If you’re politically minded, and these days we ALL should be, you need to regularly visit RJ’s Regular Guy Rant blog site. Yesterday he posted information about two events in Grand Forks, one of Earl Pomeroy’s last liberal strongholds. A flyer from one of them is shown in the photo above. Note the new Dem-NPL “Obama-ish” logo at the top, indicating that this event has to do with the Democrat Party.
PlainsDaily.com, a news website which you should also visit regularly, started to do some investigating. In addition to the possibility of vote-buying with pizza, these events appeared to be using college resources to give students a ride to the polling place. This is specifically illegal (read the PDF). Adding to the controversy is the fact that UND Student Government vans were apparently used. Is this appropriate use of state government property, since those are likely state vehicles owned by UND?
UND apparently agrees, because their General Counsel has put a stop to the program. According to the Plains Daily article, “That program has been canceled because UND General Legal Counsel has determined that the program violated the North Dakota Century Code section 16.1-10-06.1.”
The best quote of the whole debacle comes from RJ’s post: “Anyway, one of my friends at the college told me that the rally generated ten voters and at least one of them just rode the bus so he could vote against Earl.”
Personally, I think this sort of thing needs to be investigated to see exactly which laws were broken and who’s responsible. If the Dem-NPL Party organized a voting drive in which they were buying votes with pizza and providing free transportation in violation of state law, then they need to be dealt with punitively. But, since it’s Democrats, the whole thing will probably receive “ho-hum” treatment from the ND media and simply vanish.
The big question is: will all the hijinks make a difference in Earl Pomeroy’s struggle to remain a Washington insider Democrat lapdog? My gut says no. In the mean time, if you hear about a similar event taking place, make it known. It’s illegal, and they’re Democrats. The two go hand in hand.