Well, Is his testimony accurate? Especially what he says about Florida 2000?

Why not use arguments for stoping voter fraud to further a more comprehensive voting package that would gaurantee a paper trail for all votes, make it illegal for any voting official to act as a campaign worker for anything appearing on the ballot, etc.

You could solve a lot of this issue by mandating that the DMV must provide a FREE ID card (not drivers license) ... that way you could track voter registrations by a non-federal ID and poor people could have an ID as well ... seems like this would be a decent compromise to me ...

Guys like this scare me. They are such good soldiers there is no chance that they might listen to reason or believe that what they are saying is not gospel.

The few things that jump out at me is that he decries claims of voter intimidation and suppression as illegitimate while touting his claim that it was VOTER FRAUD that decided the election. Amazing. That is the first I have heard that talking point rolled out.

I call bullshit. Just because the politicization of the administration has only come to light recently does not mean it wasn't going on since Bush got into office. The fact that Bush's people say their own tactics of voter suppression were legal should come as a surprise to no one.

These guys are bullies. They are only going to leave kicking and screaming.

Yeh the problem is some inner city mom registered fake voters to earn $2/voter for ACORN and didn't get caught by ACORN. ACORN is the loser in such situations. It is called fraud. But a feralized crime? Did any of the fake people vote? NO PROOF OFFERED

Or the problem is that a low income renter who moves a lot (not uncommon) registers at their new address and the County doesn't delete the old registration (say the renter can't even remember the last address they were registered at). VERY COMMON. The system has ways of eventually clearing off the non-voting "deadwood". But this guys says send in the Feds for filing out a voter registration card incompletely.

Lastly when you say x thousand people are registered in two states the question has to be "says who". Great that two people have the same name and are on the voter rolls. Doesn't mean they are the same person. Did any vote twice? NO PROOF

This guy is slime.

A little more than a third into the testimony, Kirsanow refers to information by Mark Hearne, "advisor to the Baker Carter Commission." But what Kirsanow doesn't say is that Hearne is general counsel and a director of the largely discredited GOP front, the American Center for Voting Rights.

The ACVR is guilty of engaging in deceptive practices, financially and otherwise. While Jason Torchinsky identified himself to the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) as assistant general counsel to the ACVR, Pat Rogers (yes, the one who got Iglesias fired) identified himself as a private attorney although he is a director of the ACVR's sister organization, the American Center for Voting Rights Legislative Fund.

Kirsanow was quite deceptive when he said that that one of the problems is that organizations are paying people for fraudulent voter registrations, thereby implying that organizations like ACORN are knowingly paying for phony registrations.

Dragging out the Ohio crack cocaine-for-voter registrations case and claiming that it was not an isolated incident was an out and out lie on Kirsanow's part. The Free Enterprise Coalition, another GOP front, funded a lawsuit in Ohio against ACORN and the NAACP in 2004 claiming that crack for voter registrations was a common practice. The lawsuit was dismissed on discovery in 2005 but not before the GOP got a lot of mileage out of the charges. Apparently, the GOP is still getting mileage out of it.

Peter Kirsanow is a bullshit artist whose resume is out and out wrong. He claims he is the chair of the Center for New Black Leadership, an organization which doesn't even exist anymore. Before it went out of business, the Center for New Black Leadership had been inactive since 2004.

If I have time later, I'm going to listen to this shithead's testimoney and pick out the rest of the GOP propaganda and lies.

MsInformed @ June 8, 2007 06:32 PM,

No. Not even so much. Recounts paid for various press agencies throughout Florida showed Gore winning handly . . . AND guess which side had all the malfeasence.

OK -- so people are registered in a bunch of jurisdictions. I mean, that has been true of me, as I was once a very low income renter who both moved a lot and voted religiously. Last I knew, it wasn't my responsibility to notify voting officials in a prior district and say "please remove my name from your lists!"

