Continued Adventures In Things That Aren't Voter Fraud

Person-who-is-employed-by-CNN Dana Loesch seems to think she's discovered evidence of “voter fraud” and caught Media Matters in a “FAIL,” per the online parlance.

Pointing to reports four Democratic officials in Indiana have been charged with “forging of Democratic presidential primary petitions in the 2008 election,” Loesch writes that this October 2011 Media Matters blog post explaining how those allegations of petition fraud were not “voter fraud” was somehow incorrect -- the “fail” declaimed by the headline. Our reasoning at the time for claiming that “petition fraud” and “voter fraud” are two different things was that they're actually two different things, much in the same way an apple is not an orange, nor a bicycle a sledgehammer.

Here's what we said at the time: “The alleged crimes are serious and should be investigated and any perpetrators punished. But the alleged crimes are not voter fraud, no matter how much Fox wants them to be.”

As of yesterday, those Democrats have been charged with petition fraud, which is still not voter fraud.

Loesch, however, is under the impression that all “fraud” is created equal: “An attempt to defraud the voters? Presenting names placed on the ballot by fraudulent means? Sure seems like it.” Indeed it does! But, again, it's still not voter fraud, typically defined as the act of knowingly casting a ballot under fraudulent pretenses.

She also seems to think that the absurd sturm-und-drang over the New Black Panthers was about voter fraud (it was actually allegations of voter intimidation, which is also not voter fraud):

MMfA's spin on voter fraud isn't accepted by an attorney who actually worked with the DOJ: J. Christian Adams was the whistleblower on the NBPP case and has written extensively of corruption at the DOJ and citizen efforts to bring attention to voter fraud.

Loesch's enthusiastic confusion of petition fraud and voter fraud was shared by Michelle Malkin, who used the term “voter fraud” three times in a single tweet while linking to a story that didn't contain the term “voter fraud”: