mikeroman's blog

This past Presidential Election, uniformed, baton swinging thugs were caught on video intimidating voters at a polling place in Philadelphia while hurling racial threats and insults at both black and white voters (see here, here). After investigating the incident, and before the change in Administrations, the Civil Rights Division of DOJ filed a complaint against the New Black Panther Party and several of its members for violations of Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act.  That Section prohibits any “attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce” any voter and those aiding voters.

Neither the New Black Panther Party nor its members responded to the complaint.  As a result, the federal district court ordered the Division to file a motion for a default judgment against the Party and its members.  When a defendant doesn’t respond to a lawsuit, this is what happens.  By this time, however, the new Administration had taken charge.  Instead of filing for a default judgment against the Party and its members, the Division VOLUNTARILY moved to dismiss the charges against the Black Panther Party and two of its members. 

In other words, the Division voluntarily dismissed an uncontentested lawsuit against an individual who, by the terms of its own complaint, had “made statements containing racial threats and racial insults at both black and white individuals” and who “made menacing and intimidating gestures, statements, and movements directed at individuals who were present to aid voters.” One member, Jerry Jackson, is an elected member of the Philadelphia Democratic Committee and was a credentialed poll watcher. (See Jackson in an interview with FoxNews here).

The Division sought relief only against one member who carried and waived a baton on election day, and sought only to enjoin him from “displaying a weapon within 100 feet of any open polling loaction” in Philadelphia.  Nothing about ”statements containing racial threats and racial insults” or  ”menacing and intimidating gestures, statements, and movements directed at individuals who were present to aid voters.” 

These actions raise a number of troubling questions.  For example, why did the Civil Rights Division voluntarily dismiss a lawsuit that they had effectively already won, against defendants who were physically threatening voters?  Is the Division concerned that this dismissal will encourage the New Black Panther Party, or other groups, to intimidate voters?  Why did the Division seek such limited relief against a defendant who was actually carrying and brandishing a weapon at a polling station on election day?

cross posted at www.electionjournal.org

After Arlen Specter announced his plans to run as a Democrat in 2010, Gov. Ed Rendell stated: 

“Well, I think that Arlen will probably wind up running unopposed, or without a serious challenger… Everyone knows Arlen and I are personal friends, go back to when he hired me as an assistant district attorney without asking me what party I belonged to. I think every major Democrat is gonna be for Arlen.”  

I wondered at the time, could Rendell really deliver a free-ride to Arlen Specter.  Granted, Rendell is the most powerful Democrat in the State at this moment - so powerful that many Democrats were seriously hoping he would jump into the Democratic Primary to face Specter in the General. But with that no longer an option and Rendell being term-limited, how much influence could a lame-duck Governor have in a state where legislators carve out 30-year power bases. Case in point:

PA State Representative Mark Cohen (D-Philadelphia) is the Majority Caucus Chair, the third ranking leadership position in the Dem controlled State House;  he has been in office since 1974 and is an elected member of the PA Dem State Committee.  Cohen also understands new media - he has  posted to his own blog for several years, is a frequent contributor to DailyKos and Cohen’s facebook page boasts 2000+ followers.  His status updates are measured statements, so last night when he posted Arlen Specter had “jumped from the frying pan to very hot water”  and Democrats “continue to examine their options” I read it as a statement that Democratic leaders are not at all excited about a Specter candidacy - solid liberals distrust him as much as the conservative base in PA.

I e-mailed Cohen and asked him which candidates were still exploring options and he replied:

Democrats exploring Senate candidacies include Congressman Joe Sestack, Pittsburgh City Controller William Lamb, Allegheny County State Representative Bill Kortz, and former Constitution Center President Joe Torsella. Sestack, with at least $3.7 million on hand, and Torsella, with almost $600, 000 on hand, are likely the leading candidates of the bunch.

By contrast, Pat Toomey, whose recent candidacy forced Specter to defect, did not report 1st quarter numbers and likely hasn’t yet raised as much as the Democratic candidates named above.  Specter has $6.7 million on hand.

So Senator Specter finds himself in a familiar situation - looming on the horizon could be a formidable, well-funded candidate with strong support from the base of his (new) party - the question his, how commited is he to put his 29 year career in the hands of Pennsylvania Democrats? 

crossposted at Election Journal

From the Columbus Dispatch, three staffers for Vote Today Ohio have plead guilty to illegally registering and voting in Columbus during the so-called Golden Week - a seven day period when Ohio residents could register to vote and cast a ballot at the same time.

This will likely be a footnote it what was a monumental disaster perpetrated by the Ohio Secretary of State and supporters of Barack Obama.  But it highlights three important realities:

• The extreme vulnerability of Election Day Registration
• The enormous influence one highly partisan election official can have on the process
• The need to invest in ballot security programs

For those who have forgotten, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner unilaterally re-interpreted Ohio Election statutes governing the overlap of the voter registration deadline and the start of early vote to create a de-facto seven day window of Election Day Registration whereby residents could fill out an application and immediately cast a vote.

She ordered the unprepared and understaffed County Election Boards to set-up voting centers that would ensure a massive turnout. Then Brunner amazingly banned all pollwatchers from the vote centers.  Chaos without witnesses.

Many County Election Boards balked and the Ohio Republican Party unsuccessfully sued to stop her, but it was too late.

From the beginning, stories of fraud and misconduct were widely reported.  The Obama Campaign, ACORN, Vote Today Ohio, and Vote From Home were all linked to voter fraud during Golden Week. See here, here, here, here here here here here here here here 

But, as is the case when elections aren’t close, Obama’s victory overshadowed the widespread fraud of Election 2008.  But it happened in Ohio and it happened on a much larger scale then what is being reflected by three guilty pleas.  It will be interesting to see if any of the other groups named above will face similar charges.

This should be a wake up call to any state that is considering EDR without significant safeguards in place,  any political party that isn’t heavily investing in Secretary of State races, and any campaign that doesn’t have a ballot security program. 

The three who plead guilty are:

Amy Little, 50, of New York. (Ms. Little was a consultant for Congressman John Hall (D-NY) until news broke in October that she illegally voted).

Daniel Hausman, 32, of New York.

Yolanda Hipplesteele, 30, of California.

crossposted at www.electionjournal.org

A critical conservative Web 2.0 success story you all should know about. -Patrick

Election Journal was developed to provide news and information concerning voting fraud and other irregularities. The point of view differs from the majority of other web-sites dedicated to this issue in that the culprit is not the “vast-right wing conspiracy.” In fact, EJ seeks to broaden the dialogue with commentary and independent investigation of incidents that have gone largely unreported by the MSM.