So--where is the evidence that people are going from one district to another and voting multiple times. I certainly didn't hear any.

Plus, it would be a very hard thing to organize, and keep it "secret" so-like the other side wouldn't find out!

Jeeze. Where DO they find these people?

Prior to his 2006 recess appointment to the National Labor Relations Board, Kirsanow was a partner with the Cleveland, Ohio law firm of Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan, and Aronoff LLP.

Benesch, Friedlander must be a big GOP firm. William M. Todd is now of counsel there. When he was with Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, Todd was a litigator for the American Center for Voting Rights, the Free Enterprise Coalition and the Republican Party.

Interesting how the same names keep popping up in the GOP voter suppression scandal.

'Where DO they find these people?'

birds of a feather flock together, especially vultures...

They "find" each other in the daily process. Monica Goodling didn't have to tell ANYONE she would exclude Dems from her hiring lists, everyone around her knew it would happen if she was given enough authority.

Same with this Kirsanow speed-freak, he no doubt has proven his dubious worth many times to those above him and around him throughout his career, Appointing him anywhere guaranteed he would play the Uncle Tom card wherever he went. Kennedy and the Dems knew that when Bush tried to appoint him to the Labor Relations board.

These recess appointments should be illegal again...

It is something of a silent conspiracy, to plant these neocon and evangelical ideologues in positions of authority. They always protect their mates, regardless of the rule of law.

Unfortunately for both sides, but great for our democracy, they are splitting along the evangelical/neocon - Ashcroft/Gonzales fault line, and the leftover evangelicals like Goodling will be tossed under every investigative bus that rols through, by the neocon division.

Most all the Texans are gone now.

But are they safe?

Hi,

Just to clarify, you wrote: "A 2006 bipartisan report to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission found little evidence of such fraud at the polls."

I believe you do not talk sufficiently in the superlative regarding the lack of registration fraud evidence. Unless I'm mistaken, not only did that report find no more than a handful of cases, but every case was found to lack any kind of political motive or goal; most came from paid polling workers who were commonly poor and needed the money they could get from exploiting a fee-per-registration arrangement. This entire subject is one entire fraud perpetrated by RNC boosters, such as the humorously villianous Tom "Thor" Hearne.

Aaron, Mark "Thor" Hearne, not Tom, and there is nothing humorous about his villany. He is likely to re-emerge in the media as an "election expert" once the trouble starts. Peter Kirsanow's reference to Hearne is evidence of that.

If the Dems think that all they have to do is sit on their big fat rear ends and point to the EAC report as evidence that the GOP's claims are bogus, they deserve to lose next year because they still don't get it.

One of my ideas is to out the Dem oppo researchers to work on digging up lawsuits funded by the Free Enterprise Coalition. I'd start asking about the Coalition in the media and I'd put Dale Oldham, Executive Director, on the spot. Did the Free Enterprise Coaltion fund the Florida lawsuits against ACORN or not?

But first, I'd find out why Texas GOP politicians were giving money to the Coalition either as "donations" or to purchase legal services.

Even if the GOP can't legally be charged with racketeeering with the intent to influence federal elections, the Dems need to make the case in the media.

Humorous, my ass. Mark "Thor" Hearne is a menace to civil society.

This guy reminds me of G. Gordon Liddy -- scary dude.

Aaron, you're never gonna be match for Mrs. P.

Mrs. P. has been on the case for ever so long. She has done her research. She has piles of it. She has been waiting for this to come out - and when any piece of it does, she pounces.

Watch Mrs. P. And you will watch the strings being pulled and the players being outed.

MARK RUBICK, not Rudnick. I wish TPM MR comments had an edit button. I could sure use one today!

From the Free Press story by Bob Fitzrakis (link below):

"...The Wood County case was withdrawn in June 2005, but not before it was revealed that the plaintiff, Mark Rubick, had been "indemnified" and held "harmless" by an obscure group, the Free Enterprise Coalition, with ties to the Republican Party. Signing as the "Authorized representative" for the Coalition was one Alex Vogel..."

