Norm Coleman

Coleman's NRSC Decision Benefits Ethics Chair -- Who Could Head Coleman Probe

Zachary Roth | November 14, 2008, 5:21PM

A good catch by The Huffington Post yesterday, in response to the news that Norm Coleman is dropping out of the race for chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) to focus on the Minnesota recount -- and is throwing his support behind John Cornyn, who will almost certainly now win the post.

HuffPo notes that Cornyn, of Texas, is also currently the GOP chair of the Senate Ethics Committee - the body that could well investigate whether Coleman accepted gifts from his longtime supporter Nasser Kazeminy.

Earlier this week, the Alliance for a Better Minnesota, a good-government group that ran anti-Coleman ads during the election, publicly called on the Ethics Committee, as well as the FBI, to look into sworn allegations, made in a lawsuit, that Kazeminy passed $75,000 to Coleman by having one of Kazeminy's companies make payments to an insurance brokerage that employs Laurie Coleman, the senator's wife.

So Coleman's decision to drop out of the NRSC race directly benefits one of the people who will have the most influence over the direction of any investigation by the Ethics Committee.

Coleman's Senate office has not responded to numerous requests from TPMmuckraker to comment on whether he has already been contacted by investigators.

But there's another wrinkle beyond HuffPo's catch: But for the GOP chair of the supposedly non-partisan Ethics Commitee to also serve as head of the NRSC -- an explicitly political post -- might appear to present a conflict of interest.

Cornyn's office did not immediately respond to a call from TPMmuckraker asking whether Cornyn intended to serve in both roles at once.

Blackwater

Sources: Blackwater Used Dog Food Bags To Hide Weapons

Zachary Roth | November 14, 2008, 2:21PM

Yesterday, we noted that the State Department plans to fine Blackwater USA for illegally shipping weapons to Iraq without the proper permits.

Now, ABCNews.com adds some more detail to the picture, reporting that a federal grand jury is probing whether the company used sacks of dog food to hide weapons and silencers it was shipping into Iraq.

State Department rules forbid Blackwater from using "offensive" weapons, including silencers, which, an expert tells ABCNews.com, would only be used for assassinations.

The report adds:

Larger items, including M-4 assualt weapons, were secreted on shipping pallets surrounded by stacks of dog food bags, the former employees said. The entire pallet would be wrapped in cellophane shrink wrap, the former employees said, making it less likely US customs inspectors would look too closely.

Earlier today, the Associated Press reported that an indictment had been drafted in connection to the deadly shootings of 17 Iraqi civilians last year, in which 6 Blackwater guards have been implicated. No decision has yet been made to file charges.

Blackwater

Report: Indictment Drafted In Blackwater Shootings

Zachary Roth | November 14, 2008, 1:00PM

Federal prosecutors have drafted an indictment against 6 guards working for Blackwater USA, who were involved in deadly shootings last year of 17 Baghdad civilians, according to the Associated Press.

But it's not yet certain that charges will be filed. AP reports:

The draft is being reviewed by senior Justice Department officials but no charging decisions have been made. A decision is not expected until at least later this month, people close to the case said.

The shootings by Blackwater guards, which witnesses described as an unprovoked attack, took place at a busy Baghdad intersection in September of last year.

Earlier this week, the company was fined by the State Department for shipping automatic weapons to Iraq without permits.

Don Siegelman

Siegelman: New Revelations "More Frightening Than Anything That Came Before."

Zachary Roth | November 14, 2008, 11:34AM

Former Alabama governor Don Siegelman says that new revelations about his prosecution amount to "outrageous criminal conduct in the US Attorney's office and the Department of Justice," and are "more frightening than anything that has come before." And he believes that his case is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of politicized prosecutions by DOJ.

Siegelman was reacting in an interview with TPMmuckraker to the news, first reported this morning by Time, that the US Attorney on his case, who had recused herself because her husband was a top GOP operative who had worked closely with Karl Rove -- and even run the 2002 campaign of Siegelman's gubernatorial opponent -- continued to advise prosecutors on the case.

