[EL] ELB News and commentary 6/24/11

Fri Jun 24 05:21:29 PDT 2011

"The Brooklyn example is not looking like such a great one of impersonation voter fraud going on without notice of diligent elected officials."

-As a documented voter fraud skeptic, I must nonetheless ask, who said voter ID laws were only aimed at "impersonation fraud going on without notice of diligent elected officials"? I don't recall Spakovsky's piece being limited to fraud going on without the notice of diligent elected officials.

It seems to me that the Brooklyn case is a pretty compelling piece of evidence for voter ID. The question is whether the problem is really widespread enough to justify the solution. I generally think that laws based on zero tolerance or isolated scandals, no matter how compelling, tend to produce more harm than good.

Bradley A. Smith
Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault Designated Professor of Law
Capital University Law School
303 E. Broad St.
Columbus, OH 43215
(614) 236-6317
http://www.law.capital.edu/Faculty/Bios/bsmith.asp

________________________________

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu on behalf of Rick Hasen
Sent: Fri 6/24/2011 12:29 AM
To: law-election at uci.edu
Subject: [EL] ELB News and commentary 6/24/11

Want More Flavor About the Brooklyn Fraud Described in the 1984 Grand Jury Report, the Collusion of Election Officials, and Prosecutions for Impersonation Vote Fraud? <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=19584>  

Posted on June 23, 2011 <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=19584>  by Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>  

Jim Sleeper's recollections <http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/31/treat_or_trick_elections_offic/index.php>  jibe with the grand jury report and the NY Times reporting at the time.  Sleeper's story <http://jimsleeper.com/articles/scoops&revelations/Vender%20Beatty.pdf> from the Village Voice in that period notes some impersonation fraud and some convictions:

 <http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/beatty.png> The Brooklyn example is not looking like such a great one of impersonation voter fraud going on without notice of diligent elected officials.

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Posted in election administration <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18> , fraudulent fraud squad <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8> , Uncategorized <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1> , voter id <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=9>  | Comments Off 

Two from FollowtheMoney.org <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=19579>  

Posted on June 23, 2011 <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=19579>  by Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>  

Best practices <http://www.followthemoney.org/press/ReportView.phtml?r=444>  for state campaign finance disclosure and a 50-state survey <http://www.followthemoney.org/content/bestpractices/index.phtml> .

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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>  | Comments Off 

"National Political Committees Must Return Donations from Stanford" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=19576>  

Posted on June 23, 2011 <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=19576>  by Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>  

Bloomberg reports <http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-22/u-s-political-committees-must-return-1-7-million-in-stanford-donations.html> : "Five Democratic and Republican national political committees must return more than $1.7 million in contributions received from indicted financier R. Allen Stanford to his court-appointed receiver, a federal judge ruled."

You can access the judge's order here <http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/Janvey-Order.pdf> .

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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10> , chicanery <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>  | Comments Off 

"The Hatch Act: Showcasing the Absurdity of Congress" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=19573>  

Posted on June 23, 2011 <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=19573>  by Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>  

Jeff Patch blogs <http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/168179-the-hatch-act-showcasing-the-absurdity-of-congress> .

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"Constitutional Myth #5: Corporations Have the Same Free-Speech Rights as Individuals" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=19570>  

Posted on June 23, 2011 <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=19570>  by Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>  

Garrett Epps blogs <http://m.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/06/constitutional-myth-5-corporations-have-the-same-free-speech-rights-as-individuals/240874/>  on Danielczyk.

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"House Votes Not to Confer More Power on Feckless FEC" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=19567>  

Posted on June 23, 2011 <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=19567>  by Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>  

This item <http://www.clcblog.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=423:house-votes-not-to-confer-more-power-on-feckless-fec-6-23-11>  appears on the CLC Blog.

