ACRU Staff, Author at Voting Integrity Institute

Revisiting the Lessons from the Voter ID Experience in Texas: 2015

By Hans von Spakovsky Critics of the Texas voter identification law claim that a voter ID requirement suppresses voter turnout. However, turnout data from elections held with the voter ID law in place show that there is no evidence whatsoever that this requirement has prevented Texans from turning out to vote. In fact, turnout increased during the 2013 state elections--despite the enactment of the new voter ID requirement. Likewise, during the 2014 midterm elections--a contest that saw voter participation plummet across the U.S.--turnout in Texas declined at a smaller rate than the national average and a smaller rate than the rates in 12 states that have no ID requirement.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:34:42+00:00August 4th, 2015|ACRU Commentary, Voter ID|

ACRU Files Suit against Third Mississippi County

ALEXANDRIA, VA --- The on July 27 filed a complaint in federal court against another Mississippi county that has corrupted and inflated voter registrations. Voter rolls maintained by Clarke County actually contain more people registered to vote than citizens eligible to vote. The complaint argues that Clarke County's election commission is violating Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). It was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, Hattiesburg Division. "Clarke County has had longstanding problems maintaining plausible numbers of registrants on the rolls," the complaint filed against the Clarke County Election Commission says. "During the 2010 federal general election, over 101 percent of living citizens eligible to vote in Clarke County were registered to vote." ACRU's review of databases revealed that as of 2015, more than 100 percent of Clarke's voting-eligible citizens were registered. This strongly indicates the county has failed to purge the names of people who had died, moved away or been convicted of disenfranchising felonies.

ACRU Staff2015-07-31T11:42:30+00:00July 31st, 2015|In the Courts, News, Press Releases|

Group Files Lawsuit against County over Voter Rolls

The has filed a federal lawsuit against Clarke County claiming the county has more voters on its rolls than living citizens of voting age. The lawsuit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Mississippi against the Clarke County Election Commission. The lawsuit says: "Voter rolls maintained by the Defendant for Clarke County contain more voters registered to vote than citizens eligible to vote. In March 2015... Clarke County, Mississippi had 12,646 registered voters, despite having a voting age population of only 12,549 according to the United States Census. More than 100 percent of living citizens old enough to vote were registered to vote in Clarke County in 2015." The lawsuit alleges that the Election Commission has failed to provide required maintenance of the county's voting rolls. Clarke County Circuit Clerk Beth Jordan said the county is in the process, along with the Board of Supervisors attorney, of working with the ACRU to address voter rolls problems or concerns.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:39:00+00:00July 31st, 2015|In the Courts, News, Voter ID, Voter Roll Maintenance|

Symposium: Does “one person, one vote” really mean what it says?

By Hans von Spakovsky in Scotusblog Evenwel v. Abbott may wind up being the most important voting case in sixty years. Its political ramifications could rival those of Reynolds v. Sims, the 1964 case that established the principle of "one person, one vote" under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The key question in Evenwel is what population does that principle require legislatures to use when they are redrawing legislative districts? Prior to Reynolds, states like Alabama and Tennessee had refused to redistrict for more than half a century, despite a dramatic, nationwide population shift from rural to urban areas. These state legislatures were dominated by rural legislators, who were not willing to reapportion and lose their power and control. Under the principle established in Reynolds, districts have to be drawn "on a basis that will insure, as far as is practicable, that equal numbers of voters can vote for proportionally equal numbers of officials." Within two years of the Reynolds decision, legislative districts had been redrawn in almost every state, and urban areas gained a substantial number of legislative seats. Today, lawmakers from urban areas dominate many state legislatures because of the huge influx of non-citizens, both legal and illegal, into predominantly urban settings. This greatly increases the population of non-voters who can be and are used to fill in urban legislative districts. If the Court rules for the plaintiffs, there could be a similar loss of clout by urban areas that rural districts experienced after Reynolds. In this case, Sue Evenwel and Edward Pfenninger are contesting the state senate districts drawn by the Texas legislature in 2013. The legislature used total population in determining whether the population of each senate district met equal protection requirements. Evenwel, a registered voter in Senate District 1, and Pfenninger, a registered voter in Senate District 4, filed suit because both the number of citizens of voting age and the number of registered voters in these two districts deviate substantially - between thirty-one and forty-nine percent - from the "ideal" population of a Texas senate district.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:38:03+00:00July 28th, 2015|ACRU Commentary, Voter ID|

ACRU’s Complaint against Clarke County, Mississippi

ALEXANDRIA, VA — The on July 27, 2015 filed a [...]

ACRU Staff2015-07-27T16:02:33+00:00July 27th, 2015|ACRU Complaints, In the Courts|

No Vote Fraud? Here Are Five Cases in 2015

By Hans von Spakovsky (ACRU Policy Board member) and Brandon Johnson Despite being only six months into 2015, there have already been a slew of sometimes bizarre stories about voter fraud across the country. They show just how far some people will go to cheat the system. Here are a few of the most outlandish stories: 1. Madison County, Ga. Mohammad Shafiq of Madison County, Georgia, was none too happy with Madison County sheriff candidate Clayton Lowe. So Shafiq started campaigning for the other candidate by submitting fraudulent voter registration cards supposedly for new voters, apparently intending to eventually vote under those registrations. When the fraud was detected, he coerced a couple to sign affidavits falsely saying they had registered themselves. He was charged with two counts of voter identification fraud, two counts of perjury, and three counts of tampering with evidence. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years probation and a fine of $6,750.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:37:08+00:00July 15th, 2015|ACRU Commentary, Vote Fraud, Voter ID|