At times while speaking to TPMmuckraker, Siegelman appeared to have trouble maintaining his composure. He called the news -- which came from a whistleblower in the US Attorney's office who passed on emails and other information to the House Judiciary Commitee -- "another shocking revelation in the misconduct of the US attorneys offices and the DOJ."

The news appears to contradict previous statements from DOJ on the matter. When Congress investigated the affair earlier this year, DOJ had said that the US Attorney, Leura Canary, had recused herself "before any significant decisions ... were made."

Siegelman continued: "If what [the whistleblower] says is true, it's one issue. But the fact that it was never disclosed to the defense or the judge, and then was covered up by DOJ, is a crime, even if what she said wasn't true."

He added: "At every stage of this investigation, either by lawyers or the House Judiciary Committee, DOJ has refused to turn over documents" or otherwise cooperate.

The authenticity of the key emails provided by the whistleblower has not been questioned, according to Time.

Siegelman also said he was shocked by other revelations from the whistleblower, including that one of the jurors had expressed romantic interest in an FBI agent working with prosecutors. He called it "astounding" that this hadn't been revealed to the judge and the defense.

And Siegelman, a Democrat, left no doubt that he believes that the apparent politicization of his prosecution was just one example of many such cases. "If this were isolated to just the middle district of Alabama, it would be shocking enough. But I guarantee this kind of misbehavior has been going on all over the country."

He added: "Whoever is the new Attorney General has to be strong enough to weed out the Karl Rove clones who have been embedded in US Attorneys' offices throughout the United States. If not, it is going to eat at our system for years to come."

At one point, Siegelman turned philosophical: "If I've been put through this for a reason, it's to expose the fact that this is not an isolated incident. I am prayerful that Congress will dig in and demand the truth. These folks have got to be weeded out."

Don Siegelman

Recused US Attorney Kept Advising Siegelman Prosecutors, New Docs Show

Zachary Roth | November 14, 2008, 10:46AM

New documents relating to the prosecution of former Alabama governor Don Siegelman suggest misconduct by the US attorney in the case, and appear to contradict previous statements from the Department of Justice about the matter.

The new revelations, reported by Time, are contained in a letter sent last week by House Judiciary chair John Conyers to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, based on information provided to the committee by a legal aide in the US Attorney's office in Alabama. That information includes emails written by the US Attorney, Leura Canary, showing that she continued to advise prosecutors on the case even after having recused herself because her husband was a top Alabama GOP operative who had worked closely with Karl Rove.

Here's the key excerpt from Time:

In one of Canary's e-mails, dated September 19, 2005, she forwards senior prosecutors on the Siegelman case a three-page political commentary by Siegelman. Canary highlighted a single passage which, she told her subordinates, "Ya'll need to read, because he refers to a 'survey' which allegedly shows that 67% of Alabamans believe the investigation of him to be politically motivated." Canary then suggests: "Perhaps [this is] grounds not to let [Siegelman] discuss court activities in the media!"

Prosecutors in the case seem to have followed Canary's advice. A few months later they petitioned the court to prevent Siegelman from arguing that politics had any bearing on the case against him. After trial, they persuaded the judge to use Siegelman's public statements about political bias -- like the one Canary had flagged in her e-mail -- as grounds for increasing his prison sentence. The judge's action is now one target of next month's appeal.

When Conyers' committee investigated the Siegelman matter earlier this year, DOJ had said that Canary's 2002 recusal had come "before any significant decisions ... were made."

DOJ has already conducted its own inquiry into some of the claims contained in the letter sent by Conyers, and produced a report dismissing them as inconsequential.

Siegelman's supporters and congressional Democrats have long raised suspicions that DOJ's prosecution of Siegelman, a red-state Democrat, was an example of the inappropriate politicization of the department.

Siegelman's appeal of his conviction is set to begin next month in a federal court in Atlanta.

George Bush

Could Bush Invoke Executive Privilege After Leaving Office?

Zachary Roth | November 13, 2008, 4:50PM

The New York Times today raises the notion that after leaving office, George W. Bush may claim that executive privilege still applies, allowing him and members of his administration to continue to frustrate Congressional efforts to gain access to information on issues ranging from harsh interrogation tactics to the U.S. Attorney firings scandal.

