Current TV Interview Proves O'Keefe Sting Was More Effective Than Thought

On Current TV last night:

Keith Olbermann rather humorously said in an interview with the still very much alive twenty-three year-old Robert Beaulieu: “[O’Keefe’s associates] proved how you can’t commit voter fraud and they should be put on trial for voter fraud.” This boils down to “Voter fraud never happens… Arrest James O’Keefe for voter fraud.”

Olbermann is actually just repeating the talking points he got from a story by Ryan J. Reilly. But, ironically, by accidentally disenfranchising a living voter O’Keefe’s sting actually shows that it is far easier to cast ballots and thereby disenfranchise living voters than Reilly et. al. contend.

Mistaken identity is totally possible. The woman on camera in the unedited Project Veritas video asks “Now I’ve got the right one, right?” How would the videotaper know if someone has a similar name? Ironically this fake Robert Beaulieu, thinking he was the dead Robert Beaulieu might have accidentally disenfranchised the real Robert Beaulieu.

Suppose the living Robert Beaulieu actually showed up to cast a ballot. He didn’t this year most likely because he is a registered Democrat. He would have found that O’Keefe’s associate had already cast a ballot and been disenfranchised, thus proving that the very porous New Hampshire voter system is even more prone to error than O’Keefe’s associates initially thought.

And what about someone that accidentally commits voter fraud? What about juniors and seniors living at the same address? As someone with one of the most common names in the United States — Charles Johnson — I’m acutely aware of the harm that mistaken identities can cause. I was one time mistakenly arrested by a police officer who got the wrong address. I’ve even had jilted lovers call me up and accuse me of having done things to people I have never ever met. Professionally, I am routinely mistaken as the Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs. Indeed, my name is statistically “black enough” that I have gotten mailers from the NAACP.

Speaking of the NAACP, despite Eric Holder’s protestation in front of the South Carolina NAACP today, The Daily Caller reports that Mississippi’s NAACP leader was sentenced to ten counts for voter fraud in April. Lessadolla Sowers actually voted as four dead persons, putting the lie to the claim that voter fraud never happens. Sowers got caught but can the Justice Department and volunteer poll workers across the country really guarantee that the system is as safe as they seem to believe?