6/17/13, "Left Loses Big in Citizenship-Verification Supreme Court Case," J. Christian Adams, PJ Media
"Something perverse happened after the Supreme Court’s decision today invalidating citizenship-verification requirements in Arizona for registrants who use the federal voter registration form. The Left knows they lost most of the battle, but are still claiming victory. That’s what they do. Election-integrity proponents and the states are saying they lost, but don’t realize they really won.
The Left wins even when they lose, and conservatives are often bewildered and outfoxed in the election-process game.
Earlier today, I called the decision a nothingburger. After re-reading the case and reflecting a bit more, it’s clear that the decision was a disaster for the Left and their victory cackles are hollow — and they know it.
Worse, conservatives dooms-dayers who have never litigated a single National Voter Registration Act case have taken to the airwaves, describing the case as a disaster which invites illegal-alien voting.
In the last year, I’ve litigated five NVRA cases and worked on the preemption issues for years, and there is more to cheer in today’s opinion than there is to bemoan. Those complaining about the opinion don’t understand what the Left’s goal was in this case: total federal preemption. On that score, Justice Scalia foiled them;
indeed, the decision today was a huge war won, even if the small Arizona battle was lost.
From my time in the Justice Department Voting Section, I can remember intimately the wars over some of the preemption issues decided today.
The Left essentially believes that anyone who fills out a federal Election Assistance Commission registration form should be allowed on the rolls, no questions asked. There were complex fights over the “citizen check-off box” issues, with the Left wanting the box rendered meaningless, and conservatives and election-integrity proponents believing a registration cannot be processed until a registrant affirms on the box that he or she is a citizen.
Before the decision today, here is what the Left wanted:
● Invalidation of Arizona’s requirement that those submitting a federal form provide proof of citizenship with their federal form. Mind you, the citizenship-proof requirement is NOT part of federal law and the Election Assistance Commission does NOT require it in the form they drafted.
Invalidation of state citizenship-verification requirements when a state voter registration form is used (yes, such forms exist separate from the federal requirement) on the basis of federal preemption. They wanted the Arizona case to invalidate all state citizenship-verification requirements.
● Automatic registration if a registrant submits a completed federal EAC approved registration form, no questions asked.
● Federal preemption on the ability for states to have customized federal EAC-approved forms that differed from the default EAC form.
● Federal preemption over states, like Florida and Kansas, looking for independent information on citizenship to root out noncitizens from the voter rolls. Again, the Left wanted the federal EAC form to be the no-questions-asked ticket to the voter rolls.
So what is the score on these five goals after Justice Scalia’s opinion today? Election-integrity advocates are batting .800; left wing groups, .200. And the most insignificant issue of the five is the one issue the Left won. Justice Scalia foiled 4 of 5 of their goals, and the 4 biggest ones.
How does it work? The decision today uncorks state power. The Left wanted state power stripped and they lost.
First, Arizona can simply push the state forms in all state offices and online, and keep those federal forms in the back room gathering dust. When you submit a state form, you have to prove citizenship.
Thanks to Justice Scalia, that option is perfectly acceptable. Loss for the Left. Victory for election integrity.
You might say, “That’s a small victory.” Nonsense. This was the whole ballgame to the groups pushing the Arizona lawsuit. They lost, period.
Next, when voters use a state, as opposed to a federal, form, they can still be required to prove citizenship. The federal form is irrelevant in that circumstance.
After the decision today, states have a green light to do double- and triple-checking even if a registrant uses the federal form. The Left wanted the submission of a federal form to mean automatic no-questions-asked registration.
This is a big loss for the Left because now states can put suspect forms in limbo while they run checks against non-citizen databases and jury-response forms. Another significant victory in today’s decision. The Left wanted to strip them of that double-checking power.
The decision today is a great example of how conservatives can be distracted
by squirrels running past. It is understandable and forgivable because they aren’t daily immersed in the long-term election-process agenda of the left-wing groups. Nor do they daily involve themselves with the details of election process. But having been in the “preemption wars” for nearly a decade, I can assure you this case is a big win, even if it doesn’t appear so at first glance." via Free Republic
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Comment: This is nice to know though cheating will continue because the GOP wants the left to win, and has studiously avoided cleaning up vote fraud. The GOP has merged with democrats but can't admit it because they'd be left with no excuse to collect money.
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In mid 2004 newspapers found at least 1000 people voted twice in the 2000 presidential election, once in Florida and once in another state. Many more were registered to do so. They only looked at 3 states v Fla. so there were likely many more:
10/28/2004, "People Who Vote Twice," Slate, Bill Gifford, 'A sudden crack-down on an old gimmick'
"Other investigations revealed similar results elsewhere. The Orlando Sentinel found that 68,000 Florida voters are also registered in Georgia or North Carolina (the only two states it checked), 1,650 of whom voted twice in 2000 or 2002....
68 percent of the (NYDaily) News' double-registrants were Democrats....
Technology also makes double voting easier. Some 34 states still don't have statewide voter databases, as required by the Help America Vote Act, a Band-Aid passed by Congress in 2002. Nor is there any national voter database....
For all the new concern about double voting, though, the odds of getting caught remain minuscule. Comparing voter databases county by county and state by state is a needle-in-haystack undertaking, even with the aid of computers. Why not vote twice then?...
In a country where presidential election turnout hovers around 50 percent, voting twice has generally been one of those "why bother?" crimes that are rarely prosecuted. A couple of years ago, the Republican National Committee compiled a list of 3,273 Democrats who had supposedly voted twice. Most states disregarded the data."...
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2/4/13, "Going to Court in the Allen West Contest," J. Christian Adams, PJ Media
"The Republicans who fought like crazy in Congress for Section 8 in 1993 then didn’t use it for almost two decades. Not a single private plaintiff brought a case to enforce the law, except by left-wing groups out to stop voter roll clean-ups....
Thus, it was not until Judicial Watch and True the Vote sued Indiana and Ohio for voter roll problems in 2012 that any effort was made to use the law to clean up the rolls.
Remember, when left-wing groups like Project Vote or the ACLU used the law for the prior 20 years, they only used it to stop voter roll clean-up. Nobody was using it to force voter roll clean-ups."...
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About Allen West:
"I have no doubt there was massive voter fraud throughout the country in 2012. But Allen west didn’t lose because of voter fraud. Allen West lost because the skunks that make up the “mainstream” Republican party re-districted him right out of office. If you want to blame someone for West’s defeat, lay the blame squarely at the feet of Jeb Bush and Karl Rove. What was done to West is proof positive that the war Rove and his RINOs have declared on conservatives is already in full swing."
February 5, 2013 - 7:17 am
Link to this Comment
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"Exactly right. The Establishment GOP, as represented by the Bush clan and Karl Rove, wanted Col. West gone as much as, or even more than did the Democrats."
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"The Constitution gives states, not the federal government, the responsibility for running elections."...
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