Rush Limbaugh and Voter Fraud

Rush Limbaugh is not going to be prosecuted for this. Let me explain, but first the money quotes:

In case you missed it, Rush Limbaugh, the nation's top-rated talk radio host, was urging Republicans in Texas and Ohio to skip their party's primary on March 4 and instead cast a vote for Hillary Clinton in order to prolong the fight between her and Barack Obama. And that Tuesday, as media in both states reported, thousands of Republicans did just what Limbaugh and others had suggested -- they changed parties to vote for Clinton.

...

While this all makes for great talk radio and sounds like fun, there is one catch: What Limbaugh encouraged Republican voters to do in Ohio was a fifth-degree felony in that state, punishable with a $2,500 fine and six to 12 months in jail. That is because in order to change party affiliation in Ohio, voters have to fill out a form swearing allegiance to that party's principles "under penalty of election falsification."

This needs some clarification. What Limbaugh did was emphatically not a crime under the pertinent Ohio law. Voting under false pretenses might be a problem. But encouraging someone to vote under false pretenses would have to be an allegation of conspiracy or even a federal prosecution under RICO. (although election engineering does not appear to be a RICO activity).

To call this a stretch is a gross exaggeration. This is the longest of long shots. Any prosecution would have to delve into the state of Limbaughs mind and whether he thought that folks would actually do what he told them. And that without any power of coercion over them at all! Tough to convict.

Limbaugh won't be indicted. No prosecutor will touch it. All this is is one slow news day and a liberal wild fantasy. From Kim Zetter at Wired, it's highly unlikely that even the actual voters can be prosecuted:

First of all, the law pertains only to a voter who was challenged by poll workers as to his sincerity and signed an affidavit swearing to that sincerity. The secretary of state's office told me that poll workers are supposed to have anyone who switches parties at the polls sign such a statement. The Cleveland Plain Dealer also reported that any voter who switches parties must sign an affidavit...

...But even those who did sign a statement and did so disingenuously would likely not face prosecution, Tokaji says, unless they were blatant about what they did, such as bragging online about it, and could be identified.

Good luck with that.

Original here