Author Archives: J Christian Adams

Philly Democrats to formally launch Voter ID repeal effort Monday


Per NewsWorks: “A pair of Northwest Philadelphia lawmakers will introduce a bill in Harrisburg on Monday that calls for a complete repeal of the state’s controversial Voter ID law. . . Evans and other opponents argue that the law will only serve to disenfranchise mostly Democratic voters — namely the elderly and minorities — who don’t have or can’t easily obtain a photo ID.”


 


Yes, because so many elderly Pennsylvania voters were prevented from voting in Tuesday’s primary election Voter ID rollout.  Oh, wait. . .


 


Voter ID Gets Lots of Love on Primary Test Run – From Disabled Seniors:


Florence Hasson was on her way out of the Edgemont building at the Madison Senior Apartments in Chester when a younger woman on her way in called out to her.  “Don’t forget to vote,” said the younger woman, smiling.  “Oh, I won’t,” replied Hasson heartily.  She was in her wheelchair and about to be hoisted up into a Community Transit van when I caught up with her.  I asked her if she had a photo ID.  “I got everything,” she said.


She has a state ID, she said. And when it comes to voting, “I never had a problem,” she said.  She didn’t expect any today.  I asked her if any of her friends had concerns about the new Voter ID law?  “No,” she replied. Everybody’s got everything they need. . . Monique Jackson is the property manager at the senior community. She said she hasn’t heard anyone raise a concern about not having a photo ID.


 


Voter ID Law Can’t Stop These Two Guys – In Their 80’s:


The old man coming out of the voting room at the Fair Acres Geriatric Center was wearing a black Eagles cap and a black jacket. He was asked what he thought about the new Voter ID law.  “All you need is a driver’s license. What’s the big deal?”  He said he was exactly 88 years old. . . 

Seconds later, another old man who’d gone in to vote came out.  He’d begged off talking to a newspaperman on the way in, but apparently changed his mind on his way out. He presented his driver’s license.  “Does this look like me?”  “Close enough,” came the reply.  He is 85, soon to be 86.

Virginian-Pilot Cites Phony Brennan Center Study to Attack Voter ID

The editorial staff at the Virginian-Pilot has attacked Virginia voter ID using the phony Brennan Center Report on Voter Fraud.  Who wrote this editorial?  Donald Luzzatto?

We get this update from Cobra Joe who tells Election Law Center: “Voters, in the bill, are not required to bring in the proof of identity, they can mail, email, or fax the proof.”

Even better.  The Virginian Pilot publishes an editorial that cites the phony Brennan Center, AND gets the facts wrong.  Nicely played dead trees media. 

DOJ Seeks to Delay Texas Voter ID Case


U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder wants to postpone the trial over Texas’ Voter ID law, currently set to begin July 9 before a 3-judge panel of the U.S. District Court in DC, the Houston Chronicle reports:


 


Federal lawyers complained Texas had demanded a speedy trial in order to resolve the issue in time for the Nov. 6 general election. . . The U.S. attorney general’s office had agreed to a July 9 trial date in order to resolve the issue before November.


 


But in court documents filed late Monday, lawyers in the Voting Section of the U.S. attorney general’s office complained Texas has filed repeated motions to limit the evidence that can be used in the trial, thus delaying action.  Attorneys for the federal government and civil rights groups say they now need more time because Texas continues to try to block requests for evidence, wrote Elizabeth Westfall, an attorney in the civil rights division of the Justice Department.


 


The same Elizabeth Westfall who has a history of opposing common-sense election integrity reforms like Voter ID while working for the left-leaning Advancement Project as a Senior Attorney and Director of AP’s ‘Voter Protection Program’.

Georgia Settles NVRA Section 7 Voter Registration Suit


Citing a decline in the number of persons registering to vote at Georgia public assistance offices since the NVRA first took effect in the mid-1990s, a coalition including Project Vote and the NAACP sued the state, alleging widespread violations of Section 7 of the National Voter Registration Act. 


 


Morris News Service reports:


 


Georgia officials announced Thursday that they have settled a lawsuit charging that welfare applicants weren’t given access to voter-registration materials as required by federal law. But Secretary of State Brian Kemp isn’t happy about it. His office issued a statement headlined “Secretary of State Kemp condemns U.S. Department of Justice-Acorn coordination behind ludicrous voter-registration lawsuit.”

The ACORN-affiliated Project Vote filed the suit along with the Georgia State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Coalition for the Peoples’ Agenda and others. It accused the state of failing to supply voter-registration forms every time a person applies for welfare or re-certifies eligibility or changes an address, either in person, by telephone or over the Internet.


In the settlement, Kemp agreed to ensure the Department of Human Services offers the forms and will issue reports of how many go out to the coalition that sued.


 


The Weekly adds:


 


The DOJ filed a “statement of interest” in the case, indicating that the agency agreed with the plaintiffs’ position. Interestingly, documents show that the DOJ has recently coordinated similar lawsuits with Project Vote in Missouri, Ohio, Indiana, New Mexico, Rhode Island and Louisiana.


 


and quotes Secretary Kemp:


 


“The court’s decision to ignore the NVRA’s notice requirements and expand the scope of the law will cost Georgia taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars to comply with outdated and unneeded federal voter registration mandates and in attorney’s fees paid to venue-shopping interest groups. Despite allegations of widespread violations by DHS, it is apparent that this was not a lawsuit aimed at promoting increased voter registration as seen by the more than 5.8 million registered voters in the state as of April 1st [almost 80% of Georgia’s Voting Age Population of 7.3 million]. 



“The provisions of the NVRA at issue in this lawsuit are clearly being misconstrued by federal courts, as evidenced by this court’s actions and the decision this week by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that Arizona’s proof of citizenship requirement to register to vote violates the NVRA. Based on these decisions, it is clear that Congress should immediately reexamine and clarify the NVRA so states are no longer required to duplicate voter registration efforts, and allow states to ensure that only U.S. citizens can register to vote.” 

How Stanford Law Professor Pam Karlan Makes Things Up

From my testimony yesterday to the House Judiciary Committee about Stanford Law Professor Pam Karlan making up facts about the Bush administration [and thinking she could get away with it] (video stream link here):

Stanford Law Professor Pam Karlan, someone who has testified before committees of this Congress, is another. In a 2009 Duke law journal article, Karlan stated “for five of the eight years of the Bush Administration, [they] brought no Voting Rights Act cases of its own except for one case protecting white voters.” Karlan’s claim is demonstrably false.

The Bush administration filed Section 2 cases against Crockett County, Tennessee, in 2001 to protect black voters; in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 2003, to protect Hispanics; in Osceola County, Florida, in 2005 to protect Hispanics; and, then a flurry of cases including: United States v. City of Euclid, et al (N.D. Ohio 2006), United States v. Village of Port Chester, NY (S.D.N.Y. 2006), United States v. Georgetown County School District, et. al. (D.S.C. 2008). In fact, if you include all Section 2 cases to protect national racial minorities, the Bush administration filed fourteen cases. Again, the Obama administration has filed exactly one, (Lake Park) a matter launched during the Bush administration.

The current lack of results in enforcing Section 2 is all the worse because of the caustic criticism the Bush administration was forced to endure, despite a much more vigorous enforcement record. Worse, the caustic criticism continues. In December 2009, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez criticized the Bush administration Voting Section before the American Constitution Society: “Those who had been entrusted with the keys to the division treated it like a buffet line at the cafeteria, cherry-picking which laws to enforce.” The enforcement record two years removed from Perez’s 2009 bravado at ACS paints a very embarrassing portrait of the Justice Department Voting Section.