[EL] Interview request

JBoppjr at aol.com JBoppjr at aol.com
Thu Jan 12 08:17:02 PST 2012


There are a lot of reasons why someone needs a birth certificate. I had to  
present one when I was 15 and registering for social security and when I 
was 18  registering for the draft.  I had to present one to get a passport. I  
think I had to present one to get a marriage licence 29 years ago. So one 
needs  a birth certificate for many things and it is hardly an  unusual 
burden.  Jim
 
 
In a message dated 1/12/2012 11:11:31 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
rhasen at law.uci.edu writes:

And for  those who don't have a birth certificate, the costs are 
considerably  higher.

On 1/12/2012 5:47 AM, Douglas Carver wrote:
> In other  words, all the nuns have to do is jump over a barrier that
> has no  business being there in the first place -- sorry nuns, and
> anyone else  who has to make that jump.
>
> It always strikes me as curious  that conservatives go ape over
> anything approaching gun control  because "some day the government will
> take all of our guns", yet they  are quite happy with incremental
> barriers to restrictions on  voting.  Anyone who has looked at how
> voting rights were stripped  from black Americans at the end of the
> nineteenth century and  beginning of the twentieth century should be
> aware that small barriers  have a way of becoming big ones.
>
> Douglas Carver
>  Albuquerque, NM
>
>
> On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 6:38  AM,<JBoppjr at aol.com>  wrote:
>> All the nuns have to do is  hitch a ride to the nearest licence branch 
and
>> get a free  identification card.  They don't have to get a driver's  
licence.
>> Really hard!  Jim Bopp
>>
>> In a  message dated 1/11/2012 8:16:00 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
>>  wgroth at fdgtlaborlaw.com writes:
>>
>> As one of the  attorneys for the plaintiffs who challenged Indiana's 
photo
>>  ID  law in the Crawford case, the assertion that the Indiana nuns in  
South
>> Bend were engaged in a premeditated publicity stunt or were  deliberately
>> making a "political statement" is unfounded and  simply absurd.  After 
the
>> incident was reported in the media,  we made repeated efforts to speak 
with
>> these nuns and were  rebuffed. Their subsequent reticence to speak with
>> anyone about  their experience attempting to vote without ID belies any 
claim
>>  that they had a political motive.  And these nuns, who I recall were 
all  in
>> their 70s, 80s and 90s, were non-drivers for whom obtaining  required ID
>> would have been anything but  easy.
>>
>> Bill Groth
>>
>> -------  Original Message ------- On 1/12/2012  12:08 AM Justin Levitt  
wrote:
>>                 I have a different recollection about the Indiana nuns  
--
>> including     whether the IDs were  actually"readily 
attainable"
>> for  98-year-old     non-drivers.  And as I recall, the  majority of 
nuns in
>> the convent     were dissuaded  from showing up at the polls when they 
heard
>>      about their fellow sisters being turned away, which seems like a
>>  particularly poorly executed publicity exercise.  But I also  wasn't
>> on-site.  And I have no doubt that some  on-site thought it was a
>> publicity stunt, and some did not, which  does little to resolve the
>> issue.
>>
>>   Moreover, it's a fair point that Brad makes about  generally
>> responding to the substance ... though I don't  think the substance
>> of the"experiment" is worth  all that much in reflecting on the
>>      policy.
>>
>>       My problem with the  substance of the"experiment" (beyond
>> its   potential illegality) is that it to the extent it is intended to  
be
>>     relevant to the debate over restrictive  voter ID laws, it encourages
>> uninformed policymaking by  unrepresentative anecdote.  (When you go
>> looking for actual  dead voters, you more often find this.)
>>
>>     The more thoughtful discussions about ID are -- as I think  
you've
>>     pointed out, Brad -- driven by  data.  They're debates about 
costs
>> and benefits,  including different ways in which states may ask     
voters  to
>> identify themselves, and different ways in which those   methods of
>> identification impact the  electorate.  The"experiment"      
does
>> little to tease out whether asking someone to sign in  is     different 
from
>> asking them to show some form  of documentation is     different from 
asking
>> them  to show one or two state-specified     cards.  It does  nothing to