Congressional Democrats, as well as outside watchdog groups, say they are determined to go on pursuing investigations into Bush administration malfeasance on these and other matters.

The Times explains that if Barack Obama, after taking office, decides to release information from his predecessor's tenure, Bush could file a lawsuit claiming executive privilege. The dispute would likely go to the Supreme Court, and there appears to be little precedent that would guide a ruling.

Harry Truman made such a post-hoc claim of executive privilege in 1953, when subponaed to testify before a congressional committee about why he had appointed a suspected communist to the IMF. The committee backed down, meaning the claim became a historical precedent -- and was subsequnetly invoked by Richard Nixon, while still president in 1973, when he refused to cooperate with the committee investigating Watergate.

But a lawyer who helped hastily put together the argument on Truman's behalf today tells the Times: "I think, legally, we wrong."

Senate Judiciary Committee

Senate Dems To White House: Preserve Records (Especially You, Cheney)

Zachary Roth | November 13, 2008, 2:33PM

Democrats from the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary committees last week sent a letter to the White House demanding that it preserve all records produced by the Bush administration. The letter expressed particular concern that the office of Vice President Cheney would not comply with the law.

The letter, sent by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Sen. John D. Rockefeller of West Virginia and Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, asks White House counsel Fred Fielding to detail steps being taken to preserve White House documents and hand them over to the National Archives and Records Administration.

And it asks whether Fielding has investigated a Washington Post report that the White House has kept some presidential orders off it records, in a safe in the office of the vice president's lawyer.

Cheney's office is separately involved in a lawsuit brought by the watchdog group CREW, which is seeking to ensure that all vice presidential records are made available to the public.

The Democrats' letter cites that litigation, noting, "the declarations filed in that case by the Office of the Vice President raise serious concerns about its interpretations of the (Presidential Records Act)."

The law requires all presidential and vice presidential records to be transferred to the National Archives as soon as the president leaves office.

FBI

Boxer Aide Facing Child Porn Charges

Zachary Roth | November 13, 2008, 2:03PM

Jeff Rosato, a senior staffer for Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), has been fired after he was charged by authorities late last week with distributing and receiving child pornography.

Roll Call reports (subscription required):

He was arrested after he sent more than 600 images and movies of child pornography to an undercover FBI agent he believed was a 13-year-old boy, according to an FBI affidavit.

The online chats occurred from Jan. 2 to Jan. 23 over Google Hello, a photo-sharing program that was shut down in June. To identify Rosato, the FBI subpoenaed Google and Comcast.

In a Nov. 7 search of Rosato's Alexandria home, FBI agents found a computer with "approximately 200 images of child pornography and child erotica, and several movies containing child pornography and child erotica." Many of the images showed prepubescent boys engaged in sexual acts, according to the affidavit.

Rosato, who had served as senior policy advisor and counsel on the Environment and Public Works Committee, which Boxer chairs, had worked for the California senator since 2005.

Norm Coleman

Taking Stock Of The Coleman-Kazeminy Charges

Zachary Roth | November 13, 2008, 1:46PM

As Norm Coleman gets set for a recount in his bid to hold onto his Minnesota Senate seat, it's worth considering where things stand on the allegations that surfaced in the waning days of the campaign about Coleman's relationship with his friend and longtime associate, the businessman Nasser Kazeminy.

Here's what we know:

Late last month, in a suit filed in Texas, Paul McKim, the former CEO of Deep Marine Technologies (DMT), alleged in a sworn statement that Kazeminy -- who owns DMT -- directed him to make payments totaling $75,000 to the Hays Companies, a Minnesota insurance brokerage that employs Coleman's wife Laurie Coleman. The payments, claimed McKim in the suit, were not for legitimate work performed by Hays for DMT, but rather were a way for Kazeminy to funnel money to Coleman.

Soon afterwards, a group of DMT investors filed a separate suit naming both Kazeminy and McKim as defendants, and making similar allegations.

Since news of the suits surfaced in late October, none of the principals has offered responses that have put the matter to rest.

