Voter Identification

Texas Tries To Keep Voter ID Debate Secret

Ryan J. Reilly | April 2, 2012, 11:20AM

The state of Texas wants the discussions their Republican legislators had about passing a voter ID law to stay secret.

Texas, which sued the federal government in an attempt to have their voter ID law approved, said in a court filing last month that "communications between members of the state legislature, communications between state legislators and their staff, and communications between state legislators and their constituents" should be protected by legislative privilege. The state also tried to prevent officials with the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division from deposing legislators who supported the voter ID legislation known as SB 14.

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James O'Keefe

Election Law Experts Say James O'Keefe Allies Could Face Charges Over Voter Fraud Stunt

Ryan J. Reilly | January 11, 2012, 3:05PM

Update, Jan. 11, 5:00PM: Mark Zuckerman, a federal prosecutor in the New Hampshire U.S. Attorney's Office, told TPM he recently became aware of the Project Veritas video and was reviewing it but hadn't formed any opinion on whether it presented an issue.

It was one of the few -- if not the only -- coordinated efforts to attempt in-person voter fraud, and it was pulled off by affiliates of conservative activist James O'Keefe at polling places in New Hampshire Tuesday night. All of it part of an attempt to prove the need for voter ID laws that voting rights experts say have a unfair impact on minority voters.

Now election law experts tell TPM that O'Keefe's allies could face criminal charges on both the federal and state level for procuring ballots under false names, and that his undercover sting doesn't demonstrate a need for voter ID laws at all.

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Christopher Coates

Lawyer Defending South Carolina's Voter ID Law Thinks DOJ Is Biased Against White People

Ryan J. Reilly | January 11, 2012, 5:53AM

Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC)

Updated: Jan. 11, 11:45AM

South Carolina officials plan to file suit against the federal government because the Justice Department stopped the state from implementing a voter ID law that the state's own statistics showed would have a disparate impact on non-white voters. Fighting on their behalf will be a former DOJ official who claimed that the Civil Rights Division is opposed to protecting the civil rights of whites and who defended the Bush-era politicalization of the division by Bradley Schlozman as an effort to "diversify."

South Carolina has hired former Voting Section Chief Christopher Coates, who defied DOJ's instructions and testified before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights during the Republican-led probe into the infamous New Black Panther Party case, a spokesman for the South Carolina attorney general's office told The State newspaper.

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South Carolina

BREAKING: Justice Department Blocks South Carolina's Voter ID Law

Ryan J. Reilly | December 23, 2011, 4:03PM

Updated: Dec. 23, 2011, 5:28PM

The U.S. Department of Justice will block the voter ID provisions of an election law passed in South Carolina earlier this year because the state's own statistics demonstrated that the photo identification requirement would have a much greater impact on non-white residents, DOJ said in a letter to the state on Friday.

The decision places the federal government squarely in opposition to the types of voter ID requirements that have swept through mostly Republican-controlled state legislatures.

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South Carolina

Justice Department Facing Deadline On Voter ID Decision

Ryan J. Reilly | December 22, 2011, 6:00AM

The Justice Department has to decide by Tuesday whether South Carolina has proven that their new voter ID law doesn't deny or abridge the voting rights of residents on the basis of race, nationality or language -- a decision bound to enrage either the mostly progressive opponents of voting restrictions or the mostly conservative backers of the identification measure, depending on how they come down on the matter.

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voter fraud

Fox Falsely Claims 'Mickey Mouse' And 'Adolf Hitler' Are On Scott Walker Recall Petition (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | December 15, 2011, 1:32PM

Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) shakes hands with Republican legislative members after delivering his budget address to a joint session of the legislature at the state Capitol on March 1, 2011 in Madison, WI.

Fox News reporter Eric Shawn told viewers on Thursday that signatures from "Mickey Mouse" and "Adolf Hitler" were "allegedly on petitions in Wisconsin in the recall for Governor Scott Walker." Fun little story with the potential to go viral? Absolutely. True? Not so much.

