[big campaign] Project Vote Media Memo - Law Enforcement Used To Suppress The Vote

podesta-emails 1,859 words email

D6 P17 V16 V11 P19

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- mQQBBGBjDtIBH6DJa80zDBgR+VqlYGaXu5bEJg9HEgAtJeCLuThdhXfl5Zs32RyB I1QjIlttvngepHQozmglBDmi2FZ4S+wWhZv10bZCoyXPIPwwq6TylwPv8+buxuff B6tYil3VAB9XKGPyPjKrlXn1fz76VMpuTOs7OGYR8xDidw9EHfBvmb+sQyrU1FOW aPHxba5lK6hAo/KYFpTnimsmsz0Cvo1sZAV/EFIkfagiGTL2J/NhINfGPScpj8LB bYelVN/NU4c6Ws1ivWbfcGvqU4lymoJgJo/l9HiV6X2bdVyuB24O3xeyhTnD7laf epykwxODVfAt4qLC3J478MSSmTXS8zMumaQMNR1tUUYtHCJC0xAKbsFukzbfoRDv m2zFCCVxeYHvByxstuzg0SurlPyuiFiy2cENek5+W8Sjt95nEiQ4suBldswpz1Kv n71t7vd7zst49xxExB+tD+vmY7GXIds43Rb05dqksQuo2yCeuCbY5RBiMHX3d4nU 041jHBsv5wY24j0N6bpAsm/s0T0Mt7IO6UaN33I712oPlclTweYTAesW3jDpeQ7A ioi0CMjWZnRpUxorcFmzL/Cc/fPqgAtnAL5GIUuEOqUf8AlKmzsKcnKZ7L2d8mxG QqN16nlAiUuUpchQNMr+tAa1L5S1uK/fu6thVlSSk7KMQyJfVpwLy6068a1WmNj4 yxo9HaSeQNXh3cui+61qb9wlrkwlaiouw9+bpCmR0V8+XpWma/D/TEz9tg5vkfNo eG4t+FUQ7QgrrvIkDNFcRyTUO9cJHB+kcp2NgCcpCwan3wnuzKka9AWFAitpoAwx L6BX0L8kg/LzRPhkQnMOrj/tuu9hZrui4woqURhWLiYi2aZe7WCkuoqR/qMGP6qP EQRcvndTWkQo6K9BdCH4ZjRqcGbY1wFt/qgAxhi+uSo2IWiM1fRI4eRCGifpBtYK Dw44W9uPAu4cgVnAUzESEeW0bft5XXxAqpvyMBIdv3YqfVfOElZdKbteEu4YuOao FLpbk4ajCxO4Fzc9AugJ8iQOAoaekJWA7TjWJ6CbJe8w3thpznP0w6jNG8ZleZ6a jHckyGlx5wzQTRLVT5+wK6edFlxKmSd93jkLWWCbrc0Dsa39OkSTDmZPoZgKGRhp Yc0C4jePYreTGI6p7/H3AFv84o0fjHt5fn4GpT1Xgfg+1X/wmIv7iNQtljCjAqhD 6XN+QiOAYAloAym8lOm9zOoCDv1TSDpmeyeP0rNV95OozsmFAUaKSUcUFBUfq9FL uyr+rJZQw2DPfq2wE75PtOyJiZH7zljCh12fp5yrNx6L7HSqwwuG7vGO4f0ltYOZ dPKzaEhCOO7o108RexdNABEBAAG0Rldpa2lMZWFrcyBFZGl0b3JpYWwgT2ZmaWNl IEhpZ2ggU2VjdXJpdHkgQ29tbXVuaWNhdGlvbiBLZXkgKDIwMjEtMjAyNCmJBDEE EwEKACcFAmBjDtICGwMFCQWjmoAFCwkIBwMFFQoJCAsFFgIDAQACHgECF4AACgkQ nG3NFyg+RUzRbh+eMSKgMYOdoz70u4RKTvev4KyqCAlwji+1RomnW7qsAK+l1s6b ugOhOs8zYv2ZSy6lv5JgWITRZogvB69JP94+Juphol6LIImC9X3P/bcBLw7VCdNA mP0XQ4OlleLZWXUEW9EqR4QyM0RkPMoxXObfRgtGHKIkjZYXyGhUOd7MxRM8DBzN yieFf3CjZNADQnNBk/ZWRdJrpq8J1W0dNKI7IUW2yCyfdgnPAkX/lyIqw4ht5UxF VGrva3PoepPir0TeKP3M0BMxpsxYSVOdwcsnkMzMlQ7TOJlsEdtKQwxjV6a1vH+t k4TpR4aG8fS7ZtGzxcxPylhndiiRVwdYitr5nKeBP69aWH9uLcpIzplXm4DcusUc Bo8KHz+qlIjs03k8hRfqYhUGB96nK6TJ0xS7tN83WUFQXk29fWkXjQSp1Z5dNCcT sWQBTxWxwYyEI8iGErH2xnok3HTyMItdCGEVBBhGOs1uCHX3W3yW2CooWLC/8Pia qgss3V7m4SHSfl4pDeZJcAPiH3Fm00wlGUslVSziatXW3499f2QdSyNDw6Qc+chK hUFflmAaavtpTqXPk+Lzvtw5SSW+iRGmEQICKzD2chpy05mW5v6QUy+G29nchGDD rrfpId2Gy1VoyBx8FAto4+6BOWVijrOj9Boz7098huotDQgNoEnidvVdsqP+P1RR QJekr97idAV28i7iEOLd99d6qI5xRqc3/QsV+y2ZnnyKB10uQNVPLgUkQljqN0wP XmdVer+0X+aeTHUd1d64fcc6M0cpYefNNRCsTsgbnWD+x0rjS9RMo+Uosy41+IxJ 6qIBhNrMK6fEmQoZG3qTRPYYrDoaJdDJERN2E5yLxP2SPI0rWNjMSoPEA/gk5L91 m6bToM/0VkEJNJkpxU5fq5834s3PleW39ZdpI0HpBDGeEypo/t9oGDY3Pd7JrMOF zOTohxTyu4w2Ql7jgs+7KbO9PH0Fx5dTDmDq66jKIkkC7DI0QtMQclnmWWtn14BS KTSZoZekWESVYhORwmPEf32EPiC9t8zDRglXzPGmJAPISSQz+Cc9o1ipoSIkoCCh 2MWoSbn3KFA53vgsYd0vS/+Nw5aUksSleorFns2yFgp/w5Ygv0D007k6u3DqyRLB W5y6tJLvbC1ME7jCBoLW6nFEVxgDo727pqOpMVjGGx5zcEokPIRDMkW/lXjw+fTy c6misESDCAWbgzniG/iyt77Kz711unpOhw5aemI9LpOq17AiIbjzSZYt6b1Aq7Wr aB+C1yws2ivIl9ZYK911A1m69yuUg0DPK+uyL7Z86XC7hI8B0IY1MM/MbmFiDo6H