Private Citizens Fight Voter Fraud--Upholding the law when government won't. (True the Vote)

Pajamas Media ^ | January 25, 2011 | J. Christian Adams

[jazusamo]

This past weekend, citizens from across Texas held a summit in Houston to help protect the future integrity of the electoral process. Called “True the Vote,” this amalgam of tea party groups and interested citizens met to learn about how they can fight voter fraud when their governments won’t. True the Vote is going nationwide in March with a summit for the rest of the country. Citizens who care about honest elections can, at last, do something about it.

At PJM, I’ve covered the corrupt abdication of law enforcement obligations when it comes to fighting voter fraud. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Julie Fernandes instructed the Department of Justice Voting Section that federal laws requiring voter rolls to be free of ineligible voters won’t be enforced. Former Voting Section Chief Christopher Coates testified that Fernandes and other Obama appointees spiked at least eight investigations into states with voter roll problems.

The Obama DOJ hasn’t brought a single case to require a state to remove dead and ineligible felon voters from the rolls. Fernandes spiked these investigations because she is ideologically opposed to enforcing laws protecting election integrity — and she relishes the partisan benefits of inaction.

When governments fail to do their job, citizens must rush into the breach. Various federal laws provide citizens the right to act like a privatized attorney general. Section 8 of the Motor Voter law requires states to have only eligible and legal voters on the rolls. Citizens have the legal power to review, and even demand, voter registration data to detect fraud.

Yet almost 20 years after Motor Voter was enacted, only left-wing activist groups have utilized the provisions of the law. Neither political parties nor private citizens have used the law to fight voter fraud.

Enter True the Vote, formed in Houston, Texas, by citizen activists energized by the rise of the tea party movement.

Together, they sought a task where they could make a difference. Issue-driven battles in the 1990s saw Ross Perot’s forces assemble and then disperse when the issues like term limits or insider dealing withered. Instead, True the Vote adopted a process-driven agenda — secure the integrity of American elections and fight voter fraud.

It was a good choice. Although millions poured into operations like ACORN and others dedicated to high-volume ballot access regardless of eligibility, hardly anyone representing the silent millions of law-abiding Americans stood watch on Election Day. Never before had the voter fraudsters been challenged by a well-organized and brilliant foe.

Before the 2010 election, True the Vote reviewed thousands of pages of voter data in Houston. They found non-citizens registered to vote, citizens registered at vacant lots, forgeries in registrations, and multiple registrations of the same individuals. These violations of federal and Texas law were forwarded to the Department of Justice as well as Texas authorities.

Hopefully, both agencies will take advantage of the hard work of True the Vote and enforce the laws they are charged to enforce. Thus far, nothing has happened.
The lack of government action corroborates my testimony and the testimony of Christopher Coates. Perhaps Chairman Lamar Smith’s Judiciary Committee can add the absence of DOJ response to their oversight agenda.

At the True the Vote National Summit in March, these data mining and analysis methods will be shared with activists nationwide.

True the Vote is also revolutionizing poll monitoring on Election Day. While political parties have deployed poll watcher programs, few can match the zeal and scope of True the Vote. In Harris County alone, almost 800 True the Vote trained poll watchers were deployed across Houston.

Every election, the Department of Justice deploys poll observers all over the nation, usually between 500 and 1,000. True the Vote has copied the federal observer program in almost every respect — placing hundreds of highly trained eyes and ears inside the polls to carefully memorialize everything. These reports are then forwarded to law enforcement.

It is obvious they are successful when their efforts anger both Representative Sheila Jackson Lee and the New Black Panther Party. For years, polling places in many parts of the nation were free-for-alls, plagued by forced assistance, poll officials voting for voters, and precinct bosses telling people how to vote. Lawlessness reigned. True the Vote shatters their stranglehold on electoral corruption.

Couldn’t we just rely on government to police the polls? Hardly. As I’ve detailed at PJM, in places like Hale County, Alabama, certain DOJ Voting Section lawyers actually supported the bad behavior. They viewed effective minority turnout as more important than following the law. If hundreds of voters were told how to vote by assistors, it was but a small price to pay to reverse centuries of disenfranchisement.

These offending government officials are still in the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice.

The True the Vote National Summit is March 25^th to 26^th in Houston. Those seeking to learn about the laws and ideas available to fight voter fraud should attend. I will be speaking, and so will other experts, to describe the federal laws available for citizens to fight voter fraud, data mining methods to detect voter registration fraud, and Election-Day operations to deter and record electoral malfeasance.

