News
Reports of Voters Casting Ballots Twice Are Probed in Palm Beach, Broward Counties
Fourteen Palm Beach County voters appear to have cast ballots twice in the 2014 general election -- once in Florida and once up North, Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher said Wednesday. A Coral Springs database analyst brought the issue to Bucher's attention, and he says he has uncovered dozens of other instances across Florida of people voting twice. "We talk a lot about voter fraud," said Andrew Ladanowski, a data analyst and information technology consultant at AddinSolutions. "Everyone accuses everyone of it, but no one has investigated cross-state voter fraud." Broward County Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes said Wednesday her office also is looking into information Ladanowski provided that up to 18 people voted twice there. Election supervisors in Florida don't have access to a national database to check other states' voting records, making it difficult to detect people who vote twice, said Brian Corley, president of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections and Supervisor of Elections in Pasco County.
Judge Rejects Insanity Defense in Voter Fraud Case
MILWAUKEE (WTAQ) - A judge is not buying a suburban Milwaukee man's claim that he was insane when he voted 13 times in six elections in 2011 and '12. 51-year-old Robert Monroe of Shorewood pleaded no contest Monday to six felony election fraud charges. After a two-day sanity trial, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Dennis Cimpl ruled Wednesday that Monroe knew he was voting illegally -- and he'll go to prison instead of a mental institution when he's sentenced February 26th. The judge refused to accept a doctor's claim that Monroe had a dissociative disorder when he voted five times for Governor Scott Walker in his 2012 recall election.
Missouri Legislators Renew Push for Voter Photo ID Law
EFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - Republican Missouri legislative leaders, backed by veto-proof majorities, will try again in 2016 to require voters to show photo identification at the polls, despite numerous failed attempts over the past decade. Sen. Will Kraus, a Lee's Summit Republican running for secretary of state, pre-filed a proposed constitutional amendment to allow for photo identification and a bill that would require voters to present government-issued photo ID. GOP House members pre-filed similar measures. A change to the state's constitution would be necessary before implementing a photo ID law because the Missouri Supreme Court struck down a similar measure in 2006 as unconstitutional. Kraus said photo ID protects against people fraudulently impersonating other voters. Fraud has not been a significant problem in Missouri, according to Democratic Secretary of State Jason Kander, whose office supervises elections. Kraus' proposal would allow people to obtain free state photo ID cards if they don't already have a driver's license, military ID or other government-issued identification. "My goal would be to make sure that we secure the election process and then make sure we do not disenfranchise anyone," Kraus said. He cited a mayoral election in April in Kinloch, a St. Louis suburb. The city attorney served the incoming mayor, who won by 20 votes in an election in which only 58 voted, with impeachment papers after the city claimed 27 voters were illegally registered. "That just shows you that there are people that would like to cheat elections," Kraus said.
Study Says More Non-Citizens on Voter Rolls than Thought
The former head of a Washington think tank specializing in immigration issues says that voter registration numbers in Texas and elsewhere may be inflated because of the presence of non-citizens on voter rolls. David Simcox, former executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, released a study Tuesday afternoon that said an estimated 1.8 million to 2.7 million non-citizen immigrants in the Unites States may be illegally registered to vote, thereby potentially influencing the outcome of the upcoming presidential and congressional elections. The report also estimated that anywhere from 161,000 to 333,000 non-citizens may be registered to vote in Texas. Calling the state's political culture "a mix of the worst of Old South Dixieland politics and Latin American politics," Mr. Simcox said Texas has a political history marked by election fraud, sometimes involving Mexican or Mexican-American voters. Using Texas population estimates from the 2000 census, Mr. Simcox said his study found a disproportionately high number of registered voters when compared to the total number of eligible voters in six major metropolitan counties and five counties near the Mexican border, all having a high percentage of non-citizen residents.
