Fox News reported today that two Democratic political operatives were convicted last night of fraud in the 2008 Indiana primary that put President Obama and Hillary Clinton on the ballot.

The article reports:

Former longtime St. Joseph County Democratic party Chairman Butch Morgan Jr.  was found guilty of felony conspiracy counts to commit petition fraud and forgery, and former county Board of Elections worker Dustin Blythe was found guilty of felony forgery counts and falsely making a petition, after being accused of faking petitions that enabled Obama, then an Illinois Senator, to get on the presidential primary ballot for his first run for the White House.

I am glad that the people involved in the fraud have been convicted, but I think the important thing here is to learn from the experience. President Obama and Hillary Clinton could have easily gathered the necessary signatures to be placed on the ballot–there was no reason to cheat. Our election officials need to get into the habit of routinely randomly checking signatures on petitions. If one of two signatures on a page don’t match, further investigation is needed. If five random signatures on a petition match, things should be okay.

I wonder about the integrity of our election system when we have a party leader who casually cheats when he could get the same result honestly.