CAN THE NEW YORK TIMES BE SERIOUS ABOUT THIS?

This, so help me, is the beginning of Michael Vines’ front-page story in today’s New York Times:

On its face, the notice sent to 248 county election officials asked only that they do what Congress has ordered: Prune their rolls of voters who have died, moved or lost their eligibility — or face a federal lawsuit.

The notice, delivered in September by a conservative advocacy group, is at the heart of an increasingly bitter argument over the seemingly mundane task of keeping accurate lists of voters — an issue that will be a marquee argument before the Supreme Court in January.

At a time when gaming the rules of elections has become standard political strategy, the task raises a high-stakes question: Is scrubbing ineligible voters from the rolls worth the effort if it means mistakenly bumping legitimate voters as well?

That’s the point at which I stopped reading.

Is the concept of accurate voter rolls a conservative initiative?  Is trying to make voter rolls accurate an offense, because mistakes (correctable ones) might be made in doing so?

Here’s the news, Mr. Vines…and the powers that be at The Times:

-Purging voting rolls of ineligible voters is absolutely correct and absolutely necessary.  It is an imperative if there are to be honest elections.

-To intimate that doing so is a conservative concept is to intimate that conservatives want honest elections and non-conservatives do not.  Is that what you think?

-Fighting the updating of voter rolls on the grounds that legitimate voters might mistakenly be included is very noble and uplifting, I’m sure.  But tell us:  do you feel the same way about robbery, rape and murder – i.e. that laws against these activities should not be enforced because innocent people might mistakenly be charged?  Just wondering.

In politics the two things you follow are the money, and the votes.

If you find that one side seems intent on insuring that voting only takes place among legal voters, and the other side seems intent on finding reasons for opposing efforts to insure this is the case…

….I think you can draw your own conclusions.