Mississippi Circuit Clerk Charged with Vote Fraud

NEW ALBANY, Miss. (AP) -- The Mississippi Attorney General's office has arrested a veteran Union County deputy circuit clerk, accused of trying to influence voters. A newspaper reports Rhonda Wilhite Dowdy, of New Albany, was arrested Monday on one count of voter fraud. Rachael Ring, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Jim Hood, confirmed the arrest Thursday. Dowdy has worked for the Union County Circuit Clerk's office since August 1987. Ring says Dowdy is accused of changing the address of non-resident voters to make it appear they live in the county in exchange for their vote for a specific candidate. Ring could not release which candidate or whether the candidate knew of Dowdy's alleged actions

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:38:03+00:00July 14th, 2015|News, Vote Fraud, Voter ID|

North Carolina Voter Law Trial Gets Underway

RALEIGH, N.C. - Changes to North Carolina's voting access rules finally went to trial this week. A judge ultimately will determine whether Republican legislators illegally diminished the opportunity for minorities to participate in the political process or acted to protect election integrity. The U.S. Justice Department, voting and civil rights groups and individuals sued soon after the General Assembly approved an elections overhaul law in summer 2013. After interim arguments reached the U.S. Supreme Court last fall, the trial began Monday and is expected to last two to three weeks addresses the crux of the allegations. Attorneys representing those who sued contend the restrictions violate the federal Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution by throwing up large electoral obstacles to minority voters historically subjected to racial bias and should be thrown out. Attorneys for the state and Republican Gov. Pat McCrory, who signed the law, say there's no evidence the law will diminish the ability of black citizens to elect who they want representing them. None of the restrictions are barred by the Constitution, according to a brief previewing their case, and black voter participation increased during the 2014 elections -- when changes were first implemented -- compared to the 2010 elections.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:36:58+00:00July 14th, 2015|In the Courts, News, Voter ID|

‘Politiqueras’ and Vote Fraud in the Rio Grande Valley

In the vote-rich Rio Grande Valley of Texas, home to hundreds of thousands of legal and illegal immigrants, the is fighting a legal battle to clean up dirty voter rolls. At the same time, a left-wing campaign called Battleground Texas, funded partially by billionaire George Soros, is attempting to "turn Texas blue" by inflating voter rolls before the 2016 election. The ACRU recently won a consent order in federal court to clean up voter rolls in one border county (Terrell) and is pursuing the same in another (Zavala). In both counties, the number of registered voters exceeds the number of legal, age-eligible residents. This week, a National Public Radio report showed why the ACRU has put so much time, money, and effort into ensuring ballot integrity in South Texas. NPR shined a light on an FBI investigation into vote fraud in the region, including the widespread use of "politiqueras," who gather mail-in ballots and pay people to vote. Here's an excerpt: According to the Justice Department, in 2013, more public officials were convicted for corruption in South Texas than in any other region of the country. One of the practices the task force is looking at is vote-stealing. They're called politiqueras -- a word unique to the border that means campaign worker. It's a time-honored tradition down in the land of grapefruit orchards and Border Patrol checkpoints. If a local candidate needs dependable votes, he or she goes to a politiquera. In recent years, losing candidates in local elections began to challenge vote harvesting by politiqueras in the Rio Grande Valley, and they shared their investigations with authorities. After the 2012 election cycle, the Justice Department and the Texas attorney general's office filed charges. The NPR report prompted Republican Party of Texas chairman Tom Mechler to state that Texas Democratic Party chairman Gilberto Hinojosa "needs to come clean with the people of Texas" about whether he "personally participated in the corrupt practice of using politiqueras to commit voter fraud," according to the Houston Chronicle. Mechler asked whether Mr. Hinojosa "knowingly oversaw institutional voter fraud or if he simply turned a blind eye to fraudulent practices that were routinely committed by Democrat candidates in South Texas."

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:38:03+00:00July 9th, 2015|ACRU Commentary, Vote Fraud, Voter ID|

FBI Investigating Vote Fraud in Rio Grande Valley of Texas

National Public Radio -- A new FBI anti-corruption task force is trying to clean up the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. According to the Justice Department, in 2013, more public officials were convicted for corruption in South Texas than in any other region of the country. One of the practices the task force is looking at is vote-stealing. They're called politiqueras -- a word unique to the border that means campaign worker. It's a time-honored tradition down in the land of grapefruit orchards and Border Patrol checkpoints. If a local candidate needs dependable votes, he or she goes to a politiquera. In recent years, losing candidates in local elections began to challenge vote harvesting by politiqueras in the Rio Grande Valley, and they shared their investigations with authorities. After the 2012 election cycle, the Justice Department and the Texas attorney general's office filed charges. "Yes, there is a concern in which the politiqueras are being paid to then go and essentially round up voters and have them vote a certain way," says James Sturgis, assistant U.S. attorney in McAllen. In the town of Donna, five politiqueras pleaded guilty to election fraud. Voters were bribed with cigarettes, beer or dime bags of cocaine. In neighboring Cameron County, nine politiqueras were charged with manipulating mail-in ballots.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:38:03+00:00July 8th, 2015|News, Vote Fraud, Voter ID|

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