As Byron York notes in his explosive column , opponents of voter ID laws like to argue it's a solution in search of a problem.
But when 1100 felons vote in a tight election and the result was decided by just 312 votes, maybe there really is a problem with voter fraud.
And that's just what happened in Minnesota in 2008, when Democrat Al Franken beat Republican Norm Coleman by 312 votes, giving a filibuster-proof majority to the Democrats so they could end up passing Obamacare.
The Minnesota Senate result was contested by Franken and an army of lawyers who ended up litigating a win. Now, because of the work of a group Minnesota Majority and reported by John Fund and Hans von Spasky in their new book "Who's Counting," it seems Franken's victory may be based on inelligible voting by convicted criminals.
"Minnesota Majority began to look into claims of voter fraud. Comparing criminal records with voting rolls, the group identified 1,099 felons -- all ineligible to vote -- who had voted in the Franken-Coleman race," York writes.
"Minnesota Majority took the information to prosecutors across the state, many of whom showed no interest in pursuing it. But Minnesota law requires authorities to investigate such leads. And so far, Fund and von Spakovsky report, 177 people have been convicted -- not just accused, but convicted -- of voting fraudulently in the Senate race. Another 66 are awaiting trial. "The numbers aren't greater," the authors say, "because the standard for convicting someone of voter fraud in Minnesota is that they must have been both ineligible, and 'knowingly' voted unlawfully."
That means that at least 243 votes of the 312 margin of Franken's victory were fraudulent.
