Yahoo! News - Kerry: Trickery Kept Voters From Polls

Many voters in last year’s presidential election were denied access to the polls through trickery and intimidation, former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry told a voters’ group Sunday.

“Last year too many people were denied their right to vote, too many who tried to vote were intimidated,” the Massachusetts senator said at an event sponsored by the state League of Women Voters.

[…]

Kerry also cited examples Sunday of how people were duped into not voting.

“Leaflets are handed out saying Democrats vote on Wednesday, Republicans vote on Tuesday. People are told in telephone calls that if you’ve ever had a parking ticket, you’re not allowed to vote,” he said.

Hard evidence, rather than vague examples in a speech would be nice. This kind of talk simply further undermines faith in the system and accomplishes nothing more than allowing hardcore partisans to feel better about their loss, since they didn’t really lose, because the election was “stolen”. Indeed, such talk does damage to the Democratic Party because it continues to feed the idea that recent Democratic losses at the polls aren’t due to strategic errors on the part of the party, nor to weak candidates, but rather to some nefarious, nebulous Republican plot.

Further, Kerry must believe that many in his voting base are pretty stupid to fall for “Democrats vote on Wednesday” leaflets.

Further, if the following is true, then why engage in talk that will undermine confidence in the system?:

Kerry has never disputed the outcome of election, saying voting irregularities did not involve enough votes to change the result.