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You are here: Home / Politics / An Unexamined Scandal / “it seems odd not to tell the student that we found no evidence that they violated the election laws”

“it seems odd not to tell the student that we found no evidence that they violated the election laws”

by Kay|  October 19, 20118:31 am| 37 Comments

This post is in: An Unexamined Scandal

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I’ve been following voter suppression efforts by conservatives since 2005, and I’m shocked by how blatant this is:

The undersigned voting rights organizations are writing to express our deep concern about your recent actions targeting legally registered student voters in Maine for investigatory action and sending them threatening correspondence likely to deter them from exercising their voting rights. Such actions provide strong evidence that you are violating federal statutory protections against intimidation and coercion of individuals in the exercise of their right to vote, as well as constitutional protections of the right to vote.
As reported in a news article published on September 21, 2011 by the Bangor Daily News, “Secretary of State Finds No Student Voter Fraud but Still Pledges to Improve System,” and other news accounts, you launched an investigation into the voter registration of 206 University of Maine students based on no evidence other than the unsubstantiated and baseless accusation of a partisan individual. Indeed, in your own September 21, 2011 press release (attached), you note, “Initially, the Chairman of the Republican Party, Charles Webster presented me with a list of 206 students, all of who have out-of-state addresses on file with the University of Maine system – some of which he believed voted twice in the same election and committed ‘voter fraud.’” If the information and quotations attributed to you and your representatives are correct, you launched this investigation without any evidence or credible allegation that any individual voted illegally.

So. The Secretary of State receives 206 names from the state Republican Party chair, and goes after them. He finds nothing. No fraud. No illegality.

Next, he sends 191 of the students a letter, where he asks that they cancel their voter registration “if they are no longer claiming to be a Maine resident”. He includes a form so they may more easily do that:

What is more disconcerting, and even less defensible, are the subsequent actions you took, and are currently taking, against these students. As your September 21, 2011 statement notes, your investigation, found no violation of Maine law by any of the 206 students on the list provided to you. No student was found to have registered or voted illegally in the state of Maine and none “voted twice in the same election” or “committed ‘voter fraud’” as Mr. Webster had alleged. Despite this, your office decided to single out these individuals and threaten them with repercussions under your motor vehicle laws and encouraged them to cancel their voter registration to cure such violation.

First, while your letter notes that you were asked to investigate certain students with out-of-state home addresses, and that said investigation is “now closed,” you never confirm to the recipients that your investigation revealed no wrong-doing by them. In fact, documents provided in response to an FOAA request suggest that you ignored a comment from the Attorney General’s office noting that it “seems odd not to tell the student that we found no evidence that they violated the election laws.” On the contrary, a plain reading of the letter implies that the investigation may have revealed certain improprieties with regard to voter registration by the recipient. That, of course, is entirely untrue.

Second, you go on to imply that all new residents of Maine have an affirmative duty to obtain a driver’s license. Of course, this is simply incorrect, given that non-drivers, as many university students are, have no such duty. Even setting this aside, rather than providing potential Motor Vehicle violators with a license application to cure this alleged defect, you suggest they cancel their voting registration and enclose the requisite form. You state, “If you are currently using an out-of-state driver’s license or motor vehicle registration, I ask that you take appropriate action to comply with our motor vehicle laws within the next 30 days (i.e., by October 20, 2011). If, instead, you are no longer claiming to be a Maine resident, I ask that you complete the enclosed form to cancel your voter registration in Maine so that our central voter registration system can be updated.” By enclosing a form to cancel the voter’s registration you strongly suggest that this is the option the recipient should follow to prevent further scrutiny and harassment by Maine’s Secretary of State.

“No longer claiming“? WTF?
Why isn’t this national news? We heard about the New Black Panther Party for close to a year, almost daily. 206 people were targeted by a state official acting with a non-state actor. We know the state official was acting with the state GOP because he announced he was. 191 people were then sent a letter and asked to cancel their own voter registration. According to Wikipedia, the Maine Secretary of State is a former “top aide” to Olympia Snowe. Maybe she could intervene here?

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Reader Interactions

37Comments

  1. 1.

    Mino

    October 19, 2011 at 8:42 am

    Can someone tell me why the Attorney General of the US is MIA on all these anti-voter regs popping up in the states? If nothing else, they have a case for targeting of the elderly. And that is totally ignoring minorities being singled out in a lot of them.

  2. 2.

    MeDrewNotYou

    October 19, 2011 at 8:48 am

    According to Wikipedia, the Maine Secretary of State is a former “top aide” to Olympia Snowe. Maybe she could intervene here?