>> identify the relative impact of any of   those rules on real individuals.
>> And it does nothing  to identify     whether plugging the potential  
security
>> breach is worth the     demonstrated  cost.  The video isn't 
intended to
>> do any of  those     things -- it's intended to sensationalize one  
aspect
>> of the     problem.  Mr.  O'Keefe has shown a talent at succeeding at
>> this   part
>> icular goal.  But I'm not sure that  calls for 
a"substantive"
>>      response from opponents of ID laws.  If anything, it would call  for
>> sensationalism in return.  And I don't see how  that helps anyone
>> other than the  sensationalists.
>>
>>
>>        Put differently: if I manufacture a fake photo ID and sign in at  
the
>>     polls using that fake photo ID, would the  fact that I've
>> surreptitiously videotaped it demand a  substantive response from     
those
>> who favor ID  laws?  Or would that particular criminal act be      not
>> terribly representative of how the system normally  works?
>>
>>        Justin
>>
>>       On 1/11/2012 3:35 PM,  Smith, Brad wrote:
>> Perhaps prosecutors should investigate   and prosecute (and perhaps
>> not, if  cooler heads prevail); but         does that say  anything one 
way or
>> the other about the, what       should we call it,
>>  "experiment"?  If O'Keefe's experiment  is         
correct
>> and it is easy to pull  the names of recently deceased         voters,  
and
>> then to send people in to vote them, that would seem   to be pretty
>> relevant to the debate  over voter ID (at least         demanding  a
>> substantive response from opponents of ID laws) and     simply urging
>> that the testers be prosecuted  without that         substantive response
>>  seems an awful lot like an effort to change          the subject.
>>               If I recall, in 2008, a bunch of nuns in Indiana,  rather
>>           than get IDs which  were readily attainable, made a big point
>>     of  going down to vote without getting IDs, basically to make a
>>  political PR statement. O'Keefe's actions (or those of  the
>> people requesting ballots in his scheme) may have been  illegal          
 (I
>> don't  know on the question of voting the ballots), but in
>> spirit strike  me as little different from the actions of the         
nuns.
>> A bit of theater to make a point, but no actual  harm to           the
>> integrity of  any election results done. While I don't
>> encourage that  (perhaps a small fine would be appropriate), it
>> seems a bit  churlish to demand prosecutions but not to address         
the
>> issue the may have been  exposed.
>>
>>
>>
>> Bradley A.  Smith
>>
>> Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M.  Nault
>>
>>     Professor of  Law
>>
>> Capital University Law  School
>>
>> 303 E. Broad St.
>>
>>  Columbus, OH 43215
>>
>>  614.236.6317
>>
>>  http://law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.aspx
>>       From:
>>    law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
>>  [law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] on         behalf of
>> Rick Hasen  [rhasen at law.uci.edu]
>>             Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2012 6:13  PM
>>                 To: Justin Levitt
>>           Cc:  law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
>>         Subject: Re: [EL] Interview  request
>>
>>             I never said there was  no crime.  I'm with
>>           Justin.  And I've urged prosecutors  to
>> investigate, which they            now
>> apparently  are.
>>
>>
>>           On 1/11/2012 3:09 PM, Justin Levitt wrote:   Are
>> we  sure?
>>
>>               Federal law prohibits fraudulently
>>  "procuring" ballots in addition  to"casting" them,
>> which       might indicate that a crime is  complete even if the
>>             ballot is not voted.
>>         And           state law similarly prohibits
>>  "applying for" a             ballot in a name other than your
>> own, in  addition to"voting".
>>
>>     I don't know  whether either of those provisions have
>>         ever been enforced, much less construed, for  ballots
>>       that have not been voted, and to  me, the more natural
>> reading is to construe them so as to apply to  procuring
>> ballots for other people to vote them.  But I  could
>> understand an alternative view.  And as I keep  hearing                  
with
>> respect to this issue, whether the provision has     been
>> enforced in  such circumstances isn't a particularly         good
>> gauge of whether criminal  activity has occurred.