NAACP Sues Alabama over Voter ID Law
MONTGOMERY, Ala. - A civil rights group on Wednesday filed a federal lawsuit challenging Alabama's photo voter ID law as an infringement on voting rights and an attempt to suppress the influence of black and Hispanic voters. The Greater Birmingham Ministries and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People filed the suit Wednesday in Birmingham federal court. Alabama's law requires voters to show a valid state-issued photo identification at the polls in order to vote. The law went into effect in the 2014 elections. "It is appalling that, 60 years after Rosa Parks' courageous protest in Montgomery and 50 years after voting rights activists marched in Selma, the Alabama Legislature continues to pass laws that are designed to deprive people of color of their basic civil rights," said Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of NAACP Legal Defense Fund. The lawsuit is the latest attempt to roll back voter ID requirements implemented in Republican-controlled states. The U.S. Justice Department challenged photo identification requirements in North Carolina and Texas, and a federal appeals court in August found the Texas law to be discriminatory. States that have implemented the requirements say the measures are needed to curb voter fraud. Opponents, often Democrats, say the requirement presents a barrier to the ballot box for poor, minority and elderly voters. The lawsuit contends that Alabama politicians who created and backed the law knew that black and Latino voters "disproportionately lack the required photo ID." Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley said his office will review the lawsuit. "Voting rights are important to every citizen, and it is imperative that every Alabamian who is eligible to vote have the ability to vote," Bentley said in a statement. "A photo ID protects the process of voting and ensures fair elections are held."
Hillary Clinton Warns Black Audience over Voter ID Laws
Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton warns black legal activists that "there is mischief afoot" when it comes to voting rights issues in the United States. Speaking at the National Bar Association's 60th anniversary celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Montgomery bus boycott on Dec. 1 in Alabama, Clinton appealed to the conspiracy-minded instincts of those who believe that photo ID laws represent a Republican effort to suppress the vote, rather than a way to prevent voter fraud. "I thought we'd solved that problem," Clinton said about voting access. "Unfortunately, there is mischief afoot. Some people are just determined to keep other Americans from voting." Clinton cited the closing of some DMV offices in Alabama, as part of necessary budget cuts, as a vote-suppressing plot, despite evidence to the contrary. Clinton was introduced at the event by Benjamin Crump, the high-profile lawyer for the Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown families who was recently named president of the National Bar Association following his headline-grabbing advocacy work
ACRU Wins Consent Decree in Third Mississippi County to Clean Up Voter Rolls
ALEXANDRIA, VA (Nov. 30, 2015) - The (ACRU) has settled its federal lawsuit against the Clarke County, Mississippi Election Commission, marking the third time a Mississippi county has agreed by consent decree to clean up its voter rolls. In July, ACRU, represented by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), sued the county because it has more voters on the rolls than living citizens. The lawsuit, filed by PILF and Mississippi attorney Henry Ross, alleged a violation of Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), which requires maintenance of accurate voter rolls. In 2013, the ACRU secured Section 8 agreements with Walthall and Jefferson Davis counties, and two weeks ago, on Nov. 12, sued a fourth Mississippi county, Noxubee, over its corrupted voter rolls. The agreement between the parties was approved by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, Hattiesburg Division, on Nov. 25. The agreement requires the Commission to begin identifying and removing voters who are no longer eligible to vote in Clarke County as early as April 2016. The ACRU originally notified the Commission by letter in June 2014 that its voter rolls were potentially in violation of federal election law. According to U.S. Census data and other public records, Clarke County, Mississippi had 12,646 registered voters, despite having a voting-age population of only 12,549. The Commission never responded to the notice letter. The agreement also requires the Commission to periodically notify the ACRU in writing about the Commission's efforts to clean up its voter rolls. "Corrupted voter rolls have been a problem in Clarke County for years," said ACRU Policy Board member J. Christian Adams, who is president and general counsel of the Public Interest Legal Foundation. "This settlement is a positive step towards a cure and should give Mississippians confidence that their legitimate votes will not be cancelled out by an ineligible voter." The Obama Justice Department has shut down enforcement of Section 8 of the NVRA and thus allowed voters rolls around the nation to remain corrupted and filled with ineligible registrations. The ACRU is the only private party under NVRA to successfully sue to clean up county voter rolls.