In fact, the original story that Shawn evidently built his report off of is about a strictly hypothetical situation discussed by members of the Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board who were asked what would happen if someone signed the petition as Mickey Mouse. There's been no actual allegation that anyone actually signed the petition against Walker that way.

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Eric Holder

Obama Administration Backs Bill Combating Voter Intimidation, Deception

Ryan J. Reilly | December 13, 2011, 6:05PM

United States Attorney General Eric Holder

The Obama administration is signaling support for a forthcoming Senate bill that would impose tough criminal and civil penalties on individuals who make and distribute campaign literature with false information intended to deceive voters and suppress turnout.

Attorney General Eric Holder will announce in a major speech on voting rights in Texas on Tuesday night that Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Ben Cardin (D-MD) will introduce the bill on Wednesday. The bill will be "narrowly tailored" to respect provisions of the First Amendment, according to Cardin's office. It will apply to "only a small category of false communications that occur during the last 90 days before an election, such as literature listing the wrong date or time for the election, giving inaccurate information about voter eligibility, or promoting false endorsements of candidates." A nearly identical bill was introduced by Schumer and then-Sen. Barack Obama back in 2007 but never passed.

In his speech at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library And Museum in Austin, Holder will call for election systems "that are free from fraud, discrimination, and partisan influence" and will say that protecting the right to vote and combating discrimination "must be viewed, not only as a legal issue - but as a moral imperative." Holder's speech also offers a challenge:

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Artur Davis

Former Dem Rep. Artur Davis Still Wouldn't Provide Examples Of Voter Fraud

Ryan J. Reilly | November 22, 2011, 5:30PM

Former Democratic Rep. Artur Davis, who now supports voter ID laws as a method of preventing voter fraud but refuses to discuss any particular instances he says he witnessed, is again declining to provide any examples of voter fraud he witnessed, claiming doing so would turn the debate over voter ID laws into a 'he-said-he-said' controversy.

"If you think I made it up, you're entitled to do that, and if you think there's no credibility and I just made it up because I had nothing to do some day, that's your prerogative," Davis told TPM in a phone interview on Tuesday.

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Matthew Vadum

Columnist: 'Registering The Poor To Vote Is Un-American' Piece 'Indelicately Worded'

Ryan J. Reilly | November 15, 2011, 11:48AM

Conservative columnist Matthew Vadum explained to the Texas-based King Street Patriots on Monday night that his "Registering The Poor To Vote Is Un-American" article may have been "indelicately worded" but said his larger point stands.

"Why do I hate democracy and the poor?" Vadum joked, clarifying that he "wasn't saying that people shouldn't have the right to vote if they're poor."

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voter fraud

Tennessee Resident: I Really Had To Fight To Get A Free Voter ID

Ryan J. Reilly | November 14, 2011, 2:35PM

Updated: 4:07PM

Most people would have just paid the $8 fee to obtain a photo ID required to vote in Tennessee. Not Lee Campbell. The retired teacher and his wife fought for their right to a free photo ID and on Monday went to Capitol Hill to complain about what he called a "poll tax."

Campbell, a Utah native who taught and served as a teacher and a guidance counselor for 42 years and has voted in every presidential election since 1964, testified before a panel sponsored by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee on Monday that he "experienced first-hand the harmful impact of all these voting changes that are springing up across America."

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Eric Holder

Holder: Voting Restriction Efforts 'Inconsistent' With American Values

Ryan J. Reilly | November 8, 2011, 2:14PM

Efforts to make it more difficult for voters to cast a ballot are inconsistent with American values and will be thoroughly investigated by DOJ's Civil Rights Division, Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday.

