[EL] Massive vote fraud defined

[Abigail Thernstrom]

	You are right to raise the question, and the answer is, no. It was  
sloppy of me to suggest otherwise; I'm just overdosed on tip-of-the- 
iceberg arguments that make more of that incident than it deserved.  
There was a serious imbalance between the gravity of the allegations  
and the strength of the evidence available to support the charges.

	  It's a violation of section 11 (b) of the Voting Rights Act. if the  
two Panthers intended voter intimidation.   But, it was an odd polling  
place to pick if they, in fact, wanted to scare voters -- presumably  
white voters, since the precinct contained almost no whites.

	And, btw, I did not mean to express an opinion on the extent of voter  
fraud -- a different issue. I have no expertise on that topic.

	Abby
	

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


On Jul 31, 2011, at 3:40 PM, James Woodruff wrote:

> 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
>
>
> 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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