ABC backtracks on voter fraud item

We noted yesterday that ABC News' The Note had reported on the American Center for Voting Rights, a total Republican front group, as though it were a legitimate, independent operation. I also e-mailed ABC to point it out. I'm sure I was not the only one to complain.

Today, The Note recovers with this:

In this space yesterday we brought you an excerpt of a letter from RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman in (unsurprising) support of a recent report from the American Center for Voting Rights. A sentence placing ACVR in its proper partisan context was accidentally omitted from The Note. As many Note readers know, ACVR's leadership is largely dominated by Republican activists including Bush-Cheney 2004 general counsel Thor Hearne and former RNC spokesguy Jim Dyke.

DNC Chairman Howard Dean issued this statement in response to the ACVR report: "This shouldn't be a partisan issue, this is an American issue. . . I re-issue my call to Chairman Mehlman and the Republican Party to review our report and to work with us to reform the way elections are conducted, and to ensure that we restore Americans' confidence in our election system."

Just to recap: Both national party chairmen support a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to voter fraud or intimidation and/but this partisan back and forth doesn't seem to have moved the ball one iota down the field.