DNC: Bush Administration Owes Apology Over Assault on Voting Rights

Donna Brazile, Chair of the Democratic National Committee's Voting Rights Institute, joined the Chairs of the DNC's Black Caucus, Hispanic Caucus, AAPI Caucus, Seniors Coordinating Council, and Native American Coordinating Council in condemning the Bush Administration's assault on voting rights and its politicization of the Department of Justice. The joint statement follows a report in yesterday's Los Angeles Times confirming that one of the U.S. Attorneys in Minnesota was apparently targeted by the Bush Administration because he tried to "protect voting rights for Native Americans." [LA Times, 5/31/07] The Minnesota example, however, is just one of many elements of a coordinated five-year political campaign by Bush Republicans in the White House, the Justice Department, and the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to trump up charges of voter fraud in order to pursue restrictive voter ID laws that would disproportionately disenfranchise minority, senior, student, and disabled voters.

Recent reports make clear that this coordinated campaign included the politicization of government agencies and government reports, and the targeting of U.S. Attorneys who were deemed to be "insufficiently aggressive in pursuing voter fraud cases." [New York Times, 4/12/07] In April, the New York Times reported that political appointees at the EAC politicized expert studies to marginalize experts who found "virtually no evidence of any organized" voter fraud, but found real evidence of ongoing voter intimidation and suppression. [New York Times, 4/11/07; New York Times, 4/12/07] At the same time, concerns raised by career professionals in the states and at the national level were ignored or marginalized in order to facilitate the Administration's political objectives. In the Minnesota case, the "former head of the voting section of the Justice Department's civil rights division" was told "not to do anything" without approval from a Bush Administration political appointee despite concerns from lawyers for the state's U.S. Attorney's office that the voting rights of Native Americans were being infringed upon. [LA Times, 5/31/07] Now, the Republican Minority Leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, is trying to slip an amendment into the Senate immigration bill to impose harsh voter ID requirements nationwide. [League of Women Voters, 5/24/07] And in her recent testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, ex-DOJ staffer Monica Goodling said that Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty knew about the involvement of Acting U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin in “vote caging,” a process of systematically removing voters from the registration rolls. A full fact sheet on "vote caging," which is considered a crime, is included below.

Donna Brazile (DNC Voting Rights Institute), Virgie Rollins (DNC Black Caucus), Ramona Martinez (DNC Hispanic Caucus), Bel Leong-Hong (DNC AAPI Caucus), Maria Cordone (DNC Seniors Coordinating Council), and Frank LaMere (DNC Native American Coordinating Council) issued the following joint statement:

"The American people deserve leaders who respect the right of every eligible voter to cast his or her vote and to have that vote counted. The Bush Administration has systematically worked to undermine that right by politicizing essential federal voter protections, downplaying voter suppression tactics, and promoting discriminatory voter ID laws that disenfranchise American voters. The assault on voting rights is easily the most disturbing and inexcusable example of the Bush Administration's unbridled willingness to use the American government for the benefit of narrow partisan interests. The same voters targeted by these Republican efforts, whether Hispanic, African American, AAPI, or Native American, are all among those serving with honor in Iraq and Afghanistan. They shouldn't have to fight for their right to vote when they come home.

"The list of tools that Republicans have used to enhance their electoral prospects at the expense of our right to vote reads like a shameful litany from past eras: restricting access to voter registration, improper attempts to purge voter lists, the use of voting machines that leave no verifiable audit trails, criminal phone jamming schemes, discriminatory voter ID laws, inconsistently administered elections, and now we find out, politicizing the Department of Justice. These Republican schemes are not just undemocratic, they're un-American. The time has come for Republicans to stop playing politics with our fundamental right to vote, and for President Bush, Mitch McConnell, and the Republican Party to apologize to the American people."

Below is a DNC Research fact sheet on "Vote Caging"

“CAGING” AND THE US ATTORNEY SCANDAL

In her recent testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Monica Goodling was asked briefly about “caging.” Both in her opening remarks and in response to questioning by Linda Sanchez, Goodling said that Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty knew about the involvement of Acting U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin in “vote caging,” a process of systematically removing voters from the registration rolls. McNulty had previously denied knowing of the scheme. Not mentioned in the testimony is the fact that caging voters is a crime.