"This Department of Justice will be aggressive at looking at this jurisdictions that have attempted for whatever reason to restrict the ability of people to get to the polls," Holder said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

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Voter Identification

Voter ID Under Fire At Progressive Conference; Obama Calls Restrictions A 'Big Mistake'

Ryan J. Reilly | October 4, 2011, 10:45AM

A few dozen progressives sat in a room in the Washington Hilton on Monday during the Take Back the American Dream Conference discussing how restrictive voter ID laws would affect the 2012 election.

"The groups of voters that are going to be most impacted, what do you all think?" asked moderator Megan Donovan. "Who does this affect primarily?"

"College students!" someone said. "Minority groups!" said another. "Elderly voters!" chimed in one person. "Disabled voters!" said one woman.

"Democrats!" came a voice from the back of the room. The audience burst into laughter.

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voter fraud

Al Franken Smacks Down Hans von Spakovsky Over Flawed Voter ID Stats (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | September 8, 2011, 6:30PM

Hans von Spakovsky

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) squared off with voting rights restrictions enthusiast Hans von Spakovsky at at Senate hearing on Thursday, accusing the Heritage Foundation fellow of leaving out a crucial piece of data that undermined his argument that voter ID laws don't suppress minority turnout.

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Lindsey Graham

Lindsey Graham Backs Federal Voter ID Law, Calls Restrictions 'The Future Of The Country'

Ryan J. Reilly | September 8, 2011, 2:47PM

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

Congress should follow in the footsteps of state legislatures and pass a federal voter ID law that requires voters to present photo identification at the polls, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Thursday.

Graham defended South Carolina's recently passed voter ID law, which is under review by the Justice Department.

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Hans von Spakovsky

GOP Senators Trot Out Hans von Spakovsky To Defend Voter ID Laws

Ryan J. Reilly | September 8, 2011, 12:45PM

Hans von Spakovsky

Democrats will have a longtime civil rights lawyer and a law professor who conducted an extensive study on voter fraud testify at Thursday's Senate hearing on the rash of voter ID laws sweeping states across the country. The Republicans will have Hans von Spakovsky.

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voter intimidation

Justice Department Sends Poll Watchers Into County Where White Voters Were Intimidated

Ryan J. Reilly | August 22, 2011, 2:00PM

Attorney General Eric Holder

Attorney General Eric Holder is sending poll watchers into a Mississippi county where white voters were previously found to have been intimidated by a Democratic official who is African-American.

The Justice Department announced Monday they were sending poll watchers to monitor runoff elections in Mississippi's Noxubee County, as well as in Bolivar, Tunica and Wilkinson counties to ensure their compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. DOJ also monitored the first primary election in Noxubee County earlier this month.

The 2005 Noxubee case was the first ever so-called "reverse" discrimination voter intimidation case in the history of the Voting Rights Act. Ike Brown, the chairman of Noxubee County's Democratic Executive Committee in Mississippi, was found to have been trying to limit the participation of white voters in local elections.

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voter fraud

Colbert On Voter ID Laws: Why Not Let Only GOP Lawmakers Vote? (VIDEO)

David Taintor | July 21, 2011, 12:20PM

Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert has only one explanation why politicians he doesn't vote for are elected: voter fraud!

Colbert on Wednesday addressed the rise of restrictive voter ID laws around the country, saying they ensure only the right people vote. Take New Hampshire Republican House Speaker Bill O'Brien. Back in March, TPM reported that he wanted to disenfranchise students who "just vote their feelings."

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Voter Identification

'Most Restrictive' Voter ID Law In The Country Loses Support Of Republican Secretary Of State

Ryan J. Reilly | June 27, 2011, 5:45AM

The Ohio state Senate was set to consider this week what critics are calling the most restrictive voter identification law in the country. The push for restrictive voter ID measures in the Buckeye state is part of a trend of similar legislation sweeping Republican-controlled legislatures across the country.

But Ohio's measure is so restrictive -- it requires the photo IDs to be issued by the state, so voters couldn't identify themselves with their full Social Security numbers -- that it lost the support of Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted.

