ACRU Staff, Author at Voting Integrity Institute

The Coming Ohio Election Mess

By J. Christian Adams Left-wing organizations and Soros-funded lawyers have been busy making a mess in Ohio just in time for the Presidential election. They have been engaged in a multi-year litigation campaign to make it easier for Hillary Clinton to win the state this coming November. Unfortunately, their campaign has been largely successful. Important election integrity reforms implemented by the Ohio legislature and Secretary of State John Husted have been recently undone by multiple federal courts relying on dubious legal theories. Whoever says voter fraud is a myth doesn't know much about Ohio. Just last month, Rebecca Hammond was charged with filing thirty-five fictional voter registration applications. An election in Lorain was invalidated because voter fraud made the difference in the outcome. Aliens are voting in Ohio elections. In 2008, Obama campaign volunteers such as Amy Little and Yolanda Hippensteele committed criminal voter fraud when they illegally voted in Ohio even though they lived elsewhere. And who can forget Cincinnati election official Meloweese Richardson who boasted she voted six times for President Obama and was treated as a hero by Ohio Democrats when she was released from jail? Meloweese Richardson Meloweese Richardson Criminal voter fraud in Ohio helps Democrats win elections, and Democrats know it. That's why they are pouring millions into overturning election integrity laws in the federal courts. The laws enacted in Ohio were specifically designed to stop election gangsters like Little, Hippensteele and Richardson. Without winning Ohio, the Left cannot retain power over the executive branch in November. That's why Democrats are fighting so hard in court to strike these election reforms down. That's why they've brought so many lawsuits, to undo the efforts of Secretary Husted and the Ohio legislature to stop the gangsters. As a result, a mess may come this November.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:38:00+00:00June 10th, 2016|ACRU Commentary, Vote Fraud, Voter ID|

Kobach Predicts Chaos if Court Order Stands in Kansas Case

DENVER -- Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach contends massive voter confusion will occur if an appeals court doesn't block a lower court's order to register thousands of state residents for November's presidential election. Kobach made the prediction in a document he filed with the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The dispute centers on residents who submit voter registration forms at Division of Motor Vehicles offices and don't provide proof of citizenship. A 2011 state law requires newly registering voters to provide proof of citizenship. A preliminary injunction issued May 17 by U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson prohibits election officials from enforcing the proof of citizenship requirement for residents who register at DMV offices. Robinson's order will take effect Tuesday if the Denver-based appeals court doesn't block it by issuing a stay. Kobach requested a stay in the document he filed May 28. Attorneys for the League of Women Voters and American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday opposed Kobach's request. The dispute involves whether about 18,000 residents will be allowed to vote, court filings state. Early voting for the primary election begins July 13.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:38:00+00:00June 10th, 2016|Early Voting, In the Courts, News, Proof of Citizenship, Voter ID|

Terry McAuliffe vs. the Rule of Law

By Charles J. Cooper Virginia's Gov. Terry McAuliffe recently signed an executive order restoring, with the stroke of a pen, the right to vote for all 206,000 Virginia felons who have completed their terms of incarceration and supervised probation. This includes more than 40,000 felons convicted of violent crimes. The order also restores the rights to serve on a jury and to seek and hold public office, and it makes each of them eligible to ask a court to restore their right to own and carry firearms. The sweeping order has no precedent in Virginia history, and last week Virginia's Republican House Speaker William J. Howell and Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. and four other state voters filed a challenge to its constitutionality. Their petition asks the Virginia Supreme Court to invalidate the governor's order before votes are cast in November, lest the validity of the general election be cast into doubt. Recognizing the urgency of the situation, the state's high court issued an order on June 1 calling a special session of the court to hear argument in the case on July 19. The executive order defies the text of the Virginia Constitution. Article II flatly prohibits all felons from voting, but it grants the governor a narrow power to restore voting rights to deserving felons on an individual, case-by-case basis. Nothing in the constitution gives the governor power to restore political rights en masse to virtually all felons, no matter how heinous or numerous their crimes. Gov. McAuliffe, a Democrat, has acknowledged that for 240 years none of the state's 71 other governors exercised wholesale clemency power. In 2010 another Democratic governor, Tim Kaine, expressly declined to issue a blanket restoration order like Gov. McAuliffe's, concluding that such an order would "rewrite" the law rather than follow it. Three years later, a bipartisan committee convened and headed by Virginia's then-attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli, advised Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell that a blanket order restoring voting rights would be unconstitutional. Gov. McAuliffe has attempted to justify his order by claiming that Virginia's felon-disenfranchisement provision was introduced into the Constitution after the Civil War in a racist effort to disenfranchise African-Americans. He told the Nation magazine in April that "in 1901 and 1902 they put literacy tests, the poll tax and then disenfranchisement of felons into the state's constitution." This is not true. The prohibition on felon voting dates back to 1830--a time when African-Americans were prohibited from voting altogether. The felon disenfranchisement provision could not have been introduced for the purpose of disenfranchising them. No wonder the federal courts have uniformly rejected the claim that Virginia's prohibition on felon voting discriminates on the basis of race.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:38:01+00:00June 6th, 2016|ACRU Commentary, Voter ID|