    No. SATSQ.

    Seriously, though, as much as I enjoy your disenfranchisement posts Kay, they depress the hell out of me. In a good way, though! A kind of, “vote and work against these assholes,” way.

  3. 3.

    Kay

    October 19, 2011 at 8:48 am

    @Mino:

    He needs a federal law. This incident involves the voting rights act, and that’s a federal law.
    Most election law is state law, and there’s US Supreme Court case law that supports voter ID provisions. One of the first voter ID laws, in Indiana, went to the supreme court, and it was upheld. That ruling really unleashed the craziness that we’re looking at now, and it’s gotten worse every year. It went from 2 states to 30 states, in 6 years.

  4. 4.

    Kay

    October 19, 2011 at 8:52 am

    @MeDrewNotYou:

    Maybe it’s good. When something a person has is threatened, it becomes more valuable. That’s just how people are, including me :)
    It’s getting more attention now than it has ever gotten, so that’s a step in the right direction.
    I always think we need a tipping point, a critical mass, before actions at the state level bust through to national. It’s a big country, and this stuff is covered locally.

  5. 5.

    arguingwithsignposts

    October 19, 2011 at 8:55 am

    One concrete demand OWS could make is uniform voting laws across the nation. This states’ rights bullshit on voting is just that – bullshit. Everyone is a citizen of one nation, and they should have the same voting rights, no matter what state they live in.

  6. 6.

    Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen

    October 19, 2011 at 8:58 am

    I suspect the entire GOP engages in voter fraud. Who do I write to kick off the investigation?

  7. 7.

    c u n d gulag

    October 19, 2011 at 9:00 am

    GOP POV:
    You are committing voter fraud whenever you are not voting for Conservatives.

    Qualified voters in the future should be limited to:
    Free
    White
    Over 21
    Male
    Straight
    American-born
    Land/house owner
    Christian – preferrably Evangelical

    No one else need register.

    Thank you,
    Your National and State GOP

  8. 8.

    Elizabelle

    October 19, 2011 at 9:01 am

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    Uniform voting laws.

    I think that’s a good idea.

  9. 9.

    geg6

    October 19, 2011 at 9:01 am

    According to Wikipedia, the Maine Secretary of State is a former “top aide” to Olympia Snowe. Maybe she could intervene here?

    Ah, kay, I love you, but do I really have to answer this question? No, I don’t. You know the answer.

  10. 10.

    redshirt

    October 19, 2011 at 9:03 am

    I’d just like to point out this is what can happen with viable third parties. Maine is not Teabagger land, but because the Dem and Independent candidates for governor both got about 62% of the vote combined, this jack clown LePage got elected with 32% of the vote. And it’s been Teaparty MANDATE TO GOVERN since. Very sad how much damage they’ve done to Maine in such a short time.

  11. 11.

    MomSense

    October 19, 2011 at 9:13 am

    Thanks for bringing attention to this issue. We are working really hard to repeal these effing voter suppression laws and to restore same day voter registration.

    Our same day voter laws had been on the books for 40 years since being passed by a Republican legislature. Here is a link to protectmainevotes.com

    We are on the ballet in November so we are scrambling to do voter outreach before the vote. We appreciate any help we can get. Every time these Republicans try and steal our rights we have to hit right back. Enough is enough!

  12. 12.

    kay

    October 19, 2011 at 9:14 am

    @geg6:

    She’s supposed to be good on constituent services, though, as most Senators who get re-elected year after year seem to be.

    I think 191 pissed-off people would get her attention. She’d say it’s state law, but it isn’t. It involves the VRA, (allegedly!)

    Ball’s in your court, Olympia.

  13. 13.

    kay

    October 19, 2011 at 9:16 am

    @geg6:

    No person, whether acting under color of law or otherwise, shall intimidate, threaten, or coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any person for voting or attempting to vote, or intimidate, threaten, or coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any person for urging or aiding any person to vote or attempt to vote, or intimidate, threaten, or coerce any person for exercising any powers or duties under section 3(a), 6, 8, 9, 10, or 12(e).

  14. 14.

    kerFuFFler

    October 19, 2011 at 9:17 am

    @redshirt: Spot on! Progressives who want to move the country left need to be patient and willing to elect Dems. When they opt to vote for their hearts’ desire, like Nader, we end up with the likes of Bush. After Dems control the White-house a little longer perhaps we will end up with enough sensible judges on the Supreme Court to undo the “Citizens United” ruling. Until we wrest political power from corporations it will be all but impossible to elect more progressive candidates to a significant number of congressional seats.

