Bad news for the Ohio Democratic party: On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a one-line order denying the party’s application for a stay in Ohio Democratic Party v. Husted — the eminently reasonable opinion recently issued by a panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals refusing to overturn changes in early voting and same-day registration rules enacted by the Ohio legislature.
A top appeals court has overturned a federal official’s ruling [...]
BISMARCK, N.D. -- A federal judge on Monday (Aug. 1) [...]
A federal appeals court struck down North Carolina's voter ID [...]
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said Saturday he already has begun [...]
AUSTIN -- A federal appeals court ruled on July 20 [...]
WICHITA -- The American Civil Liberties Union filed a class-action [...]
A former Weslaco city commissioner has admitted to cheating to get re-elected in 2013. Lupe Rivera on July 11 pleaded guilty to a charge of unlawfully assisting a voter -- one of 16 counts he was charged with in a mail-in ballot fraud scheme. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors dropped the other 15 charges, which included failing to properly mark mail-in ballots and other counts of unlawfully assisting voters. Rivera was sentenced to one year probation and fined 500 dollars. The accusations had been brought by Rivera's challenger in that 2013 District 5 race, Letty Lopez, who had lost by just 16 votes. When a judge ordered a new election, Lopez defeated Rivera by 39 votes.
By Hans von Spakovsky (June 30) Yesterday was a great day for election integrity and everyone (other than the Obama administration and its political allies) who wants to make sure non-citizens don't illegally vote in our elections. Federal district-court judge Richard Leon issued an order Wednesday refusing to grant the injunction sought by the League of Women Voters (and the U.S. Justice Department to its everlasting shame) against the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) in litigation over a state requirement that individuals registering to vote provide proof of citizenship. As I previously explained to readers of The Corner in February, several well-funded groups including the League and the NAACP filed a lawsuit trying to reverse a decision by the EAC granting the requests of Kansas, Georgia, and Alabama to modify the instructions on the federal voter registration form. The modification would notify residents of those states that they have to provide proof of citizenship if they use the federal form to register to vote. The U.S. Justice Department, which is charged with defending federal agencies when they are sued, tried instead to throw the case. It came into court, to Judge Leon's great surprise, attempting to concede the case and agreeing to the temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction the plaintiffs wanted. Commissioner Christy McCormick, the chairwoman of the EAC, was so concerned over the Justice Department's misbehavior and potentially unethical conduct, that she sent a letter to Leon asking for permission to get outside counsel to represent the EAC. She expressed her "grave concerns regarding the potential conflict of interest and failure of the Department of justice to provide" the EAC with proper representation. DOJ later requested (and got) a protective order sealing her deposition, which apparently included discussions of DOJ's potentially improper behavior and prior involvement in EAC decision-making. Makes you wonder what DOJ wants to hide. In February, Leon denied the request for a temporary restraining order. Yesterday in a 25-page opinion, he also denied the request for a preliminary injunction -- the same injunction the Justice Department wanted to agree to when it tried to lose the case. Leon held that the plaintiffs had not proved they will suffer an irreparable harm from this change in instructions on the federal registration form. He obviously did not put much stock in their claim that this would damage them because their voter registration drives would be less successful and require more effort on their part to educate the public about the fact that you have to be a citizen to register to vote. But as Leon said, "let's be candid; doing so pales in comparison to explaining to the average citizen how the ACA or tax code works!"
Florida's Second Largest County Has More than 100 Percent of Residents Registered to Vote. ALEXANDRIA, VA (June 28, 2016) --- The (ACRU) has filed a lawsuit alleging that officials in Broward County, Florida, have violated federal election law by failing to maintain accurate voter registration. "When a county has more people registered to vote than there are eligible residents, it's an open door for vote fraud," said ACRU Chairman/CEO Susan A. Carleson. "Corrupted voter rolls are the first step to vote fraud. Broward's Supervisor of Elections, Dr. Brenda Snipes, is not using all of the tools available to keep Florida elections clean." The complaint, filed by the Public Interest Legal Foundation on ACRU's behalf on Monday, asks the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Fort Lauderdale Division, to find Broward's supervisor of elections in violation of Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (Motor Voter Law), "to implement reasonable and effective registration list maintenance," and to allow the ACRU to inspect voter records. The lawsuit notes that the county of nearly two million people, with a non-citizen population of 256,430, has removed only 18 people from the voting rolls over the last five years for lacking U.S. citizenship. Also, that 106 percent of county residents were registered to vote in 2010, and 103 percent in 2014. "Broward was one of four Florida counties that was asked to do a recount in the 2000 presidential election," Carleson said. "We think it's time they cleaned up their rolls before the next one." The case is and Andrea Frankel-Bellitto vs. Brenda Snipes. Andrea Frankel-Bellitto is a registered voter in Broward County. The ACRU is the only private party to successfully sue under Motor Voter to clean up county voter rolls, winning consent decrees in Texas and Mississippi.