California’s Zombie Voter Apocalypse

By Hans von Spakovsky and Jana Minich Hollywood has always loved making films about the walking dead, but in Southern California it appears they have a real life problem with "zombie" voters. An investigation by CBSLA2 and KCAL9 found that hundreds of deceased persons are still on voter registration rolls in the area, and that many of these names have been voting for years in Los Angeles. For example, John Cenkner died in 2003 according to Social Security Administration records, yet he voted in the 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2010 elections. His daughter told the station that she was "astounded" and couldn't "understand how anybody" could get away with this. Another voter, Julita Abutin, died in 2006 but voted in 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2014. According to CBS, the county confirmed they have "signed vote-by-mail envelopes" from Abutin since she passed away. So either someone has been forging her signature or her ghost has quite an earthly presence. The investigation revealed that 265 deceased persons voted in Southern California, 215 of them in Los Angeles County. Thirty-two were repeat voters, with eight posthumously-cast ballots each. One woman who died in 1988 has been voting for 26 years, including in the 2014 election. This report comes twenty years after the contested election of Rep. Loretta Sanchez. D-Calif., from this same area. An investigation by a U.S. House committee found that hundreds of illegal ballots were cast by noncitizens and improper absentee ballots

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:22:29+00:00May 27th, 2016|Absentee / Mail-in Voting, ACRU Commentary, Vote Fraud|

Hundreds of Dead Voters Found in California — Will Media Cover It?

By Tim Graham With the presidential candidates arriving in California to campaign and raise funds, this report from the Los Angeles CBS affiliate should become national news: "A comparison of records by David Goldstein, investigative reporter for CBS2/KCAL9, has revealed hundreds of so-called dead voters in Southern California, a vast majority of them in Los Angeles County." Voter fraud? But liberal Democrats like to claim there is zero evidence of voter fraud. CBS2 compared millions of voting records from the California Secretary of State's office with death records from the Social Security Administration and found hundreds of so-called dead voters. Specifically, 265 in Southern California and a vast majority of them, 215, in Los Angeles County alone. The numbers come from state records that show votes were cast in that person's name after they died. In some cases, Goldstein discovered that they voted year after year. Across all counties, Goldstein uncovered 32 dead voters who cast ballots in eight elections apiece, including a woman who died in 1988. Records show she somehow voted in 2014, 26 years after she passed away. It remains unclear how the dead voters voted but 86 were registered Republicans, 146 were Democrats, including Cenkner.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:36:33+00:00May 25th, 2016|ACRU Commentary, Vote Fraud, Voter ID|

ACRU’s Charles Cooper Sues Virginia Gov. McAuliffe over Felon Voting

By Robert Knight The Democrat felon voting express train in Virginia hit a sharp curve on Monday when Republican lawmakers went to the state's highest court to derail it. Constitutional attorney Charles J. Cooper's law firm filed a lawsuit on behalf of Republican leaders in the Virginia legislature asking the state Supreme Court to block 206,000 felons from voting in November. The lawsuit Howell v. McAuliffe states that Democrat Gov. Terry McAuliffe abused the separation of powers in an April 22 executive order that gives a blanket restoration to convicts who've completed their sentences. McAuliffe is countermanding longtime policy, in which Virginia's governors have restored voting rights by individual cases, the suit states. The felons who received the blanket amnesty include inmates convicted of rape, murder, and other major offenses. It's worth noting that McAuliffe, who served as a fundraiser for Bill and Hillary Clinton, ignored the fact that his two predecessors, Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican Bob McDonnell, both attempted blanket amnesty for some felons but abided by opinions from state attorneys general ruling this out as unconstitutional. The current hyper-partisan attorney general, Democrat Mark Herring, who refused to defend the state's constitutional marriage amendment, has no such qualms, which is why the GOP leaders resorted to the lawsuit. "In his blanket restoration, the Governor didn't consider the violence of the offense, the number of offenses, or whether the offender has paid his victim's medical bills," said a press release from Virginia 58th District delegate Rob Bell. "The executive order covers felons who are still on unsupervised probation. It makes 40,000 violent felons eligible to sit on juries, and is already being used by a defendant accused of murdering a state trooper to demand that these felons be included in his jury pool."