I just found a 4/19/05 Daily Kos diary by Anaxagoras(link below) which has a bit more information about the Ohio crack case.

Excerpt:

Cyber Sleuths and Blogger Bloodhounds needed!

Yesterday, an acquaintance at ACORN informed me that they're "on the receiving end of some nasty frivolous litigation attack by the right-wing" outfit called Free Enterprise Coalition.

I posted a diary looking for help in researching the Free Enterprise Coalition, and a number of our fellow Kosians dug up some great intel. Thank you for your help!

Today I have some more information. According to my contact, "The plaintiffs in the suit are Mark Rubick and Jamey Koralewski. Their attorneys are Jeffrey S. Creamer and Douglas G Haynam of Shumaker, Loop and Kendrick in Toledo OH."

Also, the rhetoric of this complaint is very similar to a complaint filed by one Mark F. (Thor) Hearne of the American Center for Voting Rights.

The complaints make some bizarre claims, including allegations of bribing potential voters with crack cocaine. It keeps getting more interesting.

More detailed information lies below the fold. Please take a peak. The folks at ACORN need to get as much information as possible to help counter attack this mysterious Free Enterprise Coalition:..."

Douglas G Haynam, Shumaker, Loop and Kendrick partner, is Chair of the Sylvania Area Republicans. His principal areas of practice are environmental litigation, consultation and administrative practice.

A GOPlawyer who specializes in environmental issues has a lot of reasons to press a bullshit voter fraud case against the NAACP and ACORN. Haynam could have been looking a big payoff from the WH.

Thanks for the encouragement, Thera. I wrote to Anaxagoras, the Kos poster, and asked him if he could get more info on the ACORN lawsuits.

I'd like to get a hold of the original complaint in the Ohio crack case. I suspect that it could serve as proof of the GOP's bad intentions.

The complaints filed against ACORN and the NAACP could be posted here as part of the the TPM document collection.

"Voter" Fraud was NOT a major problem in Ohio during 2004-it was just a GOP rovian talking point:

Number of fraudulent attempts to vote in the course of 2 Ohio general elections (2002 and 2004) in which over 9 million votes were cast 11...........................................4

http://www.clevelandvotes.org/news/reports/facts.html

I remember this statistic being used by the Democratic members of the Ohio State legislature before the vote for the draconian HB 3, known by many as the GOP Suppression Bill. This did not stop Ohio State elected officials from sticking to the talking points. I was told by OH State Senator Jeffry Armbruster (R-Lorain) during a Commoncause Election Reform Lobby Day that it was voter fraud NOR election fraud that was the issue in 2004 and that if I was truly interested in Election reform then I should be pushing for breath analyzer tests for voters (I SWEAR and have a witness) because it was the Dems pulling drunks out of bars on election day to vote that was the real problem. (remember many precincts had lines to vote with waits between 2-6 hours)

If anyone here is interested in what really occurred in Ohio '04, may I suggest Conyers & the House Judiciary Dem Staff's report "Preserving Democracy: What Went Wrong in Ohio".

Fixing America's Broken Elections
Rep. John Conyers, Jr.
February 08, 2005

My staff reviewed thousands of pages of primary source materials, including copies of actual ballots, voter registration databases, and poll books. They also met with several individuals having firsthand knowledge of irregularities. What they found indicated problems in multiple areas, from machine tampering and malfunction, to the intimidation and caging of minority voters in urban and rural areas, to the purposeful misallocation of voting machines and the unjustifiable restrictions that were placed on the use of provisional ballots.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/fixing_americas_broken_elections.php

Me neither. If the Dems have oppo researchers, they should all be fired.

If anyone wants to read about the Ohio crack cocaine case, I linked to a 10/19/04 Toledo Blade story about it below. Joe Mahr's description of the investigation gives you a good idea as to how the story hit all of the major news outlets within a couple of days.

