What's Wrong With Maryland?

John Fund has a piece in the Wall Street Journal concerning the efforts by the nation's worst legislature to ensure that voter fraud is alive and well in the Old Line State:

The most troublesome bill undermines the concept of local polling places by allowing all voters to vote anywhere in Maryland using a provisional ballot. Gilles Burger, chairman of the state's Board of Elections, flatly says the bill invites fraud. His testimony prompted the Beall commission to warn that it would mean "a provisional ballot could be cast successfully in multiple counties and not be detected until after the votes were certified."

Another bill would allow any voter to cast an absentee ballot for any reason. The state's League of Women Voters noted that the bill undermines Election Day as the foundational day when votes are by law supposed to be cast. The league points out that absentee voting increases risks to "privacy, accuracy, security" and creates opportunities for "intimidation." Evidence also shows that absentee ballots are the most susceptible to fraud--and do not increase voter turnout.

A third bill imposes an unfunded mandate requiring all of Maryland's counties to let voters cast ballots during the five days before Election Day. Linda Lamore, the state's election administrator, warned legislators of her concerns about ballot security as well as her doubts the counties could comply by November.

Common Cause, which supports early voting, urged legislators to delay its implementation until 2008. The warnings fell on deaf ears. "You'll always have fraud, you can forget about that," Democratic state legislator Gareth Murray told colleagues. "I'm sick and tired of hearing we're not ready." Maryland will now become the only state in the nation to allow statewide early voting on touch-screen machines that lack a verifiable paper trail.

Just how much fraud do you think there will be when it looks like Michael Steele, a conservative black candidate for Senate, just might win? The left will pull out all the stops.

I've been detailing some of the nonsense in Maryland regarding their war on Wal-Mart. I suggested they pull out of the state and really stick it to them, but Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott is taking a more moderate approach and spoke out today in a Washington Post column:

“Though the General Assembly passed a bill that affects our company and our company alone, we will not flinch in our commitment to our customers, our associates and the communities we serve. Working families want us in Maryland, and we're staying in Maryland.

[...]

“That's not to say that the bill state legislators passed wasn't bad public policy. It was. And we're not the only people who think that. Dozens of experts, academics, business leaders, government leaders and editorial pages from the District of Columbia to Washington state agree that this bill and similar ones popping up in other states aren't solutions.”

The state is now facing a lawsuit from a retail trade organization over the anti-Wal-Mart law:

The Retail Industry Leaders Association, a trade group of which Wal-Mart is a member, filed suit against Maryland on Tuesday to stop it from the enforcing the so called "fair share" health care act. The act requires employers of more than in 10,000 Maryland to spend at least 8 percent of payroll on employee health care or pay the difference to the state Medicaid fund. Backers of the bill said it was needed because some Wal-Mart employees rely on taxpayer-funded medical care.

The retailing group argues the Maryland law violates federal regulations that forbid states from meddling in what benefits an employer must provide. The lawsuit also argues that Wal-Mart is illegally singled out because it is the only company that would be affected by the law.

The legislature in Maryland is doing their best to destroy the state. Let's hope some sanity shows up someday. But then, what do you expect from a state whose motto is latin for "Manly deeds, womanly words".