Author Archives: ELECTIONLAWCENTER.COM

Voting Expert Michael Carvin: “Proposed amendment to VRA is unconstitutional”

At the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week, the testimony of voting lawyer Michael Carvin was that the proposed partisan legislation amending the Voting Rights Act was itself unconstitutional.  Not surprising considering that the the proposed “fix” is even more invasive than the original Section 5 and Section 4 trigger.

His prepared testimony can be found here.  Page 3 starts his discussion of the unconstitutional nature of the VRAA.  Not surprising that a piece of legislation from Congressman Sensenbrenner would be identified as unconstitutional since the last time he was involved the resulting legislation was found to be unconstitutional.

Speech Regulators in the Faculty Lounge

Professor Walter Williams writes from firsthand experience.  It’s no coincidence that the speech regulators in academia are so involved with finding ways around the First Amendment through the exercise of federal government power.  Williams:

“Western values of liberty are under ruthless attack by the academic elite on college campuses across America. These people want to replace personal liberty with government control; they want to replace equality with entitlement. As such, they pose a far greater threat to our way of life than any terrorist organization or rogue nation. “

NM State Rep. Garcia Alleges Voter Fraud, Challenges Primary Election Result



New Mexico state representative Mary Helen Garcia is challenging the results of the state’s June 3 Democratic Primary Election


 


Specifically, the attorneys cite irregularities in the signatures associated with absentee voting in the primary election for New Mexico House District 34.


 


“As Chairwoman of the New Mexico House Voters and Elections Committee, I have long advocated for transparent, ethical, open elections, in which protection of the voter’s rights and the sanctity of his or her vote are of the utmost importance…”


 


Attorneys for Rep. Garcia submitted information by a forensic handwriting analyst, citing at least 17 cases of signatures not matching voter rolls.


 


State election results show Garcia trailing Bill Gomez by a 16-vote margin.


 


Dothan, Alabama fraud case shows that copy of photo ID is needed to stop mail ballot impersonation fraud

A story published August 8, 2014 on DothanFirst.com indicated several ballots were apparently mailed to people at homes where they haven’t resided in several years. It’s not clear why the applications were mailed to the wrong address but some people said they believe others voted using their name.

Specifically, the defendants are accused of violation of Section 17 of the Alabama Criminal Code. The statute reads “Any person who willfully changes an absentee voter’s ballot to the extent that it does not reflect the voter’s true ballot, any person who willfully votes more than once by absentee ballot in the same election, any person who willfully votes for another voter or falsifies absentee ballot applications or verification documents so as to vote absentee, or any person who solicits, encourages, urges, or otherwise promotes illegal absentee voting, shall be guilty, upon conviction, of a Class C felony. Any person who willfully aids any person unlawfully to vote an absentee ballot, any person who knowingly and unlawfully votes an absentee ballot, and any voter who votes both an absentee and a regular ballot at any election shall be similarly punished.“

The news video says voter fraud may have been going on for years and this was just the latest conspiracy involving ballot fraud.  The case shows why photo voter ID would help prevent or reduce the amount of impersonation fraud in absentee voting.  It is much tougher to fraudulently copy the photo ID of an individual or provide the social security number of another individual when voting a mail ballot than voting a mail ballot simply under fraudulent signature.  The requirement for photo ID and other identifying information would help reduce impersonation fraud.

“Democrat Machine Notaries Now Working MS GOP Runoff”

Link at Tatler:


Tatler has learned that Democrat notaries who engaged in illegal conduct in previous elections in Mississippi (according to a federal court ruling) are now harvesting absentee ballots for the Republican runoff from African-Americans who have always voted in Democratic Party primaries.


Back in 2007, the United States Justice Department sued the chairman of the Noxubee Democratic Executive Committee, Ike Brown.  I served on the team that prosecuted that case.  Brown was found liable for discriminating against white voters from his perch as the head of the Democrat party.