The guy who submitted the 130 phony registrations, Chad Staton, got hit pretty hard on sentencing. The papers kept saying he was facing up to a year in jail but instead, he got 54 months.

Staton, for the record, never worked for the NAACP National Voter Fund. Someone who did, Georgianne Pitts, offered to pay Staton on her own.

I couldn't find any news about the lawsuit filed by Mark Alan Rubick and Jamey Caryn Koralewski against the NAACP and ACORN.

I read Mark "Thor" Hearne's 12/7/06 testimony before the EAC about the 2006 election and he not only identifies himself as an academic advisor to the Carter-Baker Commission, he identifies himself as counsel to the American Center for Voting Rights Legislative Fund.

In the footnotes to Hearne's testimony, there are three links to the American Center for Voting Rights Legislative Fund website. But the links are no longer active because Hearne or one of his GOP cronies took the ACVRFL website down some time after December 2006. Maybe someone should ask Hearne why.

One of the ACVRF links is to Chad Staton's criminal pleading in the Ohio crack cocaine case so as of December 2006, the GOP was still getting mileage out of the case.

Hearne is cute - he claims that Staton was paid crack cocaine to "fraudulently" register fraudulent and fictional voters. From what I read, Staton was paid crack cocaine to register legitimate voters but that's not what he did. In fact, six of Staton's registrations were legitimate.

One of Hearne's footnotes refers to the testimony of ACVRFL director, Pat Rogers, to the House Government Administration Committee on 6/22/06. I didn't check but I wonder if that was when Rogers met with Goodling to complain about Iglesias.

The link to Rogers' House testimony is broken. I wanted to see how Rogers identified himself before the Committee. When he testified before the EAC in March 2006, he claimed he was a private attorney from New Mexico despite the fact that he is an ACVRFL director and the secretary.

Here is how Mark Hearne characterized Barry Schlozman's indictment of four low-paid ACORN workers for the EAC:

"In Kansas City, Missouri, a federal grand jury indicted a number of political operatives
involved in a fraudulent voter registration scheme just days before the recent mid-term elections."

Political operatives? Scheme? Hearne lied. The ACORN workers weren't operatives and there was no scheme.

Hearne went on to say that "These Missouri vote fraud schemes were the subject of several
Wall Street Journal national editorials. Voter registration fraud was a national concern
not limited to Missouri."

Yup, the WSJ was in such a rush to get out an anti-ACORN editorial, it claimed that Chad Staton, the defendant in the Ohio crack cocaine case, worked for an ACORN affiliate. Of course, the WSJ quoted Hearne:

"You have to wonder what's the point of that, if not to overwhelm the system and get phony registrations on the voter rolls," says Thor Hearne of the American Center for Voting Rights, who also testified at the hearing.

Of course, ACORN and the NAACP are intentionally putting phony voter registrations on the voter rolls. Must be true because renowned election expert, Mark "Thor" Hearne said so.

Again, why was the American Center for Voting Rights website taken down? Hearne knew footnotes in his December testimony to the EAC linked to the site.

Link to Hearne's EAC testimony:

http://www.eac.gov/docs/Hearne-Testimony-EAC-2006-Election.pdf

Is this where US Commission on Civil Rights - Commissioner Mr. Peter Kirsanow the fascist got his talking points ? Seems the info source for both came from the same desk.

http://web.archive.org/web/20051026093551/www.ac4vr.com/news/acvrnews080205.html

Exhibit M of the 8/05 ACVR report submitted to Congress is a must-read (link below)!

The exhibit is an undated 3-page story entitled "The Reality of Intimidation" which purportedly was published in the U. of Virginia newspaper, The Cavalier Daily. It is about the adventures of law student and junior GOP operative, Eric Wang, on Election Day in Philadelphia.

