Marathon Pundit: East St. Louis: Absentee ballots show up as present at a perfect time

After the polls closed on Election Day in East St. Louis, Illinois, it appeared that former mayor Carl Officer had enough votes to may the incumbent, Alvin Parks, a former mayor himself. But like cash appearing at the front door of the Bailey home in It's a Wonderful Life, something seemingly miraculous happened, as the St. Louis American tells us:

Then, around 9:30p.m. a sudden surge of about 3,000 absentee ballots were suddenly discovered and counted, swinging the election to Parks' favor by a total of 796 votes.

That's either the biggest come from behind victory or the greatest case of vote fraud in ESL history; and there is much evidence that there may have been some shady dealings with respect to the absentee balloting.

This isn't speculation. My own father, James H. Ingram, was a victim of absentee trickery, having received an absentee ballot which he never requested.

Wisely, when he received the unsolicited ballot in the mail, I asked him to bring it (with him) to the polls on election day. When he arrived to cast his vote, he was informed that he had already voted.