Kennedy Halts Race-Based Hawaiian Election
ALEXANDRIA, VA (Nov. 30) - Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy has issued an emergency injunction to stop a race-based election in Hawaii, as per a request in a brief filed by the . "The government has been operating a brazenly racially based voter registration process," the brief states. Kennedy's order, issued on Nov. 27, enjoins the state from counting ballots or determining winners until he or the court further rules. Submitted on behalf of the ACRU by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), the brief in Akina, et al. v. State of Hawaii notes that this is the second time that Hawaii has conducted a racially exclusionary election. The last time, appeals courts did not have time to review the law thoroughly before the election took place. "The election of delegates [to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs] had occurred and tens of thousands of Hawaiian residents were denied the right to vote," the brief states. "This court must not let that happen again...." Eventually, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Hawaii's justifications for having racially exclusive rolls and elections and declared that such ancestry tests violated the 15th Amendment, which bans racial tests by governments to register to vote and participate in the political process. The plaintiffs in this case, who are Hawaiian residents, are asking the Supreme Court to issue an injunction to halt the election until a full appellate review is conducted and thus prevent Hawaii from getting away with an unconstitutional voter registration test a second time. "The Supreme Court's language in Rice v. Cayetano (2000) is sweeping in scope and unforgiving to racial tests to register to vote," said J. Christian Adams, ACRU Policy Board member and president of PILF. "The right to register to vote on a government-run registration roll without passing an ancestry test is a fundamental Constitutional right. Hawaii escaped full review of this policy once before. It should not happen twice."
ACRU Asks Supreme Court to Stop Race-Based Registration and Election
ALEXANDRIA, VA (Nov. 24) --- An emergency injunction is needed to stop a race-based election now underway in Hawaii and ending Nov. 30, a brief filed today at the U.S. Supreme Court by the argues. "The government has been operating a brazenly racially based voter registration process," the brief states. Submitted on behalf of the ACRU by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), the brief in Akina, et al. v. State of Hawaii notes that this is the second time that Hawaii has conducted a racially exclusionary election. The last time, appeals courts did not have time to review the law thoroughly before the election took place. "The election of delegates [to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs] had occurred and tens of thousands of Hawaiian residents were denied the right to vote," the brief states. "This court must not let that happen again...." Eventually, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Hawaii's justifications for having racially exclusive rolls and elections and declared that such ancestry tests violated the 15th Amendment, which bans racial tests by governments to register to vote and participate in the political process. The plaintiffs in this case, who are Hawaiian residents, are asking the Supreme Court to issue an injunction to halt the election until a full appellate review is conducted and thus prevent Hawaii from getting away with an unconstitutional voter registration test a second time.
ACRU Sues Notorious Mississippi County
ALEXANDRIA, VA (Nov. 16, 2015) -- The on Thursday, Nov. 12, filed a lawsuit against a fourth Mississippi county for its corrupted voter registration rolls. This time, it was against Noxubee County, which has a long history of vote fraud and voter intimidation. As with the other three counties, voter rolls maintained by Noxubee contain more people registered to vote than citizens eligible to vote, according to the lawsuit, filed on ACRU's behalf by the Public Interest Legal Foundation. The complaint argues that Noxubee 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, Northern Division. The ACRU's Mississippi legal campaign is having a demonstrative effect on other counties. New data show that since 2010, the number of counties with more registered voters than eligible residents has dropped considerably. In 2013, the ACRU won consent decrees in federal court for Walthall and Jefferson Davis counties to clean up their voter rolls. It was the first time in history that a private party had sued under the NVRA (better known as Motor Voter) and reached a consent decree to compel counties to clean up their voter rolls. In July, the ACRU sued Clarke County for having corrupt voter rolls. ACRU's review of databases revealed that as of 2015, more than 110 percent of Noxubee's voting-eligible citizens are registered. This strongly indicates the county has failed to purge the names of people who died, moved away or were convicted of disenfranchising felonies.