Author Archives: J Christian Adams

DOJ demands records from Hillsborough County, Fla. over removal of non-citizen voters

At Tampa Bay Online (TBO), the U.S. Department of Justice is demanding that Hillsborough turn over
voter-purge records, pulling the county into a growing legal fracas over Gov.
Rick Scott’s push to clean out the state’s voter registry.

The county received a subpoena Wednesday for documents dating to Jan. 1
relating to any efforts at identifying voters as potential noncitizens.

The subpoena stems from a lawsuit filed June 12 in Tallahassee by the federal
government against Florida and Secretary of State Ken Detzner over state efforts
to scrub voter rolls.

Hillsborough Elections Supervisor Earl Lennard said he would comply with the
subpoena. Like supervisors across the state, Lennard halted efforts to purge
voters when the tools to cross-reference citizenship and voter registration — a
Department of Homeland Security database and motor vehicle records — proved
unreliable, he said.

The subpoena landed on the same day the American Civil Liberties Union
claimed that more than 17,000 former felons whose civil rights have been
restored never received their notices of rights restoration. More than 13,000 of
them aren’t registered and may not know they’re eligible to vote, the ACLU
said.

Here we go again. More politicization of the voting process. DOJ just won’t let the non-citizen voting issue go.  Not surprising, DOJ and the ACLU are working together to get felons and non-citizens on the voting rolls.

Large scale fraud by “absentee ballot broker” in South Florida

Miami Herald reports on large-scale fraud by an absentee ballot broker:  Felony charges and abusing the helpless.  Disgusting.

A Hialeah boletera at the center of a weeklong absentee-ballot investigation that muddied the Miami-Dade mayor’s race was arrested Thursday after police say she fraudulently obtained an absentee ballot from a terminally ill woman in a nursing home.

Deisy Penton de Cabrera, 56, was charged with absentee-ballot fraud, a third-degree felony, and two misdemeanor counts of violating a county ordinance that makes it illegal for anyone to possess more than two ballots belonging to other voters. Investigators say Cabrera illegally collected at least 31 absentee ballots for the Aug. 14 primary election.

An absentee ballot broker?  Even the existence of “brokers” in absentee ballots is concerning.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/02/2927374/hialeah-absentee-ballot-broker.html#storylink=fb#storylink=cpy

Detroit Democrats lose clout due to population loss and redistricting

When the dust settles from the November election and new members are sworn in to the state House, Detroit will have far fewer representatives.  It’s mostly because of population loss: Detroit lost 25% of its residents, according to the last census, and was bound to lose some seats in the House.  But the loss of up to five Detroiters in Lansing — from 12 down to perhaps as few as seven — also reflects a Republican-controlled redistricting process. Six incumbent Democrats were put in the same districts.


link.

Voter ID Protects Poor and Minorities from Fraudsters



Most voter fraud victims are poor, minorities and seniors.  Most voter fraud perpetrators are Democrats.  So who benefits from voter ID laws, and who doesn’t?


 


Criminal justice data shows that blacks and poor people are the most common victims of voter fraud and are the greatest beneficiaries of voter identification rules, according to a new study


 


The courtroom evidence “completely contradicts the [progressive claim] that blacks, seniors, college students and other disadvantaged groups are being victimized.  The truth is … [that] the criminals — more often than not — are Democrats violating the rights of people who tend to be black or senior,” Cooper told The Daily Caller


 


Good voter identification procedures would reduce that fraudulent voting, and aid minorities most… Three times as many Democrats as Republicans have been charged with voter fraud, he said.

Tennesseans shatter early voting records (with photo ID law)

“For the last year, our Division of Elections has conducted an unprecedented voter outreach effort,” Secretary of State Tre Hargett said. “This campaign was launched to help educate people about Tennessee’s new photo ID law. Not only have election officials at the state and the county level done a good job in informing people about that law, but they have also raised awareness about this year’s elections. We see that reflected in these record early voting numbers.”  Link

But, But, But the New York Times calls it the Great Suppression.

No “demonstrated situation” where Voter ID laws have disenfranchised people, says Pennsylvania Rep.



State Rep. Warren Kampf suggested that Pennsylvania’s new Voter ID law won’t interfere with the ability of voters to cast their ballots and, contrary to opponents’ speculation, might actually boost turnout, if Georgia’s experience is any indication:


 


“Georgia has a very similar law. They’ve had it for six years. And they had it in 2008 and in those communities which often are said to have been impacted by voter ID laws, the turnout was actually far greater than it should have been demographically… There isn’t a demonstrated situation where these sorts of laws have disenfranchised people.”


 


More here.


Democrat Elections Inspector Says He Won’t Enforce Pennsylvania’s Voter ID Law



So at Pennsylvania polling places, county elections officials can decide which state election laws they choose to follow?


 


Even as the fate of Pennsylvania’s new voter-identification law plays out in a Harrisburg courtroom, an election official in Delaware County is vowing not to enforce it.  Christopher L. Broach, a Democratic inspector of elections in the tiny borough of Colwyn, said he would not ask voters to prove who they are on Election Day.


 


More at Philly.com.


New Tennessee Voter ID Law “Not a Problem”



According to Anderson County Election Administrator Mark Stephens:


 


In Anderson County, only one person cast a provisional ballot in the March primaries because she didn’t have proper ID [she later produced ID, so her vote counted], and no one had to do so during the early voting period that ended Saturday.


 


“We don’t want to disenfranchise anybody,” Stephens said. “The law is to protect the integrity of the ballot.”


 


Election Integrity-1, Disenfranchisement-0.
                                                                                                  

Another Section 5 Bailout: Merced County, California


 


After 37 years and $1 million in compliance costs, a county with no history of voting discrimination is set to be released from the Voting Rights Act’s Section 5 preclearance requirements:


 


County Counsel James Fincher said that over the past decade, the county has spent about $1 million in legal costs and fees related to Section 5. “Yes, we’re certainly pleased that the DOJ agreed with us that Merced County doesn’t belong under the act,” Fincher said, noting that the county has heard those words before, but now has them in writing.


 


County officials have said Merced County undeservedly fell under Section 5 oversight in 1975 because the military population skewed the figures for required voter registration.   


 


The Merced Sun-Star has the full story.