Author Archives: ELECTIONLAWCENTER.COM

Florida Preps for Battle With DOJ Over Non-Citizen Voters

Florida isn’t backing down.  More at PJ Tatler:


Gov. Scott’s office also released a memo to the media Wednesday noting the state’s communications with the Obama administration regarding use of the SAVE database and other related communications.


True the Vote, an election integrity watchdog group, is hailing Florida’s decision. Chairman Catherine Englebrecht said, “Our Department of Justice is supposed to support the rule of law and safeguard the rights of American citizens. Instead we have the bizarro version of the DOJ; they abandon the rule of law and safeguard only those who they believe will further their race based political agenda.


“We are affiliated with citizen led election integrity groups across the state of Florida and they are livid about the DOJ’s attempt to strong-arm Governor Scott and subvert Florida’s electoral process for political gain. True the Vote applauds Governor Scott for standing strong against the bullying tactics of the Department of Justice. We will do all we can to support Florida’s effort to ensure election integrity.”

Tampa Bay Times and Hyperbole



hy·per·bo·le

   


noun Rhetoric .
1. obvious and intentional exaggeration.

2. an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally, as “to wait an eternity.”

The Tampa Bay Times has an editorial today about Governor Rick Scott of Florida.  It outlandishly compares him to George Wallace, complete with a photo of Wallace at the school house door.  Desperate tactics by desperate folks are unfortunately predictable.  The law of diminishing returns makes charges of racism incrementally less effective, especially when the underlying dispute involves illegally registered voters. 

Accusing someone of being a racist who isn’t is the worst sort of false witness.  The Tampa Bay Times should be ashamed.

New York Times on Florida: “So Sue Them”

The New York Times urges the DOJ Voting Section to sue Florida over the fact that Florida believes that DOJ has acted in extra-legal ways regarding illegal voters on Florida voter rolls.  (National Review has the legal context of the fight.) 

The GOP couldn’t get a bigger gift from the DOJ than a lawsuit against Florida.

There could hardly be a bigger issue to hand the GOP than the Holder Justice Department suing Florida to prevent them from removing illegal aliens and non-citizens from the voter rolls.  Are such people registered on American voter rolls? Undoubtedly, I’ve seen the applications forms where they even admit they are noncitizens. 

After yesterday’s disastrous performance by the Attorney General before the House Judiciary Committee, Holder’s standing has fallen even further.  He is by far the most unpopular figure in the administration.  Even ranking member Nadler was visibly unhappy with Holder.

If the Justice Department uses a risky interpretation of Section 5, and an absurd interpretation of NVRA to keep illegal voters on the rolls, it will be used like a club all through the fall against Holder and Obama.  Congress has already started.  Americans don’t want ineligible voters on the rolls, period.  They don’t want gamesmanship and the smartest people in the room devising ways to keep them on the rolls.  If that happens, there will be a steep political price five months before the election.  An excited base can’t swamp and outraged majority.

“Documents Show DHS is Violating Law in Preventing Illegal Alien Purges”

National Review here:


Detzner is appropriately caustic when he says that the practice that DOJ appears to be endorsing is as follows:



The federal Department of Homeland Security may, for months, violate federal law and deny Florida and other states access to the SAVE database so that the federal Department of Justice may then assert that the resulting delays in a state’s election-integrity efforts violate the time periods establish in another federal law. This hardly seems like an approach earnestly designed to protect the integrity of elections and to ensure that eligible voters have their votes counted.

New Hampshire lawmakers pass voter ID bill with veto-proof margin

The bill, which combined two different measures from the state House and Senate, was approved Wednesday by a margin of 255-103, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader.  Lynch has threatened to veto the voter ID measure, but the margin of passage was large enough to override a veto if Lynch decides to push the issue and  lawmakers don’t change their votes.  story here. 

Despite negotiations and concessions by both parties and local election officials, a compromise was found.  In the end though, the Democratic Governor simply can’t bring himself to sign a voter integrity measure of any sort.

True the Vote Brings Election Integrity to Wisconsin Recall

True the Vote was on the ground in Wisconsin helping to ensure free and fair elections.  Mission accomplished.  “The Eye Popping Wisconsin Story You Didn’t Read.”

True the Vote “created an online program for inputting and verifying petitions using a triple blind procedure. Volunteers would be able to input data from a computer anywhere in the U.S. By February 27th, the last day for challenging petitions, TTV had recruited 14,000 volunteers nationwide. They had entered and analyzed 92 percent of the records submitted.

VTR identified 819,233 discreet records, not the 1 million claimed by United Wisconsin. Of these, only 534,685, 65 percent, could be verified as legitimate. TTV continued to analyze the data past the due date, attempting to review all petitions. On March 21, they had analyzed 97 percent, a total of 860,155 complete records with 584,489 validated. More than the 540,208 needed, barely, but with a tremendous error rate. A total of 17,000 volunteers had participated.”

True the Vote will be nationwide in November.