Never before has a systematic counter-fraud operation been deployed so successfully. True the Vote wants to help establish similar operations across the country.

2012 is just around the corner. If you are one of those Americans who want to make a difference but don’t know how, we’ll see you in Houston.

J. Christian Adams is an election lawyer who served in the Voting Rights Section at the U.S. Department of Justice. His website is www.electionlawcenter.com.

[FrankR]

[Bon mots]

This will start a civil war.
Tea partiers will not be allowed near the polls.
This is the job of the New Black Panthers.

The official poll watchers will never agree to this.

[Bon mots]

Get lost Crackaz!

[CPT Clay]

Bump to the Top!!

[Hodar]

If you want to truly ‘True the Vote’ - enforce the laws that are on the books, and increase the punishment.

I have no issue with capital punishment for Voter Fraud, there is no difference between voter fraud, and an armed insurrection; for the both result in placing an illegitmate goverment in place.

[jimt]

Mr. Nightstick, meet Mr. Winchester.

[RandallFlagg]

I have no issue with capital punishment for Voter Fraud, there is no difference between voter fraud, and an armed insurrection; for the both result in placing an illegitmate goverment in place.

VERY well said! We all need to get on this TODAY. Don't wait until the next election cycle. The librats are already printing out fraudulent ballots.

"They can't win if they don't cheat." --Rush Limbaugh

[jazusamo]

Capital punishment is something to consider, though with the number of liberals in government and on judges benches it’d never happen. If by some remote chance it came about it would certainly eliminate to a huge extent election fraud.

[Lysandru]

Yo, I am down with that. I have been saying for years that organized voter fraud should be a capital offense.

[Slambat]

“We all need to get on this TODAY”
You know, as soon as this or anything like it gets legs
and starts to get results Obama and friends will command
some flunky lib-judge to put a halt to it.

[Publius6961]

Bookmark

[La Lydia]

“True the Vote”? It would help their cause, and would help them to be taken seriously, if their title actually meant something in standard English. I sympathize entirely with the purpose, but it is too bad they had to muddy the waters and use use a phrase more suitable to Ebonics for their cause’s name.

[Publius6961]

They found non-citizens registered to vote, citizens registered at vacant lots, forgeries in registrations, and multiple registrations of the same individuals. These violations of federal and Texas law were forwarded to the Department of Justice as well as Texas authorities.

I can't help wondering how far this legitimate attempt to maintain the integrity of citizenship can go.

The most important weapons the criminals have are "privacy" laws. The only way to efficently root out criminal fraud is to make the voter rolls available to everyone, as in making it available on line. There would then be millions of eyes to root out the criminals.

Likely to happen? With Obama and his Justice Department?
Ha ha and Ha!

[jazusamo]

You’re exactly right. Holder and the appointee thugs he put in the DOJ have ignored most everything to do with vote fraud. Their ignorance cries out for an investigation by the House Judiciary Committee and I believe Lamar Smith has mentioned his intentions to do just that.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

At this time, I do not avail myself of my right to carry concealed in this state. It's a personal decision. Too much responsibility to take on until I have mentally prepared myself for the day I do and feel comfortable doing it. I have other means of personal protection at this time.

However, having said that, I WILL carry when I go to vote from now on. If anyone....ANYONE...uses a club on me to attempt to deny me access to my polling place, they will be met with a very disagreeable response.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

It would help their cause, and would help them to be taken seriously, if their title actually meant something in standard English.

I disagree. It means exactly what it says and is stated in quasi-Engineering terms.

To 'true' something is to align it so that it is in its optimal position to accomplish its intended purpose.

[La Lydia]

It is awkward and unclear as to what it means. It could just as easily be taken as a slogan by those who think illegals should vote. It is a label devised by people with no experience in branding, messaging or PR. Sorry. Like I said, I agree with their goals, but the name isn’t going to move them forward. And it took you more than 20 words to explain why it means what you say it means. FAIL

[justiceseeker93]

J. Christian Adams, the author of this article, is a true patriot with the guts to testify before a congressional committee against the hacks in the (In)Justice Department who refused to prosecute the New Black Panthers on the inane theory that blacks can't possibly be prosecuted for violating the voting rights of whites.

True the Vote sounds like an excellent grassroots organization which is addressing the ubiquitous voter fraud problem. It's long overdue.

[ExTexasRedhead]

IMO, the Tea Party has got to make voter fraud a priority now and be trained on spotting and documenting voter fraud and have patriots on-site to expose it in 2012.