Coleman has vehemently denied the charges, and even cut a last-minute TV ad suggesting, with little evidence, that the campaign of his opponent, Democrat Al Franken, was behind them. And yesterday, when a progressive Minnesota watchdog group that ran ads attacking Coleman during the campaign held a press conference at which it called for investigations by the FBI and the Senate Ethics Committee into the matter, Coleman quickly said in a statement that he would welcome such probes, and that he wanted them to start "immediately." (Coleman's Senate office did not immediately respond to a detailed message from TPMmuckraker asking whether he has already been contacted by investigators.)

But neither Norm Coleman nor Laurie Coleman have offered details on the nature of her work for Hays.

Neither has Hays. Soon after news of the allegations broke, the company put out a statement calling the charges "libelous and defamatory." It said that Laurie Coleman "has been an Independent Contractor for Hays Companies since 2006," but offered no further detail on what she does for the company, beyond saying that she "receives no compensation related to the services we provide for our client Deep Marine Technology."

What are those services? Again, the statement was vague, saying only: "In the first half of 2007, we were retained to provide our risk management consulting services, and that work continues at this time."

As for Kazeminy, after initially remaning silent, he eventually hired a top Minneapolis-based crisis management expert, who late last week issued a tautological denial on his behalf: "Mr. Kazeminy vehemently denies the false and baseless claims made against him in recent weeks."

It's also worth noting that Norm Coleman and the Hays Companies may not have been on the same page about the arrangement between the firm and Laurie Coleman - a former model and actress who, according to state records examined by TPMmuckraker, only received her insurance license in October 2006. As we reported earlier this week, Norm Coleman wrote on his Senate disclosure forms for 2006 and 2007 that Laurie Coleman receives a salary from Hays - which would appear to contradict Hays' assertion that she's an independent contractor.

And according to FEC records examined by TPMmuckraker, Hays has been a frequent financial contributor to Coleman's Senate campaigns.

We may have to wait for possible law-enforcement or congressional investigations to get to the truth about Coleman's role in the alleged scheme. But it's certain that, barring any compelling explanations from any of the principals said to be involved, questions about the affair won't be going away any time soon.

Blackwater

Blackwater To Be Fined Amid Allegations Over Shrink-Wrapped Weapons

Zachary Roth | November 13, 2008, 11:11AM

Blackwater USA, the State Department's largest personal security contractor in Iraq, is set to be hit with a multi-million dollar fine for shipping automatic weapons to that country without the necessary permits, reports McClatchy. Some of the weapons are believed to have ended up on Iraq's black market.

The State Department has been looking into whether Blackwater employees shipped weapons hidden in shrink-wrapped pallets from the companies headquarters in North Carolina to Iraq. No criminal charges have been filed in the case.

But according to one official, the department found that Blackwater shipped 900 weapons to Iraq without the paperwork required by arms export control regulations.

Since the weapons case became public in September 2007, Blackwater has received $1.2 billion in federal contracts, by one estimate.

The company is also being investigated by the Justice Department in connection with the killing last year of 17 Iraqi civilians.

Norm Coleman

Coleman Camp: Sec of State's Comments on Recount Were "Offensive"

Zachary Roth | November 12, 2008, 3:57PM

The Republicans' apparent effort to de-legitimize the coming recount in the Minnesota Senate race continues.

Yesterday, we reported that the NRSC was distributing to the press a negative research document attacking the man who'll oversee the recount, Minnesota's secretary of state Mark Ritchie, as a partisan Democrat with ties to ACORN, among other alleged sins.

Today, the campaign of incumbent Republican Norm Coleman doubled down on that strategy.

This morning, in an interview with MSNBC, Ritchie was asked about the Coleman camp's criticism of the recount. He replied: "Their goal is to win at any price. They've invested millions and millions of dollars. We consider this part of the normal political rhetoric."

Ritchie added: "We're used to the political rhetoric being amped up. That's part of their job -- to win at any price."

Ritchie seemed to be trying to say that amped-up political rhetoric is to be expected from both sides. But his comments were clumsy at best, and they offered Coleman an opening.

