Cartoon Characters Endorse Kerry!

On today's MTP, Ed Gillespie started throwing out a bunch of examples of voter fraud issues, talking about people registered multiple times, people registered in different states, etc. (notice how the Repubican cries of voter fraud is always anecdotal, while Democratic charges are systematic). One of his anecdotes was "In one state, we saw people with fake names, Dick Tracy and Mary Poppins registered. And I can tell you this, Dick Tracy and Mary Poppins are voting for John Kerry."

Wow! We got the life-lesson-teaching nanny and the two-way-wristwatch-wearing crimefighter vote! I wonder where Clutch Cargo and The Tick stand, or the train from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?

Seriously, the surety with which Gillespie said "I know Dick Tracy's voting for Kerry" set off my BS detector. When you can point to thousands of registration forms ripped up in a garbage can, talking about one or two voters has little effect. In addition, Republicans always seem to talk about voting problems that occur before the election, and never the problems that clearly occur on Election Day. It's the difference between voter access and voter integrity. And clearly the GOP wants to limit access, bringing up anecdotal information as a means to cover the whole election with a blanket, creating purge lists, intimidating voters who may have made honest mistakes (like being registered in two states, which may be the county election board's fault), etc. They don't care about voter integrity, just access.

By the way, I thought McAuliffe was actually pretty good today.

[UPDATE]Here's a great catch by Daily Kos member croatoan:

Here are 6 people in the phone book named Dick Tracy, in Ohio alone.

http://whitepages.com/search/Find_Person?firstname_begins_with=1&firstname=dick&name_begins_ with=1&name=tracy&city_zip=&state_id=OH

And 2 women named Mary Poppins:

http://whitepages.com/search/Find_Person?firstname=mary&name_begins_with=1&name=poppins& city_zip=&state_id=

Ed, are these all fake phone book entries?