[EL] Massive vote fraud defined

[James Woodruff]

Do voter intimidation cases actually require that a voter be intimidated?

James J. Woodruff II, Esq.
Associate Professor of Lawyering Process
Florida Coastal School of Law
8787 Baypine Road
Jacksonville, FL  32256

________________________________
From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] on behalf of Abigail Thernstrom [thernstr at fas.harvard.edu]
Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2011 3:36 PM
To: Chandler Davidson
Cc: law-election at uci.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] Massive vote fraud defined


And when two unappealing members of the New Black Panther Party showed up at a single Philadelphia polling place in November 2008, one of them slapping a night stick against his palm, there was "massive" voter intimidation, although no voters who had actually felt intimidated in that heavily black neighborhood could be found.

Abby

Abigail Thernstrom
Vice-chair, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
Adjunct Scholar, American Enterprise Institute
www.thernstrom.com<http://www.thernstrom.com>


On Jul 31, 2011, at 1:32 PM, Chandler Davidson wrote:

The adjective I see most often applied by those making a fuss about the existence of vote fraud is "massive."  In such descriptions, it's difficult to get a sense of what massive fraud consists in, as distinct from mere  "significant" fraud.

I now have a pretty good implicit definition of "massive," thanks to the article cited in the Daily Caller.  The author is Matthew Vadum, described as " a senior editor at Capital Research Center, a Washington, D.C. think tank that studies the politics of philanthropy with a special focus on left-wing advocacy groups".    The article begins:


While NAACP President Benjamin Jealous lashed out at new state laws requiring photo ID for voting, an NAACP executive sits in prison, sentenced for carrying  out a massive voter fraud scheme.

In a story ignored by the national media, in April a Tunica County, Miss., jury convicted NAACP official Lessadolla Sowers on 10 counts of fraudulently casting  absentee ballots. Sowers is identified on an NAACP website as a member of the Tunica County NAACP Executive Committee. . . .

Sowers was found guilty of voting in the names of Carrie Collins, Walter Howard, Sheena Shelton, Alberta Pickett, Draper Cotton and Eddie Davis. She was also  convicted of voting in the names of four dead persons: James L. Young, Dora Price, Dorothy Harris, and David Ross.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/07/29/mississippi-naacp-leader-sent-to-prison-for-10-counts-of-voter-fraud/#ixzz1Th32w9za

If ten instances of  fraud by one person constitute massive fraud, one  is entitled to ask what adjective would apply in the event that the perpetrator voted the names of twenty people rather than ten:  Humongous?  Mind-boggling?  Overwhelming?  Of biblical proportions?  Apocalyptic?

I suppose those who believe the national photo ID movement is essentially a disfranchisement movement should feel free to adopt similar terms to describe its effects, assuming as many as ten people are unfairly kept from voting.

Chandler Davidson

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