Labels: 2008 Election, election tampering, voter caging, voter fraud
Submit To Propeller
posted by profmarcus at
9/28/2008
Labels: 2008 Election, election tampering, Greg Palast, Karl Rove, ression, voter caging, voter fraud, voter supression
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
5/26/2008
Labels: 12 December 2000, 2008 Election, election tampering, voter fraud
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/28/2008
now, about that american center for voting rights, and its partner in voter suppression tactics, the republican national lawyers association...
- [Patrick Rogers, a] New Mexico lawyer who pressed to oust U.S. Attorney David Iglesias was [...] secretary of the non-profit American Center for Voting Rights Legislative Fund - an activist group that defended tighter voter identification requirements in court against charges that they were designed to hamper voting by poor minorities.
- Iglesias, who was one of nine U.S. attorneys the administration fired last year, said that Albuquerque lawyer Patrick Rogers pressured him several times to bring voter fraud prosecutions where little evidence existed. Iglesias believes that he was fired in part because he failed to pursue such cases.
- Rogers, a former general counsel to the New Mexico Republican Party and a candidate to replace Iglesias, is among a number of well-connected GOP partisans whose work with the legislative fund and a sister group played a significant role in the party’s effort to retain control of Congress in the 2006 election.
but, check this...
- [T]he American Center and the Lawyers Association were deployed in battleground states to press for restrictive ID laws and oversee balloting.
- The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division turned traditional voting rights enforcement upside down with legal policies that narrowed rather than protected the rights of minorities.
- The White House and the Justice Department encouraged selected U.S. attorneys to bring voter fraud prosecutions, despite studies showing that election fraud isn't a widespread problem.
- Public records show that the two nonprofits were active in at least nine states. They hired high-priced lawyers to write court briefs, issued news releases declaring key cities "hot spots" for voter fraud and hired lobbyists in Missouri and Pennsylvania to win support for photo ID laws. In each of those states, the center released polls that it claimed found that minorities prefer tougher ID laws.
- Of the 15 individuals affiliated with the two groups, at least seven are members of the Republican National Lawyers Association, and half a dozen have worked for either one Bush election campaign or for the Republican National Committee.
- "Their job was to confuse the public about voter fraud and offer bogus solutions to the problem," said Michael Slater, the deputy director of Project Vote, "And like the Tobacco Institute, they relied on deception and faulty research to advance the interests of their clients."
Amid the controversy, the American Center for Voting Rights shuttered its Internet site on St. Patrick’s Day, and the two nonprofits appear to have vanished.
Imagine the National Rifle Association's Web site suddenly disappeared, along with all the data and reports the group had ever posted on gun issues. Imagine Planned Parenthood inexplicably closed its doors one day, without comment from its former leaders. The scenarios are unthinkable, given how established these organizations have become. But even if something did happen to the NRA or Planned Parenthood, no doubt other gun or abortion groups would quickly fill the vacuum and push the ideas they'd pushed for years.
Not so for the American Center for Voting Rights, a group that has literally just disappeared as an organization, and for which it seems no replacement group will rise up. With no notice and little comment, ACVR—the only prominent nongovernmental organization claiming that voter fraud is a major problem, a problem warranting strict rules such as voter-ID laws—simply stopped appearing at government panels and conferences. Its Web domain name has suddenly expired, its reports are all gone (except where they have been preserved by its opponents), and its general counsel, Mark "Thor" Hearne, has cleansed his résumé of affiliation with the group. Hearne won't speak to the press about ACVR's demise. No other group has taken up the "voter fraud" mantra.
In January 2001, lobbyist Jack Abramoff left Preston Gates & Ellis to join Greenberg Traurig. Abramoff brought a book of business then worth more than $6 million annually to Greenberg Traurig, according to his own estimates.
In 2000, before Abramoff joined the firm, Greenberg had $3.3 million in lobbying fees. After he joined in 2001, the firm took in $16.2 million in fees. By 2002, that number jumped to $17.7 million, and $25.5 million by 2003.[7] The firm became one of the top 10 of Washington lobbying firms, moving from 16th place to fourth, according to the National Journal.