The federal court discussed the behavior of one particular notary – Carrie Kate Windham.  Windham was found to have harvested votes as a notary, sometimes voting the actual ballots of the voters.  You can read the whole opinion here (believe me, the conduct is so outrageous it is worth the read).  The federal court:



The Government also presented direct evidence of fraud in the collection of absentee ballots by one notary in particular, Carrie Kate Windham, who became a member of the NDEC during Brown’s chairmanship and whose notary application fee and surety bond were paid by Ike Brown. . . .According to Wood, Windham actually  marks Wood’s ballot for her and selects candidates when Wood does not know whom she wants to  vote for because, as Wood put it, Windham “knows folks” better than Wood does. Wood testified that her daughter lives with her, and although her daughter is not disabled or illiterate and was not going to be out of the county on election day, she was recruited to vote absentee by Windham. The same was true of Otis Shanklin, who also lives in Wood’s home. Shanklin is not disabled, can read, and is able to go to the poll on election day, yet he casts his vote by absentee ballot in every election and is assisted in every election by Windham; and if he does not know whom to vote for, he has Windham vote for him.


This is the sort of voter fraud academics and political hacks (but I repeat myself) say is rare and doesn’t really amount to much.


Tatler can report that the notaries who have been engaged in voter fraud going back at least a decade are now in the field once again harvesting absentee ballots from African-Americans in the Republican primary who normally never vote in the Republican primary in Mississippi.

$2.6 million expenditure for increased days, hours and sites for Maryland early voting results in dismal stagnant voter turnout of 2.1%

The Baltimore Sun reports on the increased number of early voting sites, days and hours of early voting that has not increased voter turnout. The evidence shows participation has been dismal and actually gone down. No discussion of cost with the article, but this 2012 analysis shows the additional cost for early voting pegged at $2.6 million.
According to Maryland Board of Elections statistics, just 2 percent of Harford’s eligible voters participated in the first five days of early voting from Thursday through Monday, despite more sites, more days and longer hours to vote in Harford this year.  The turnout has been equally dismal throughout the state, with roughly 2.1 percent of all Maryland voters casting a ballot, according to the state elections board.

…It’s been pretty slow,” she said about all four voting sites. “It’s also the primary, it’s the first time it’s been in June; people are going to be on vacation.”  The early voting sites in Harford drew 950 people on the first day Thursday, 850 on Friday, 377 on Saturday, 199 on Sunday and 818 on the Monday, according to the state’s unofficial turnout results. The McFaul Activity Center in Bel Air had the largest turnout, drawing 1,599 of the voters. Jarrettsville library was second-most popular with 588 voters and Edgewood library came in third with 582. The University Center in Aberdeen drew 425 people.  The turnout has been far lower so far than in the 2010 gubernatorial election when early voting was offered at one site, Livingston said.

“Obama’s Enforcer: Eric Holder’s Justice Department”

Excerpts from the new fascinating book on Eric Holder’s reign at the Department of Justice.
The evidence is clear that Eric Holder and his political subordinates have politicized the Justice Department to an unprecedented degree — “worse than John Mitchell under Richard Nixon” one former Justice Department lawyer told the authors.  This is quite a criticism given that many DOJ veterans believe that the Department reached its nadir under Mitchell.  But Mitchell seems like an amateur by comparison to how Holder has corrupted the law enforcement duties of the Justice Department to carry out the political objectives of Barack Obama and to implement his radical ideology.
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WSJ: Obama vs. Voter ID

Jason Riley at the Wall Street Journal:

Yet most Americans, including most black Americans, don’t seem to share the president’s sentiment. According to a new poll from Fox News, support for voter ID laws is quite strong and transcends gender, party and even race. Seventy percent of respondents—including 55 percent of Democrats, 91 percent of Republicans, 66 percent of independents, 70 percent of men, 71 percent of women, 75 percent of whites and, yes, 51 percent of blacks—expressed support for laws that require voters to show a valid form of state- or federally-issued photo identification to prove U.S. citizenship before being allowed to vote.

“The Biggest Non-Story in Tuesday’s Elections? Mississippi Voter ID Implemented With No Problems”

It wasn’t the biggest story following Tuesday’s elections in various states, but it was the biggest and most-ignored non-story.  Mississippi’s new voter ID law got its first run in the June 3 primary, and the sky did not fall. Despite the tiresome and disproven claims by opponents that such laws cause wholesale voter disenfranchisement and are intended to suppress votes, Mississippi “sailed through” its first test of the new ID requirements, according to The Clarion Ledger, the newspaper of Jackson, Miss.
Link to story