Wang tells a thrilling tale about how he and his colleague were cornered in a parking lot by roughly 10 large men who police later identified as "union goons":

"After trying to tip over the minivan I was sharing with another attorney, punching it relentlessly, breaking parts off and failing to drag us out, they chased us in and out of the dense urban traffic in their high-powered SUVs..."

After Wang placed a "frantic" 911 call, the police set up a roadblock and apprehended the "union goons". But a growing mob surrounded Wang and his colleague so they had to be secreted out of town to safety by a police escort.

Yeah, right.

Here is a prime example of why the Democrats need to play offense. I think Eric Wang's story is a crock of shit but Eric Wang could be the next Mark "Thor" Hearne or Alex Vogel or even Karl Rove.

The Dems need to follow up on Wang's claims by getting the police reports, court records etc. to determine if Wang was telling the truth or living a GOP wet dream.

If Wang lied and if Wang enters the public arena, the Dems should then pull out this article along with the police reports, etc and call Wang out as a snivelly, lying GOP coward who will say or do anything to get ahead in politics.

First thing first. Get the police reports, court records, etc and call Mark "Thor" Hearne out as a lying little weasel who will do or say anything to advance his prospects with the GOP.

Hearne had no business including this raggy. little pack of lies written by a Rove wannabe in a report he submitted to Congress.

BTW, I can't find Eric Wang's original column in The Cavalier Daily archives. In fact, I can't find any of Eric Wang's columns. The Cavalier Daily web address is:

CavalierDaily.com

The police reports filed by Wang and his colleague are still online at the archived version of the ACVR website (link below).

Interesting that Eric Wang is listed as a witness but the name of the 53 yr old male who filed the vandalism complaint is blacked out other than "Richard P". Both Wang and Richard P are identified as Bush Campaign workers.

Hearne is his adorable self here. The exhibit claims that personal and descriptive information has been redacted.The only information that was redacted was the name of the 53 yr old, white guy with Eric Wang.

It looks like the names of the two guys on the other side of this bullshit story is Frederic Cosenta and Bernard Griggs. I'd like to hear their version of Wang's story.

Even better, let's get a photo of Frederick Cosenta. If Eric Wang thinks a Dodge Durango is a high-powered SUV, I can't wait to who he thinks looks like a large union goon.

Mrs. P

Here's a picture OF Bernard A. Griggs, Jr.

Like,..

http://tinyurl.com/378udl

Wow,.. do these comments take awhile to load,.. seems to not like more than two URL's.

more info from ACVR,..

http://tinyurl.com/2nhqug

http://tinyurl.com/2jtfyg

much more info to be found if you open the links on the leftside of the ACVR page.

Please don't forget to mention that ACORN was the victim here. Even Schlotzman said that during his ridiculous testimony. The folks indicted were defrauding ACORN by turning in cards they had forged in order to increase their pay. There was never a plan to allow people who are not eligible to vote in the voting booth -- merely to defraud ACORN of money.

Thanks for the links, 2turk. I checked various versions of the ACVR website and the March 2005 one had a downloadable file of the exhibits filed with the first ACVR report to the House Government Administration Committee (link below).

The exhibits file had the complaint filed by Mark Rubick and Jamey Koralewski against ACT, ACORN, NAACP National Voter Fund and the Ohio AFL-CIO. The gist of the complaint was that these organizations were engaged in a massive fraudulent voter registraton scheme.

Rubick and Koralewski contended that these organizations were trying to make their voter registration drives look more successful than they were to increase donations.

The complaint goes on for 15 pages about this so-called conspiracy.

The bottom of each page is clearly marked "jsc/Free Enterprise Coalition/Amended Complaint.doc. The jsc stands for J S. Creamer of Shumaker, Loop and Kendrick.

Some of the other legal actions listed in the exhibits look like they might have been funded by the Free Enterprise Coalition, too.

Rob LA Ca.
Date: June 11, 2007 08:31 AM

Bitter are we? Oh, but I see you are from la-la land. It shows.

Let's sum up one of the lies we've been swapping here for Rob LA CA.

