The sky is falling, though

This is from a Secretary of State canidates' forum held last night at the LSU journalism school.  State Rep. Rick Edmonds is not the only candidate playing to right wing paranoia about "voter fraud" but he is being the loudest and ugliest about it.

State Rep. Rick Edmonds, R-Baton Rouge, staked out a position as the most conservative candidate on the panel, particularly when it came to election-related issues. In his closing statement, Edmonds said that “elections are being threatened all over the nation.” He said that thousands of “illegals” -- the way he described undocumented immigrants -- were participating in elections in Texas and California even though they are ineligible to vote.

There has not been any proof of widespread voter fraud in any major American election recently -- and Edmonds offered no proof that people are voting in Texas, California -- or any other state -- who shouldn’t be. His statement prompted some indirect criticism from Free. “I understand that there are alarmists everywhere. It makes me very sad that they try to scare people into thinking that the sky is falling,” she said directly after Edmonds finished speaking.

So that's not good.  I did want to drop in here to correct Democratic candidate Renee Fontenot-Free about one thing, there.  The sky may very well be falling. There are serious threats to the integrity of our elections out there. But they aren't coming from the sources Edmonds fantasizes about.  Instead they are coming from Edmonds himself and people like him all over the country.  Free would do well to take the threat more seriously.