Soon afterwards, the Coleman campaign released a statement calling the remarks "offensive" and saying they underscore "our concerns about his ability to act as an unbiased official in this recount."

With the first count almost complete, Coleman leads by around 200 votes. Although that's easily within the margin that triggers an automatic recount under state law, Coleman has fought the notion of a recount from the start. He originally called on Al Franken, his Democratic challenger, to waive his right to a recount -- a request Franken quickly declined.

Barack Obama

ICE Won't Say Whether It'll Reveal Who Leaked Immigration Status Of Obama's Aunt

Zachary Roth | November 12, 2008, 2:03PM

Immigration and Customs Enforcement won't say whether findings from its investigation into the source of an election-eve leak about the immigration status of Barack Obama's aunt will be made public.

Kelly Nantel, a spokesperson for ICE, told TPMMuckraker in an email: "I ... don't know if the results [of the probe] are made public."

Just days before the election, the Associated Press reported, sourced to a federal law enforcement official, that Obama's aunt, Zeituni Onyango, had ignored a deportation order issued four years ago by a U.S. immigration judge. The leak appeared to be a politically motivated effort to damage Obama's candidacy at the eleventh hour.

ICE, an agency of the Department of Homeland Security, quickly announced that it had launched an investigation into the source of the leak, which, according to our reporting, clearly violated government regulations, and could even make it more likely that Onyango could be persecuted for having sought asylum in the U.S. if she is ultimately deported to Kenya.

But now it appears that we may never know the identity of the leaker.

UBS

UBS Exec Indicted For Alleged Tax Scheme

Zachary Roth | November 12, 2008, 1:18PM

Federal prosecutors have filed charges against a senior executive with the Swiss banking giant UBS, for conspiring with fellow bankers and wealthy clients to evade U.S. taxes. The news was announced by the Department of Justice today in a press release which did not mention UBS by name.

According to the indcitment, filed in U.S. District Court in Miami, Raoul Weil, a top wealth management executive with the company, mandated that bankers under his supervision take various steps to conceal from the IRS assets worth about $20 billion, belonging to about 20,000 U.S. clients.

The Wall Street Journal adds an interesting note:

U.S. authorities are negotiating with the Swiss government to gain access to the names of UBS's American clients, a move that could puncture centuries of secrecy surrounding Swiss banking.

Norm Coleman

Good Government Group Calls On FBI, Senate, To Probe Coleman

Zachary Roth | November 12, 2008, 12:19PM

A Minnesota good government group that works with Democrats and progressives has called on both the Senate Ethics Committee and the local FBI office to investigate allegations that GOP senator Norm Coleman accepted $75,000 in gifts from a friend and supporter.

Alliance for a Better Minnesota (ABM) is also circulating a petition to demonstrate public support for the desired probes. It will release letters to the FBI and the Senate Ethics Committee at a press conference this afternoon at the state capitol.

The claims against Coleman were made in a lawsuit filed last month against Nasser Kazeminy, a close associate of the senator. The suit, filed by the former CEO of the Kazeminy-owned Deep Marine Technology, alleges that Kazeminy passed money to Coleman's wife, Laurie Coleman, by ordering Deep Marine to make payments to the Hays Companies, an insurance broker that employed her. Kazeminy and Coleman have denied the claims, and Coleman has not been formally charged with any wrong-doing.

A press release announcing Alliance for a Better Minnesota's effort was forwarded to TPMmuckraker by the communications office of Minnesota's Democratic party.

Coleman faces a recount in his high-profile Senate re-election fight against Democrat Al Franken.

Late update: Here are the letters sent by ABM to the FBI and the Senate Ethics Committee.

And here's a response from Coleman to ABM's move.

Karen Handel

Georgia's "Non-Citizen" Voting Controversy: A Recap

Zachary Roth | November 12, 2008, 11:34AM

So let's briefly look back at what appears to have happened in the controversy over voting in Georgia this election cycle.

First, GOP Secretary of State Karen Handel, based on an interpretation of federal election law, purged around 50,000 newly registered voters from the rolls, based on discrepancies between the information on their voter registration form and that in state databases. About 5000 of those voters were purged because the state found that they had checked a box on their drivers license application indicating that they're non-citizens.