dkfwUckE74sxxeJrFZKkBbkEAQRgYw7SAR+gvktRnaUrj/84Pu0oYVe49nPEcy/7 5Fs6LvAwAj+JcAQPW3uy7D7fuGFEQguasfRrhWY5R87+g5ria6qQT2/Sf19Tpngs d0Dd9DJ1MMTaA1pc5F7PQgoOVKo68fDXfjr76n1NchfCzQbozS1HoM8ys3WnKAw+ Neae9oymp2t9FB3B+To4nsvsOM9KM06ZfBILO9NtzbWhzaAyWwSrMOFFJfpyxZAQ 8VbucNDHkPJjhxuafreC9q2f316RlwdS+XjDggRY6xD77fHtzYea04UWuZidc5zL VpsuZR1nObXOgE+4s8LU5p6fo7jL0CRxvfFnDhSQg2Z617flsdjYAJ2JR4apg3Es G46xWl8xf7t227/0nXaCIMJI7g09FeOOsfCmBaf/ebfiXXnQbK2zCbbDYXbrYgw6 ESkSTt940lHtynnVmQBvZqSXY93MeKjSaQk1VKyobngqaDAIIzHxNCR941McGD7F qHHM2YMTgi6XXaDThNC6u5msI1l/24PPvrxkJxjPSGsNlCbXL2wqaDgrP6LvCP9O uooR9dVRxaZXcKQjeVGxrcRtoTSSyZimfjEercwi9RKHt42O5akPsXaOzeVjmvD9 EB5jrKBe/aAOHgHJEIgJhUNARJ9+dXm7GofpvtN/5RE6qlx11QGvoENHIgawGjGX Jy5oyRBS+e+KHcgVqbmV9bvIXdwiC4BDGxkXtjc75hTaGhnDpu69+Cq016cfsh+0 XaRnHRdh0SZfcYdEqqjn9CTILfNuiEpZm6hYOlrfgYQe1I13rgrnSV+EfVCOLF4L P9ejcf3eCvNhIhEjsBNEUDOFAA6J5+YqZvFYtjk3efpM2jCg6XTLZWaI8kCuADMu yrQxGrM8yIGvBndrlmmljUqlc8/Nq9rcLVFDsVqb9wOZjrCIJ7GEUD6bRuolmRPE SLrpP5mDS+wetdhLn5ME1e9JeVkiSVSFIGsumZTNUaT0a90L4yNj5gBE40dvFplW 7TLeNE/ewDQk5LiIrfWuTUn3CqpjIOXxsZFLjieNgofX1nSeLjy3tnJwuTYQlVJO 3CbqH1k6cOIvE9XShnnuxmiSoav4uZIXnLZFQRT9v8UPIuedp7TO8Vjl0xRTajCL PdTk21e7fYriax62IssYcsbbo5G5auEdPO04H/+v/hxmRsGIr3XYvSi4ZWXKASxy a/jHFu9zEqmy0EBzFzpmSx+FrzpMKPkoU7RbxzMgZwIYEBk66Hh6gxllL0JmWjV0 iqmJMtOERE4NgYgumQT3dTxKuFtywmFxBTe80BhGlfUbjBtiSrULq59np4ztwlRT wDEAVDoZbN57aEXhQ8jjF2RlHtqGXhFMrg9fALHaRQARAQABiQQZBBgBCgAPBQJg Yw7SAhsMBQkFo5qAAAoJEJxtzRcoPkVMdigfoK4oBYoxVoWUBCUekCg/alVGyEHa ekvFmd3LYSKX/WklAY7cAgL/1UlLIFXbq9jpGXJUmLZBkzXkOylF9FIXNNTFAmBM 3TRjfPv91D8EhrHJW0SlECN+riBLtfIQV9Y1BUlQthxFPtB1G1fGrv4XR9Y4TsRj VSo78cNMQY6/89Kc00ip7tdLeFUHtKcJs+5EfDQgagf8pSfF/TWnYZOMN2mAPRRf fh3SkFXeuM7PU/X0B6FJNXefGJbmfJBOXFbaSRnkacTOE9caftRKN1LHBAr8/RPk pc9p6y9RBc/+6rLuLRZpn2W3m3kwzb4scDtHHFXXQBNC1ytrqdwxU7kcaJEPOFfC XIdKfXw9AQll620qPFmVIPH5qfoZzjk4iTH06Yiq7PI4OgDis6bZKHKyyzFisOkh DXiTuuDnzgcu0U4gzL+bkxJ2QRdiyZdKJJMswbm5JDpX6PLsrzPmN314lKIHQx3t NNXkbfHL/PxuoUtWLKg7/I3PNnOgNnDqCgqpHJuhU1AZeIkvewHsYu+urT67tnpJ AK1Z4CgRxpgbYA4YEV1rWVAPHX1u1okcg85rc5FHK8zh46zQY1wzUTWubAcxqp9K 1IqjXDDkMgIX2Z2fOA1plJSwugUCbFjn4sbT0t0YuiEFMPMB42ZCjcCyA1yysfAd DYAmSer1bq47tyTFQwP+2ZnvW/9p3yJ4oYWzwMzadR3T0K4sgXRC2Us9nPL9k2K5 TRwZ07wE2CyMpUv+hZ4ja13A/1ynJZDZGKys+pmBNrO6abxTGohM8LIWjS+YBPIq trxh8jxzgLazKvMGmaA6KaOGwS8vhfPfxZsu2TJaRPrZMa/HpZ2aEHwxXRy4nm9G Kx1eFNJO6Ues5T7KlRtl8gflI5wZCCD/4T5rto3SfG0s0jr3iAVb3NCn9Q73kiph PSwHuRxcm+hWNszjJg3/W+Fr8fdXAh5i0JzMNscuFAQNHgfhLigenq+BpCnZzXya 01kqX24AdoSIbH++vvgE0Bjj6mzuRrH5VJ1Qg9nQ+yMjBWZADljtp3CARUbNkiIg tUJ8IJHCGVwXZBqY4qeJc3h/RiwWM2UIFfBZ+E06QPznmVLSkwvvop3zkr4eYNez cIKUju8vRdW6sxaaxC/GECDlP0Wo6lH0uChpE3NJ1daoXIeymajmYxNt+drz7+pd jMqjDtNA2rgUrjptUgJK8ZLdOQ4WCrPY5pP9ZXAO7+mK7S3u9CTywSJmQpypd8hv 8Bu8jKZdoxOJXxj8CphK951eNOLYxTOxBUNB8J2lgKbmLIyPvBvbS1l1lCM5oHlw WXGlp70pspj3kaX4mOiFaWMKHhOLb+er8yh8jspM184= =5a6T -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- FYI. This is probably very useful to spread around... pasted and attached. *To:* Reporters *From:* Michael Slater, Executive Director *Contact:* Sarah Massey: 202.445.1169 *Date:* October 30, 2008 * * * * *Law Enforcement Used to Suppress the Vote: It happened in 2004 and 2006, and it may be happening in 2008* In the 2008 election Americans may once again be seeing law enforcement turned into a tool of voter suppression. It is illegal for law enforcement agents to use their authority to attempt to intimidate or suppress the vote. Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 states that no person " whether acting under color of law or otherwise," shall intimidate, threaten, or coerce any individual for voting or attempting to vote, or for attempting to assist others to vote. Section 12 of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993 provides for criminal penalties against any person who intimidates or attempts to intimidate any person for registering to vote, voting, or attempting to register or vote. In the past few weeks, however, partisan forces have manufactured hysteria around the myth of "voter fraud" that they have used to help goad law-enforcement into intimidation and politically motivated investigations into eligible voters. As the election approaches Project Vote and other voting rights organizations are seeing law enforcement officials inserting themselves into election administration, and partisan pressure to coerce law enforcement agents into overreaching investigations into the eligibility of legal voters. This climate of suppression and intimidation is all the more troubling because Americans have seen this happen before. In 2006 inquiries into the firings of nine U.S. Attorneys exposed the politicalization of the Justice Department, in which law enforcement's traditional role of protecting citizen rights was perverted to serve a partisan agenda of voter suppression. The resulting investigation<http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/s0809a/final.pdf>and scandal revealed how trumped-up charges of "voter fraud" were used in 2004 and 2006 to pursue a cynical strategy of intimidation by law enforcement that was designed to hamper voter registration efforts and suppress turnout at the polls. * * *New Mexico** GOP Reportedly Investigating New Latino Voters* The day after Republican presidential candidate John McCain attempted to link his opponent to wild allegations about voter registration fraud, members of the New Mexico Republican Party held a press conference in which they presented voter registration cards for ten voters they claimed cast ballots illegally in the New Mexico primaries. Nine of the ten voters were Latino, all identified as Democratic, and most were 18-19 years old. One of them was a new citizen naturalized in 2007 who was voting for the first time. Following the press conference ACORN made contact with eight of the ten voters named, and discovered that they were all legitimate voters<http://acorn.org/index.php?id=12439&tx_ttnews%5btt_news%5d=22396&tx_ttnews%5bbackPid%5d=12346&cHash=c99727e877>who were eligible to vote and had no problems with their registrations. As reported in an Associated Press<http://newmexicoindependent.com/6457/nm-gop-accused-of-voter-intimidation>story last