Where in the World is Michael Mukasey? (continued)
Hans von Spakovsky /
Update: I have just learned that there was a conference call today between DOJ personnel and Congressional staff. The Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division, which is responsible for enforcing the Help America Vote Act, was asked whether the Division was planning to pursue the Ohio Secretary of State for her violation of the verification requirements of HAVA. Her answer (unbelievably) was that DOJ shouldn’t involve itself in election litigation just before an election.
This is an absolutely astonishing assertion by the no. 2 official in the Civil Rights Division. Perhaps she might care to explain, if that is really true, why the Division filed a lawsuit against Waller County, Texas, to remedy alleged violations of the Voting Rights Act on October 10? Or why her Division filed a lawsuit against the State of Vermont for allegedly violating the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act on October 14? Or why they filed an amicus brief on October 21 in Georgia in a lawsuit filed by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights trying to stop the Georgia Secretary of State’s compliance with HAVA’s verification requirement because she has supposedly not gotten approval from DOJ under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act to implement a federal statute.
This answer is, of course, complete nonsense. In more than four decades of operation, the Civil Rights Division has never hesitated to file lawsuits to enforce federal voting rights laws that govern access to the polls and the administration of elections even on the very eve of Election Day. The Georgia case shows that the Division doesn’t think “involving itself in litigation just before an election” is a problem when they are trying to stop compliance with HAVA’s verification provision; they only seem to have a problem filing litigation to enforce compliance with this requirement, a requirement that the liberal establishment wants to see stricken from HAVA.
It would be outrageous for DOJ to not investigate and prosecute serious claims of voter intimidation because of an impending election. It is just as outrageous for DOJ to not prosecute Ohio’s failure to verify the accuracy and authenticity of voter registration information, which could lead to legitimate votes being diluted by fraudulent ballots. My previous question from my original post seems to have been answered.