Voting-rights groups sued Handel, claiming that the purge violated federal voting laws, and that the procedure for identifying non-citizens was flawed. For instance, the plaintiff in the case, Jose Morales, had applied for his drivers license while a non-citizen, but had become a naturalized citizen before the election. Since the drivers database is not automatically updated in such cases, he was still flagged as a non-citizen.

Ultimately, a judge required Handel to send a letter to the voters flagged as non-citizens, informing them that their status was in question and notifying them that they could cast a provisional ballot. But if they didn't provide election officials with documents proving their citizenship, within a few days after the election, their ballots would be thrown out.

Many such voters -- in some counties, about two thirds -- did return with the correct documentation. But of course, many didn't, and some counties began throwing out ballots this week.

And the fact that so many did provide documentation only served to bolster the contention of voting-rights groups that the process for flagging voters had been badly flawed. That claim was further strengthened by the fact that the system now seems to have flagged not only naturalized citizens like Morales, but also U.S. born voters whose citizenship has never been in question. One of these voters, a veteran of the U.S. military who received Handel's letter telling her that her citizenship was in question, spoke to TPMmuckraker yesterday.

It's still not clear how many voters were wrongly flagged, and either had their ballots thrown out or were discouraged by Handel's letter from voting in the first place. The question is not academic, because a runoff vote in Georgia's U.S. Senate race, between Republican Saxby Chambliss and Democrat Jim Martin, is scheduled for December 2nd, after neither man gained 50 percent last week. The vote is expected to be extremely close, and voters who have been designated as non-citizens, correctly or incorrectly, will presumably be barred from casting conventional ballots once again.

Handel's office has said it's working on compiling those numbers, though it appears to be in no rush. We'll keep you posted on what we hear...

Voting

Georgia Military Vet, American Born, Was Flagged As Non-Citizen

Zachary Roth | November 11, 2008, 6:33PM

Yesterday we reported on the election's aftermath in Georgia, where some ballots cast by voters who were flagged as non-citizens are now being thrown out, despite evidence that the state's system for identifying non-citizens was flawed.

We just spoke to one such Georgia voter. Karen Branch of Roswell, in North Fulton County, told TPMmuckraker that just a few days before the election, she received a letter from the office of Secretary of State Karen Handel, a Republican, informing Branch that there were questions about her citizenship.

When Branch went to vote on election day, poll workers told her she had to cast a provisional ballot. Eventually, voting-rights lawyers got on the phone with county election officers, and Branch was allowed to cast a conventional ballot.

But why was Branch flagged in the first place? Handel's office has told us it compared new voter registrations with a state drivers registry, which asks applicants for a drivers license to check a box if they aren't a citizen. It flagged any new voter who had checked that box as a possible non-citizen. After voting-rights groups sued, Handel was required by a judge to send letters to those voters -- around 4700 in all -- telling them that their citizenship was in question and that they would be forced to cast a provisional ballot.

Branch, an African-American who served in the U.S. military during the 90s and now works for a hospital corporation, said she has voted in Georgia in every presidential election since 2000, including this year's primary. She moved from one part of the state to another after the primary -- she re-registered at her new address -- making her, technically, a newly registered voter. But her citizenship has never been in question -- she was born in the U.S. and does not even own a passport. And she applied for her drivers license years ago -- since which time she has been voting without incident -- making it unlikely that she mistakenly checked the "non-citizen" box on her license application.

Branch told TPMmuckraker that she perceived the obstacles as a deliberate "deterrent" to voting, set up by the state.

It's not yet clear how many other voters, like Branch, were mistakenly flagged. But as we noted yesterday, many counties found that around two thirds of flagged voters returned to election offices after election day with documentation proving their citizenship. That would suggest that the error rate in the state's system is high, and that many of the voters who did not return with the proper documentation, some of whom are now having their provisional ballots thrown out, were also mistakenly flagged.

A spokesman for Handel's office yesterday told TPMmuckraker that the office was compiling information from individual counties which would help determine the number of errors. We'll be watching...

