August 29, 2006

Favors Update 2

The video of state Rep. JoAnne Favors speaking on the House floor May 26 regarding an amendment to help validate voter registration, referenced in this post this morning and this post yesterday, has been repaired and is now viewable. I received a call from the House clerk's office this afternoon telling me they had been working on the problem since someone in the Clerk's office read about the problem on my blog this morning. The complete video adds no new information.

The actual transcript of Rep. Favors' brief remarks is not as damning as former state Rep. Chris Clem's recollection of the event, though, quite possibly, her remarks sounded much more damning that day in the context of the wider debate about proposed legislation to clean up the voter registration rolls. And it is clear that someone rushed to silence Rep. Favors - did they fear she was about to make a damaging admission?

No, Rep. Favors doesn't explicitly cop to aiding voter fraud in her remarks. But what exactly was she talking about - and what was she about to say - before she was silenced by another legislator and sheepishly withdrew her question, to howls of laughter from many of the lawmakers in the room that day? We know she said that some of her children keep her house as their mailing address for their "important mail," even though they don't live there. That's not a crime.

But Favors was telling that in reference to an amendment designed to help clean up voter registration rolls and assure the validity of each voter registration. Was she about to admit that her children also are registered to vote at her address even though they don't live there?

Those remain unanswered questions.