"I want to be perfectly clear, when I began working with the General Assembly to improve Ohio's elections system it was never my intent to reject valid votes," Husted said in a short statement posted on his official website.

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Robert L. Ehrlich

Aides To Former Maryland Gov Indicted For Ordering Calls To Suppress Votes

Ryan J. Reilly | June 17, 2011, 10:12AM

Julius Henson and Fmr. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R-MD)

Two aides to former Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich (R) have been indicted for ordering what officials claim were deceptive robocalls intended to suppress Democratic turnout during Ehrlich's second run for the office last November.

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New Black Panthers

DOJ Probe Finds Obama Appointee Wouldn't Allow Outright Dismissal Of New Black Panther Party Case

Ryan J. Reilly | April 7, 2011, 5:01PM

Members of the New Black Panthers Party outside a polling place in Philadelphia, PA during the 2008 elections.

An Obama administration official at the Justice Department told a subordinate that he wouldn't accept the outright dismissal of a high-profile civil voter intimidation case against members of the New Black Panther Party, according to a report by DOJ's internal ethics office.

The report from DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) found that Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perrelli told Loretta King (the then-acting Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division) that he "would accept any outcome in the case so long as the entire case was not dismissed outright (because a man with a nightstick at a polling place appeared to present a case of voter intimidation) and the proposed relief did not violate the Constitution." Adam Serwer first reported on the conclusions of the full OPR report, which was posted online by the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee this afternoon.

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Justice Department

Former GOP Candidate Gets 366 Days In Jail For Lying In Voter Suppression Probe

Ryan J. Reilly | February 14, 2011, 5:45PM

Tan Nguyen puts up a sign during the 2006 campaign.

Former California congressional candidate Tan Nguyen, who was convicted of lying to federal investigators looking into an alleged voter suppression operation back in 2006, was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison on Monday.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter also ordered Nguyen to serve six months at a halfway house, according to a Justice Department news release.

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Ahmed Ezz

Did DC Public Relations Firm Fully Disclose Its Work For Egyptian Steel Tycoon?

Susan Crabtree | February 8, 2011, 9:12AM

Ahmed Ezz

Egypt's extensive military, lobbying and public relations connections in Washington have been under the media microscope since pro-democracy protests have undermined the Mubarak regime, but one contract in particular, involving a well-placed Mubarak supporter and a major DC public relations firm, hasn't received much attention.

Qorvis Communications, a powerful player in the DC media world, had a two-year contract with Egyptian steel tycoon Ahmed Ezz from 2007 to 2008. Egyptian protesters have torched the Cairo headquarters of Ezz's multinational steel company three times in the last month, displaying a particular hostility for Ezz and the politically powered wealth he represents, the New York Times reported Monday.

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New Black Panthers

Poll Watcher To New Black Panther Party Videographer: 'Don't F**k Up The Story' (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | January 28, 2011, 11:10AM

Stephen Robert Morse was a freelance journalist and videographer working as a poll watcher for the local Republican Party in Philadelphia in 2008 when he got the call of his lifetime.

Members of the New Black Panther Party, he was told, were standing outside a polling place in an overwhelmingly African-American section of the city.

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Tan Nguyen

Former House Candidate Convicted Of Lying In Voter Suppression Probe

Rachel Slajda | December 8, 2010, 10:47AM

Tan Nguyen puts up a sign during the 2006 campaign.

Former House candidate Tan Nguyen (R) was convicted yesterday of lying to investigators during a voter suppression probe surrounding an intimidating letter sent to Spanish-speaking voters.

Nguyen, a Republican who challenged Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) in 2006, was convicted of obstruction of justice.

According to prosecutors, Nguyen lied to investigators about his involvement with a mailing, written in Spanish and sent to 14,000 households, that warned that "emigrados" could go to jail for voting. The mailing was written on letterhead similar to that of an anti-immigration group in California.

