Sen. Russell Pearce makes bogus voter fraud claims in voter suppression effort

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the GOP has annually engaged in voter suppression efforts built around exaggerated claims of "voter fraud" by minorities, felons and illegal aliens. Michael Bryan has been posting articles about this on his twitter feed and Mike's AZ Political News Clips.

As I have told you about previously, the GOP has been under a consent decree for many years not to engage in voter suppression, A primer on GOP voter suppression: voter caging, so the GOP gets around this court order by farming out voter suppression operations to independent groups like the Republican National Lawyers Association, GOP Lawyers Group Warns Newsmax Of 'Epidemic' Voter Fraud and, of course, the GOP's propaganda network of FAUX News. Michelle Malkin: 'We Are All Voter Fraud Police Now'. Corporate lobbyist sponsored (FreedomWorks)Tea Party groups are also getting into the voter suppression efforts this year.

Here in Arizona, our nativist racist fear-monger-in-chief Sen. Russell Pearce is the leader of the GOP voter suppression efforts. Writing in the American Post-Gazette, distributed by Common Sense and posted at the right-wing blog  Sonoran Alliance (I also received a copy of his e-mail),  Sen. Pearce alleges Massive voter fraud in Arizona and Colorado:

There has been an accusation that 65% of 5000 voter registration forms, submitted by Mi Familia Vota and One Vote Arizona, in Yuma County on the last day of filling are invalid due to the registrant not being a citizen, wrong/invalid address, false signature, etc.  I also understand that these 2 groups have signed up 20,000 states wide and they have requested that 45,000 be put on the permanent early ballot. If 65% of these last minute registration forms in Yuma are invalid, which may be more as they are still checking the rest, then what is the percentages of invalid in Maricopa, Pima and other counties.
 
This is a very serious accusation that needs to be investigated to the fullest extent of the law. If this accusation is true then the perpetrators of this hideous crime against America citizens should be prosecuted to full extent of the law by Arizona Courts and not the federal courts as they do nothing on voter fraud and voter intimidation. All participants should be locked up and the key thrown away. This is an attack against sovereignty of this state and our freedoms for a socialist agenda.

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They will stop at nothing to steal our elections and it appears that the friends of Raul Grijalva are doing everything they can to keep Ruth McClung, Janet Contreras and David Schweikert from getting elected. ACORN & SEIU are doing everything they can to find loop holes in our laws to use illegal’s and dead people to vote for their socialist, Anti-American agenda incumbents.
  
Yesterday a Colorado judge threw out 6000 bogus voter registration forms submitted by the same SEIU off shoot Mi Familia Vota here in Arizona.
 
I am going to pursue this matter, the State Legislator has full investigative powers and I will not let this rest.  I will be pursuing for a full investigation and if violations are found, I will push for aggressive prosecution with jail time imposed.

The Yuma County Recorder says our fear-monger-in-chief is full of crap. Election official: Claims of voter registration fraud not true:

The Yuma County Recorder's Office says it has processed a large number of requests to be put on the permanent early voter list but claims of fraudulent voter registration is not an issue in Yuma County, despite reports in the blogosphere.

On Oct. 20, The Yuma Sun reported that representatives with two organizations, Mi Familia Vota and One Arizona, registered 3,000 eligible Hispanic voters for permanent early voting ballots.

This apparently led to claims on the Internet that there were groups fraudulently “registering” voters here, and Yuma County Recorder Robyn Stallworth Pouquette said Monday that is not true.

Enrolling voters on the permanent early voting ballot list is different than registering people to vote, she said.

* * *

“During this election cycle, the Recorder's Office has processed over 14,000 PEVL requests, and over 8,000 eligible voters have been added to the PEVL in Yuma County,” she said. “The remaining requests were reviewed and rejected, under Arizona law, either due to the fact the request was a duplicate or the requestor was not eligible to vote in this election or within the jurisdiction.”

The recorder has maintained checks and to maintain the integrity of every election conducted in Yuma County and staff is working overtime so that every request received is properly processed according to Arizona law,” she said.

After some reports of the perceived voter fraud hit the Internet over the weekend, one local group of residents held a protest Monday evening on the corner of 24th Street and 4th Avenue. One report of “voter registration” came from a blog called Publius Pundit; it was also circulated on other websites [e.g., Sonoran Alliance].

