Author Archives: ELECTIONLAWCENTER.COM

Gastonia (NC) voter fraud indictment

Another indictment out of the November 2010 election for voter fraud is announced. From the Gastonia Gazette in North Carolina:


“A Gaston County grand jury returned a true bill of indictment this week against Jerry Lee June Jr., 28, of 4461 Lamar Ave., for felony voter fraud. The indictment asserts that June was still serving probation for another recent felony conviction when he cast a provisional ballot.  June was released from the Gaston County Jail on Thursday after posting a $1,000 secured bond.”

Someone alert Tova Wang , yet another amendment to her November 4 report concluding no voter fraud occurred on November 2 appears to be in order.

No federal charges in chili for votes scam

First the South Dakota Attorney General announced no charges in the chili for votes scam on South Dakota Indian reservations.  Now the Department of Justice has decided  not to bring federal charges.  It is a federal crime to offer anything of value in exchange for a vote, even a bowl of chili.  “U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson announced Tuesday he will not file charges over allegations of vote-buying due to early voting rallies during the 2010 election.”

Here is the curious part of the article:  “Johnson said he consulted with voting rights experts at the U.S. Department of Justice in making his decision not to file charges.”

Huh?  “Voting Rights Experts?”  The only “Voting Rights Experts” in the DOJ are the lawyers inside the Voting Rights Section in the Civil Rights Division.  The problem with consulting them regarding chili-for-votes is that they are not criminal lawyers.  In fact, whether or not the federal criminal laws are being violated has absolutely nothing to do with “voting rights.”  To the contrary, the folks in that part of the Justice Department usually act as advocates for native populations.  It is difficult to imagine why voting rights experts were consulted on this purely criminal election law question.  The Election Crimes Branch of the Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Division was the proper place to turn for answers inside Justice, not the Voting Section in the Civil Rights Division.  Perhaps the Rapid City Journal has the terminology wrong.  Perhaps not.

Field Trip Day at the DOJ Voting Section




While most Americans with jobs will be busy flipping burgers, driving trucks or cleaning offices, Friday should be fun for all the Federal employees at the Voting Section at the Department of Justice. It’s “Field Trip” day to the federal court. Arguments will be heard in the case of Laroque v. Holder. This morning, an invitation went out to all 89 Voting Section employees encouraging them to leave work and trek across town to sit in on a court hearing. These are federal employees who are not assigned to work on the case being heard on Friday. They have no legitimate job related purpose to be there. They can read a transcript of the hearing if they need to.

But who can pass up a nice leisurely jaunt out of a moribund office to watch some courtroom drama? It’s the same reason prisoners are willing to pick filthy garbage up from the side of the road. Anything beats sitting around, doing nothing behind a closed door, watching the clock and scrambling for work assignments that never materialize.

Tired of cases being rejected to protect language minority voters in Democratic-controlled jurisdictions? Hand me a garbage bag! Confused why political leadership won’t approve investigations into states with too many dead people on the rolls? Sign me up for that Field Trip! No more Section two cases being approved?  Get me outta here!

It’s why even pressing license plates can be appealing after days of solitary idleness. So maybe the taxpayers funding the Field Trip can be merciful when an entire federal office of 89 people is invited to leave work and depart the office for some courtroom drama.

Of course many of their jobs will depend on the outcome of the hearing. If Section 5 is struck down, credible justifications to maintain these federal jobs evaporate.

In Laroque v. Holder, Kinston NC residents are challenging the Constitutionality of Section 5 preclearance requirements. In April 2009, then political appointee Acting Assistant Attorney General Loretta King interposed an objection to Kinston’s move away from partisan elections for town council – opining that black voters wouldn’t know for whom to vote if the word “Democrat” did not appear next to their name.

Then again, perhaps there will be no productivity loss – it is well known that nobody in the Voting Section has any work to do. So much for “reinvigorating” the voting laws.

Maybe someone can report back how many Voting Section employees went on the Field Trip to the Federal Courthouse on Friday. Or, maybe someone can submit a Freedom of Information Request to the Voting Section for all Voting Section employee emails “seeking permission from their supervisors pursuant to an email of December 1, 2010 from the Section Chief to attend a hearing in Laroque v. Holder” to this email: Voting.Section@usdoj.gov.

Washington Times: Obama Wrong on Panthers

Second editorial  in one day:



“From the Civil Rights Commission’s report last week on the voter-intimidation case, here’s what Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez said in written testimony about why the Justice Department dropped charges against Black Panther Jerry Jackson: “The Department placed significant weight on the response of the law enforcement first responders to the Philadelphia polling place on Election Day. A report of the local police officer who responded to the scene … indicates that the officer interviewed Mr. Jackson, confirmed that he in fact was a certified poll watcher, and concluded that his actions did not warrant his removal from the premises.”


Fine: The officer merely had no evidence Mr. Jackson had broken local laws. However, Mr. Jackson’s status as poll watcher was irrelevant to the later federal charges. Poll watchers have no more right than anybody else – indeed, they probably have less excuse – to threaten or menace voters.”

Latest at Pajamas Media: Military voting mess continues

My latest at Pajamas Media here.

“The military voting mess of 2010 isn’t over. In some states, ballots continue to roll in. Whether or not these late ballots will be counted remains to be seen.

I have learned that voters deployed across Iraq and Afghanistan received ballots far too late to be effective. The MOVE Act of 2009 was designed to fix this problem, but may have failed. One reason for the failure: open contempt inside the Department of Justice to the mandates of the new law.”

Full article.