[EL] GOP Senators Press IRS on Rule Changes - Washington Wire - WSJ

[Lorraine Minnite]

Michael makes an interesting point, and I think there is another problem 
here. It's not just the inability to distinguish between different 
motivations for harassment and different forms of voter fraud. The other 
problem is the inability to assess the difference between the exception 
and the rule in making valid inferences. I don't know if the offering of 
a relatively small number of individual cases as proof of some kind of 
larger trend or truth is an accepted practice in legal argumentation or 
what it is, but it doesn't qualify as good analysis in the social sciences.

Lori Minnite

On 8/7/12 12:58 PM, Michael McDonald wrote:
> There is an interesting juxtaposition of Jim Bopp’s harassment straw man
> with the vote fraud straw man. No one is saying that harassment does not
> occur. We know of people being killed. But it is interesting how every
> example of harassment is now given by Jim as evidence in opposition to
> campaign finance disclosure (or in this case to make an unnecessary snide
> comment about Fred Wertheimer that does nothing to advance an argument or
> improve the tone of the list serve), even when it does not involve
> harassment originating from disclosure of a campaign donation. The parallel
> with vote fraud is that we know there is virtually no in-person
> impersonation, what strict photo is laws are meant to address, yet other
> forms of vote fraud like absentee ballot fraud are given as reasons
> implement photo id.
>
> ============
> Dr. Michael P. McDonald
> Associate Professor, George Mason University
> Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution
>
>                               Mailing address:
> (o) 703-993-4191             George Mason University
> (f) 703-993-1399             Dept. of Public and International Affairs
> mmcdon at gmu.edu               4400 University Drive - 3F4
> http://elections.gmu.edu     Fairfax, VA 22030-4444
>
> From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
> [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of
> JBoppjr at aol.com
> Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2012 12:21 PM
> To: rhasen at law.uci.edu; law-election at UCI.EDU
> Subject: [EL] GOP Senators Press IRS on Rule Changes - Washington Wire - WSJ
>
> Click here: GOP Senators Press IRS on Rule Changes - Washington Wire - WSJ
>   
> Old "Watch Dog" Fred only sees "harassment" and "intimidation" by Republican
> public officials, but at least he has finally conceded that it can happen.
> Jim Bopp
>
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