Having been a county election official myself many years ago, I know how difficult it can be to administer an election and make the proper decisions when problems ensue. However, the flawed and extremely questionable decisions being rendered by the Minnesota Canvassing Board are remarkable for their inconsistency except for one consistency – they seem to be applying different rules to the same circumstances depending on whether or not they favor Al Franken. John Lott’s article for Fox News does a remarkable job of illustrating the problems with the Canvassing …
The arrest of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, may end up being one of the most serious public corruption cases prosecuted by the Justice Department in many years. The 78-page complaint and accompanying affidavit of FBI Special Agent Daniel Cain reads like something out of a Mickey Spillane novel, particularly the snippets of conversations between Blagojevich and Harris (with the Governor’s wife yelling epithets in the background) recorded on the wiretaps placed on the Governor’s telephones. The charges of conspiracy to commit mail and …
The liberal political establishment is always expressing its concern over the possible “disenfranchisement” of voters (claims that almost always turn out to be completely exaggerated), but their concerns seem to disappear when the disenfranchised are military voters. How else can one explain the almost total lack of interest expressed over the pending disenfranchisement of possibly thousands of overseas voters in Virginia, mostly military personnel? Just prior to the Nov. 4 election, the McCain-Palin campaign filed a federal lawsuit in Richmond against the Virginia State Board of Elections under the Uniformed …
Campaign finance warrior James Bopp, who has been involved in numerous fights to protect First Amendment rights to engage in political speech and political activity, is the lead lawyer in two new lawsuits filed against the McCain-Feingold law – the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (“BCRA”). Bopp won a significant victory last year in FEC v. Wisconsin Right to Life, 127 S.Ct. 2652 (2007), when he convinced the Supreme Court to declare that sections of BCRA were unconstitutional as applied where they prohibited a pro-life organization from running issues …
On Wednesday morning it was 725; on Wednesday night it was 477; on Thursday night it was down to 336; by Friday it was 239; Sunday it was 221; and by today it was down to only 204. Are we talking about the Dow Jones falling on Wall Street? No, we are talking about the incredible shrinking margin of Sen. Norm Coleman’s victory over Al Franken. There is no question that there are usually some slight changes in the vote totals in counties throughout a state as election officials check …
I have previously posted about the failure of the Justice Department and its Civil Rights Division to enforce the Help America Vote Act against the Wisconsin election board and the Ohio Secretary of State over their failure to verify the accuracy of voter registration forms. Today’s question is why is the Department not enforcing the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act against the State of Virginia? The McCain Campaign has been forced to file suit under UOCAVA because of the failure of Virginia counties like Arlington to send out …
For all of those who argue that fraudulent voter registrations, like registration forms with false addresses, don’t lead to voter fraud, the Election Journal report on an Obama field organizer in North Carolina who is registered in three states and has voted in two. Farah Minwalla is apparently registered to vote in North Carolina, New York, and Nevada. According to Election Journal, Ms. Minwalla registered and voted in the Nevada Caucus (through same day registration); two weeks later, she voted in the New York Presidential primary. Election Journal also reports …
It must really be tough to be a public affairs guy at the Department of Justice who has to explain why the Civil Rights Division is not carrying out its enforcement responsibilities. I have posted previously about the failure of the Civil Rights Division to enforce the Help America Vote Act against Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, who has refused to forward information about mismatches between the information contained on new voter registration forms and other state records to county election officials (they have also failed to sue the …
Update: I have just learned that there was a conference call today between DOJ personnel and Congressional staff. The Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division, which is responsible for enforcing the Help America Vote Act, was asked whether the Division was planning to pursue the Ohio Secretary of State for her violation of the verification requirements of HAVA. Her answer (unbelievably) was that DOJ shouldn’t involve itself in election litigation just before an election. This is an absolutely astonishing assertion by the no. 2 official in …
When the Supreme Court vacated the stay that had been issued in Ohio Republican Party v. Brunner last week, it did so based on the view that the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) does not authorize a lawsuit by a private party. The stay had ordered the Ohio Secretary of State to comply with the requirement in HAVA to verify the accuracy of the information provided on voter registration applications. The Supreme Court took some pains to make clear it was not disputing the district court and the …