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Robocalls

Robocalls Telling MD Voters To 'Relax' Came From Dem Supporting GOP Nominee

Ryan J. Reilly | November 5, 2010, 2:50PM

Julius Henson and Fmr. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R-MD)

Two hours before polls closed on Tuesday, over 50,000 Maryland voters started receiving mysterious phone calls instructing them to "relax" and not bother voting because Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) had already won re-election.

The Baltimore Sun reported that calls were sent from the account associated with a controversial Democratic operative, Julius Henson, by Rhonda Russell, a former director of Progressive Maryland.

Russell, now a Universal Elections employee, placed the order with Robodial.org, a Pennsylvania company which works exclusively with Democrats. Universal Elections is the company of Henson, a longtime Democratic operative who is based out of Baltimore but worked as a consultant for the former Gov. Bob Ehrlich (R) this election cycle in his campaign against O'Malley. In an interesting twist, Hanson previously called Ehrlich a "Nazi," but eventually took at least $32,000 in consulting fees from the Ehrlich campaign, according to the Sun.

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voter fraud

Report Notes 'Sudden Silence' From Voter 'Fraud-Mongerers' Post-Election

Ryan J. Reilly | November 5, 2010, 11:13AM

Dick Armey, Catherine Engelbrecht, Michelle Malkin, and David Norcross

Claims of massive voter fraud efforts backed by Democrats were all the rage in conservative circles in the weeks and months leading up to the election on Tuesday. But since the polls closed, there's been barely a peep.

So says a report from the public policy center Demos issued Friday analyzing the "mixed bag" outcome of the 2010 campaign in the areas of voter access and effective administration of elections.

"Also noteworthy after Election Day had come and gone was the sudden silence from the fraud-mongerers and Tea Party poll watch groups," Tova Andrea Wang, a Senior Democracy Fellow at Demos, wrote in the report. "Not a peep of one case of substantiated fraud at the polling place."

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Harry Reid

Angle Files Voter Intimidation Complaint With DOJ Over Reid E-Mails

Ryan J. Reilly | November 2, 2010, 10:19PM

In the final hours of Election Day, a lawyer for GOP Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle filed a complaint with the Justice Department alleging voter intimidation took place on behalf of the campaign of her opponent Sen. Harry Reid (D), Politico reports.

The complaint relates to an e-mail exchange between an unnamed Reid campaign staffer and the casino chain Harrah's, which was reported in a story published by the National Review. The National Review reported that the e-mails showed that "Executives at the casino giant Harrah's pushed company employees to vote early in an all-out effort to help the Harry Reid campaign."

Angle lawyer Cleta Mitchell -- co-chair of the Republican National Lawyers Association --said the e-mails showed "union intimidation tactics." Reid's campaign countered that the e-mails don't show anything against the law and mentioned that the conservative blogger who wrote the story told Fox News that she didn't think "anything either illegal or unethical was done here."

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voter fraud

Election Judges Dealing With Aggressive Poll Watchers In Minnesota

Ryan J. Reilly | November 2, 2010, 2:06PM

A polling place in San Francisco, CA

In Hennepin County, Minnesota -- one of the counties where conservatives groups have implemented an anti-voter fraud campaign called Election Integrity Watch -- election judges have had firm exchanges with overly aggressive poll watchers who did not seem to know their the role.

"I think we were very firm, we had to be very firm with some of the polling place challengers who wanted to have more range in the polling place than the law permitted them to," County Elections Manager Rachel Smith told TPMMuckraker. She said challengers were "having some questions" about where in the polling place they were allowed to stand.

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voter fraud

Hoyer: Republicans Depressing Turnout In Democratic Areas

Ryan J. Reilly | November 2, 2010, 11:21AM

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD)

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said in a last-minute fundraising e-mail for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that Democrats have "already had disturbing reports about the Republicans trying to depress voter turnout in Democratic areas."