Labels: American Center for Voting Rights, David Iglesias, Greenberg Traurig, Jack Abramoff, McClatchy, Patrick Rogers, Republican National Lawyers Association, voter fraud, voter suppression
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/01/2007
Former U.S. Attorney for New Mexico David Iglesias said he finds Bradley Schlozman's testimony about Craig Donsanto unbelievable.
Schlozman told a Senate Judiciary panel yesterday that while he was the interim U.S. Attorney in Missouri he brought four criminal voter fraud prosecutions on the eve of the 2006 midterm election after getting the go-ahead from Donsanto, the director of the election crimes branch at the department.
[...]
Iglesias was in touch with Donsanto up until the summer of 2006, just before Schlozman would have received approval to bring the indictments. Iglesias said he can’t imagine a scenario where Donsanto would have changed his mind on the department’s voter fraud policy.
[...]
The Justice Department did not respond to calls requesting comment. Donsanto did not reply to an email message, though Iglesias guesses he is not allowed to speak to the press.
Labels: Brad Schlozman, Craig Donsanto, David Iglesias, Department of Justice, Missouri, Senate Judiciary Committee, US Attorneys, voter fraud
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
6/06/2007
Labels: Brad Schlozman, Chuck Schumer, Department of Justice, Dianne Feinstein, Patrick Leahy, Senate Judiciary Committee, US Attorneys, voter fraud, voter suppression
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
6/05/2007
Labels: Brad Schlozman, Department of Justice, Dianne Feinstein, Patrick Leahy, Senate Judiciary Committee, US Attorneys, voter fraud, voter suppression
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
6/05/2007
Labels: Brad Schlozman, Department of Justice, Dianne Feinstein, Patrick Leahy, Senate Judiciary Committee, US Attorneys, voter fraud, voter suppression
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
6/05/2007
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, David Iglesias, Department of Justice, Harriet Miers, Karl Rove, Monica Goodling, Paul McNulty, Republican National Committee, Republicans, US Attorneys, voter fraud, White House
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
5/30/2007
Labels: Bush Administration, David Iglesias, Democrats, Karl Rove, obstruction of justice, Republican National Committee, US Attorneys, voter fraud, voter photo identification, voter suppression
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
5/25/2007
Among Republicans it is an "article of religious faith that voter fraud is causing us to lose elections," [Royal Masset, the former political director of the Republican Party of Texas] said. He doesn't agree with that, but does believe that requiring photo IDs could cause enough of a dropoff in legitimate Democratic voting to add 3 percent to the Republican vote.
And that, my friends, is what the "voter fraud" game is all about.
-- Steve Benen
Labels: voter fraud, voter photo identification, voter supression
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
5/19/2007
Nearly half the U.S. attorneys slated for removal by the administration last year were targets of Republican complaints that they were lax on voterfraudsupression, including efforts by presidential adviser Karl Rove to encourage more prosecutions of election-law violations, according to new documents and interviews.
Of the 12 U.S. attorneys known to have been dismissed or considered for removal last year, five were identified by Rove or other administration officials as working in districts that were trouble spots for voterfraudsupression -- Kansas City, Mo.; Milwaukee; New Mexico; Nevada; and Washington state. Four of the five prosecutors in those districts were dismissed.
It has been clear for months that the administration's eagerness to launch voter-fraudsupression prosecutions played a role in some of the firings, but recent testimony, documents and interviews show the issue was more central than previously known.
Labels: Bush Administration, Democrats, Karl Rove, Republicans, US Attorneys, voter fraud, voter supression
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
5/14/2007
Bringing an indictment close to the election can intimidate minority voters, affect voter turnout and potentially even influence the result of the election.
But Bradley Schlozman -- the former U.S. Attorney for Kansas City and controversial deputy head at the Civil Rights Division -- broke with the policy. Not only that, but there's evidence that he rushed four indictments to land just before last November's election.
Indeed, timing aside, even Schlozman's decision to pursue the cases at all is questionable in light of established Justice Department practice. Although trumpeted as cases of voter fraud, the cases alleged only registration fraud, and there's no evidence that those registrations were intended to result in actual fraudulent votes. For that reason, other U.S. attorneys have passed on pursuing similar prosecutions. But Schlozman, who'd worked to push voter I.D. laws while in the Civil Rights Division, leapt at the opportunity.