ACRU Staff2016-05-24T14:28:58+00:00May 24th, 2016|ACRU Commentary, In the Courts|

Virginia Assembly Republicans Sue Governor over Felon Voting

Virginia Republicans on Monday asked the state's highest court to block more than 200,000 felons from voting in November, arguing that Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe abused his power by restoring the voting rights of thousands of convicts who've completed their sentences. In a lawsuit GOP leaders filed in the Virginia Supreme Court, they say McAuliffe violated the separation of powers by effectively suspending the state's ban on voting by felons. They say McAuliffe is ignoring decades of practice, which has made clear that governors can restore voting rights only on a case-by-case basis. "Gov. McAuliffe's executive order defines the plain text of the Constitution, flouts the separation of powers, and has no precedent in the annals of Virginia history. The governor simply may not, with the stroke of the pen, unilaterally suspend and amend the Constitution," their lawyers wrote in the suit. The lawsuit is being brought by House Speaker William Howell and Senate Majority Leader Thomas Norment along with four other Virginia voters. They're asking the justices to prohibit election officials from registering felons and to cancel all such registrations since April 22. As of last week, election officials said nearly 4,000 felons had signed up to vote, media outlets reported.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:38:01+00:00May 23rd, 2016|Early Voting, In the Courts, News, Voter ID|

Judge Rules against Kansas Proof of Citizenship to Vote

WICHITA - A federal judge said Tuesday that Kansas can't require people to show proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote for federal elections at motor vehicle offices. U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson ruled that the state's proof-of-citizenship requirements likely violate a provision in the National Voter Registration Act that requires only "minimal information" to determine a voter's eligibility. She ordered Kansas to register thousands of voters whose paperwork is on hold because they did not comply with the requirement. But she put her preliminary injunction on hold until May 31 to give the state a chance to appeal. The state immediately said it would appeal. Unless a higher court halts Robinson's order before the end of the month, it would take effect then, clearing the way for those residents to cast a ballot in the upcoming federal elections.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:38:01+00:00May 18th, 2016|In the Courts, News, Proof of Citizenship, Voter ID|

Poll: Most Voters Support Voter ID Laws

Election Law Blog -- (Quinnipiac poll) Florida voters support 77 - 20 percent, including 60 - 36 percent among Democrats, requiring voters to show photo ID. [Ohio] Voters support 75 - 22 percent requiring voters to show photo ID. Democrats are divided with 50 percent in favor of photo ID and 48 percent opposed. [Pennsylvania] Voters support 64 - 34 percent requiring voters to show photo ID. Support is 94 - 6 percent among Republicans and 63 - 35 percent among independent voters. Democrats are opposed 56 - 40 percent.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:34:40+00:00May 17th, 2016|News, Voter ID|

Missouri Lawmakers Pass Voter Photo ID Bill

JEFFERSON CITY • A measure laying out photo ID requirements at the ballot box won final passage in the Missouri Legislature on May 11. The bill still needs either Gov. Jay Nixon's signature or, if he vetoes the bill, a successful veto override in the Legislature. It would take effect only if voters approve to a change to the state constitution. A separate resolution putting the proposed constitutional change on the ballot this year is awaiting approval in the Senate. Both pieces of legislation advanced out of the House early in the legislative session, but they had been stalled in the Senate until last week. Democrats launched filibusters every time the bill came up but agreed to stop stalling a vote in exchange for compromise language. With the Wednesday action, the House approved the Senate language. Under the compromise, anyone who shows up to the polls without an ID can sign a form attesting they are who they say they are and recognizing that photo ID requirements are the law. The state would also pay for photo IDs and any birth certificate needed to obtain them. Voters who don't sign the form could cast a provisional ballot, which would count if they can prove their identity.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:35:34+00:00May 17th, 2016|News, Voter ID|

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