It’s been a slow day here at the DR. I’m a bit under the weather, so I apologize to our three current readers.

However, I couldn’t leave this one behind. All I have to say is, remember the name Hans von Spakovsky. If you’ve got a half-hour on your hands, you might want to read this letter, which called von Spankovsky “the point person for undermining the Civil Rights Division’s mandate to protect voting rights” when he was with the Department of Justice.

After that, I’d recommend reading this article from July, and this one from Tuesday. Yes, it’s all Talking Points Memo, but it still makes a valid point.

Okay. Got that? Okay, now read this article, and note the final line:

“We’ve lost control of the voter registration process.”

And then take a gander at one election official has to say:

When there is a problem, it kicks off a series of reviews and finally, efforts to contact the would-be voter, said Orange County Elections Supervisor Bill Cowles.

“There are so many levels to how this happens,” he said. “If we do notify a voter, they’re sent a letter and a new application to fill out. It is then up to the voter to take the next step”

But especially in neighborhoods where rental rates are high, those notices come back undeliverable, and there is nothing more a county can do, Cowles said.

That’s why he advocates a return to old ways — registering voters through trained volunteers under direction of the county.

By opening voter registration to anyone with a mass mailing or a clipboard on the corner, Cowles said Florida also opened the door to losing thousands of would-be voters through human error.

To me, that sounds like an roundabout means of disenfranchisement. Helping the case:

Blacks were 6 1/2 times more likely than whites to be rejected at that step.

Hispanics were more than 7 times more likely to be failed.

I’m sure that anyone reading this also reads Talking Points Memo. But I feel like this is so important that it should be shouted from building tops. Unfortunately, all I have is a blog.