This Is YOUR State Legislature, Ohio

Someone I know posted an email the other day, written by a woman in the 16th state legislative district (that's on the west side of Cuyahoga, encompassing upscale suburbs like Bay Village, Westlake, and Rocky Rive), about her encounter with her state representative Nan Baker.

Baker was once described by my own state representative as "useless."

Much of what the constituent related in her email was policy disagreement — the constituent didn't think highly of Baker's positions on defunding Planned Parenthood or lax gun control.

But this part definitely backed up my state rep's assessment of Baker:

I then asked about the loss of the voting franchise to many poor people in Ohio. She baldly stated that in Cuyahoga County there was rampant voter fraud. I asked her how come Jane Platten (County Bd. of Elections head) has publically stated that there have been few to no cases of voter fraud in our county. Not true, said Mrs. Baker. She personally knew of hundreds. What a lie! I was flabbergasted! She went on to say that she could easily vote the absentee ballots sent to her house for her grown children who no
longer live at home and that her children could also vote their other ballots. I asked how about the checking that is done to make sure this doesn't happen. Not true, said she. It doesn't happen! Also, many, many dead people vote in our county. I called her on that one and she was adamant that this is true. How I wish I had had some figures and facts to call her on her answers.

Every single claim Baker made here is specious, utterly disproven by facts. NO cases of voter fraud have been documented in Cuyahoga County — NONE. As in not a single one, as opposed to "hundreds." Dead people voting is pure fiction, residue from an era a long, long time ago.

And let me say to the constituent: it's not your job to provide figures and facts to debunk her outrageous and baseless claims. If she's going to claim such epidemic fraud that no one else has found and that's never been documented, Baker is shirking her job as a citizen not to provide proof herself. If she "personally" knows of these "hundreds" of cases which have escaped the attention of our board of elections, she should be racing down there with her proof in hand.

She's either baldly lying or she's incredibly stupid. It really doesn't matter which. Our legislature would be better off with someone who lobs such incendiary claims without a shred of proof.

Andy Meyer, a Rocky River attorney, is the Democrat running for this seat. He's a good guy. If you would like to help him give Nan Baker more time to work on developing her outlandish conspiracy theories, go here:

http://www.meyerforohio.com/

or here:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Andrew-A-Meyer-for-State-Representative-Di...