The Impeachment Hearing Room

Bush Seeks Ohio Voter Fraud Inquiry; Will Colorado Be Next? Not Settled Yet!

Highlights: Barack's Closing Argument for Change

And Now The Next Step

Election day is still one week away, but already the Bush Justice Department is looking into allegations of voter fraud. In Ohio. That's the same state where supporters of Democratic Sen. John Kerry charged foul in the 2004 election.

Responding to a request from Ohio Republican John Boehner, who happens to be the House minority leader, President Bush on Friday asked Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey to investigate the status of 200,000 Ohio voters. If those voters remain on the rolls without added checks, Boehner said, "there is a significant risk, if not a certainty, that unlawful votes will be cast and counted."

But critics argue that an inquiry by a Justice Department that is already tainted by allegations that it fired eight U.S. attorneys for not being Republican enough in their prosecutions looks fishy. As voters in Ohio go to the polls to cast early ballots, as seen in the photo above, Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown and five other lawmakers, in a letter, urged Mukasey not to intervene in Ohio.

The eyes of the nation are once again on Ohio in this critical election. We have confidence in the work that is being done by Ohio’s bipartisan group of election officials. ... We respectfully request that you refrain from taking any action absent more compelling evidence than partisan political requests. ... We are concerned that complaints ... are designed to reduce the number of legitimate votes that are cast and counted in our state.

A similar legal drama could play out in Colorado. Republicans there are charging that the Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) is loading up the voter rolls with unqualified people. Democrats are asking a federal court to reinstate approximately 30,000 Colorado voters purged from registration lists by Secretary of State Mike Coffman, a Republican.

Let the lawsuits begin.

-- Johanna Neuman

Palin power

Justice Department Pressed by Bush to Contest 200000 Ohio Voters AlterNet

Massive Voter Turnout Expected in Ohio, One-Third Via Absentee Ballot The Public Record

Ohio Democrats Ask Justice Department Not To Intervene In Ohio ... AHN

TPM - Denver Post all 39 news articles »

Beatty, Miller send letter to US Department of Justice
PolitickerOH, OH - 5 hours ago
... Reporter Ohio House minority leader Joyce Beatty and Senate minority leader Ray Miller sent a letter to the US Attorney General Michael Mukasey asking ...

Registering DoubtIf we can nationalize banks, why not our election ...

PERSPECTIVE: Ohio GOP suit becomes sticky issue

Ohio Dems Push Back On White House Call For DOJ Action On Voting

Elections Officials Say They’re Ready for November 4th
90.3 WCPN ideastream®, Ohio - 3 hours ago
Northeast voters are giving a decided thumbs up to the idea of casting their ballots before election day. Local elections boards report record numbers of ...

Where in the World is Michael Mukasey?

Where in the World is Michael Mukasey? (continued)

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 the Civil Rights Division. Perhaps she might care to explain, if that is really true, why the Division filed a lawsuit against Waller County, Texas, to remedy alleged violations of the Voting Rights Act on October 10? Or why her Division filed a lawsuit against the State of Vermont for allegedly violating the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act on October 14? Or why they filed an amicus brief on October 21 in Georgia in a lawsuit filed by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights trying to stop the Georgia Secretary of State’s compliance with HAVA’s verification requirement because she has supposedly not gotten approval from DOJ under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act to implement a federal statute.

This answer is, of course, complete nonsense. In more than four decades of operation, the Civil Rights Division has never hesitated to file lawsuits to enforce federal voting rights laws that govern access to the polls and the administration of elections even on the very eve of Election Day. The Georgia case shows that the Division doesn’t think “involving itself in litigation just before an election” is a problem when they are trying to stop compliance with HAVA’s verification provision; they only seem to have a problem filing litigation to enforce compliance with this requirement, a requirement that the liberal establishment wants to see stricken from HAVA.

It would be outrageous for DOJ to not investigate and prosecute serious claims of voter intimidation because of an impending election. It is just as outrageous for DOJ to not prosecute Ohio’s failure to verify the accuracy and authenticity of voter registration information, which could lead to legitimate votes being diluted by fraudulent ballots. My previous question from my original post seems to have been answered.

We Are Waiting Confirmation That This Is Going To Be The End Of The Matter Pre-Election!

