Will the Holder Justice Department lodge an objection to a plan that prohibits people from being able to vote, and that a Federal court has already held was evidence of an illegal intent to racially discriminate? 

Ike Brown, the Chairman of the Noxubee County (MS) Democratic Executive Committee has made a submission to the Justice Department.  The submission seeks to empower the Democratic executive committee, which is largely Ike Brown, to prevent some people from participating in the Democratic primary.  Under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, the Department of Justice must preclear any change in voting in a number of states, particularly in the south.  The preclearance power is designed to prevent instances of racial discrimination before they occur.  All changes must be submitted to the DOJ Voting Section for approval prior to implementation.   You can read the amateurish submission here.

Brown’s attempted exercise of this power in the past has been found to violate federal law.  A federal court in 2007 held that Brown violated the Voting Rights Act by engaging in intentional racial discrimination.  One example of illegal activity was that the defendant Ike Brown sought to scare voters away from voting by listing their names in a newspaper and announcing they may be subject to challenge if they tried to vote.  Brown flexed this imaginary power, so he said, because there were really “stealth Republicans” and he didn’t want them in his primary.  Mississippi has open primaries.   District Court Judge Tom Lee (S.D.M.S.) knew better.  He found Brown sought to exclude people from voting in the primary because of race:

 “The question is whether Brown’s action with respect to this list of 174 voters was actuated by these party loyalty concerns or whether this was pretext for a true purpose to discourage white voters from coming to the polls, or some combination of the two. The court has carefully weighed the evidence and finds that while party concerns were a factor in Brown’s actions, race played a role as well. . . . In sum, the court is of the opinion that Brown had the names of these white voters published in part because of party loyalty concerns, but also as an attempt to discourage white voters from voting in the 2003 Democratic primary.”  494 F. Supp. 2d 440 (S.D. Miss. 2007)

So fast forward to 2010.  Behavior which a federal court has decided was motivated by an illegal racial intent – the intent to create a scheme where Ike Brown could prevent voters from participating in an election because of their race – is now before the Justice Department for approval. Ike Brown is seeking the sanction of the Justice Department to engage in the same activity which a court held demonstrated Brown’s racial intent to discriminate.  One would imagine this would be an easy call.  Certainly there are some honorable people in the Voting Section who recognize this as a no-brainer and realize an objection can lie against Brown’s proposed change.  But these might not be ordinary circumstances.  The cop-out would be to issue an no determination letter – concluding for example that since Brown’s behavior in 2003 and 2007 was so egregious that he was banned by the court from administering elections until 2012, then he really couldn’t make a submission.  This would be a cop-out based on an inaccuracy.  Brown is still in charge of the Democratic Party in Noxubee and still can make the rules.  Plus, the Court did NOT ban, despite a request from the United States to do so, the many others on the Executive Committee from participating in the election process.  Of course this change would still be in effect once Brown and his henchmen regain control of the electoral process.

Under normal Section 5 procedures, the Department of Justice is supposed to contact minority contacts within the jurisdiction and get their input on any submission.  Will this happen?  They might start with the list of 174 voters Brown sought to prevent from voting based on their race in 2003.  Or, they could contact individuals the United States called at trial who were victims of Brown’s racial discrimination.  Will they make these phone calls?  Will they seek the input of the previous victims of his racially discriminatory scheme?  Electionlawcenter.com will determine whether the prior victims of Brown’s racial discrimination have been contacted by the Department for thier input and report back. 

And will the Department issue an objection against Ike Brown?  Some smart and honorable people at the Department certainly know how simple this question is.  They will likely raise the point to their superiors, perhaps even recommend an objection.  But will the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights lodge an objection against a powerful Democrat, albeit a vile racially motivated one?  We’ll watch closely and wait.  In the meantime, the public can lodge their views at:

Chief, Voting Section
Civil Rights Division
Room 7254 – NWB
Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, DC   20530

202-307-2767       

Every complaint, document, fax, email becomes part of the record on the submission.  Every complaint will be read.  A decision must be made by July 13, 2010.