Campaign law enforcer goes without general counsel for nearly a year — and counting.  Link.

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.

Hans von Spakovsky and John Fund make the case in their new book “Obama’s Enforcer: Eric Holder’s Justice Department” that Holder is the most activist and racial Attorney General in American history. Excerpt:

Holder has racialized the prosecution of federal discrimination laws and led an unprecedented attack on election integrity laws, thus making it easier for people  to commit voter fraud and facilitating the election of members of his own political party.

Dothan AL.  “Dothan commissioner’s girlfriend indicted on voter fraud charges.”  This is an election where voter fraud made a difference.  The outcome was determined by fraudulently casted votes.   The charges say that the defendants altered absentee ballots to help a Democrat city commissioner who happened to be the boyfriend of one of those charged.

Naturally the voter fraud deniers will say 1) it’s rare and 2) voter ID wouldn’t have changed it.  Wouldn’t it be nice for them to once be outraged instead of sticking to the denier narrative?

9pm

 Link.

Brietbart reports on Governor Walker turning to social media to rebut discredited allegations:

The accusation of any wrongdoing written in the complaint by the office of a partisan Dem DA by me or by my campaign is categorically false.  In fact two judges, in both state and federal courts, have ruled that no laws were broken.  This is nothing more than a partisan investigation with no basis in state law.

It’s time for the prosecutors to acknowledge both judge’s orders to end this investigation. 

 

Now my Democratic opponents will use these false accusations to distract from the issues important to the voters of Wisconsin.

Newsmax reports: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Thursday lashed out at prosecutors’ accusations he illegally coordinated fundraising with conservative groups in an allegedly criminal scheme to violate election laws — calling the complaint “nothing more than a partisan investigation.”

My latest piece at PJ Tatler writes about the appearance of notaries in Mississippi harvesting ballots who formerly engaged in illegal conduct over the years.  I quote from a US District Court opinion about their behavior and note “this is the sort of voter fraud that academics and political hacks (but I repeat myself) say is rare and doesn’t really amount to much.”

Many academics who purport to be academically disinterested in election law issues are in fact raving partisan hacks.  But that’s not news.

What is news is that one academic, Rick Hasen, has decided to deceptively feature a comment in a Bretibart story at his blog.  Classes must have ended.

Under a blaring headline, Hasen lies:

J. Christian Adams Wrongly Suggests Poll Workers Should Exclude Democrats from Voting in Mississippi Primary

Hasen quotes a Breitbart story where the entirety of my appearance is here:

The Mississippi law Adams cites, MS Code 23-15-575, states: “No person shall be eligible to participate in any primary election unless he intends to support the nominations made in which he participates.”

“Mississippi law prohibits Democrats from voting in a Republican primary,” Adams said in an emailed statement. “Obviously poll workers aren’t mind readers. But if someone doesn’t intend to support the nominee in November, then that person isn’t allowed to vote in the Republican primary.”

So how does Hasen lie? Let’s count the ways.

First the headline.  Exclude?  Where do I suggest any action by the MS GOP in the story?  I don’t.  But Hasen knows all the dog whistles for his audience. 

Next, Hasen obviously ignores the significance of all that I have said about the law at issue.  The Breitbart story notes “poll workers aren’t mindreaders.”  I’ve also tweeted that Carnac the Magnificent and the Amazing Kreskin might have to be recruited to work the runoff to enforce this law.  I litigated this issue (which naturally Hasen never has) and the Mississippi law has been in the news quite a bit over the years.

Which brings us to the third mischaracterization by Hasen – that the Mississippi law doesn’t exist.  It does, still.  Now that might not matter to a law professor at a law school (congratulations by the way on the recent accreditation of the school).  But it matters to folks in Mississippi.  Hasen makes much of Judge Pepper’s district court opinion being vacated on standing grounds.  That supports me, not contradicts me, though you’d never know it from Hasen’s dishonest hack piece. That means that the statute is still in force and no court has struck it down, which brings us to the Mississippi Attorney General’s opinion.  Of course the opinion is just that, an opinion.  The opinion does not state the law is unconstitutional, but it does state the law has weaknesses in enforcement. (See my comments about Kreskin) One Democrat tried to enforce it by publishing a list of names of white voters and saying they wouldn’t be allowed to vote.  I argued that was an 11b violation, and the district court disagreed.  Had the mirror image occurred, you’d find Josh Marshall and his left wing blogger buddies frothing at the mouth to talk about voter intimidation.

But Hasen’s lie turns on a verb – excludes.  He says I suggested Democrats should be excluded.  I didn’t.  I’m sure he’ll quibble and say that was what was suggested, but it wasn’t.  There should be an apology and a retraction.  But I don’t really care what Rick Hasen does.  He once badgered this blog because his comments weren’t being approved fast enough, as if he pays the bills here.  In fact, comments don’t get approved very quickly here, ever.  Comments at his blog – well… they don’t exist.  

Such are the ways of academia: pretend laws aren’t laws, misquote and twist facts for a cause (See, Pam Karlan, http://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2013/10/11/the-dangerous-dishonesty-of-possible-supreme-court-nominee-pam-karlan/) and do whatever you can to influence the political process from your perch in the ivory tower.
 

But the liberal campaign to discredit Walker isn’t limited to TNR’s inflammatory trash. As the New York Times reported this afternoon, there was an attempt by some Wisconsin prosecutors to tie Walker’s recall campaign to illegal contributions. But you have to click on the piece that was trumpeted on the paper’s home page to learn that the case was unproven and, in fact, dismissed by a federal judge and that the story is based on a federal suit that sought to reveal the unsubstantiated allegations in the records of this cold case. In fact, you have to read down to the end of the sixth paragraph of the piece to read, in a quote from Walker’s camp, that “two judges have rejected the characterizations [of the Walker campaign’s alleged illegal activity] contained in these documents.” The Times only mentions the pertinent fact that a federal judge halted the investigation as a politicized fishing expedition in the last sentence of the article.

In other words, there may be as little to this “scandal” as there was to previous efforts to nail Walker via Wisconsin’s draconian campaign finance laws or hit pieces like that published in TNR. All of which must cause political observers to wonder why it is that liberals are expending so much effort to knock off Walker. Could it be that they sense he is exactly the sort of candidate that could give Democrats a run for their money in 2016?

Link to full story