Author Archives: ELECTIONLAWCENTER.COM

2009 all over again in Canton, Mississippi



As in 2009, Rodriguez Brown will be sworn in as Canton, Mississippi’s Ward 1 Alderman, following a judge’s ruling to allow the municipality’s general election to be certified.  As in 2009, Brown’s Democratic primary opponent was Ray Rosamond, who lost this time by just four votes.  And as in 2009, authorities are investigating voter fraud allegations made by Rosamond against Brown, nephew of fraudster Ike Brown. 


 


Then: “Rosamond alleged people outside of Ward 1 and Canton voted in the race and that some voters were provided illegal assistance by poll workers, which he said aided Brown to victory.  Rosamond also charged that Ike Brown, Rodriquez Brown’s uncle, interfered with the election.” 


 


Now: “Rosamond has sworn statements from seven different witnesses, including poll workers, poll watchers and voters, about the problems they saw during the May 7 election. One poll worker said she was told by a member of the Democratic committee to tear up affidavit ballots for two persons not listed on the poll books and the committee member escorted them to the voting machines… in 10 to 15 cases, the person giving the assistance actually did the voting on the machine.”


 


In a departure from 2009, Rosamond’s July 15 challenge hearing could result in a new Ward 1 election being held.  But the Madison County District Attorney’s investigation of these and other allegations (“We originally had six to eight complaints and we’re up to a dozen.”) could, as with the 2009 elections, result in multiple voter fraud convictions.


 


Ooops, maybe Arizona wasn’t a “victory” after all

Left leaning folks now start to see what I wrote about yesterday at PJ Media, the Arizona case wasn’t exactly the “victory” the left first thought it was.  From SCOTUS blog Pyrrhic victory for federal government in Arizona voter registration case?:

“The Court categorically holds — without dissent — that the Elections Clause of Article I of the Constitution (Art. I, § 4, cl. 1) “empowers Congress to regulate how federal elections are held, but not who may vote in them” (emphasis in original).


This unanimous holding resolves a long-unresolved question about Congress’s power to determine who may vote in federal elections, and would appear to implicitly overrule at least one of the Court’s holdings in the landmark 1970 case of Oregon v. Mitchell.”

More from Miami: Online absentee ballot fraud marks the ‘e-boletera era’


 


“Now, it’s electronic.”


 


The election scandal dogging Congressman Joe Garcia’s campaign and two state House races makes it clear: Computer techies are supplementing old-school, block-walking ballot-brokers known as boleteras… A third incident cropped up Thursday in Miami’s mayoral race, but the case appears unrelated to last year’s fraud when two groups appeared to act separately from each other…


 


The ultimate goal was the same: get mail-in ballots into the hands of voters, a job that many boleteras once handled on the streets of Miami-Dade.  Now, it’s electronic.


 


“This is the e- boletera era of Miami politics.”

GOP’s Quin Hillyer Slams Farrakhan’s Involvement With Alabama Democrats

“In support of this “preclearance” requirement a group of Democrat Senators, Democrat local officials and Democrat Party officials have enlisted the help of the bigot Louis Farrakhan. The group is touring Alabama today with stops in Birmingham, Selma and Montgomery.


. . .

It’s unclear why a black bigot is considered a credible spokesman for support of Section 5 of the Voting Rights  Act.  Obviously Alabama Democrat Party leader Joe Reed and Alabama Senator Hank Sanders and Bobby Singleton think Farrakhan is a suitable spokesman to defend Section 5.  (Click here to see a video of Farrakhan saying “death” is the only answer for whites, and that whites should be “boiled in oil.” See also, Yes Justice Scalia, Section 5 Really is a Racial Entitlement at PJ Media.)”

PJ Media link.

Chaos: Alabma Voting Rights Tour With Racist Fizzles

The anti-Semite and racist Louis Farrakhan teamed up with supporters of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act in Alabama to rally in support of Section 5.  Alabama Senators like Hank Sanders apparently never saw the perception problem of having a black nationalist racist anti-Semite like Farrakhan out front in support of the Defendants in the Shelby challenge to Section 5, which of course illustrates one of the problems with Section 5.



Someone involved in the Section 5 rallies, however, saw what Sanders could not:

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Pastor Arthur Price Jr. this morning said Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan is not speaking at the downtown Birmingham institution as part of a caravan supporting the Voting Rights Act on Friday. . . .Price said he “was surprised” to hear that Farrakhan would be at the church. “I didn’t know if that was outside the church,” he said. “We never intended on Mr. Farrakhan speaking here.”

Obama lawyer Robert Bauer, picked to lead nonpartisan Election Commission, launches partisan attack on Republican leader McConnell

In the midst of the IRS scandal, Robert Bauer, Obama’s top pick to lead the new Presidential Commission on Election Administration launched an attack on Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, calling his opposition to new campaign finance disclosure legislation “Disclosure Games” and no more than rhetoric and fancy that misleads our forgetful and easily duped American populace. Below is a key excerpt from the volley against McConnell:


“It is enough to say for purposes here that the charge he makes, and that the like-minded scribe repeats, is smoking with rhetoric and flights of fancy, and it depends for its force on a a failure of the audience’s long –term memory.“

Now Mitch McConnell has thick skin and this attack will have no impact on the Senator’s deliberation or decisions on such constitutional issues.  The bigger question is how can Obama’s former White House Counsel serve on a non-partisan commission and expect to offer non-biased recommendations when he free-lances on his blog with political attacks against individuals who disagree with him, including questioning the integrity of the position.  Regardless of the wisdom of the post, it is fair to conclude that congressional adoption of election reform recommendations from Bauer just became more unlikely.  

South Dakotan charged with voter fraud and arrested – on election day



Swift justice:


 


The Mitchell Police Division on Wednesday morning reported the arrest Tuesday night of Mitchell resident Craig Guymon, 54, on charges of voter fraud related to Tuesday’s Mitchell school board election.


 


Guymon was arrested for the offense of voting more than once, which according to state law is a felony punishable upon conviction by up to two years imprisonment and a fine of up to $4,000.


 


Yes, people are “willing to risk felony charges to influence an election,” even, or rather especially, in local elections where a small number of votes may change the outcome.


Everybody Requests DOJ monitoring in Meridian, Mississippi mayoral election



Republican Mayor Cheri Barry and Democrat challenger Percy Bland have both reportedly asked the U.S. Department of Justice to monitor Tuesday’s mayoral election in Meridian, Mississippi.  Via the Clarion-Ledger:


 


“Bland’s camp wants the election monitored to prevent any voter intimidation, while Barry’s camp wants it monitored to prevent any voter fraud, campaign spokespeople said.”


 


Barry’s fraud concerns are heightened by “the Bland campaign’s involvement with Ike Brown, a name associated in recent years with a Noxubee County voter fraud scandal.” For engaging in, among other fraudulent voting activities, massive absentee ballot manipulation, Brown was found guilty of violating the Voting Rights Act and barred from participating in Noxubee County Democratic Party elections (though he remains a member of the state Democratic executive committee).


 


Bland initially denied, then later acknowledged, that Brown was working for his campaign. “The connection came to light when Brown ordered lists of absentee voters in the 2009 and 2012 elections from the Meridian city clerk’s office and Bland picked up the files,” setting off red flags given Brown’s history of absentee ballot fraud.


 


Barry’s campaign said it encouraged the Justice Department to be involved in the election as “quickly as possible” considering “Percy Bland’s use of a convicted felon.”  A decision on monitoring is expected on Monday.