Obomanation: A Political Demagogue Should Not be a Voting Commissioner

Generally when one is nominated for a commission, judgeship or other government position for a job that can stir controversy but serves the entire public, the nominee stays out of the limelight in that field.  At the very least, the nominee stays out of areas of blatant partisanship and does not use inflammatory rhetoric when one is nominated to work on a bipartisan commission. 

This rule is not being just broken but shattered by Myrna Perez, a nominee to be a Commissioner for the Election Assistance Commission.  As we detailed in our opposition letter, Ms. Perez has a long history of partisanship and playing fast and loose with the facts.  Recently she has taken this to new levels on the subject of Voter ID.

Instead of trying to work with groups to help publicize the multiple free ID options to voters, Ms. Perez has been fear mongering with ridiculous and groundless claims like saying people have to choose between eating and voting because of ID requirements. 

(The irony of the last statement is that Ms. Perez is in effect denying people some social services, such as those of the courts, over the counter medicines, and much more that often require some form of identification.  It seems she is in favor of oppressing the poor to make a rhetorical political point over helping them obtain a free ID.)

Wait there is more, according to Ms. Perez:

• “at least 1.2 million” in Texas don’t have IDs, a number so incredible that not ever her own side’s biased statisticians think the number is anywhere near that high.
• ’Here was an issue when a state enacted this kind of restriction on right to vote for the purpose of discriminating against racial minorities,’ said Myrna Pérez, a Brennan Center for Justice attorney.”  (Ms. Perez, other than you and a few on the far left, no one has ever said that or believes that.  Actually voter ID will help many minorities who are often the victims of vote fraud and effectively disenfranchised by fraudulent votes.  For just a few Texas examples check http://rnla.org/votefraud.asp and search for Texas.)

Ms. Perez is not alone in making these spurious allegations.  But she is the only one who has been nominated to a commission to assist with voting that is making these sort of comments. 

President Obama should immediately withdraw Ms. Perez’s nomination, his failure to do so is another Obomanation.