Posted on 11/08/2005 4:09:21 PM PST by ShadowDancer
FBI Goes To Court Over Detroit Ballots
Detroit City Clerk Appeals Judge's Ruling
POSTED: 6:31 pm EST November 8, 2005
DETROIT -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation has headed to court to try to get a ruling on Detroit's absentee ballots, Local 4 reported.
FBI officials want the absentee ballots to be separated from other ballots, so that in the instance of a challenge they can be carefully scrutinized, the station reported.
Last week, Chief Wayne County Circuit Judge Mary Beth Kelly ordered state and Wayne County election officials to oversee absentee voting after ruling that City Clerk Jackie Currie has been breaking state law in how she handles the ballots and supervises the ambassadors who help elderly and disabled voters fill them out.
Lawyers for Currie asked the Michigan Court of Appeals Tuesday to hand the oversight of absentee ballots back to the clerk.
The motion asks the appellate court to immediately reverse the rulings of the lower court, without waiting for formal legal arguments. It was filed Tuesday afternoon, according to the Farmington Hills office of Steven W. Reifman, one of Currie's lawyers. It wasn't immediately clear if the court would take up the motion Tuesday.
The motion, filed on behalf of Currie and the City of Detroit Election Commission, says Kelly lacked jurisdiction in the matter. It also says Kelly improperly reinstated portions of an order deemed "null and void" by the appeals court and ignored violations of Federal Voting Rights statutes and the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
Leonard Young, an election consultant on Currie's staff, said the judge's ruling has prohibited senior and disabled voters from getting the assistance they need.
"Do you know what Mary Beth Kelly stopped us from doing? We normally had elections assistants standing out there who would go to the cars and help these people," Young said. "We can't do that now, so now people got to hobble on crutches and canes."
The suit further accuses Kelly of violating due process by "running the proceedings in an 'ambush' mode, leading to the 'kangaroo court' style proceedings and the 'witch hunt' that has ensued."
The appeal came after Reifman on Monday failed to persuade Kelly to throw out the orders she issued last week. Reifman had said the Wayne County orders deprive Detroit's predominantly black population of the right to vote.
At one city polling place Tuesday, voter Ronald Glotta agreed.
Glotta, an attorney, said the decision against Currie was made to "suppress the black vote, the urban vote."
"This is another way to make it more difficult to vote. There's no reason why, for people in this society, it should be a burden to vote," said Glotta, 64, who is white.
Voter Cary Stewart, 45, a business owner, said he was confident the election would be fair and questioned the timing of the complaints.
"It's a little too late to bring it up now," Stewart said. "What are they going to do now?"
On Friday, Kelly held an emergency hearing and said there was credible testimony that Currie's workers violated a previous court order by continuing the ambassador program.
Earlier, Kelly found Currie guilty of criminal contempt of court for defying her order and mailing 132,000 absentee ballot applications to people who didn't request them.
Kelly made her rulings in a lawsuit filed by Maureen Taylor, a City Council candidate who lost in the August primary but sued alleging that fraud kept her from winning or getting a recount.
Jackie Currie needs hard time.
Kewl. Finally...
He may have bankrupted the city, but I'm sure he'll tell everyone that it is Bush's fault!
Sounds like New Orleans all over again...( incompetant officialdom) this time without flooding....The rats are squalling.
Damn right she does.
She;s now attempting to save her corrupt ass with an absolutely ridiculous "Republicans trying to oppress the black vote" excuse.
If all else fails, blame whitey.
This clerk is amazing, she predicted the names and addresses of 132,000 people who would be absent on election day.
She needs to open a fortune telling operation with that skill. Ms. Cleo, move it on over.
See tagline!
It's not easy to say, but I'm sure glad I got the hell out of there in 1960. It's turned into a real third world pit. John Conyers would've been my congressman had I not fled. Over 40 years later I fled MA so I wouldn't have the shame of having that disgusting sot Kennedy and that fraud Kerry as my senators.
"Do you know what Mary Beth Kelly stopped us from doing? We normally had elections assistants standing out there who would go to the cars and help these people," Young said. "We can't do that now, so now people got to hobble on crutches and canes."
(Gee, do you think this Young character went to government schools?)
Notice that the "advisors" (er, assistants) COLLECTED the ballots (from drive-by-voters), HELD THE BALLOTS and filed the BALLOTS .... ALL ... without control or monitoring.
So, who checked that these "assistants" didn't add (democrat) votes, throw away (republican) votes, or duplicate votes as often as they wished to "add" another drive-by-voter?
BTTT
Oh no, they are not incompetent, they are VERY good at what they do.
Trouble is, what they do is totally corrupt and illegal.
Fox News just now again reporting that the Justice Dept is looking into vote fraud in these absentee ballots, including dead people voting.
Voters should start filing class action lawsuits about these things. If the most basic freedom we have (the right to choose our governing officials) is not protected from fraud, then the Constitution means nothing. Of course, the judges who would hear the lawsuits are either elected or appointed by politicians, so it's possible that justice would never take place. However, the courts are the first stop. Second stop would be . . . bloody.
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