Controversial Voting Section Deps Get DemotedThe changes keep on coming in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Less than a month ago, former voting section chief John “minorities don’t become elderly the way white people do: They die first” Tanner got canned. And today, his replacement, Christopher Coates, a veteran of the section, demoted Tanner’s controversial deputy chiefs, Susana Lorenzo-Giguere and Yvette Rivera. The changes were announced in an email to voting section staff.
The Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility is investigating whether Lorenzo-Giguere had filed certain lawsuits in order to get paid while living at her Cape Cod beach house. Tanner was under investigating for approving the arrangement. Both were accused by former section lawyers in complaints to OPR and the inspector general of seeking reimbursement for official travel.
Rivera has been accused of discriminating against African-American employees. She oversaw the important Section Five unit, which has the responsibility of reviewing election laws in parts of the country with a history of discrimination. Encouragingly, her replacement is Tim Mellett, one of the staff attorneys who in 2003, found that Tom DeLay’s Texas redistricting plan violated the Voting Rights Act, a finding that was overruled by political appointees.
So it seems that the voting section is truly entering a new era. Whether the voting section will reassume its traditional responsibility of protecting African-American voters from discrimination is another question. Only time will tell.