OUR ELEVATED POLITICS – AT 11:14 A.M. ET:  How do we define a 2014 Democrat?  Well,we wish to be lofty and fair, so this is only a partial definition.  From the Washington Examiner: 

A new study of how criminals vote found that most convicts register Democratic, a key reason in why liberal lawmakers and governors are eager for them to get back into the voting booth after their release.

“Democrats would benefit from additional ex-felon participation,” said the authoritative study in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

The authors, professors from the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University, found that in some states, felons register Democratic by more than six-to-one. In New York, for example, 61.5 percent of convicts are Democrats, just 9 percent Republican. They also cited a study that found 73 percent of convicts who turn out for presidential elections would vote Democrat.

But despite recent moves in states to notify convicts that they can vote again, the study finds little evidence that they do, undercutting Democratic efforts to get them to the polls.

COMMENT:  The Democrats will figure out a way.  If they can get the dearly departed to the polls in Chicago, they can get ex-cons into the voting booths everywhere else.  They're very imaginative that way.  I wouldn't be shocked if the old practice of giving potential voters "walking around money" found its way back into our elections.  Even convicted muggers like to dine out.

January 1, 2014