New evidence emerges in NC "voter fraud" caper
So far, the auditor's office has been less than forthcoming about two items:
(1) The role of Chris Mears, an auditor's office staffer who as late as spring 2006 was Political Director of the NC Republican Party, where he was involved in his own voting scandal; and,
(2) How much the auditor's cries of "voter fraud" were linked to the same-day registration bill (Note: Reader B writes to clarify an item from our previous post: the auditor's office has never denied that they sought to intervene on the election bill; they've just claimed they did not intend to influence the outcome , for what it's worth).
The Raleigh News & Observer's "Under the Dome" blog now has more information that both proves Mears' direct involvement, and confirms the auditor's intent was to "impact" the fate of election reform by raising the specter of "voter fraud." Ryan Teague Beckwith reports:
Auditor Les Merritt's spokesman played a key role in briefly halting a voting bill, according to e-mails received under a public records request.At 10:12 a.m. on June 5, Chris Mears forwarded a Dome item on a bill to allow North Carolinians to register to vote the weekend before an election to Merritt, Chief Deputy Kris Bailey, Executive Assistant James Forte and legal counsel Tim Hoegemeyer.
"If we want to have an impact on voter registration legislation, we should get Sen. Berger information sooner rather than later," he wrote. "This is a significant opportunity to safeguard our democracy that I don't think we should pass-up."
Merritt agreed, saying that "time will pass us by." In a reply sent at 10:17, he wrote, "We may need to speak even if our audit is not complete."
At 2:34 p.m., Merritt e-mailed Sen. Dan Clodfelter to ask him to pull the bill. Senate leaders agreed, but they put the bill back up for a vote after a hearing with Merritt. It passed and is now back in the House.
Labels: north carolina, voting rights
2 Comments:
To top it off, on the say day that Les Merritt failed to justify even the smallest of his supposed concerns, he also incorrectly filed his intent to run for reelection with the Board of Elections.
Gary Bartlett's office had to contact him to ask him if he needed help filling out a one page form.
You can view the unsigned, incomplete, form Merritt submitted here:
http://www.sboe.state.nc.us/cf_pdf/2007/20070619_54561.pdf
You can read more here:
http://ncdp.org/Les_Merritt_Incompetence
thats the tip of the ice berg.
The gigantic issue is that the Department of Justice Voting Rights Section wants to peel of voters from our rolls.
The federal targeting of our state is a lot more dangerous than Les Merritt's big fumble. This investigation began when David Ingram of the Charlotte Observer got the DOJ memo and then went from there.
Now this is catching on.
But the real question is - what communications are there from the DOJ about North Carolina's voter rolls from Jan 2005 to now.
The DOJ is to voting rights as a shark is to baby seals.
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