Michigan Dem Party Officials Charged for Fake Tea Party Election Scheme

Most people think that messing with elections is a big deal:

Two former leaders of the Oakland County Democratic Party are facing a total of nine felonies for allegedly forging election paperwork to get fake Tea Party candidates on November’s ballot.

“It is not a partisan statement, and we need to make that very clear,” said Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper.

Former Oakland County Democratic Chair Mike McGuinness and former Democratic Operations DirectorJason Bauer face up to 14 years in prison if convicted.

“Some of the people didn’t even know they were on the ballot till they began receiving delinquency notices of filings that were required as a candidate,” said Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard.

The crimes include false swearing, perjury, and forging records. The investigation is ongoing and will likely extend to other Michigan counties.

Note: the press and some bloggers are carefully reporting that these men are former Democratic officials, which I suppose is technically true now. They are former party operatives at this moment. But they were both official representatives of the Democratic Party at the time they set up their fake Tea Party scheme. They only quit their party posts after their crimes were discovered.

It's a little thing, but Democrats shouldn't be allowed to distance themselves from this even a little bit. Don't think for a minute that the Democrats didn't greet the creation of fake Tea Party candidates with indecent glee and hope that the frauds would sway elections.

Thanks to Doug M.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 09:43 AM

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