Meet Peter Kirsanow. He is a commissioner at the US Commission on Civil Rights, a government commission charged with monitoring violations of civil rights with a special emphasis on voting rights.
The body acts as a “clearinghouse” for charges of voting rights and civil rights violations by holding hearings and keeping track of related information. Although it does not have enforcement powers, it sends reports to Congress and the White House.
Kirsanow has been at the civil rights commission since 2001 and became a controversial figure after President Bush appointed him to the National Labor Relations Board during a Senate recess in January 2006. Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and other Democratic senators were outraged at Kirsanow’s appointment at the time. Kennedy called Kirsanow and “ardent foe of basic worker protections.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee heard Kirsanow testify yesterday on a bill under consideration that would make voter intimidation a federal crime. His suggestion: start focusing on falsified registrations rather than instances of intimidation and disenfranchisement.
Kirsanow’s testimony echoes changes seen in the Department of Justice under the Bush administration. While historically the Justice Department’s voting rights work has been aimed at preventing the disenfranchisement of minority voters, the emphasis has now shifted to preventing duplicate or illegitimate voting. A 2006 bipartisan report to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission found little evidence of such fraud at the polls.
An example of this came up earlier in the week when former interim US Attorney Bradley Schlozman testified before the same Senate committee on how he pushed through criminal voter fraud charges in Missouri right before the 2006 midterm election. The charges were brought against four organizers who had falsified voter registration forms. The organizers worked for a grass-roots group called ACORN, which had cooperated with law enforcement. The charges were highly controversial because they broke from Justice Department’s policy of not bringing voter-fraud cases right before an election. The rationale being that such cases can intimidate voters and affect the outcome of the election. Schlozman defended his actions saying he got approval from a respected career lawyer and head of the elections crime branch of the agency, Craig Donsanto. That testimony has been questioned.
Here is video from yesterday’s hearing of Kirsanow making his point: