Monthly Archives: September 2011

Pajamas Media: “Welcome back Jim Crow”

 Pajamas Media:  “Judith Browne Dianis, co-director of the Advancement Project, said in a statement that the Texas law is “part of the largest legislative effort to turn back the clock on voting rights in our nation in over a century.” Dianis, who is black, alluded to America’s favorite corpse, Jim Crow, a system of government-approved racial segregation.”

Frustrated with its failures, DOJ Voting goes after State Election Officials on MOVE Act

The latest press release from DOJ contains its recommended amendments to the MOVE Act.  After reviewing the language provided to lawmakers, the big news is how embarrassed officials at the DOJ and DOD so readily throw the nation’s state and local election officials under the bus.

Burned by multiple failures that resulted in disenfranchised military voters, a reactive and vindictive Civil Rights Division now tries to cover their lax preparation in 2010.  They try to shift the blame squarely onto the States by requesting civil penalties up to $110,000 be levied on election officials for the first violation of the MOVE Act.  And then for each additional violation thereafter, they want to be able to request civil penalties up to $220,000.

And the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) at the Department of Defense appears to fully support this proposal.  One must wonder if DOD and their “assistance program” will be required to pay these same excessive fines for their repeated failure to comply with the requirement to create installation Voting Assistance Offices under the MOVE Act.    

Instead of steadily enforcing the law with thorough investigations and timely litigation, the hapless leadership in the Voting Section are shifting the responsibility of their failures in 2010 to the election officials.  After delayed implementation and the dearth of guidance coming from DOJ after passage of the MOVE Act, these same failed bureaucrats are now proposing death penalty-type civil penalties to scare election officials into submission. 

District Court Judge Bates rules on Shelby County case

More here.  Response of Ed Blum:

Project on Fair Representation DirectorEdward Blum said, “With this unfortunate opinion, the court failed to recognize the ongoing damage these provisions incur to our nation’s bedrock principles of federalism.”  Blum added, “The Project on Fair Representation looks forward to helping Shelby County with an appeal of this decision.”


Feds set to force August 2012 primary in New York

More on the situation in New York.   Federal officials are ready to force New York’s boards of elections to hold a primary in August of next year, citing the legislature’s failure to set a different date for its primary.

The link has a copy of the pleadings filed with the court by DoJ. excerpt below:

“Accordingly, the United States seeks two types of relief,” a DOJ motion filed Monday says. “First, it requests an order advancing New York’s primary election date, starting with the 2012 election. Given Defendants’ failure to change the date on their own—despite ample time and opportunity to do so—this relief is necessary to ensure future UOCAVA compliance. New York’s federal primary election date is simply too close to the federal general election to ensure UOCAVA compliance in 2012. In light of the State’s inaction, and absent an order from this Court, New York’s late primary date will disenfranchise UOCAVA voters in 2012 and beyond. To comply with UOCAVA, the primary election date must be set for no later than 35 days in advance of the UOCAVA deadline for transmitting ballots (the 45th day before the federal general election), i.e., at least 80 days before the federal general election”

Bottom Line:  New York failed to comply with MOVE in 2010 with multiple late ballots and remains poised to violate MOVE in 2012. 

Poll finds overwhelming Hispanic Support for Voter ID

Link here.

The poll, conducted by the well-respected pollster Whit Ayres, asked Hispanic voters in Florida, Colorado, and New Mexico whether they opposed or supported “laws that would require registered voters to present photo identification, such as a drivers license, in order to cast their vote.”


These poll results are particularly significant since all three states have large Hispanic populations. The Census says that almost 23 percent of Floridians are of Hispanic origin, and 88 percent of those Hispanic voters in the Sunshine state support voter ID requirements, according to the Resurgent Republic poll. Hispanic support in Colorado (with a 20 percent Hispanic population) for voter ID was 71 percent, and in New Mexico (with a 46 percent Hispanic population) it was 73 percent.

New York Military Ballot Failure is Widespread

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Justice Department lawyers are asking a federal judge to move up the date of New York state’s primary election because, they argue, local election officials have abjectly failed to mail ballots in time to military personnel and other Americans overseas.


In court papers, federal lawyers charge that more than half the counties in the state—far more than previously thought—failed to meet the deadline for 2010 general-election ballots to go out. As a result, more than 1,000 ballots from New Yorkers overseas were not received in time to be counted.


The state’s election calendar “remains fundamentally incompatible” with the federal law to ensure military ballots are counted, Justice Department lawyer Richard Dellheim wrote in papers filed late Monday. A spokesman said the state Board of Elections was still reviewing the papers.


The submission to Judge Gary Sharpe in Albany is the clearest sign yet that New York is unlikely to obtain a waiver from the federal government that would grant it extra time to send out military ballots. The court filing also puts more pressure on the state Legislature to pass its own law to move up the primary.

… Since a court-ordered decree in 2010, the Justice Department has determined that 33 of New York’s 62 counties failed to send out the ballots by an Oct. 1, 2010, deadline. At least 13 of those counties sent out the ballots after the extended deadline of Oct. 10.