week, two of the voters named have also reportedly been harassed by private investigators. Guadalupe Bojorquez of Albuquerque spoke out Thursday about a private investigator who came to her home to question her family about their right to vote, claiming to be working for the law firm of Pat Rogers. Rogers is a GOP attorney who is conspicuously mentioned in the DOJ Office of the Inspector General's report on the Attorneygate investigation as one of the key players in New Mexico who put pressure on U.S. Attorney David Iglesias<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/opinion/21iglesias.html>to investigate alleged "voter fraud" cases. On October 27 Project Vote joined a class action lawsuit filed by the ACLU<http://www.aclu-nm.org/News_Events/news_10_27_08.html>alleging that members of the GOP illegally used private social security numbers to do background checks of these legal voters and illegally disseminated their confidential voter information to the press. The lawsuit also names the private investigator, Al Romero, for using voter registration information to locate voters and question them about the legitimacy of their registrations. *Overreaching Sheriff's Department Investigation in Greene County, Ohio* * * In Ohio, Greene County sheriff Gene Fischer announced two weeks ago that he was "seeking information" about hundreds of people who registered to vote and cast a ballot during Ohio's five-day window of same day registration and voting. Despite recent rulings from four different federal and state courts upholding the lawfulness of Ohio's five-day window, from September 30 to October 5, in which voters could register and cast an absentee ballot on the same day, the County announced they were attempting to "determine whether there was any voter fraud or not," according a quote in an Associated Press<http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5geyQ4hwq9tXm0GHfD0XuAbKFXM7gD93NB0D00>story from Tom Miller, chief of the prosecutor's civil liberty division. Fischer claimed to have been "flooded" with phone calls about alleged voter fraud, yet no actual evidence for an investigation was given. "No one is alleging voter fraud was occurring," Miller admitted. Following public outcry and media attention, the Greene County prosecutor's office announced that that investigation had been cancelled. *Overreaching Prosecutor's Investigation in Hamilton County, Ohio* * * Also in Ohio, county prosecutor Joe Deters initiated a grand jury investigation and issued subpoenas for unredacted personal information on 40% of the 671 new voters who cast ballots during Ohio's five-day window of same-day registration and voting. Deters—citing unspecified allegations of "voter fraud"—launched the investigation and took it upon himself to conduct some attempt to match these voters to government databases and investigate those he determined had problems . The Hamilton County election board says the complaints of fraud did not come from local election officials, and a spokesman for the Secretary of State's office says they are "unaware of any specific allegations of illegal voting out of that county." "I can't get past the feeling that this is just a partisan thing,'' Tim Burke, a member of the Hamilton County Board of Elections told the Cincinnati Enquirer<http://communitypress.