Cross-posted at EqualityTalk.com.

In an irony trumping most ironies in the defense of the race preference industry, the Oklahoma Secretary of State and liberal critics of the Oklahoma Civil Rights Initiative (OkCRI) are attacking poor, homeless people in an effort to derail the petition drive. According to this AP article relayed by AOL, the OkCRI petitioners submitted a razor thin margin of roughly 2200 more signature than the necessary 138,970 signatures to qualify for the Oklahoma ballot.

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Many names and addresses found on an initiative petition to ban government-sponsored race and gender preferences, or affirmative action, in Oklahoma were duplicated, Secretary of State Susan Savage said.

Her office tallied 141,184 signatures on the petition, which needs at least 138,970 valid signatures of registered voters to get on an election ballot if it also can survive any legal challenges.

"The petition signature pages are replete with duplicate signatures and duplicate addresses," Savage wrote to the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

"Replete" and "many names". Hmm. While that margin of 2200 is razor thin, let's look at the numbers Savage thinks are "replete":

The irregularities were reported to the attorney general to obtain guidance to ensure consistent compliance with the law during the count, she said.

The signature count resulted in an "unprecedented situation" where numerous duplications of names and addresses were discovered well into the signature counting process, Savage said.

The petition had 92 signatures that listed 415 Archer, 415 W. Archer, 415 E. Archer or 415 Ocher in Tulsa as an address, Savage told the court. The signatures were counted unless there was a signature found that didn't comply with the law, she said.

Another 28 signatures listed 800 W. California, Oklahoma City, as an address, she said. Those signatures also were counted, she said.

Folks. That's a 120. Less than 10% of the margin. And less than one-one-thousanth of the total number of signatures. Savage is right. OkCRI's collection was unprecedented. Most petition drives in the past have had 10% or higher error rates. The best the SoS could do here is find only one-tenth of a percent. Anything short of perfection, and OkCRI is "replete" with fraud.

But let's look at those 120 "duplicate addresses". The Tulsa World relays the same AP story but has a comments section. Someone chimed in that one of those addresses was a homeless shelter. Well, it turns out both were (the Oklahoma City address is the City Rescue Mission, the Tulsa one a Day Center for Homeless) if you do a simple internet search.

That's the rub - certainly the Oklahoma Secretary of State could or should be able to figure that out. And since most Democrats advocate for no identification voting access laws, primarily to allow the homeless and minorities easier access to vote; its easy to appreciate the irony and contradiction here. When its a drive run by "conservatives" or disliked by the liberal-establishment, and when they have control over the organs of governmental power and enforcement (the situation in Oklahoma is that the Democratic Attorney General and appointed Supreme Court "referee" control the process - with the AG actually prosecuting petitioners from a 2005-2006 anti-tax petition drive for "fraud" based on allegations circulators were "out-of-state" non-residents), the rights of homeless voters to sign or circulate petitions don't matter. So here, you have a situation where the Democrats are simply abandoning their defense of open and unsecure voting in favor of the highest security. Hypocrisy doesn't come better than that.

But OkCRI's 2200 signature margin is light, and I'll make the editorial prediction that regardless of how good its verification system was (which appears to have been as tight as you can get), politics means it won't matter. The referee would reject it if one signature had a glitch. And while you might blame OkCRI for not submitting a mammoth cushion like MCRI did in 2005, keep in mind the environment. As noted above, the fascist Attorney General in Oklahoma - Drew Edmondson - is prosecuting Paul Jacob and two other organizers for criminal fraud based solely on the notion that they brought out-of-state petitioners into Oklahoma in 2006. In that chilling environment, its a miracle any signature was collected 2007.

The State News at Michigan State University gets this priceless quote from one of the MSU Trustees:

Joel Ferguson, chairman of the MSU Board of Trustees, said he hopes Proposal 2 is overturned, but isn’t optimistic.

“I don’t necessarily think they can succeed,” he said. “Anybody can file a lawsuit.”

True indeed.

It's too bad he hopes Proposal 2 is overturned, but you know the lawsuits are mighty frivolous when the cheering section says that.

Of slight note is the non-response by Lou Anna Simon (now earning over $420K a year), and the wierd "equality-is-non-equality" argument from former Democratic Party co-chair Melvin Hollowell, now relegated to plaintiffs attorney in frivolous filings:

Melvin Butch Hollowell, counsel to Detroit’s chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is on the plantiffs’ legal team. He said the case will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.

“We believe that this is the most important civil rights case,” he said. “We are seeking the lawsuit to place students of color on equal footing as all other students in the admissions process.”

MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said she was unable to comment on the case because the litigation is ongoing and it targets universities.

Orwell would be proud. War is peace. Unequal is equal.

Someone pointed this one out to me the other day. Wayne State has decided to put Ward Connerly "on trial" - a mock trial intended to coincide with BAMN's federal lawsuits against MCRI which will be heard next week.

What's unusual about this trial? It appears to have no advocate for Ward. That is, its a trial without fair representation. We've asked the Dean of Students what they've done to balance the trial, and even offered them the assistance of Zarko Research. As a reminder, Zarko Research will speak to public audiences on the issue of MCRI or affirmative action generally, and we've been invited by moderates on both the right and left of this issue - including Reginald Turner, former State and National Bar Association president and current Board of Education member for the state of Michigan, who unfortunately favors preferences.

Here's WSU's entire calendar entry on this matter:

Ward Connerly on Trial: The Road to the Supreme Court
Wednesday, February 6, 2008 from 8:45 AM to 1:45 PM
The event will include the premiere viewing of video taped excerpts from the day long BAMN deposition of Ward Connerly who was the spokesperson for Proposal 2. Interspersed with debate and discussion of his arguments against affirmative action and the plaintiffs arguments in favor of affirmative action.
Category:
Other
Location:
Ballroom of the Student Center Building
Contact:
DOSO Dean of Students Office
313-577-1010
doso@wayne.edu
Permalink | Print This | E-mail This

I put this here because it is most in line with the mission of this blog, as opposed to my main Michigan and local news blogs. The Michigan Student Assembly (MSA) - that University of Michigan "student government" that can tax and spend small little bits of tuition away for the whims of a few student wannabee bureuacrats - narrowly avoided funding a blast e-mail that would blast Proposal 2.

Yes. Proposal 2 has been passed for 15 months now. And BAMN infiltrants into student comm... government wanted to send out a rhetoric e-mail to all students. Wiser moderates on the MSA narrowly voted against it, according to this Michigan Daily article. That's a first - its a surprise - and it shows waning BAMN power.

Next week, the Federal District Court in Detroit will hear arguments on whether to hold a full trial for the lawsuits challenging the constitutional amendment. The e-mail would encourage students to attend the hearing, scheduled for Feb. 6 in Detroit.

Several MSA representatives who opposed the resolution said they did so because the specific language of the e-mail was unavailable when the vote took place.

"If the e-mail text was there, I probably would have voted for it," said Rackham representative Michael Benson, chair of the Rules and Elections committee.

Art and Design representative Liana Mulholland, who sponsored the resolution, said MSA President Mohammad Dar would write the e-mail if the vote had passed.

MSA representative Ashley Schwedt, who voted for the resolution, said it was important for MSA to remain neutral on the issue of affirmative action.

"As a Democrat and as a minority I feel uncomfortable taking a stance on this issue because I feel that we should be an unbiased group," she said.

LSA junior Maricruz Lopez, co-chair of the Defend Affirmative Action Party, spoke on behalf of the resolution. She said the decision showed MSA representatives were afraid to represent their constituents and work in favor of the interests of students.

BAMN is willing to do anything.