  15. 15.

    kerFuFFler

    October 19, 2011 at 9:23 am

    Kay, another fantastic post! Thankyou!

  16. 16.

    redshirt

    October 19, 2011 at 9:26 am

    @kerFuFFler: Now, don’t get me wrong. I actually hate the Democratic Party as well. But I hate the Republicans far, far more. I am entirely sympathetic to the desire to break out of these R-D games, but when the result is LePage, or Bush, I think, as you say, you need to step back and consider the bigger picture. Naderism is not the answer, only a tool of the Fat Cats to divide and conquer.

  17. 17.

    JCT

    October 19, 2011 at 9:28 am

    Olympia seems to have contracted a terminal case of “please don’t primary me”.
    I can’t imagine she will have anything useful to say.

  18. 18.

    Rafer Janders

    October 19, 2011 at 9:29 am

    Oh, if only there were a major national newspaper, a “Paper of Record”, if you will, that could put this story out there! Or if there was any sort of national newscast or TV channel or newsmagazine that could showcase this story!

  19. 19.

    Xenos

    October 19, 2011 at 9:32 am

    @arguingwithsignposts: Your problem is with the constitution. The mechanics of voting are controlled by the states, subject to equal protection guarantees in the 14th Amendment.

    A constitutional amendment to fully federalize the elections system would work legally, but could give corrupt republicans a single choke point to utterly and permanently screw up the country, so we might as well work with the fucked up system we have rather than wish for a fucked up system we don’t have and probably can’t get.

  20. 20.

    rikryah

    October 19, 2011 at 9:41 am

    thank you so much for staying on top of this issue and spreading the word

  21. 21.

    TooManyJens

    October 19, 2011 at 9:45 am

    @Rafer Janders:FWIW, Rachel Maddow has been covering the shit out of the voter suppression issue.

  22. 22.

    kay

    October 19, 2011 at 9:46 am

    @Rafer Janders:

    Or if there was any sort of national newscast or TV channel or newsmagazine that could showcase this story!

    That’s what i don’t get. It might be a great story. Much better than the loop of the New Black Panther party, which seems to include about 7 members.

    Out of 191 people, there has to be a one or two who have something interesting to say about this.

  23. 23.

    ppcli

    October 19, 2011 at 9:49 am

    @kay:

    I think 191 pissed-off people would get her attention. She’d say it’s state law, but it isn’t. It involves the VRA, (allegedly!)
    Ball’s in your court, Olympia.

    If this were just an ordinary case of unhappy voters, she might intervene. But this is not an accident, or some overstepping of the bounds. This is a systematic effort, thoroughly coordinated nationwide (right down to the various laws purportedly written by different committees in different states that just happen to have identical wording from start to finish.) It is a conscious policy of the Republican party that they only bother hiding enough to provide deniability if they need to stonewall questions.

    This is sufficiently unprincipled and outrageous that if Snowe really had a problem with it, she would make a fuss, perhaps even to the point of leaving the party, as Jim Jeffords did. She hasn’t, which indicates that she’s at least OK with this disgraceful policy, and may even be an active supporter.

  24. 24.

    maya

    October 19, 2011 at 9:50 am

    Intoxication without representation is tyranny.

  25. 25.

    Unsympathetic

    October 19, 2011 at 9:57 am

    They’re Very Serious Republicans.
    Everything they do is correct.
    If you have any doubts, see rule #2.

    How dare you question them! Stay in your corner, peon.

  26. 26.

    handsmile

    October 19, 2011 at 10:00 am

    In addition to Kay’s invaluable, often first-hand, posts on nation-widel voter suppression efforts by the Greedy-One-Percent, let me mention two other essential online resources for information on this issue. (While certainly well-known to those committed to combatting voter disenfranchisement, good information is always worth sharing and repeating.)

    The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University maintains the most comprehensive website on voting rights and voting laws: http://www.brennancenter.org/content/section/category/voting_rights_elections/

    Their report issued earlier this month, “Voting Law Changes in 2012 (available in PDF) concluded that voting restrictions passed by 14 state legislatures since 2010 “could make it significantly harder for more than 5 million eligible voters to cast ballots in 2012.” It must be noted that these states will provide 171 electoral votes in the next presidential election.

    Talking Points Memo regularly posts on state legislative campaigns to restrict voting rights. Josh Marshall wrote recently that coverage of this issue will be one of his website’s priorities for the next year.

  27. 27.

    Davis X. Machina

    October 19, 2011 at 10:39 am

    The sad part is someone could be making a stink and we probably wouldn’t know anyways — save the blog readers. We have just about no local media left. The local paper of record just laid off another 38 employees, the second or third such round in the last couple of years. Even before the layoff, they were already largely relying on wire service coverage of their own state capital, an hour away by car.

