A Vote Fraud Investigation...

...with a twist.  If you're interested at all in this topic, please read this interesting story from GatewayPundit, via Power Line.  The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has more on the story yesterday.

Obviously one angle of the story is the alleged murder or fake drug bust plot by a Democratic election official, to cover up vote fraud.  This is a Scott Peterson type of story, without the actual murder, that is interesting in and of itself.

Equally fascinating to political junkies is the mechanics of the vote fraud that allegedly occurred.  How did the scheme work, how much fraud occurred, and who else knew are all questions I'd like to see answered regarding the fraud, along with uncovering the alleged plots.

From the Post-Dispatch story yesterday:

Ellis, 55, who once served a prison term after abusing a city post, is now the director of regulatory affairs, which puts him in charge of housing inspections. He also is a precinct committeeman with close ties to the community's Democratic Party leaders.

The indictments accuse Ellis of trying to have an unidentified witness killed. Court documents say he is a target of an ongoing vote fraud inquiry. He also is accused in a separate indictment of income tax evasion.

The investigation became public last year when more than a dozen subpoenas were delivered to city Democratic Party leaders after the November election.

According to one of Ellis' indictments, the investigation began at least a month earlier. A female witness told agents on Oct. 5 that Ellis, "had committed election fraud and other potential criminal offenses." Ellis learned the same day of the substance of what she had said, the indictment states.

In the following days, Ellis spoke repeatedly with an unidentified person, first discussing plans to discredit the witness, perhaps through a bogus drug sting, court documents say. The indictment includes excerpts of what appear to be recordings of these conversations between Ellis and the other person.

"I want her credibility destroyed," Ellis is reported to have said. She is "trying to destroy us. No telling what she's saying."

As the weeks passed, the conversations turned more sinister, with Ellis saying on Nov. 19, "I want her ... taken out, however we have to do it."

That was one day after Ellis had been called before the grand jury.

Nice.  There is really nothing in the current story about the vote fraud itself, though.