(Maybe the Arizona Daily Star should report about this "speculation and innuendo" that leads to actual voter intimidation and suppression? Oh right, IOKIYAR).

Talkingpointsmemo.com has more Voter Fraud Allegations In Yuma County Turn Out Baseless:

After the Yuma Sun reported that an SEIU-affiliated group, Mi Familia Vota, had been working on get-out-the-vote activities in Yuma County's Hispanic communities, several right-wing blogs, lead by Publius Pundit, began sounding the voter fraud alarm.

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The claims were picked up by Big Government, Michelle Malkin, Gateway Pundit and others. About 25 people, including some tea partiers, held a protest in Yuma over the claims.

* * *

It appears the allegations are baseless. Mi Familia Vota, along with One Arizona, submitted about 3,000 requests to add voters to the permanent early voting list. They aren't new registrations. Instead, already registered voters are asking to get an early voting ballot mailed to them every election cycle.

"Our goal was mainly signing Latinos up on the permanent early voting list. That way they become frequent voters," Francisco Heredia, the Arizona state director for Mi Familia Vota, told TPMmuckraker. "We're not telling people how to vote."

The group only submitted about 300 new registrations, Heredia said. He also said that the requests were not submitted all at once, but on a weekly basis over two months.

The Yuma County recorder, Robyn Stallworth Pouquette, who is in charge of voter registration, told local news outlets that there's no evidence of fraud. [See Yuma Daily Sun, above].

As for Sen. Pearce's claim that "a Colorado judge threw out 6000 bogus voter registration forms submitted by the same SEIU off shoot Mi Familia Vota here in Arizona," it is his insinuation of "voter fraud" that is bogus. The Denver Post reported Judge won't reinstate 6,000 purged voters:

A federal judge declined to force the secretary of state to reactivate approximately 6,000 new voters whose registrations were canceled under Colorado's 20-day rule.

* * *

When a new voter registers in Colorado, the secretary of state mails a non-forwardable notice of disposition that the voter's registration has been received. If the notice comes back undeliverable in the mail, then clerks deem the voter's registration inactive within 20 days. [See post on "voter caging," above].

* * *

[S]ome voters have filled out their address incorrectly on forms; clerks sometimes make errors when inputting the new data; and postal workers also make mistakes in delivering the voter cards.

But Mirbaba argued that inactive voters can still show up at the polls and vote on a provisional ballot until their addresses can be verified.

* * *

The motion for the preliminary injunction is one of several federal challenges regarding purged voters filed against the secretary of state by Common Cause of Colorado, Mi Familia Vota Education Fund and the Service Employees International Union.

The 20-day rule is the only claim left in dispute.

This was not a case of "voter fraud" (unlawfully casting a vote) or even "voter registration fraud" (ineligible to register to vote), but rather a case of voter roll purges by the Secretary of State of Colorado under the practice known as "voter caging." There is no illegality alleged. The voter can cast a provisional ballot.

Not to be deterred by inconvenient truths like the facts, our nativist racist fear-monger-in-chief Sen. Russell Pearce is back at it again today on right-wing blog Sonoran Alliance. Update on Voter Fraud:

This is a follow up to an email blast that went out under my name. I want to send out an update on suspected voter fraud.  Today, the state is looking into what appears to be fraudulent registrations and requests for early ballots that were delivered in Yuma.  It appears the Yuma Sun Newspaper had some of the terminology wrong and perhaps some of the numbers wrong.  The fact that there appears to be fraud is apparent.  The numbers are perhaps not correct on the type of fraud.  The state GOP and the Secretary of State are looking into it.  It appears as much as 25% are very suspicious.  The numbers are to be verified.  The evidence appears to be clear that there is fraud.  Below is some of the info that came in.  When we get the full story we will send out an update. 

[The rest is just a reiteration of his earlier e-mail/post. But I love this last part…]

We will fully check this info and if true we will be vigilant in pursuing this fraud.  Again, we will update when we get the full update, with accurate info.  Remember, part of this came from a News Story and they often do not let the truth interfere with a story. 

And neither does our nativist racist fear-monger-in-chief Sen. Russell Pearce.