[EL] Non-citizen (and dog) registration in New Mexico

[bzall at aol.com]

Returning to a question from a couple of weeks ago about voter registration fraud, particularly with non-citizens and whether they will be prosecuted (or suffer immigration-related sanctions), new stories are coming out this week.  Last night, for example, New Mexico's KOB-TV had a very interesting extended piece on their own investigation:
http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S2824713.shtml


Excerpt:

It was a simple handwritten note left for the Sandoval County clerk that read, "I would like to have my voter registration card cancelled, please and thank you."
The note was short and polite, but it immediately raised red flags about the woman who left it.
It didn't take long before election officials learned the reason for the request: The woman was not a United States citizen.
A review of the woman’s voting record showed she had cast a ballot in nearly every election since registering as a Republican inside a Motor Vehicle Office in 2005.
She is not alone.
4 On Your Side also tracked down a Mexican National who has been voting since 1998, casting his ballot a total of 26 times.
Neither of these appears to be a product of an organized campaign, and neither will be prosecuted, since there is no evidence that they intended to break the law. This is unlike the situation Glenn Cook of the Las Vegas Review Journal found when he investigated non-citizen registration by the Culinary Union's local there:  http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/how-many-noncitizens-are-registered-to-vote-177141441.html. But even in Las Vegas, the non-citizens are unlikely to be prosecuted because there was no intent on their part to violate the law. 


Barnaby Zall 
Of Counsel 
Weinberg, Jacobs & Tolani, LLP 
10411 Motor City Drive, Suite 500
Bethesda, MD 20817
301-231-6943 (direct dial) 
bzall at aol.com 
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