Bronx request for election observers to DOJ

Here is a request for election observers for the Bronx sent to the DOJ.  The letter cites the:

“imminent danger of voter disenfranchisement, fraud and intimidation.”

The letter states that some of the elections will be conducted by paper ballot in the Bronx because they can’t get all of the optical scanning machines to work.

“the change in technology impacts less informed voters who can be easily manipulated by poll workers.”

“The incumbent has a long history of suppressing voter turnout [Senator Reverend Ruben Diaz Sr.] and distributing fraudulent propaganda, manipulating elections and being investigated by the F.B.I.”

Note the call to have the federal government monitor the election because of the use of “fraudulent propaganda.”  This letter was written by a candidate for the 32nd Senatorial District.  The letter goes on to ask the Justice Department to “take control” of the ballots after the election. 

We will know shortly whether the DOJ finds these arguments persuasive enough to deploy observers on September 14.

BREAKING: DOJ undermines Pentagon waiver denial and settles with Wisconsin on cozy terms

DOJ settled today with Wisconsin over the gross failure to comply with protections of the MOVE Act and mail ballots 45 days prior to the election to military and overseas voters.  This deal represents a repudiation of the role of the Pentagon in denying the waiver application.  But it also represents a return to the discredited (legislatively and statistically) notion that 30 days is enough time for military ballots to transit overseas.  The Pajamas Media coverage here:

BREAKING: DOJ Undermines Pentagon, Allows Wisconsin To Ignore Military Voting Protections

It is 2008 all over again. Today the Department of Justice effectively rewrote the 2009 MOVE Act designed to protect military voters. In a settlement reached with the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, the Holder Justice Department allowed Wisconsin to mail ballots to overseas military voters only 32 days before the election, instead of the statutorily mandated 45 days.

Once again, it is no accident this embarrassing settlement is being released on a Friday, so fewer might notice.

The Pentagon had denied Wisconsin’s application for a waiver from the 45-day requirement: “The states granted waivers presented thorough and comprehensive plans to protect the voting opportunities for military and overseas voters,” Bob Carey, director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program, said in a statement. Wisconsin’s waiver application didn’t even come close to compliance with the MOVE Act. They wanted to send ballots only 29 days before the election. The folks at the Pentagon rightfully denied the waiver request.

The victory for military voters was short-lived.

Instead of aggressively suing Wisconsin immediately after the waiver denial, the DOJ engaged in secret negotiations. An immediate lawsuit would have strengthened the negotiating position of the DOJ as well as preserved various equitable legal arguments, including the argument DOJ waited too long to commence litigation. Instead of doing the right thing, the DOJ did the easy thing and reached a settlement with Wisconsin that undermined the Pentagon’s denial of Wisconsin’s waiver request.

The tough negotiating stance of the Holder DOJ extracted a whopping additional three days out of Wisconsin. Ballots will mail 32 days before the election instead of 29. A consent decree filed Friday will reflect this quisling agreement.

This is a disgrace, plain and simple. Military voters, their families and veterans organizations should be outraged at the Holder DOJ.

It is true that time was added to allow ballots to roll in after the election, but time after the election is different in quality than time before. The MOVE Act was explicitly designed to add time before an election to ensure the solider would get a ballot in time to benefit from the express delivery requirement under the MOVE Act. This guarantees that ballots placed in military mail at least 7 days before an election will be returned in time to be counted. By sending ballots only 32 days before the election, many overseas soldiers will be denied this important guarantee. Congress specifically rejected post-election add-on time as a solution. Compressing the pre-election time ignores both of these important statutory purposes.

The limp DOJ settlement demonstrates a core fear inside Justice of litigating military voting cases. Even when the DOJ actually acts to protect military voters, the investigative methods resemble the Keystone Cops [1].

After the administration changes, an increasing possibility in 2013, it will be essential to clean house and install litigators who don’t flinch under fire, both in the courtroom and also on the battlefield. It’s time to put someone in charge of protecting military voters who cares about military voters, preferably with military experience.

Senator John Cornyn has put the heat on Justice, and blocked the nomination of James Cole to be Deputy Attorney General. Justice was desperate to have Cole confirmed weeks ago, and the military voting mess has aggravated top DOJ leadership. Americans rightfully outraged by the DOJ concession should send notes of support to Senator Cornyn for his efforts to protect military voters. The shameful Wisconsin settlement will likely strengthen Cornyn’s resolve on the Cole hold.

Could Wisconsin have done something differently? Lots.

Wisconsin could have done what Florida, Georgia or Vermont did, and fix the problem in the nearly twelve months since the MOVE Act was passed. It’s a question of priorities. Wisconsin could have just gotten the job done like other waiver-requesting states did when their waivers were rejected. The primaries in Wisconsin are on September 14, but the DOJ settlement won’t require ballots to be printed and mailed until October 2.