The DCCC will "have eyes and ears already on the ground, looking out for anything suspicious," Hoyer said in the e-mail. "They also have legal teams ready to be dispatched at a moment's notice any place where a recount is likely so we can decisively challenge all irregularities," he added.

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Minnesota

MN Anti-Voter Fraud Group: Ignore Judge's Ruling Against 'I.D. Me' Buttons

Ryan J. Reilly | November 2, 2010, 7:22AM

Minnesota Majority, one of the groups behind the anti-voter fraud initiative in the state called "Election Integrity Watch," told supporters in an e-mail last night to go ahead and wear their "Please I.D. Me" buttons and Tea Party apparel to the polls today despite a federal judge's ruling yesterday that such items would interfere with the elections process.

The e-mail said that anti-voter fraud advocates will "have a decision to make" if an election judge questions the items they are wearing. "You can simply remove or cover the challenged item and you'll be allowed to vote, or you can refuse and demand your right to vote and the election judge will allow you to vote, while also recording your name and you could be charged with a petty misdemeanor," says the e-mail.

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Minnesota

Federal Judge To MN Conservatives: You Can't Wear 'I.D. Me' Buttons At Polls

Ryan J. Reilly | November 1, 2010, 3:12PM

A button from ElectionIntegrityWatch.com

A federal judge ruled on Monday that conservatives in Minnesota rallying against voter fraud will not be allowed to wear their "Please I.D. Me" buttons to polling locations, according to the Associated Press.

Minnesota Majority, one of the groups that is taking part in the Election Integrity Watch group, sued last week because of a ban on their pins at polling places. County Attorneys in two counties in Minnesota said those buttons count as campaign material. Minnesota Majority countered that their buttons were protected by the First Amendment and that the voter I.D. issue was not on the ballot -- and thus the buttons weren't a violation of electioneering laws.

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voter fraud

Justice Department To Monitor Polls In Harris County, Sheriff Joe's Turf

Ryan J. Reilly | October 29, 2010, 6:26PM

Catherine Engelbrecht and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Harris County, Texas and Maricopa County, Arizona are among the 30 jurisdictions in which federal observers will monitor polling place activities or Justice Department personnel will monitor the election, DOJ announced late Friday.

The Tea Party-backed group True the Vote, the Texas Democratic Party, Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee and even the New Black Panther Party have traded accusations of voter intimidation in Harris County and called for federal elections monitors to be deployed to the area.

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voter fraud

One Of Kris Kobach's Zombie Voters Actually Still Alive, Thanks

Ryan J. Reilly | October 29, 2010, 5:18PM

Kris Kobach, a Republican candidate for Secretary of State in Kansas, has been all over the voter fraud issue, and has asserted that dead voters are still casting ballots. At a press conference, he said one of those so-called zombie voters was Alfred K. Brewer, who -- according to Kobach -- died in 1996 but still voted in the primary this year.

But instead of pushing up daisies, the Wichita Eagle found Brewer in his front yard, raking up leaves.

"I don't think this is heaven, not when I'm raking leaves," Brewer, a Republican, told the newspaper. "I'm just as surprised as you are."

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voter fraud

Anti-Voter Fraud Group Sues Over 'I.D. Me' Button Ban

Ryan J. Reilly | October 29, 2010, 4:45PM

A button from ElectionIntegrityWatch.com

Minnesota Majority and members of the Election Integrity Watch program in Minnesota went ahead and sued over the ban on their "Please I.D. Me" buttons in polling places imposed by county elections officials.

"Clearly, these buttons are not about any specific political candidate, party or ballot question," said Jeff Davis, president of Minnesota Majority, said in a press release. "This ban is outside state law and a clear violation of our First Amendment rights under the United States Constitution."

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voter fraud

Elderly Black Voters Allegedly Intimidated At Their Homes In Texas

Ryan J. Reilly | October 29, 2010, 4:19PM

Two middle-aged white Republican activists in Texas allegedly harassed and intimidated at least seven elderly African-American voters at their homes in eastern Texas, according to a complaint filed with the Justice Department on Thursday.