>>
>>         Justin
>>
>>   On 1/11/2012  2:46 PM, Frank Askin wrote:
>>           I agree with Rick Hasen.  It appears that  none of
>> O'keefe's actors was stupid enough to  actually vote and risk a
>> 5-year jail sentence.  I wish they  had.... Also, it is unclear whether a
>> voter in New Hampshire has  to sign in before voting.  When I go to 
vote, no
>> one asks me  for ID but I have to sign the register so my signature can 
be
>>  compared with the one in the book.  FRANK     Prof. Frank  Askin
>> Distinguished Professor of Law       and  Director Constitutional 
Litigation
>> Clinic Rutgers Law  School/Newark (973) 353-5687>>> Scott 
Bieniek
>>  1/11/2012 4:53 PM>>>“Who in their right mind  would risk 
a
>> felony conviction for this? And who would be able to  do this in large 
enough
>> numbers to (1) affect the outcome of the  election and (2) remain
>> undetected?” Hasen wrote.  I'm not buying this argument. You 
could
>> make the same  argument against quid-pro-quo c
>> orruption, and the need for  contribution limits and compelled 
disclosure.
>> Quid-pro-quo  corruption is typically a felony, and yet we have 
contribution
>>  limits and compelled disclosure, in part, because the risk of 
prosecution  is
>> deemed insufficient to deter the conduct, or at least prevent  the 
appearance
>> thereof in the eyes of the public.  If the  appearance of corruption is
>> sufficient to support contribution  limits and compelled public 
disclosure,
>> why isn't the  appearance of in-person voter fraud sufficient to 
justify
>> voter  ID?  In return for Voter ID, we get: 1. Restored public  
confidence
>> that it is harder for O'Keefe and others to  pull off a stunt like 
this.
>> 2. A method of detecting in-person  voter fraud at the time of the crime.
>> And because wagers are all  the rage this cycle, I'd be willing to 
wager
>> that a higher  percentage of the public believe that Voter ID prevents
>> in-person  fraud than those that believe limits or disclosure prevent
>>  corruption.  Scott Bieni!
>> ek    On Jan 11, 2012, at  12:54 PM,"Ryan J. Reilly"  wrote:
>>  I'm writing a story about James O'Keefe's new video in  
which his
>> associates obtained ballots using the names of recently  deceased New
>> Hampshire voters and was hoping someone would be  available for an 
interview
>> on short notice. As far as I can tell  this is the largest coordinated
>> attempt at in-person voter  impersonation fraud, and it was conducted by 
a
>> group to show why  voter ID laws were necessary. I'm at 202-527-9261.
>>  Here's the video:
>>  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-uVhhIlPk0&feature=player_embedded#!
>>  Thanks,
>>                 --  Justin Levitt Associate Professor of Law Loyola  Law
>> School | Los Angeles 919 Albany St. Los Angeles, CA   90015 213-736-7417
>> justin.levitt at lls.edu  ssrn.com/author=698321
>>             --
>>             Rick Hasen
>>         Chancellor's Professor of Law  and Political Science
>>
>>         UC Irvine School of  Law
>>                 401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
>>       Irvine, CA  92697-8000
>>                 949.824.3072 - office
>>         949.824.0495 - fax
>>    rhasen at law.uci.edu
>>                http://law.uci.edu/faculty/page1_r_hasen.html
>>        http://electionlawblog.org
>>
>>
>>     _______________________________________________  Law-election mailing
>> list  Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
>>  http://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election
>>   --  Justin Levitt Associate Professor of Law Loyola  Law School | Los
>> Angeles 919 Albany St. Los Angeles, CA   90015 213-736-7417
>> justin.levitt at lls.edu  ssrn.com/author=698321
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>>
>>
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>
>
>  --
> Dilexi iustitiam et odivi iniquitatem, propterea morior in  exilio.
>
> (I have loved justice and hated iniquity, therefore I  die in exile.)
>
>      -- the last words of Saint  Pope Gregory VII (d. 1085)
>  _______________________________________________
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--  
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC  Irvine School of Law
401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
Irvine, CA  92697-8000
949.824.3072 - office
949.824.0495 -  fax
rhasen at law.uci.edu
http://law.uci.edu/faculty/page1_r_hasen.html
http://electionlawblog.org

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