Goodling told the committee:

• As explained in more detail in my written remarks, I believe the deputy was not fully candid about his knowledge of White House involvement in the replacement decision, failed to disclose that he had some knowledge of the White House's interest in selecting Tim Griffin as the interim U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Arkansas, inaccurately described the department's internal assessment of the Parsky Commission and failed to disclose that he had some knowledge of allegations that Tim Griffin had been involved in vote caging during his work on the president's 2004 campaign. [Testimony of Monica M. Goodling before the House Judiciary Committee, 5/24/2007]

RNC NATIONAL CHALLENGE STRATEGY

National Republican Party Gatherings Spent Planning Challenge Strategies. “At national party gatherings, Republican state chairmen have been comparing notes, exchanging ideas and sharing results from trial runs of antifraud poll-monitoring efforts during the 2002 campaign and a myriad of special elections.” [Wall Street Journal, 10/22/04]

Republican Admits Systematic Challenges of Black and Hispanic Voters in 2002. “In the 2002 antifraud experimental run, hundreds of Republican activists slipped on their green vests and tested out the role of poll monitor. In Milwaukee, the volunteers contested the residency of some black voters and in the Hispanic communities they questioned the nationalities of others. Overall, not much came of it. Even Mr. Graber [Wisconsin Republican Chairman] concedes there were ‘few reports of trouble.’ But he says the "dry run" two years ago has better prepared the party for the challenges today.” [Wall Street Journal, 10/22/04]

Republican Intimidation Strategy Aided by Top Party Leaders. “The Republican antifraud campaign is being shepherded by the Republican National Committee headquarters, with help from throughout the party. Attorney General John Ashcroft has asked U.S. attorneys to meet with top election officials and make themselves available for fraud investigations on Election Day if necessary. Some Republican secretaries of state have issued regulations to ensure votes -- mistakenly or intentionally -- cast in the wrong precincts aren't counted, but judges recently struck down those rules, saying they run counter to the intent of a new federal law aimed at removing technical obstacles to voting. Republican voters and state lawmakers also have pressed, with mixed results, to require new voters to show identification to ensure that an imposter isn't able to cast a fraudulent vote.” [Wall Street Journal, 10/22/04]

RNC CREATES CHALLENGE LIST IN FLORIDA

Email from Bush Campaign in FL to RNC Includes List of Voters to Be Challenged from African-American Neighborhood. “Two e-mails, prepared for the executive director of the Bush campaign in Florida and the campaign's national research director in Washington DC, contain a 15-page so-called ‘caging list.’ It lists 1,886 names and addresses of voters in predominantly black and traditionally Democrat areas of Jacksonville, Florida. An elections supervisor in Tallahassee, when shown the list, told Newsnight: ‘The only possible reason why they would keep such a thing is to challenge voters on election day.’” [BBC Television News Online, 10/26/04]

“Caging” List Generated from RNC Mailing. “The list was a listing of returned mail that came from a mailing that the Republican National Committee sent to new registrants in Duval County encouraging newly registered Republicans, Democrats and independents to vote Republican.” [LA Times, 10/28/04]

Caging Email Sent to RNC Research Staff. The Republican email that included the “caging list”, originally from Kelly Porter with the Republican Party of Florida, was sent from RNC Research Director Tom Griffin to several other members of the RNC research and political staff. The header of the email reads:

• From: Tim Griffin - Research/Communications [mailto:tgriffin@rnchq.org] Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2004 6:34 PM To: kporter@rpof.org; Lindy Landreaux - Political [mailto:LLandreaux@rnchq.org]; Miriam Moore - Research/Communications [mailto:MMoore@rnchq.org]; Victoria Newton - Research/Communications [mailto:VNewton@rnchq.org]; Shawn Reinschmiedt - Research/Communications [SReinschmiedt@rnchq.org]; rkammerdiner@rnchq.org; sshiver@rpof.org; bdoster@georgewbush.org Subject: Re: caging

RNC Response to BBC Reports:

“First, caging is a commonly used term in the political process by which someone opens a large amount of mail and logs it into a database. This is routinely done when an organization receives a great deal of mail from a fundraising appeal or returned mail from a mailing to a large number of people. The reporter was not familiar with this term or this process and did not seem to understand it even after it was explained to him. Second, the list was a listing of returned mail that came from a mailing that the Republican National Committee sent to new registrants in Duval County in Florida, encouraging newly registered Republicans, Democrats and Independents to vote Republican. Voter registration has been a heavy concentration of both parties this year and both national and state Republican parties have been reaching out to new registrants for the upcoming election. The Duval County list was created to collect the returned mail information from the Republican National Committee mailing and was intended and has been used for no purpose other than that.”
-- Mindy Tucker Fletcher, Senior Advisor to the RNC

SIMILAR LISTS USED FOR CHALLENGES IN WI & OH

Ohio Republican accusations proved false and will be rejected. Today, the Columbus Post Dispatch reports, “many of the 35,427 challenges the Ohio GOP filed Friday against newly registered voters statewide will be rejected.” The Republican accusation was based on returned mail from a computer-generated mailing which they tried to prove the addresses where invalid, but it turns out the computer program itself was faulty. The GOP has withdrawn all 4,718 challenges filed in Hamilton County and about two-thirds of the 4,219 challenges filed in Franklin County, admitting these were invalid accusations. [Columbus Post Dispatch, 10/25/04]

Republicans File Last Minute Challenge in Wisconsin. “State Republicans filed a last-minute complaint Wednesday with the Milwaukee Election Commission claiming that 5,600 city addresses on the voter rolls may not exist. . . . The Republican Party of Wisconsin checked the addresses of more than 300,000 people registered to vote in the city with a software program also used by the U.S. Postal Service.” [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 10/27/04]

Wisconsin Republicans Conducting Background Checks on New Voters. “Wisconsin Republicans are conducting background checks on roughly 100,000 newly registered voters and training more than 50,000 volunteers to monitor precincts on Election Day and lodge challenges against voters they view as questionable.” [Wall Street Journal, 10/22/04]

Wisconsin “Election Integrity Program” a National Model. “The project, informally called the Election Integrity Program, is a model for similar efforts Republicans are launching nationwide to counter the massive voter-registration efforts conducted by Democratic-leaning groups this year. Both parties have pushed get-out-the-vote campaigns, and efforts to prevent election fraud. But while Democrats have grabbed headlines by filing lawsuits to protect voter access to the polls, Republicans have been working just as feverishly to make voter fraud a top priority.” [Wall Street Journal, 10/22/04]

CHALLENGE LIST REJECTED IN NEVADA

GOP Challenge Rejected in Nevada. “A late challenge to 17,000 Democratic voters in Clark County by a former Republican operative was blocked Monday when Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said all would be eligible to participate in the Nov. 2 election. Dan Burdish, a Republican businessman and former state party executive director, challenged the voters in the 3rd Congressional District on Friday, arguing that as "inactive voters" they do not live at the address associated with their voter registration. The county designates voters as inactive when it cannot deliver mail to the voter. After a certain amount of time as inactive, voters are purged from the rolls. The purge has already been done in Clark County this year, but all inactive voters countywide may vote if they provide an updated address to the county.” [Las Vegas Review-Journal, 10/12/04]

CHALLENGES EXPECTED IN FLORIDA & COLORADO

Republicans Prepared for Challenges in FL and CO. “Republicans have also filed plans in Florida and Colorado to place watchers who can challenge voters in those key states on Election Day.” [Washington Post, 10/29/04]

RNC HISTORY OF USING CHALLENGE LISTS TO DISENFRANCHISE VOTERS

RNC Used Similar Tactics in 1981. “In 1981, the Republican National Committee sent letters to predominantly black neighborhoods in New Jersey, and when 45,000 letters were returned as undeliverable, the committee compiled a challenge list to remove those voters from the rolls. The RNC sent off-duty law enforcement officials to the polls and hung posters in heavily black neighborhoods warning that violating election laws is a crime.” [Washington Post, 10/29/04]

1986 Challenge List Targeted Blacks in Louisiana. “In 1986, the RNC tried to have 31,000 voters, most of them black, removed from the rolls in Louisiana when a party mailer was returned. The consent decrees that resulted prohibited the party from engaging in anti-fraud initiatives that target minorities or conduct mail campaigns to "compile voter challenge lists."” [Washington Post, 10/29/04]