ACORN

Before Recount, GOP Smearing Minnesota Sec Of State

Zachary Roth | November 11, 2008, 5:00PM

The recount in the Minnesota Senate race hasn't even begun yet, but already the GOP is working to delegitimize it in advance, by smearing the man who will run it as a partisan Democrat.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) has been distributing to reporters a three-page "backgrounder" that attacks Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, a Democrat, for having spoken at the Democratic convention this summer, and for having "led a voter registration coalition that included ACORN," among other alleged sins.

In the first vote count, Republican incumbent Norm Coleman currently holds an edge of around 200 votes over Democratic challenger Al Franken, though that number may continue to dwindle as more votes are counted. Either way, the margin is easily close enough to require a recount under state law, which will begin next week under Ritchie's supervision.

Despite the backgrounder's sometimes hysterical compilation of anti-Ritchie greatest hits -- it claims that "the Communist Party USA Wrote Encouragingly Of His Candidacy," citing an unsourced line from a report in the Minneapolis Star Tribue -- there's no evidence that Ritchie has ever used his role as the state's top elections administrator to advantage Democrats.

But that likely misses the point of the GOP gambit, which appears to be to cast public doubt on the integrity of the recount process, thereby bolstering Coleman's claim that's he's the rightful winner and that a recount is unnecessary -- just the strategy pursued by George Bush's campaign in Florida in 2000.

Indeed, Coleman's shrinking lead in the first count has already prompted him to try to question the ongoing vote counting. A lawyer for the campaign yesterday told The Politico: "We're not going to sit idly by, while mysterious, statistically dubious changes in vote totals take place after official government offices close."

Voting

Is Voting Reform On The Horizon?

Zachary Roth | November 11, 2008, 3:07PM

It looks like the battle over voter registration didn't end with the election.

Of course, Republican-driven fears of rampant voter fraud perpetrated by ACORN proved unfounded. (So, we should note, did Democratic fears of an election stolen through massive purges of valid voters -- though that was thanks partly to the vigilance of voting-rights groups who brought lawsuits in some states in the weeks before the election.)

But, reports the Los Angeles Times, advocates of election reform still think there's a whole lot of room for improvement. They're talking up the idea of "universal registration," which would have the government take the initiative on voter registration, as is done in other major democracies.

The specific proposals for a universal system differ, but they all aim to address the fact that nearly 1 in 4 American adults is not on the rolls. Most would do things like ensuring that when voters move, states would update their rolls, and some would automatically add teens to the rolls when they turn 18, and to add people .

Perhaps most far-reaching is a proposal to have Congress create a national voter registration database modeled on the Social Security database. But other plans would put registration in the hands of the states.

One benefit of universal registration is that it would take groups like ACORN -- which was criticized, mainly by Republicans, for submitting large numbers of bogus registration forms, wasting time and resources for election officials -- out of the voter registration equation.

And that would prevent the GOP from using ACORN as a boogeyman for fears of systematic voter fraud -- as the party tried to do this year -- thereby making it harder to justify efforts at voter suppression.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, a leading voting-rights group, Hillary Clinton has said she plans to introduce legislation for a federal version of the system, and officials in a handful of states have also expressed interest in passing similar state laws.

It's too soon to know whether the bitter fights over ACORN and voter suppression that we saw this year are a thing of the past. But it's encouraging that people are still paying attention to the problem.

voter fraud

Georgia Can't Say How Many Eligible Voters It's Currently Disenfranchising

Zachary Roth | November 10, 2008, 5:37PM

This morning we told you that election officials in Georgia are throwing out ballots cast by new voters who couldn't prove their citizenship, on the orders of the Republican secretary of state, Karen Handel.

And now Handel's office says it can't say how many of those disqualified ballots were actually cast by eligible voters.

A spokesman for the office insisted to TPMmuckraker that most of the voters originally identified through the state's system for finding non-citizens had self-identified as being such. But voting-rights groups argue that that system -- which checks registrations against state drivers records -- is flawed, and could lead to be eligible voters being included through data entry errors and other administrative errors.

