him plent of room to make unchallenged claims about voter fraud, at one point asserting: “It’s an epidemic. … It’s laughable that the left calls voter fraud nonexistent. It’s very much existent.”
Needless to say, Patten has no interest in telling his readers the full story. As TPM points out, Norcross’ group has been training lawyers in Illinois, where GOP Senate candidate Mark Kirk got into hot water over his announcement that the campaign planned to deploy voter integrity squads in predominately minority neighborhoods throughout the state.
TPM also quotes voter fraud expert Tova Andrea Wang stating that the type of language used by Norcross is a perfect example of groups exaggerating the threat of voter fraud for political gain: “It’s exactly the kind of inflammatory language that is less than useful at this time in the election cycle. It’s the kind of language that is meant to gin up all sorts of unfounded conspiracy theories to steal the election which simply don’t go on.”
UPDATE: This is an regular ritual; Newsmax fearmongered about election fraud in 2004 and 2008.