Full article here.

Palm Springs (CA) City Council candidate charged with voter fraud

“A former Palm Springs City Council candidate who claimed she resided in the city when she allegedly lived in Arizona was charged with felonies, prosecutors said Thursday.

Eloise Garcia-Mohsin, 46, was charged with two counts of voter fraud, three counts of perjury and four counts of falsely filing election documents, and the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office issued a warrant for her arrest.”

More at KPSP-TV.

Oregon: Voter fraud, social security fraud, identify theft, the whole ball of wax

This guy had it all.   Checks, votes, different names. 

“Keaton first fell under suspicion of Oregon elections officials more than a year ago when it appeared he was voting under his own name and those of at least two other men, including a dead son, said Helen Cooper,  a special assistant U.S. attorney who handles Social Security cases.”

Oregon, you may recall, is one of the states to whom I sent a notice letter because they did not adequately purge the voter rolls of dead voters.  The notice letter sent to Secretary of State Kate Brown said:

“The EAC Report details some problematic data for Oregon. Specifically it states that Oregon removed zero dead voters from the rolls from 2006 to 2008.

 


This failure to maintain the voter rolls creates a risk that the elections in November 2010, and beyond, may not be conducted with sufficient integrity.  Because steps to ensure that only eligible living voters are on the rolls in Oregon do not involve significant effort or cost, hopefully a resolution to these problems will be in place by November 2, 2010.”

UPDATE: More shocking details on Voter Fraud Guru Lafayette Keaton here.   Turns out he is a well known con-artist.

Squables errupt over Georgia citizenship verification preclearance

The Civil Rights Division is  “back open for business” indeed.  But the customers are still unhappy. 

A variety of left wing groups are grumbling about the fact that the DOJ conducted a well timed strategic retreat over the Georgia citizenship verification preclearance.  The ACLU, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund all filed a pleading protesting the dismissal of the case brought by Georgia.  Nothing is quite as nasty as a fight between family members.  They argue:

“Although the Attorney General acted within his technical legal authority when he granted expedited preclearance here, this expedited review appears to have been taken at Georgia’s behest solely to prejudice the State’s own citizens who intervened in this case. ” 

More, the DOJ’s actions “were highly irregular, and that the manner in which the administrative request was made and acted upon was calculated to deprive Intervenors [the groups named above] of the opportunity to contest, comment upon, or play any role in the disposition of the voting procedures for which the State had sought preclearance in this Court. The Attorney General’s acquiescence to the State of Georgia’s highly prejudicial maneuvers is inconsistent with the Attorney General’s practice in previous Section 5 actions, and with the Attorney General’s self-defined role as a ‘surrogate’ for this Court.”

There are two things these groups overlook, or don’t want to acknowledge:

1. It was a bad objection from Day One.  It was interposed during the heyday of lunatics running the asylum in Civil Rights before Tom Perez was confirmed.  Loretta “I heart the black panthers” King was the signatory to the objection letter.  The objection was bad from the get-go.  The current Voting Section chief has forgotten more about Section 5 than Loretta King ever knew.  That is not hyperbole or flip.  It is true.  It is also relevant to understanding an important public policy issue.  No doubt the genuine weakness of the objection became clear to those who best understand Section 5.

2. Not only was the bad objection at issue, but so was the whole constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.  When a general gets to choose a battlefield on which to fight, he doesn’t choose a ravine surrounded by rocky outcrops and only one escape route across a river.  You want the high ground with clear fields of fire.  The Georgia citizenship verification objection was one of the worst possible fact scenarios to defend Section 5 – and the people most privy to how bad it was (presumably the ones with the internal memos) would be the the ones who blew the retreat.  MALDEF and the LDF would never know how tenuous it was because they never did the heavy lifting on it. 

And so the groups are upset.  A short-lived little spat between friends.  But not all is lost.  The groups can still put in their fundraising appeals to donors that they “fought!!” against Georgia’s citizenship verification plan and I’m sure the dollars will still roll in as much as if they had had overturned the plan. Nobody will know the difference, and Section 5 will still be on the books a few extra months for sure.  Reconciliations are sure to follow. 

Thursday Radio

All on Thursday:  I’ll be on WSBA-AM on the Gary Sutton show Thursday to talk about my latest Pajamas Media article.   Also, Thursday  I’ll be on America’s Morning News with John McCaslin during the 6am hour discussing the same.  Sorry I don’t have AMN’s nationwide affiliate list.  During the 7am hour I will be on WMAL in Washington DC on the Grandy Group.   Being a big fan of the Monster Squad , this is a particular thrill.   I will also be on the Martha Zoeller show statewide in Georgia to discuss DOJ’s retreat in the Georgia citizenship verification lawsuit as well as the never ending challenge to Georgia Voter ID.  I will try to keep this updated as best I can.