Federal Election Commission Nominee May Have Overseen Voter Discrimination

The Bush administration has nominated Hans von Spakovsky to a full six-year term on the Federal Election Commission. Von Spakovsky is a former Justice Department political appointee who may have blocked investigations into voter suppression during his work with the Civil Rights Division. He is only the latest in a series of Republican appointees--following Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Bradley Schlozman, and Tim Griffin--who have placed partisan politics above their duties and made a mockery of our judicial system.

Donna Brazile, Chair of the Democratic Party’s Voting Rights Institute, writes:

According to the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Brennan Center for Justice, which released a report last week titled "Using Justice to Suppress the Vote," the U.S. attorney scandal is "only part of the story." The report states that von Spakovsky prevented the Civil Rights Division from investigating serious allegations of voter discrimination against American Indians in Minnesota with weeks to go in a very competitive November election.

In 2005, he sped approval of stringent voter identification laws in Georgia and Arizona, joining decisions to override career lawyers who believed that the Georgia law would restrict voting by poor blacks and the elderly, and that the Arizona law discriminated against Indians and Latinos. The Georgia law was later invalidated by a federal court, which likened the law to a Jim Crow-era poll tax.

You can read more on von Spakovsky and his hearing before the Senate Rules Committee from TPM Muckraker. One thing is clear: von Spakovsky does not deserve a full term on the FEC.

(Ramzi Takla is an intern in the DNC Internet Department)

Comments (3) «

More crime by the Bushiato. They are really taking their third world dictatorship roles seriously.
INVESTIGATE!!! IIMPEACH!!! INDICT!!!!

1

Butte on June 21, 2007 at 05:54 PM

"Likened the law to a Jim Crowe-era poll tax" - is that what the Administration is fighting for, to turn back the clock on voting rights?

Yes.

As reported, civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., and four other members of the Georgia congressional delegation voiced their opinions via letter to the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, which is considering Spakovsky's nomination.

In our opinion, the track record on voting suppression of one of the nominees, Mr. Hans von Spakovsky, could potentially turn back the clock on fifty years of progress.

50 Years.

It's a great shame that in 2007, Republicans still assault - and we Democrats must still fight to protect - that most fundamental of rights, the right to vote.

2

Robert_F_Donovan on June 22, 2007 at 09:18 AM

The Republican regressives keep wanting to take us back to the turn of the LAST century and the era of the rich and greedy robber barons sneering at the working poor, child labor, the 12 hour day, and the 6 day work week.
They are nostalgic for a time when widows had to take in sewing, laundry or run a boarding house to survive after their husbands were killed in an industrial accident, and old people got to work until they dropped dead.
So much for the 21st century.

3

Butte on June 23, 2007 at 11:19 AM

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