Bush seeks Ohio voter fraud inquiry; will Colorado be next?
Los Angeles Times - CA,USA
Michael B. Mukasey to investigate the status of 200000 Ohio voters. If those voters remain on the rolls without added checks, Boehner said, ...
See all stories on this topic

Beatty, Miller send letter to US Department of Justice
PolitickerOH - OH,USA
... Reporter Ohio House minority leader Joyce Beatty and Senate minority leader Ray Miller sent a letter to the US Attorney General Michael Mukasey asking ...
See all stories on this topic

Registering DoubtIf we can nationalize banks, why not our election ...
Slate - USA
The Obama campaign has sent letters to Attorney General Michael Mukasey accusing Republicans of deliberately trying to suppress the vote. And the Ohio ...

See all stories on this topic PERSPECTIVE: Ohio GOP suit becomes sticky issue
Akron Beacon Journal - Akron,OH,USA
It has written a letter to US Attorney General Michael Mukasey, asking him to force Brunner to follow what it believes is the law.
See all stories on this topic

Colorado Sued To Reverse Voter Purges
By Advancement Project
Colorado Voting rights groups sue the Republican Secretary of State to restore between 16,000 and 30,000 voters who were illegally purged this fall. Read more »

Bush Tries to Interfere with the Eligibility of 200,000 New Ohio Voters
By Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet
How far will an already politicized Justice Department go to assist Republicans win on November 4? Read more »

Democrats Describe Efforts to Limit Voting Machines Problems
By Steven Rosenfeld
As activists worry about paperless voting machines, a top DNC lawyer describes the party's election protection efforts for voting machines. Read more »

Twelve Ways You Can Safeguard the Vote
By Fran Korten
Yes! Magazine's offers good suggestions for voters to ensure they will get to vote in 2008. Read more »

Big Setbacks for GOP Voter Suppression Efforts in Swing States
By Steven Rosenfeld
Court ruling, decisions by secretaries of state in Wisconsin, Ohio and Nevada blunt GOP's anti-voter agenda. Read more »

Brennan Center: 2008's Voter Suppression Incidents So Far
By Wendy Weiser, Brennan Center for Justice

The Brennan Center for Justice details the voter suppression tactics unfolding as America faces another presidential election. Read more » 

UPI NewsTrack TopNews
United Press International - USA
Bush Friday asked Attorney General Michael Mukasey to review the matter, after House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, urged the president to seek a ...
See all stories on this topic

In a Totally Unacceptable déjà vu moment from Campaign 2006, President George W. Bush again is asking his Attorney General to launch an investigation into the registration of hundreds of thousands of new Ohio  voters, many of whom are expected to vote Democratic. 

Will It Never End! And You Wonder Why We Have Been Screaming For The Impeachment Of People In The Administration. The Law Means Nothing To Them. Election Theft And Voter Suppression Comes Second Nature To Them!

White House Asks for Scrutiny
Washington Post, United States | By Mary Pat Flaherty

The White House has asked the Department of Justice to look into whether 200000 new Ohio voters must reconfirm their registration ...

Ohio elections website hacked as vote scuffle gets ugly

New Voters Under Siege: Ohio Exemplifies National Voting Rights Issues

GOP US reps ask Justice Dept. to lean on Brunner PolitickerOH

Apparently What The United States Supreme Court Rules Has No Meaning 

For The Republican party And The McCain Campaign Team!

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/102508b.html

Bush forwarded to Attorney General Michael Mukasey a Republican request that he intervene in the battleground state of Ohio to force 200,000 new voters to either verify the information on their registration forms or cast provisional ballots, which are often thrown out after the voter leaves the polling place. (Mukasey has his only problems with a subpoena issued by Vermont Senator Leahy)

Similarly, two years ago when Bush feared Democratic victories in congressional races, the President “spoke with Attorney General [Alberto] Gonzales in October 2006 about their concerns over voter fraud,” according to a Justice Department Inspector General’s reported released earlier this month.

In 2006, the White House and some congressional Republicans also put pressure on the Justice Department and U.S. Attorneys around the country to bring last-minute indictments against pro-Democratic voter registration drives.

When some federal prosecutors balked because they found a lack of evidence, they were purged as part of an unprecedented firing of nine U.S. Attorneys, who were deemed not “loyal Bushies.”

That “prosecutor-gate” scandal led to the resignations of several senior White House and Justice Department officials, including Attorney General Gonzales. President Bush then asserted broad executive privilege to block testimony by Karl Rove and other top White House officials.

Now, two years later, Bush is again putting the Justice Department in position to act on a new round of “voter fraud” suspicions pushed by Republican leaders and his favored successor, Sen. John McCain.

While the goal in 2006 was to salvage Republican control of Congress, Bush’s latest move appears aimed at keeping the White House in Republican hands.