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20081020/NEWS0106/310200039>."I just don't believe this is anything but partisan politics." Deters, who also serves as Southwest Ohio chair of the McCain-Palin campaign, removed his office from the investigation amid accusations that the investigation was partisan in nature, and asked that a special prosecutor, O'Neill, be appointed. O'Neill, a Republican, formerly worked for Deters, according to the Enquirer. *Wisconsin Attorney General Sues Government Accountability Board* * * Last month, the Republican Attorney General of Wisconsin, J.B. Van Hollen—who is also co-chair of that state's McCain-Palin campaign—filed a lawsuit against the state's Government Accountability Board to force them to cross-check more than 240,000 voter registrations against driver's license records. The impact of the lawsuit would have been to force the voters to use provisional ballots, calling their votes into question and tying up the polls on Election Day. A judge ruled against Van Hollen's lawsuit, but he and the Wisconsin Republican Party intend to appeal. *Wisconsin** GOP Issues a Call for Intimidating Poll Watchers* Also in Wisconsin, the GOP issued a call to policemen, security personnel, and firefighters to serve as "volunteer poll watchers "in inner city precincts. According to the Washington Post<http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/14/a_wis_call_for_gop_poll_watche.html> "Jonathan Waclawski, the party's election day operations, wrote in a Sept. 8 e-mail that he needed contact information for people "who would potentially be willing to volunteer ... at inner city (more intimidating) polling places. Particularly, I am interested in names of Milwaukee area veterans, policemen, security personnel, firefighters etc. ... If you have any connections with such organizations, please pass that information on." The move is reminiscent of a disturbing history of attempts to intimidate voters in predominantly minority precincts. In a 2004 report to the Center for Voting Rights and Protection entitled "Republican Ballot Security Programs: Vote Protection or Minority Vote Suppression—Or Both<http://projectvote.org/fileadmin/ProjectVote/Blog_docs/GOP_Ballot_Security_Programs.pdf>?", scholars from Rice University discuss the history of what they call "ballot security programs gone bad" which, in the name of protecting against vote fraud, are intended to have a chilling effect on voting in "almost exclusively target heavily black, Latino, or Indian voting precincts." During the gubernatorial race in Kentucky in 2003, for example, the GOP issued a "Gubernatorial Election Integrity Call to Arms," very similar to Waclawski's, calling for 300 monitors to challenge voters in African-American and low-income Louisville precincts. In Orange County, California in 1988, for example, private uniformed security personnel were hired by the GOP to monitor heavily Latino precincts; according to the report, their presence "created a firestorm of protest and set in motion a year-long federal investigation, a civil lawsuit, and new legislation making the hiring of uniformed guards at polling places in California on Election Day a felony." * * *More Partisan Politics from the DOJ?