End sought to checks for voters’ citizenship

[OvrAndOvrAgn]

ATLANTA — Voting rights groups in Georgia again tried Wednesday to stop election officials from using Social Security numbers and driver’s license data to check voters’ immigration status.
The advocacy groups told a federal three-judge panel that using the data to verify whether voters are citizens amounts to a “systematic purging” of voting rolls that must be approved by the Justice Department. Georgia is one of several states that needs federal approval before changing election policy because of a history of discriminatory voting practices. Three Justice Department lawyers joined the debate Wednesday, arguing that Georgia officials should have cleared the checks with them first. But they cautioned against making sweeping changes less than two weeks before the Nov. 4 election. Secretary of State Karen Handel’s attorneys argued the checks were required by federal law and were an attempt to guarantee the integrity of the vote. The judges said they will rule as soon as possible. State attorney Dennis Dunn said the checks have so far flagged 4,538 voters, 3,821 of them newly registered, as noncitizens.
The fight centers on Jose Morales, a college student who became a U.S. citizen in November 2007 and registered to vote last month. He has twice received letters that warn him his name could be removed from voter rolls if he does not verify his citizenship.
The voting rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, say the letters are a form of intimidation.
http://oneoldvet.com/?p=8581

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If you'll notice - the person named is a citizen - a genuine, legal immigrant who went through the process and became a citizen a year ago. And they're threatening to remove him from the rolls.

I don't want noncitizens voting either - but a lot of these purges are made, IMO, deliberately overly broad to eliminate real voters, to try to change the results of the election. It's been a common theme in many different counties.

Georgia apparently has enough of a record on this that they're under an order - that says it all. 2 weeks before the election says a lot too - they don't want to give these purged voters time to find out, and resolve it if they are actually citizens.


My suspicion would be that this purge might include something like 4,300 citizens, and maybe 200 noncitizens. Is it worth preventing 4300 citizens from voting to prevent 200 noncitizens from voting? Really? If that's even the case, of course - there have been some of these were every person being claimed as a questionable voter was a legitimate voter. This is getting to be a huge issue - Florida did it - if you had a name that sounded similar to a convicted felon - in Florida or another state - you were purged. Disenfranchising voters is serious stuff, and we need to prevent it.

[OvrAndOvrAgn]

It also says that he has received 2 notices asking him to verify his citizenship. I am asked all the time to send proof of this or that so someone to verify something. He has also been a citizen for less than a year. It is understandable that they are asking him for proof since it has not been that long.

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Two more weeks - then it will be a proper time to go through voter rolls. And if any illegals did vote - maybe we can track them down and charge them. Although the data I've seen suggests that is somewhere between rare to unheard of - when you're hiding out in someone else's country, last thing you want to do is go in and sign your name.

[OvrAndOvrAgn]

There just seems to be so much wrong doing in this election like with ACORN. WTH is up with these people? They registered Mickey Mouse to vote along with so many other fraudulent registrations.

[Annie143]

Corruption is rampant in our government and out and, everyone has an agenda, just look at these threads. It's everyman for himself, no one if for the good of the country as a whole. MOO.

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There just seems to be so much wrong doing in this election like with ACORN. WTH is up with these people? They registered Mickey Mouse to vote along with so many other fraudulent registrations.ACORN is nothing new. Everyone, Republican or Democrat, who has ever hired signature gatherers has some crooked ones. It's just a scam done by the signature gatherers for the purposes of getting money. No plot, nothing sinister (come on - Mickey Mouse? that's not done to create false votes) - just minimum wage workers looking for more commission.

And since the laws state that once a registration is turned in, the organization (ACORN) is legally required to give it to the Registrar of Voters - even when they get "Mickey Mouse" - they have to hand it in. There's good reason for this - such as a Republican group gathering new voter registrations, then throwing out all of the Democratic ones (meaning those voters will not be allowed to vote).

All of the investigations of voter fraud find that voter fraud, where someone fraudulently votes - is incredibly rare. Out of our millions of voters, covering 3 years of elections - they found less than 30 false votes. It's really not that big a problem - something to watch for - but not a big problem right now.