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Posted in Election Assistance Commission <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=34> , federal election commission <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=24>  | Comments Off 

NC Governor Vetoes Voter ID Law <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=19564>  

Posted on June 23, 2011 <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=19564>  by Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>  

Another <http://wkzo.com/news/articles/2011/jun/23/north-carolina-governor-vetoes-voter-photo-id-bill/>  Democratic governor vetoes a voter id law passed by a Republican legislature.

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Posted in voter id <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=9>  | Comments Off 

1984 New York Grand Jury Report on Voter Fraud Now Available <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=19560>  

Posted on June 23, 2011 <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=19560>  by Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>  

Thanks to the hard work of the UCI Law librarians, and the cooperation of the Brooklyn District Attorney's office, I am pleased to provide a link to Kings County grand jury report, In the Matter of Confidential Investigation R84-11 <http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/1984_grand_jury_report-r84-11.pdf> .

This is the report I tried <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=19393> to get <http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/06/election_expert_cant_find_report_on_1984_voter_impersonation_case_cited_by_von_spakovsky.php>  from Hans von Spakovsky and the Heritage Foundation with no success.  von Spakovsky had relied on the grand jury report in an effort to justify voter identification requirements. (He wrote <http://electionlawblog.org/archives/012191.html> : "One doesn't have to look far to find instances of fraudulent ballots cast in actual elections by 'voters' who were the figments of active imaginations. In 1984, a district attorney in Brooklyn, N.Y. (a Democrat), released the findings of a grand jury that reported extensive registration and impersonation fraud between 1968 and 1982.")

It is a fascinating read, about what appear to have been the last days of a corrupt Brooklyn Democratic party machine.  Most of the fraud alleged involved the cooperation of election officials or inspectors, or the downright incompetence of election workers.  (One of the most colorful episodes recorded involved party workers hiding in the restroom ceilings at the Brooklyn Board of Elections, waiting to phony up voter registration cards after an election to manufacture evidence for an election contest.)

It is not clear to me why von Spakovsky did not respond to requests to turn over the grand jury report because the report contains the only apparently successful effort in the last 40 years of which I'm aware to actually affect election results through impersonation fraud.  Perhaps the reason is that the way in which the fraud was done almost certainly could not happen today, thanks to basic safeguards put in place by election officials (such as checking the names and addresses of new registrants and ensuring greater security of voter registration materials).  And of course when election officials collude with those committing fraud, a voter i.d. requirement would not help in the slightest.

The fact that most of this fraud took place 40 years ago and nothing like it has been discovered since is a good argument that schemes like these cannot  successfully be done anymore. Vote buying schemes, fraudulent registration schemes, and absentee ballot fraud do get discovered and prosecuted.  There's no reason to think this kind of fraud, if it happened, would not at least occasionally be discovered and prosecuted as well.  At most we find a handful of isolated cases-nothing organized, and certainly nothing to swing elections.

Still, the grand jury report is the best evidence that the Fraudulent Fraud Squad has, and now it will see the light of day.

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Posted in election administration <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18> , fraudulent fraud squad <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8> , voter id <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=9>  | Comments Off 

"Romney backers launch super PAC" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=19557>  

Posted on June 23, 2011 <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=19557>  by Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>  

WaPo reports <http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/romney-backers-launch-super-pac/2011/06/22/AGTkGchH_story.html> .

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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>  | Comments Off 

Wonder What the Supreme Court Will Do on Monday in McComish? <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=19554>  

Posted on June 23, 2011 <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=19554>  by Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>  

Here' <http://www.slate.com/id/2289193/> s the oral argument preview I wrote for Slate, "Rich Candidate Expected to Win Again."

I'll be writing about the McComish decision on Monday, when the decision is expected to be released at 10 am eastern.  Stay tuned.

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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>  | Comments Off 

-- 
Rick Hasen
Visiting Professor
UC Irvine School of Law
401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
Irvine, CA 92697-8000
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949.824.0495 - fax
rhasen at law.uci.edu
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William H. Hannon Distinguished Professor of Law
Loyola Law School
http://www.lls.edu/academics/faculty/hasen.html
http://electionlawblog.org <http://electionlawblog.org/> 

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