For the record, even if this story is true I still do not think that this represents a concerted effort:

A local couple called 10News concerned after they received an envelope from the state’s Obamacare website, Covered California. Inside was a letter discussing voter registration and a registration card pre-marked with an “x” in the box next to Democratic Party.

The couple – who did not want their identity revealed – received the letter and voter registration card from their health insurance provider Covered California, the state-run agency that implements President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

(Via Instapundit) Let’s walk through what is and is not outrageous about this. First off, the reason why Covered California is sending out voter registration cards is because it was threatened with a lawsuit if it didn’t start complying with the National Voter Registration Law. Individual opinions on Motor-Voter aside (I think that it’s largely a waste of time, myself), the law’s the law. Second: if you watch the video you’ll see that the pre-marking was clearly done manually. That means one of three things happened:

• The card was inadvertently mixed in with fresh, unmarked cards.
• The card was purposefully mixed in with fresh, unmarked cards.
• This is a hoax.

Do not assume that the third possibility is effectively impossible! The name of the couple who got this letter has been withheld, so there’s no way to check their reliability; and it would be trivially easy to get a cheap ballpoint pen, check the box, and… throw away the pen, I guess. Mind you, it’s just as easy to believe that there’s a disgruntled Covered California employee that grabbed a handful of forms, marked them up, and released them into the system. It’s even easier to believe that there’s an incompetent Covered California employee that screwed up and tossed one into the mix somehow. The answer to the question “What happened?” is not obvious, in other words.

But what is obvious here is that nobody in the state government of California knows how to handle an alleged case of voter fraud. San Diego Registrar of Voters: “Talk to Covered California.” Covered California: “Talk to the Secretary of State.” Secretary of State: :crickets:. There are certain things that should make state bureaucrats drop everything and at least pay attention. Allegations of voting fraud is one of them; because if you don’t investigate these things then you end up with stuff (unflattering to your offices) showing up on local news and getting the attention of national bloggers and New Media types.

Which is what happened here. And it in itself is a story, and never mind the eventual provenance of the allegations that triggered it.

Moe Lane (crosspost)