Labels: Brad Schlozman, Department of Justice, Dick Cheney, DOJ Civil Rights Division, George Bush, Karl Rove, loyal Bushies, US Attorneys, voter fraud
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
5/01/2007
you've gotta hand it to karl for jaw-dropping, in-your-face insolence and effrontery...In a speech to the Republican National Lawyers Association in Washington last Friday, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove thanked its members for their "work on clean elections," RAW STORY has found.
"I want to thank you for your work on clean elections," Rove said. "I know a lot of you spent time in the 2004 election, the 2002, election, the 2000 election in your communities or in strange counties in Florida, helping make it certain that we had the fair and legitimate outcome of the election."
this ranks right up there with his all-time greatest hits like the "clean air act..." karl didn't invent the game but he sure as hell plays it better than anyone i've ever seen..."We have, as you know, an enormous and growing problem with elections in certain parts of America today," Rove said. "We are, in some parts of the country, I'm afraid to say, beginning to look like we have elections like those run in countries where they guys in charge are, you know, colonels in mirrored sunglasses. I mean, it's a real problem, and I appreciate that all that you're doing in those hot spots around the country to ensure that the ballot -- the integrity of the ballot is protected, because it's important to our democracy."
absolutely friggin' AMAZING... if the god of the old testament was still with us, upon the completion of that statement, a lightning bolt would have exploded from the heavens and reduced his satanic rotundness to a pile of fine ash...
A federal panel responsible for conducting election research played down the findings of experts who concluded last year that there was little voter fraud around the nation, according to a review of the original report obtained by The New York Times.
Instead, the panel, the Election Assistance Commission, issued a report that said the pervasiveness of fraud was open to debate.
And two weeks ago, the panel faced criticism for refusing to release another report it commissioned concerning voter identification laws. That report, which was released after intense pressure from Congress, found that voter identification laws designed to fight fraud can reduce turnout, particularly among members of minorities. In releasing that report, which was conducted by a different set of scholars, the commission declined to endorse its findings, citing methodological concerns.
A number of election law experts, based on their own research, have concluded that the accusations regarding widespread fraud are unjustified. And in this case, one of the two experts hired to do the report was Job Serebrov, a Republican elections lawyers from Arkansas, who defended his research in an e-mail message obtained by The Times that was sent last October to Margaret Sims, a commission staff member.
“Tova and I worked hard to produce a correct, accurate and truthful report,” Mr. Serebrov wrote, referring to Tova Wang, a voting expert with liberal leanings from the Century Foundation and co-author of the report. “I could care less that the results are not what the more conservative members of my party wanted.”
Labels: Bush Administration, Election Assistance Commission, Karl Rove, lies, Republican National Lawyers Association, Republicans, voter fraud
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/11/2007
President George Bush and the Justice Department, in selecting U.S. Attorney appointments, have emphasized the prosecution of alleged voter fraud by Democrats in electoral battleground states, a report by McClatchy Newspapers finds.
"Bush, Karl Rove, the president's deputy chief of staff, and other Republican political advisers have highlighted voting rights issues and what Rove has called the 'growing problem' of Democratic election fraud since Bush took power in the tumultuous election of 2000, a race ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court," write Greg Gordon, Margaret Talev and Marisa Taylor for McClatchy.
They continue, "Since 2005, McClatchy Newspapers has found, Bush has appointed at least three U.S. attorneys who had worked in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division when it was rolling back long-standing voting rights policies aimed at protecting predominantly poor, minority voters."
"Last April, while the Justice Department and the White House were planning the firings, Rove gave a speech in Washington to the Republican National Lawyers Association," McClatchy reports. "He ticked off 11 states that he said could be pivotal in 2008. Bush has appointed new U.S. attorneys in nine of them since 2005: Florida, Colorado, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Arkansas, Michigan, Nevada and New Mexico. U.S. attorneys in the latter four were among those fired."
Labels: Attorney General, Bush Administration, Democrats, Department of Justice, George Bush, Karl Rove, Republicans, US Attorneys, voter fraud, White House
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
3/23/2007
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