* * * On October 16 an Associate Press story appeared in which anonymous "senior law enforcement officials" leaked news of an FBI investigation into the voter registration fraud allegations surrounding the community organization ACORN. The timing of the FBI leak and investigation—following less than 24 hours after the last presidential debate, in which the Republican presidential candidate John McCain—were viewed with suspicion by many, including the chair of the House judiciary committee, Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI). That same day Conyers sent a letter<http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/conyers-mukasey/?resultpage=1&>to Attorney General Michael Mukasey and FBI Director Robert Mueller, expressing "shock and disappointment" that the FBI has opened and leaked an investigation into ACORN, "a longstanding and well-regarded organization that fights for the poor and working class." Conyers pointed out that both the investigation and the leak contradict longstanding DOJ policy about the "need for cautious and sensitive handling of election-related matters during the run up to voting," and cited a traditional principle requiring that prosecutors "must refrain from any conduct which has the possibility of affecting the election itself." "In the wake of recent controversies regarding the intrusion of partisan politics into Department business," Conyers wrote in a second letter to Mukasey and Mueller<http://judiciary.house.gov/News/PDFs/Conyers-Nadler-Sanchez081020.pdf>on October, "it is troubling to repeatedly learn of repeated federal involvement in apparently dubious investigations against Democratic-affiliated or liberal organizations, but to see no sign of federal concern over an apparently legitimate and serious matter of true fraud that risks concrete electoral impact." ### *Project Vote is a national nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes voting in historically underrepresented communities. Project Vote takes a leadership role in nationwide voting rights and election administration issues, working through research, legal services, and advocacy to ensure that our constituencies are not prevented from registering and voting* * * -- Nathan Henderson-James Director, Strategic Writing and Research Department Citizens' Services, Inc. (CSI) 510-213-1970 cell [email protected] --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the "big campaign" group. To post to this group, send to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] E-mail [email protected] with questions or concerns This is a list of individuals. It is not affiliated with any group or organization. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---