Handel's office couldn't yet say how many mistakes had been made, though the spokesman added that the information would soon become available as information from individual counties came in.

In other words, the office can't say how many eligible voters cast ballots that are now being thrown out.

The dispute began back in October, when voting-rights groups including the ACLU sued the state over an effort by Handel to purge from the rolls newly registered voters whose citizenship was called into question by the state's database.

A judge ultimately ruled that the state must allow the voters whose citizenship was in question -- around 5000 -- to cast provisional ballots, and must inform them of the challenge to their eligibility. The voters would then have to show documents proving their citizenship, either on Election Day or in subsequent days, in order for their ballot to be counted.

As we wrote earlier today, many voters did so, but in some counties, around a third did not, causing their some of their ballots to be disqualified starting today. But it now appears almost certain that some ballots cast by eligible voters who were mistakenly flagged, and who then failed to provide election officials with the necessary documents after the fact, are being wrongly thrown out.

We'll continue to keep you posted as more information becomes available...

Norm Coleman

Coleman, Hays, Appear To Differ on Wife's Employment Status

Zachary Roth | November 10, 2008, 4:27PM

One of the key questions in the lawsuit filed against Nasser Kazeminy, a close friend and supporter of Minnesota Republican senator Norm Coleman, relates to the nature of the work done by Coleman's wife Laurie for the Hays Companies.

And on that score, there seems to be a noteworthy amount of confusion among the principles.

Let's back up. The suit, filed late last month in Texas by the former CEO of Deep Marine Technologies, alleges in part that Kazeminy set up a scheme to pass money from DMT, which he owns, to Coleman, through the Hays Companies, a Minneapolis-based insurance broker. The suit claims that Laurie Coleman received $75,000 from Hays, without performing legitimate work for the company, and that these payments were an effort by Kazeminy to get money to Norm Coleman.

The senator -- who faces a recount in his reelection race against Democrat Al Franken -- has denied the allegations. And Hays Companies, in a statement issued after the suit was made public, called them "libelous and defamatory."

But are the two on different pages as to the nature of Laurie Coleman's relationship with Hays?

In that statement, Hays declared that Laurie Coleman "has been an Independent Contractor for Hays Companies since 2006," without elaborating as to the nature of her work for Hays.

But on his Senate disclosure forms for 2006 and 2007, Norm Coleman explicitly lists the type of income that his wife received from Hays as "salary" -- which by definition would render Laurie Coleman an employee, rather than an independent contractor.

Of course, Norm Coleman may simply have been imprecise in filling out the disclosure form and used "salary" as shorthand for compensation. But it's a discrepancy that would be worth resolving.

Calls by TPMmuckraker to Norm Coleman's campaign and Senate offices, and to a lawyer for the Hays Companies who has been handling questions on the lawsuit, were not immediately returned.

Karen Handel

After Citizenship Challenges, Ballots Thrown Out in Georgia

Zachary Roth | November 10, 2008, 11:31AM

A significant number of the almost 5000 Georgia voters whose citizenship was challenged before the election will not have their ballots counted.

Last week, about 4,770 voters were told they would have to vote on paper ballots because their citizenship was in question. It was then up to them to return to their local election boards with proof of citizenship.

In several counties, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, about one third of those voters neither returned with the necessary documents, nor showed up to last-chance hearings late last week. As a result, in many counties at least, their ballots will be thrown out.

The issue is not merely academic for this year's election. Neither major candidate got 50 percent of the vote in Georgia's U.S. Senate race, forcing a run-off to be held December 2nd. Voters whose ballots were thrown out would presumably also be barred from voting in the runoff.

The state requires newly registered voters to verify their citizenship -- a requirement that has been questioned by the U.S. Department of Justice and is the subject of a lawsuit.

Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel -- who before the election was criticized by voting-rights groups for taking an overly restrictive approach to voting -- verifies citizenship by checking voter registration information against state records.

Handel has said that the only people who were checked were new voters or those who changed an essential piece of information on their registration form. But it's unclear on exactly what basis the citizenship challenges were made.

We'll keep you posted as things become clearer.