In his testimony, Peter Kirsanow refers to "evidence produced at hearings, particulary by Mark Hearne" to support his argument voter fraud is rampant.

How reliable is the evidence that Mark "Thor" Hearne produced at hearings? Not very based on the work done here this weekend.

Hearne is general counsel to and a director of the American Center for Voting Rights and the American Center for Voting Rights Legislative Fund. Hearne, through the ACVR, submitted reports to Bob Ney's Government Administration Committee in March and August 2005.

One of the exhibits attached to the ACVR's 8/05 report is a column from a student newspaper written by a law student, Eric Wang. Wang claimed that he and his unidentified colleague were attacked by union goons in Philadelphia on Election Day.

From The Cavalier Daily (U. of Virginia) column by Eric Wang:

"After trying to tip over the minivan I was sharing with another attorney, punching it relentlessly, breaking parts off and failing to drag us out, they chased us in and out of the dense urban traffic in their high-powered SUVs. Only after a frantic 911 call and a police roadblock were our assailants apprehended. Even then, a growing mob surrounded us and we had to be secreted out of town to safety be a police escort."

Sounds thrilling, doesn't it?

Further on, Wang wrote that "While Democrats portrayed our ballot protection as suppressing and intimidating minority voters, the real violence as directed at us - the election monitors. In fact, for the most part, we got along fine in the black neighborhoods until an all-white mob tried to beat us up."z

An all-white mob?

Eric Wang's story is a baldfaced lie. Hearne attached police reports from that day and the name of one of the so-called union goons chasing Wang and his colleague is Bernard Griggs.

A photo of Bernard A. Griggs (link below) clearly shows that Griggs is black.

The one name that Mark "Thor" Hearne did redact from the police report is that of Eric Wang's 53-year-old white male companion whose name starts with Richard P. The area code of "Richard P"'s business number is an Indiana one.

Maybe Hearne can explain why a GOP operative from Indiana was poll-watching in Philadelphia and who was paying him. I suspect that Richard P and Eric Wang were in Philadelphia on Election Day looking to create trouble.

As an aside, I wonder if Hearne gave Bernard Griggs or Frederick Cosenta an opportunity to respond to Eric Wang's very serious charges before including them in a report that became part of official congressional records.

Steve and 2turk, Something screwy is going on with Eric Wang's column about being attacked by union goons in Philadelphia on Election Day in 2004. Remember, this column was an exhibit to an ACVR report submitted to Congress in August 2005 but it was undated.

As noted above, I couldn't find Wang's original column in the archives of The Cavalier Daily yesterday. Today, I copied the url provided in the ACVR report and it linked to Wang's The Cavalier Daily column about being attacked by union goons but the column is dated 4/27/07.

That column was supposed to have been published before August 2005 to be legitimatly included in Mark "Thor" Hearne's 8/05 ACVR report submitted to Bob Ney's Government Administraton Committee.

Here is the link to Wang's The Cavalier Daily column from the ACVR report:

http://www.cavalierdaily.com/CVArticle_print.asp?ID=21349&pid1216

I also linked to it below.

I'm wondering if Wang's column was really published in The Cavalier Daily before it was included in the ACVR report.

Maybe a GOP operative read my comments about Wang's column yesterday and persuaded The Cavalier Daily to retroactively publish Wang's column on its website. But if that is the case, whoever did it put the wrong date on the column.

How can we check this? I would think the TPM folks would be interested in this story but how can we get their attention?

When my son was in college he registered to vote there. He didn't vote in his home town for 4 years - they never took him off the rolls (it's supposed to happen after 2 years.) When he moved back home he started voting here again - no problem, he is still a registered voter. He has no idea whether or not he's still registered where he went to college. I think that probably happens a lot, it's not fraud, it's just bureaucracy.

Mrs. P,
You are a tenacious bloodhound when it comes to a web document and info search.
God Bless ya !!!!