Federal intervention – if ordered by Mukasey – could wreak havoc at polling places across Ohio, with Republican operatives using data on mismatches to challenge thousands of voters and causing long lines in Democratic strongholds.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, sent a letter to Bush asking for his extraordinary intervention after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to get involved in the Ohio dispute.

“Unless action is taken by the [Justice] Department immediately, thousands, if not tens or hundreds of thousands of names whose information has not been verified through the [Help America Vote Act] procedures mandated by Congress will remain on the voter rolls during the Nov. 4 election. …

“There is a significant risk if not a certainty, that unlawful votes will be cast and counted. Given the Election Day is less than two weeks away, immediate action by the Department is not only warranted, but also crucial.”

On Friday, White House spokesman Carlton Carroll said Bush had referred Boehner’s letter “to the Department of Justice for their review.”

Little Evidence

However, independent studies have shown that phony registrations rarely result in illegally cast ballots because there are so many other safeguards built into the system.

For instance, from October 2002 to September 2005, a total of 70 people were convicted for federal election related crimes, according to figures compiled by the New York Times last year. Only 18 of those were for ineligible voting.

In recent years, federal prosecutors reached similar conclusions despite pressure from the Bush administration to lodge “election fraud” charges against voter registration groups seen as bringing more Democratic voters into the democratic process.

Federal investigative guidelines also discourage election-related probes before ballots are cast because of the likelihood that the inquiries will become politicized and might influence the election outcomes.

“In most cases, voters should not be interviewed, or other voter-related investigation done, until after the election is over,” according to the Justice Department’s guidelines for election offenses.

In 2004, Republican-controlled Ohio was one state where voters complained that their votes cast on electronic voting machines for Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate, were recorded for Bush.

Additionally, tens of thousands of voters were purged from voter registration rolls. Early exit polls showed Kerry leading Bush in Ohio, but Bush carried the state by 119,000 votes.

At issue now is a federal law – the Help America Vote Act, which was passed when Republicans dominated Congress in 2002 – that requires states to verify the eligibility of voters.

Lawsuit Filed

The Ohio Republican Party filed a lawsuit last month against Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, claiming that voter registration information for hundreds of thousands of new voters did not match official government data, such as Social Security records and driver’s licenses.

But in court filings, GOP officials did not provide documentary evidence to back up those claims. Voting advocates also note that many mismatches can be irrelevant, such as the use of a middle name in one form but not another or a typographical error in a database.

Still, Republicans faulted Brunner for her “steadfast refusal to provide the HAVA ‘mismatch’ data to the county boards of elections in a meaningful way.” They accused Brunner of violating federal election laws by “actively working to conceal fraudulent activity.”

Brunner said the lawsuit was “politically motivated” and could result in disenfranchisement of voters because of "misstated technical information or glitches in databases. …

“Many of those discrepancies bear no relationship whatsoever to a voter's eligibility to vote a regular, as opposed to a provisional, ballot,'' Brunner said, adding that mismatches “may well be used at the county level unnecessarily to challenge fully qualified voters and severely disrupt the voting process.”

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s ruling that had favored the Republicans. The high court said lawsuits “brought by a private litigant" could not be used to force states to abide by federal laws.

Boehner then sought, via the letter to Bush, to have Mukasey force Brunner to comply with HAVA’s requirements.

Sen. McCain also has elevated the issue of irregularities in registration forms, saying during the third presidential debate that the grassroots group ACORN “is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy.”

Although McCain’s comment was largely hyperbole, it set the stage for widespread Republican challenges to new voters, what GOP critics say is just the latest chapter of a long history of Republican “voter suppression.”

Recent investigations launched against ACORN – now including the reported involvement of the FBI – have raised other concerns, especially that Republicans are flogging this issue in an effort to stir up anger, to revive McCain’s campaign, and to intimidate new voters.

Ohio’s 20 electoral votes could be crucial for McCain to achieve a comeback victory over his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, who is leading in Ohio by five to seven percentage points, according to most polls.

Republican success in disqualifying large numbers of new voters – while creating long lines in Democratic precincts – could tip Ohio into McCain’s column on Election Night.

On Friday, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said he was "disappointed" that Bush "chose to interject partisan politics into the election. My confidence in Secretary Brunner's work remains unchanged. She will ensure that every eligible Ohio vote is counted."

Brown asked Mukasey not to intervene in the matter.

Jason Leopold has launched a new Web site, The Public Record, at www.pubrecord.org.

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6529