While DOJ Declares TX a Vote Fraud Leader, Dem Leaders Fight Voter ID

Last fall, the left went into hyperbolic craziness about voter ID in Texas.  Then nothing happened and no evidence of suppression happened.  The reason for this is obvious, voter ID does not suppress votes.  But maybe the reason for the vehement fight against voter ID is not as obvious. 

Kenric Ward has an article for watchdog.org where he touches on some interesting facts:

Though the Obama administration has downplayed vote-fraud allegations, the FBI’s San Antonio office is taking those charges seriously in South Texas.

. . . In 2013, the U.S. Department of Justice reported that more public officials were convicted for corruption in South Texas than in any other region in the country.

While this corruption was ongoing, what were Democrat South Texas Leaders, such as Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa, doing?

Hinojosa’s office did not respond to Watchdog’s request for comment, but the political boss has been outspoken in blasting Texas’ voter ID law.

“It’s comical that Chairman Hinojosa runs all over the state denouncing voter ID when the FBI is investigating voter fraud in his backyard,” Mechler said.

Hmm...is the reason Texas Democrats and their liberal allies fight so hard against voter ID in Texas is that they have been so successful at stealing votes?

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Investigating Vote Buying in Tennessee Will get you Fired

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is probing allegations of vote-buying in last year's controversial Monroe County sheriff's election.  

According to the lawsuit, the two learned of a vote-buying scheme before the election and alerted prosecutors who, in turn, enlisted the TBI. The legal action does not specifically accuse White in the scheme. Manning says in the lawsuit he has proof votes were being bought.

“Manning recorded a conversation with a Monroe County citizen who stated on the recording that his vote had been purchased for $20,” the lawsuit stated.

Not only is this a possible example of the ongoing nature of vote fraud, it once again proves how difficult it is to even investigate. The investigators were allegedly fired for even pursuing these allegations.

The pair claims White fired them in that interim period between his election and his ouster because of their political allegiance to Bivens and their participation in the TBI vote-buying probe.

While there is a lot of other allegations involved in this race outside vote buying, once again it those investigating vote fraud that are punished instead of those who commit the fraud.  While in New York the Election Board asked investigators to be prosecuted for investigating vote fraud, in Tennessee apparently such investigations can get you fired.  

Former Kentucky Judge Disbarred for Committing Voter Fraud

Former Clay County Circuit Judge R. Cletus Maricle has been permanently disbarred following a guilty plea of vote fraud. Former Judge Maricle was involved in a wide-ranging conspiracy attempting to control local politics via vote fraud. Seven other officials also pled guilty, including Democrat Election Commissioner Charles Wayne Jones.

This vote fraud spanned the 2002, 2004, and 2006 elections. The group, including Former Judge Maricle and Democrat Election Commissioner Jones, conspired together to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy votes in one of the poorest counties in the nation.

Former Judge Maricle was estimated to have led a scheme that used $400,000 to bribe 8,000 voters throughout the conspiracy time frame. An additional 150 voters are estimated to have had their vote stolen.

Court documents show

[T]hat Maricle used his position as judge to bribe officials, candidates for county offices, defendants in his court, and family members of defendants in his court.

In one instance, Maricle represented through others to a defendant in his court that if the defendant didn't help the criminal enterprise it would have a negative effect on his case. Once the defendant agreed to help he was released from custody by Maricle.

Further, the judge who sentenced Maricle commented that he was “involved in vote buying long before charges were even brought.”

The group of eight, also known as the “Clay Eight,” was convicted in March of 2010. In July of 2013, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the convictions due to evidence originally presented that at least several of the “Clay Eight” members were also involved in drug dealing. Any of the eight that have been convicted can be asked to be released from prison, but the government would then have the option to re-trying them on the charges of vote-buying and racketeering.

Suicide Leads to Uncovering Massive Vote Fraud Scheme in Texas

The vote fraud deniers on the left have ignored the vote fraud in New York to such an extent that election officials feel comfortable asking authorities to prosecute police for uncovering the fraud.  I wonder how the left will ignore the vote fraud reported in their bible, the New York Times, yesterday. 

As is all too often the case, it took an extreme circumstance (the suicide of an elected official) to bring the vote fraud to light in Donna, Texas. 

Three women working as politiqueras in the 2012 elections in Donna were arrested by F.B.I. agents in December and accused of giving residents cash, drugs, beer and cigarettes in exchange for their votes.

This is important because the politiqueras are the people rounding up the fraudulent votes.  This is not, as is too often the case, the voter who voted illegally that got caught but the organizers.  Now while the “politiqueras” were allegedly focused on School Board races in heavily Democrat Hidalgo County, the effect was much broader. 

“In Donna, we’ve always had suspicions that some people were not running clean campaigns,” said René Guerra, the district attorney in Hidalgo County, which includes Donna. He said that if a shady practice could be part of school board elections, “I’m sure it happened in the county election.”

Mr. Guerra said that vote buying was hard to prove, and that he lacked the manpower to investigate the 2012 elections.

The last part is key because that is almost always the issue.  The local DA thought vote fraud was happening, thinks it is broader than just one race, but could do nothing about it.  How many votes are we talking about?

She estimated that in the 2012 elections, 2,000 votes were bought with cash or drugs. Low-income voters, she said, had come to expect a payment in exchange for their vote.

Politiqueras are common in border towns.  Similar vote gathers prey on low income voters across the country in different states.  (For example in Virginia, they are called solicitors and they went around urging ineligible felons to vote for Obama in 2008, although prosecutions of the voters, not the solicitors, began in 2012.)

If liberal vote fraud deniers really cared about the poor, they would join the fight against vote fraud because the poor are often the victims.