    Hypocrisy? What hypocrisy?

    AUGUSTA — A coalition campaigning to preserve same-day voter registration in Maine said Tuesday that many conservative leaders have done just what they support abolishing.
    __
    Voting records reveal that Gov. Paul LePage, at least two state senators and eight state representatives have in the past registered to vote on Election Day or during the two business days preceding it. A new law that they all support would ban voter registration within two business days of an election.
    __
    The law, passed with Republican support, is now the subject of a people’s veto referendum on the Nov. 8 ballot, led by Protect Maine Votes.

  28. 28.

    cpinva

    October 19, 2011 at 10:55 am

    oh why do hate america so? a government official, starting an investigation based on nothing, finding nothing, then threatening those investigated, for having committed no illegal act, is perfectly in keeping with our democratic traditions. and you would have ms. snowe somehow change this?

    it is obvious you’re an islamofascistcommunistfeminazi.

  29. 29.

    kindness

    October 19, 2011 at 10:59 am

    The game is rigged. The MSM is in on it & they want Republicans to win.

  30. 30.

    Dustin

    October 19, 2011 at 11:06 am

    After reading this all I could think of was a snippet I read out of my local paper’s opinion page:

    By 11 a.m., poll workers at UW-L had turned away far more students than had actually voted because students did not have the proper documents to register to vote.

    The sad part… this was by design. These idiots don’t know what they’re messing with because the moment you take away a community’s legal recourse, by disenfranchising their vote in this case, they will resort to extralegal means. This is how revolutions start.

  31. 31.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    October 19, 2011 at 11:10 am

    @Kay: I suspect we are getting close to a tipping point, in terms of recognition of the enormous overreach, across many areas. Monday, I was driving through a very red, mostly rural Ohio county on my way to give a mental health levy (renewal)speech, and I was struck by the number of “No on Issue 2” signs I saw in yards. Notably these were hand painted or stenciled, and they were big. They weren’t provided by a formal political group, but handcrafted. So people care. Perhaps soon we can motivate them to care about voter suppression, though as Huckabee’s comments (in an urban area of that same county) show it’s a popular policy for the Rs.

  32. 32.

    danimal

    October 19, 2011 at 11:25 am

    Kay, I appreciate your continued focus on voter suppression. Voter suppression is THE national issue, IMHO, because from that foul well all kinds of evil can emerge. Students, the elderly, (dare I say it) the 99% are all affected by the attempt to limit the franchise. They must be shamed and attacked for this blatant attempt to choose the electorate.

  33. 33.

    kay

    October 19, 2011 at 11:34 am

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):

    I can no longer discuss Issue Two rationally, in terms of predictions. I’m to the point where I’m (essentially) polling people I know with emails: “tell me everything you know”. A week from now I’ll be suggesting they’re HIDING something :)

    It’s bad, but I always get like this, so it’s not like it’s a big shocker.

    During the signature effort, Sherrod Brown said : “it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon” and I immediately decided that was a coded message that meant “he knows they don’t have the signatures”. It wasn’t.

  34. 34.

    Martin

    October 19, 2011 at 12:57 pm

    States can set more-or-less whatever voter laws they want outside of federal elections. In the past, states have legally allowed non-citizens to vote in non-federal elections and cities have legally allowed non-residents to vote in non-state elections. In fact, CA is considering allowing non-citizens (but state residents) to vote in state elections again. I would welcome that.

  35. 35.

    TheMightyTrowel

    October 19, 2011 at 2:11 pm

    @Martin: The more I follow politics and the more countries I live in the more I realise that local politics is so incredibly key to maintaining healthy and fair communities. Unfortunately with the cannibalism within the media ecosystem and the collapse of local reporting, it’s harder and harder for most people to access or feel connected to these very important institutions. I wish I could vote in local/regional elections – i rage about tories as much as the next person, but really i want to have a say about how my city and county run themselves more than I want to elect an MP. I’ve compensated by encouraging friends, colleagues and acquaintances who are invested in their communities to stand for office. So far, one is seriously considering it.

  36. 36.

    smintheus

    October 19, 2011 at 5:23 pm

    Kay, have you seen this poll? PPP has a new poll putting opposition to SB 5 back at the earlier, higher level (56-36 in favor of repeal).

  37. 37.

    thelonius

    October 19, 2011 at 5:58 pm

    It’s not news because the Dems refuse to confront it. They refuse to confront it because none of their well-to-do friends are being affected by this, so there’s no reason to care.

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