Posted on 08/03/2015 3:26:28 AM PDT by markomalley
Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe and his appointees to the Virginia State Board of Elections seem determined to ensure that felons and non-citizens can illegally register and vote in elections without getting caught.
In April 2015, Governor McAuliffe vetoed House Bill 1315, which would have required jury commissioners to retain information from individuals not qualified to serve as jurors for reasons that would also disqualify them from voting, such as
not being a citizen of the United Statesno longer being a resident of the Commonwealthbeing a resident of another county or city in the Commonwealthhaving been convicted of a felony and having not provided evidence that their right to vote has been restored, or having been adjudicated incapacitated.
The bill would have required the sheriff or clerk of court to “make such information available, upon request, to the general registrar for that locality,” so that the general registrar could cancel the registration of those individuals deemed ineligible to vote.
The bill was clearly intended to prevent illegal registration and voting by non-citizens, felons, and others ineligible to vote in Virginia. Governor McAuliffe vetoed the bill, claiming in his veto explanation that he was “committed to protecting the voting and civil rights of Virginians” and that “additional study” was needed.
Nowhere in his explanation did Governor McAuliffe explain why such a logical, simple, and straightforward bill needs more study or how it would violate the civil rights of Virginians. After all, it simply ensured that election officials had the same information that jury commissioners have on the status of individuals who are called for jury duty based on voter-registration rolls.
In the meantime, however, illegal voting continues to occur in Virginia. In 2011, the Fairfax County Electoral Board notified the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and the U.S. Department of Justice of 278 registered voters who, when they got their driver’s licenses, had told the DMV that they were not U.S. citizens. Of these registered voters, 117 had in fact voted in state and federal elections, despite the fact that voting by a non-citizen is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison.
In 2013, Bonnie Nicholson pleaded guilty to forgery and election fraud in Virginia. Nicholson was a felon and was ineligible to vote but nonetheless registered and voted in the 2012 election. Apparently, Governor McAuliffe wants non-citizens and felons who get caught in the jury system to continue to be able to vote.
McAuliffe’s appointees to the Virginia Board of Elections are now considering taking steps to further protect non-citizens and felons who are voting illegally. The Washington Post reports that the Board of Elections is debating changes that would eliminate the requirement that those registering to vote “check boxes to indicate whether they are U.S. citizens or felons whose right to vote has not been restored.”
Under current law, in order to register in Virginia, one must check boxes to answer questions about citizenship, felony convictions, and mental capacity to vote. Under the proposed changes, leaving these boxes blank would not prevent an individual from becoming registered to vote.
According to the Washington Post, the chairman of the Board of Elections, James Alcorn, said that these proposed changes will “make it easier for eligible Virginians to participate in the electoral process,” and that the focus of voter registration should not be “whether the voter is able to complete the form,” implying that these questions are so confusing that they are somehow disenfranchising eligible voters.
Delegate James M. LeMunyon (R., Fairfax) responded: “Every first-grader in Virginia gets a work sheet from a teacher with boxes to check. If we’ve had this sort of rampant people-haven’t-been-able-to-check-boxes problem, I haven’t heard of that one.”
Below are the relevant parts of the Virginia Voter Registration Application Form, which, as LeMunyon suggests, are simple and straightforward.
But apparently, Chairman Alcorn, who was appointed by McAuliffe in January 2015, thinks it is too difficult for a voter to answer the simple question “Are you a citizen of the United States of America?” and “Have you ever been convicted of a felony?” Because of the evidence that non-citizens are registering and voting in our elections, the citizenship question was added to the federal voter-registration form by the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA).
Chairman Alcorn thinks it is too difficult for a voter to answer the simple question ‘Are you a citizen of the United States of America?’ and ‘Have you ever been convicted of a felony?’
Every vote cast illegally by a non-citizen or by an individual who is ineligible for some other reason such as a felony conviction negates the vote of an eligible voter. The Virginia government should be acting to protect the votes of eligible citizens, rather than shielding illegal voters from detection or prosecution. But that is exactly what Governor McAuliffe and his appointees on the Board of Elections will be doing if this change is made.
Why are they doing this? Perhaps it has something to do with a recent report on the huge influx of immigrants into Virginia that appears to be turning the state blue, since a majority of foreign-born residents favor the Democratic party. The same is true for felons: Felons vote overwhelmingly for Democrats. Or perhaps McAuliffe et al. have in mind the report released last year by three professors from two Virginia universities that estimated, based on survey data, that 6.4 percent of the non-citizen population voted illegally in the 2008 election, enough to have changed the outcome in a number of states including North Carolina.
Governor McAuliffe and Chairman Alcorn seem to be more concerned with guaranteeing that non-citizens and felons can continue to vote illegally than with protecting the security and integrity of Virginia’s elections.
2. The world is truly upside-down when Maryland elects a Republican and Virginia elects a Clintonista...
I wouldn’t call him a clown. Clowns are funny - nothing this communist does is funny.
Getting my state ready to vote for Yeb.
Yet Che Guevara is on t-shirts. Evil commie thugs should not be idolized either. At least justice was served on Che.
This clown, McAwful, “won” the same way the Kenyan Klown did. Just enough votes came in at the last minute from a district that smelled.
Hey, if you cannot use the power of the government offices to protect and extend the coverage of your base, what is the point of elective office?
Get all the fools on your side, and you got the majority in any town. Just make sure the fools have some plausible reason to claim they are eligible to vote, and make sure they get to the polls.
Che is in a better place now: six feet under.
If there are no no negative consequences for illegal behavior, then illegal behavior will continue to increase.
Remember when VA was considered a safe southern state for the GOP?
The LIEbertarians and their stalking-horse DNC-paid candidate could not be reached for comment...
Yep, nopw it’s still basically a red state, except for urban Richmond and Tidewater, and all of the metro-sexual enviro-loons in Northern Virginia.
Yes the VA RNC head also asked the local business to not donate.
Yes, Ken C. was not owned by Prebuis and his crony capitalist RNC cartel.
They would rather have a fellow crook Dem McAwful in the Gov office.
Now Prebius hopes to get his boss / pal Wisconsin Scotty Walker set up as the new K street puppet.
The current RNC offices need to be raided under the Rico act .
It’s what liberaltarians do. They pretend to be with conservatives, infiltrate our party with the likes of Paul and Daddy, then use our conventions, party, primaries, websites like this to push their agenda , thus they help the liberals to keep pushing their socialist agenda on the country.
Why would anyone be surprised at this from McAwful? Look where he got his start, as a henchman for the Clintons. It seems that he, like several others who worked wickedness for the Clintons, has sold his soul and no longer even has any conscience whatever. IMHO.
Terry McAuliffe: Virginia’s honorary Mexican.
Well said!
If Ken Cuccinelli had gotten any help at all, we would not now be stuck with the Clintonista McAuliffe.
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