[EL] "Vigilante" or "Vindicator?" Or perhaps a "Victim of Official Non-feasance?"

Mon Jun 9 08:10:35 PDT 2014

Isn't the real take-away that the authorities, even if presented with  
facially-valid concerns about election-related fraud, don't take action? See the 
 full portion of the piece:

After  three years of work and countless volunteer hours, DeLancy has no 
cases of fraud  to show. 
He  cites, however, that the board of elections has made five "referrals" 
of  prosecution to local district attorneys. He blames the Republican-led 
board of  elections and the inherent difficulty in the system to confirm fraud 
in the  election system. 
"We  thought with two Republicans in charge they would work with us," 
DeLancy said.  "Even when we do the right thing, the authorities don't really 
care." 
His  group also challenged 130 people who are on the voter rolls who got 
out of jury  duty for saying they weren't a citizen. But the board of 
elections rejected  their challenge.
Defining "fraud" as prosecutions is too narrow. Prosecutions are not  
undertaken for many reasons. “Another [U.S. Attorney] office reported that they 
declined to  prosecute a number of investigations (number not tracked) that 
involved aliens  who registered to vote. Rather than prosecute, they allowed 
administrative  procedures regarding deportation to occur.”  GAO-05-478, at 
60.

Similarly (and related) much of what is called "fraud" may be  
mis-understandings, but that doesn't make it much better. See, e.g., Glenn Cook, “How 
Many Noncitizens Are Registered to Vote?” Las Vegas Review Journal, Nov. 4, 
2012, 
http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/how-many-noncitizens-are-registered-to-vote-177141441.html:

Last week, I met with two immigrant noncitizens  who are not eligible to 
vote, but who nonetheless are active registered voters  for Tuesday’s 
election. They said they were signed up by Culinary Local  226. 
They speak and understand enough English to get by. But they don’t read  
English especially well. They say the Culinary official who registered them to 
 vote didn’t tell them what they were signing and didn’t ask whether they 
were  citizens. The immigrants said they trusted that the union official’s 
request was  routine, thought nothing of it and went about their  work. 
Then the election drew closer. Then the Culinary  canvassers started 
seeking them out and ordering them to go vote. One of the  immigrants was visited 
at home by a Culinary representative and said the  operative made threats of 
deportation if no ballot was cast. They didn’t  understand how, as 
noncitizens, they could be registered to vote if it’s illegal  for them to vote in a 
U.S. election. They didn’t understand that, upon being  signed up, not only 
is their registration public record, but the record of  whether they’ve 
voted is public as  well. 
Or, KOB-TV, “4 On Your Side exposes illegal voting in New Mexico,”  Nov. 
6, 2012, http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S2824713.shtml?cat=500. No 
prosecutions. Or, PBS Online Newshour, “Contested Contest,” Online Focus, October 
22, 1997, available at  
www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/congress/july-dec97/dornan_10-22.html (“And Lopez of  Hermandad Mexicana admits his group registered 
non-citizens.”). No prosecutions. Especially when officials taking action has  
been known to lead to federal lawsuits, not against the perpetrators, but  
against the complainants or reacting officials. 
http://www.nbc-2.com/category/242056/voter-fraud; 
http://ftpcontent.worldnow.com/wbbh/documents/Justiceletter1.pdf. 

A unanimous Supreme Court noted in Purcell v  Gonzalez, 549 U.S. 1, 2 
(2006) (per  curiam):  
"Confidence in the integrity of our electoral processes is  essential to 
the functioning of our participatory democracy. Voter fraud drives  honest 
citizens out of the democratic process and breeds distrust of our  government. 
Voters who fear their legitimate votes will be outweighed by  fraudulent 
ones will feel disenfranchised." 

Probably one reason why the relentless efforts to define away  voter fraud 
are not bearing fruit. Saying it's a stupid way to try to influence  
elections is probably true, but irrelevant. 

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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Any U.S. federal tax advice included in  this communication (including 
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_“Vigilante or  vindicator? One man’s bid to root out voter fraud”_ 
(http://electionlawblog.org/?p=62163)  

Posted on _June 6, 2014 2:18  pm_ (http://electionlawblog.org/?p=62163)  by 
_Rick  Hasen_ (http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3)  

_CNN_ 
(http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/06/politics/north-carolina-voting-fraud/index.html) : 
Key takeaway: “After three years of work and countless volunteer hours,  
DeLancy has no cases of fraud to show.”

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