Republican legislative leaders weren’t justified in drawing
majority-black political districts in areas where African-American
voters already had proved to elect their favored candidates in
coalitions with whites, U.S. Rep. Mel Watt and other Democratic elected
officials said at a redistricting trial Tuesday.

…Watt and other black politicians testified that racially polarized
voting doesn’t exist in their areas anymore or has decreased
dramatically, and so majority-black districts aren’t needed there for
black candidates to succeed. The decision by Republican mapmakers to
create districts that are more than 50 percent black as a reasonable
remedy to avoid some challenges under the U.S. Voting Rights Act is
wrong, they argued.  NewsObserver.com

Video of Representative Harper, Mississippi at the House Committee on Administration mark up hearing yesterday.  The big question: Will Republicans in the House of Representatives be able to generate the momentum to actually fold the agency this year or is it simply another year of life-support as a zombie agency.

Congressman Harper blogs and tweets:  The EAC still has NO commissioners, NO executive director, and NO general counsel. Its time is up.

The racist anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan is traveling to Alabama to support Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.   We’ll report here and elsewhere on any official, politician or group that welcomes him.  Perhaps he can go to the national Voting Rights Museum in Selma and admire the displays.

PJ Media

Committee on House Administration Chairman Candice Miller, R-Mich.,
issued the following statement after the full Committee hearing on H.R.
2115, The Voter Registration Efficiency Act:

“During today’s hearing, we heard about voters casting ballots in
two states, states spending thousands to maintain duplicate
registrations, and NVRA’s outdated provisions that prevent states from
doing anything about it.

“Based on my experience as Michigan’s Secretary of State and the
input of other state election officials forced to comply with the
antiquated provisions of NVRA, Mr. Rokita, former Indiana Secretary of
State, and I drafted legislation that updates NVRA.  Our bill gives
states the ability to collect and share the information necessary to
identify and prevent millions of duplicate voter registrations
nationwide – an overdue update that will undoubtedly improve the
integrity of our electoral process.

“I was encouraged by today’s testimony reaffirming this
legislation’s ability to help states with this process without imposing
costly mandates that would impact their respective list maintenance
procedures. I thank our witnesses for their valuable feedback – it is
crucial to this process and the success of any election administration
reform.”

….In addition to jeopardizing the integrity of our elections, duplicate
registrations cost states thousands to maintain.  According to
Michigan’s Director of Elections, Christopher Thomas, the cost alone of
sending mailers to former state residents still registered in Michigan
was approximately $13,000 in 2012.

“Hamilton County’s Election’s Board Wednesday sent two more cases of potential voter fraud to the prosecutor for further investigation, bringing the total number before the prosecutor to 10,” reports Cincinnati.com.

USA Today reports:  A House committee approved legislation Tuesday to shut down the
federal commission set up more than 10 years ago to help states improve
their election systems.

“This agency needs to go,” said
Mississippi Republican Rep. Gregg Harper, who introduced the bill to
eliminate the Election Assistance Commission. “This agency has outlived
its usefulness and to continue to fund it is the definition of
irresponsibility.”  The House Administration Committee approved
the legislation by voice vote. This marks Harper’s third attempt in four
years to close the bipartisan independent commission, which he called a
“bloated bureaucracy.”

The Committee on House Administration has scheduled a full committee hearing today to mark up a number of bills, including HR 1994 (the Election Assistance Commission Termination Act) and a few bills that end the public financing of party conventions and presidential campaigns.  Speaking of machines, the Terminator is looking to save some money.  You can watch live here at 11:00a.m.

In HR 1994, the sponsors state emphatically that the EAC is not necessary for the conduct of federal elections and cites to numerous resolutions of the National Association of Secretaries of States (NASS) calling for the end to the agency.  The bill estimates savings of between $10-20 million dollars a year. Under the legislation, the federal testing of voting machines would be pushed back to the states, governmental actors or other private entities. 

My latest is at Breitbart (and linked as the top story (R) at Drudge).  A snip:

“Campaign finance zealots and free speech regulators have sought to stifle the freedom of conservative organizations, such as the Tea Party, by falsely claiming they are “political” while giving a pass to leftist groups that still enjoy unimpaired 501(c) IRS tax-exempt status. As the IRS attacked Tea Party groups, it left hundreds of leftist activist groups alone. A quick review of just eight of those leftist, tax-exempt activist groups demonstrates the IRS’s hypocrisy. . . .

Ruckus Society

The Ruckus Society (photo above) is part of the Occupy Movement–and donations to this 501(c)3 organization are tax deductible. The George Soros-funded organization’s purpose reads like a parody of the modern Left.

The Ruckus Society provides environmental, human rights, and social justice organizers with the tools, training, and support needed to achieve their goals through the strategic use of creative, nonviolent direct action.

Ruckus also evidently organizes criminal trespass:

The Brass Liberation Orchestra accompanied a second round of the “I Will Survive…Capitalism” flashmob before leading the crowd of over 1,000 people onto the Bank of America, and deployed a giant balloon banner with our friends at [Rainforest Action Network] reading “Defend Human Dignity: Challenge Corporate Power”…The day of course culminated in the truly mass marches to the Port of Oakland to shut down all operations at the Ports for the night. Some reports say 50,000 people marched and danced the three miles to the ports from Camp, and it was truly an unforgettable experience, marching in a sea of thousands at sunset.

None of this seems to attract any IRS attention. Ruckus’s 2011 IRS Form 990 indicates that it has maintained undisturbed 501(c)3 status. The form states Ruckus “provides environmental, human rights, and social justice organizers with the tools, training and support needed to achieve their goals.”

The Ruckus training offers the manual “Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution” and provides suggestions for direct action such as “take over intersections and use for community activities,” give “fake parking tickets on SUV’s,” “Occupy Bank Foreclosed Homes,” and “rip out rancher’s fences” to free livestock.

Planning illegal acts is incompatible with 501(c)3 status. Ruckus is run by Megan Swoboda. . . . .”

Full story.