Gerry Hebert, executive director of the Campaign Legal Center, submitted a report to DOJ alleging that two unidentified women visited elderly African-American voters at their homes in Bowie County and questioned them about their mail-in ballot applications, Mother Jones first reported.

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voter fraud

True The Vote Documents Show Hidden Donations, Republican Ties

Ryan J. Reilly | October 29, 2010, 2:21PM

Anita MonCrief, J. Christian Adams, David Horowitz and Rep. John Culberson (R-TX)

True the Vote, the Tea Party-backed anti-voter fraud group that has come under scrutiny because poll watchers trained by the organization have been accused of using intimidating tactics, received a large chunk of its money anonymously. It has also paid for or hosted events with several major players in the anti-voter fraud circuit.

The True the Vote organization, which is dedicated to preventing voter fraud and emerged from the King Street Patriots group, has received over $80,000 in donations, but they have not disclosed who their money is coming from. Instead, they classify their income as "general meeting donations," according to records examined by TPMMuckraker. When the Texas Democratic Party examined their records, they also turned up records of payments to EmergingCorruption, a website run by so-called ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.

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New Black Panthers

Dem Prevents Civil Rights Panel Vote On New Black Panther Report (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | October 29, 2010, 11:52AM

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights was unable to reach a quorum today to vote approve a report critical of the Justice Department's handling of the civil voter intimidation case once brought against members of the New Black Panther Party. Democratic Commissioner Michael Yaki, who would have allowed the panel to reached a quorum, walked out of the meeting.

"This process for this entire investigation has been a farce from the beginning and done in a way to diminish the opportunity of those who oppose this investigation to participate," Yaki told reporters.

What one conservative member of the commission did discuss, however, was how TPMMuckraker was able to obtain a draft copy of the report.

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New Black Panthers

New Black Panthers Will Be Watching Polls In Houston (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | October 29, 2010, 9:52AM

New Black Panther Party Member Quanell X

So it turns out there actually are New Black Panthers in Houston. While they'll be at the polls this year, the leader of the New Black Panther Party in Harris County said they wouldn't be tolerating any of the type of behavior that took place in Philadelphia back in 2008.

"I want to say to all Houstonians and all people voting in Harris County, no member of the New Black Panther Party will have a nightstick or a billy club in their hand. That will not be tolerated, I can assure you of that," Quanell X told Fox in Houston.

"But what I can promise the King Street Patriots is that we will not tolerate any intimidation tactics coming from them against our elderly, our women and our young people," he added.

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voter fraud

Tea Partiers Join Rep. Jackson Lee In Calling For Federal Election Monitors In TX

Ryan J. Reilly | October 29, 2010, 8:42AM

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) and Tea Party activists

It isn't often you'll see Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D) and a Tea Party group agree on something. But that's just what happened on Thursday when a lawyer representing a Tea Party-backed True the Vote project wrote the Justice Department to request federal poll monitors come to Harris County, Texas.

Jackson Lee said on Thursday she is concerned about aggressive poll watchers, and requested that the Justice Department send in federal poll monitors to stop voter suppression.

Later on Thursday, the King Street Patriots' True the Vote project, which trained poll watchers in the county, requested the same thing.

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voter fraud

Rep. Jackson-Lee Calls For Federal Poll Monitors In Texas

Ryan J. Reilly | October 28, 2010, 4:28PM

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX)

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) informed Attorney General Eric Holder of recent reports of voter intimidation in Houston on Thursday and requested that the Department of Justice investigate.

Jackson Lee, who has traded accusations over election violations with a Tea Party group in Harris County, urged Holder to immediately send federal poll monitors to the county to observe the elections. A Justice Department representative said they would be announcing the placement of federal monitors on Friday.

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