Two men were indicted on felony charges during an ongoing voter fraud investigation in Cameron County. Jose Angel Garza, 37, was arrested on five counts of tampering with a marked ballot, the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
Rafael Angel Elizondo was indicted on one count but not yet arrested.
The pair is accused of voter fraud committed during the Democratic Primary Runoff Election back on July 31, 2012…”
HOUSTON, TX. -- February 26, 2015: True the Vote (TTV) President Catherine Engelbrecht issued the following statement in response to Thursday night’s House Oversight Committee hearing testimony, in which TIGTA Deputy Inspector General for Investigations, Timothy Camus, revealed that the IRS is now being investigated for criminal misconduct including lying under oath about disposition of missing emails and finding of email backup tapes that appear to have been intentionally erased.
“The IRS was apparently given instruction to do whatever necessary to silence those who spoke out against the Obama Administration. It became a West Wing weapon of choice,” True the Vote Founder Catherine Engelbrecht said. “As the nation’s only pro-liberty election integrity organization, True the Vote was marked for takedown by the IRS early in 2010, along with hundreds of other organizations that spoke openly about government corruption. It took a long time, too long, for the pieces to be put together, but Americans are beginning to understand that the politics of ‘hope and change’ has an enforcement arm that operates like an organized crime syndicate.
Stand against IRS targeting and help True the Vote get to the bottom of this scandal today.
“The time for choosing is now,” Engelbrecht continued. “Our elected officials need to stop playing politics and use the powers we’ve entrusted to them to restore the rule of law in Washington. Stop handing out bonuses and start sending law-breaking bureaucrats to jail. If Congress doesn’t have conviction enough to get the job done, then just turn out the lights, get off the payroll, go home, and get out of the way. Enough is enough. The American people will not be silenced.”
True the Vote originally filed a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service after waiting three (3) years for the agency to process its 501(c) application for tax-exempt status. D.C. District Judge Reggie B. Walton dismissed the case in November 2014 and TTV has since filed a notice of appeal for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
True the Vote (TTV) is an IRS-designated 501(c)(3) voters’ rights organization, founded to inspire and equip voters for involvement at every stage of our electoral process. TTV empowers organizations and individuals across the nation to actively protect the rights of legitimate voters, regardless of their political party affiliation. For more information, please visit www.truethevote.org.
VoteStand is now available for both iOS (Apple) and Android devices free of charge. For more detailed technical information, visit the official VoteStand website at www.votestand.com.
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“A ‘whole corruption’ of the election process” in South Texas: Francisco “Frankie” Garcia and Diana Castaneda, who confessed to buying votes with cash and cocaine, were sentenced to 18 months and 8 months, respectively.
Here’s a paper (in an academic site) about the effort to constitutionalize the right to vote. Creating a constitutional right to vote would wipe out rules against felon voting in prison, wipe about voter ID, potentially wipe out precincts, advance voter registration, and create meddlesome tinkering with district lines. That, of course, means that the people in favor of voting in prison, opposed to voter ID, against voter registration and forever looking to tinker with district lines are naturally the forces behind the federal constitutional right to vote.
Voting free from race and gender discrimination is already a federal constitutional right. The general right to vote is not in the text of the constitution. That’s what allows states to place reasonable voting regulations in place like advance voter registration, precincts, and other residency and citizenship requirements. It would give rise to potential lawsuits that would allow the slightest barrier to voting to be struck down – such as being in prison for felony voter fraud.
“The Missouri House passed two measures Thursday that would make Missouri the 32nd state to actively require some sort of identification to vote.”
HJR1, a constitutional amendment requiring voter approval, allows the state to adopt a photo voter ID requirement, and HB30 spells out implementation details, including providing for free state IDs and free birth certificates as needed.
“The Joint Resolution passed by a vote of 118-39 and the House bill passed by a 118-37 margin.”
Tell the State of Florida to Stand Against Noncitizen Voting
This week Florida Governor Rick Scott announced his Administration’s plan to drop its defense of a policy that works to remove known noncitizens from voter rolls before elections. John Fund at National Review summed the case up: “After years of legal battles between the governor’s office and the Obama administration, a federal-appeals-court panel issued an astonishing ruling last November. It forbade Florida from removing aliens here illegally and other non-citizens from its voter rolls in the 90 days prior to a federal election... The panel overturned District Judge William Zloch’s earlier ruling, which had concluded that such an interpretation would “stand in direct contravention of Florida law [and] produce an absurd result... So absurd that both Judge Zloch, a Reagan appointee, and Judge Robert Hinkle, a Clinton appointee, have tossed out the claims of the Holder Justice Department and its liberal allies and affirmed Florida’s laws against non-citizen voting. After the two judges ruled, even the Holder Justice Department gave up and withdrew from the case. But its liberal allies persisted and hit the jackpot with a rogue ruling last November from two Obama-appointed judges on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.”
It makes no sense to drop the case before petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court. Every voter in the nation stands to be potentially impacted by this ruling. Raise your voice in support of a SCOTUS appeal today by contacting Governor Scott.
The VRAA is Back.
Remember in mid-2014 when True the Vote and a cadre of liberty-minded groups set meetings to educate Members of Congress on the reasons Rep. James Sensenbrenner’s (Wisconsin) amendment to Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act was bad news? The effort managed to keep the bill bottled up in the 113th Congress. This week, however, the bill was refiled. TTV attorney J. Christian Adams had this to say about the continued inspiration for the bill at PJ Media: “Attorney General Eric Holder has claimed that federal control of state elections is necessary because voting rights are ‘under siege.’ Yet Holder’s Justice Department hasn’t filed a single Voting Rights Act case in two years, and has only brought a handful in over six years, far fewer than the Bush administration brought during the same time period. If voting rights are under ‘siege,’ thus justifying federal control over state elections, Holder doesn’t seem to be doing much about it besides advocating for expanded federal power over states.” You can read more about how VRAA 2.0 captures new states like Virginia and others here.
Replay the February 2015 National Conference Call
Did you happen to miss our February 2015 National Conference call? During the call, Heritage Foundation Fellow and True the Vote Advisory Board Member Hans von Spakovsky went into detail about how a recent federal court ruling in south Texas affects the current executive amnesty orders and our voting systems. You can access a replay of the call here. Don’t overlook the opportunity to get this important update!
Voter Roll Research Starts Here
Research season has finally arrived. Are you one of the thousands of Americans who want to get involved? You can start by signing up here. Whether you are a new recruit or an experienced veteran, this application helps TTV connect you to the database tool according to your experience and areas of interest. Click here to take the first step!
The Legislative Working Group’s Drawing Board
We’re excited to see this effort gaining participation from engaged voters around the country. As a reminder, email us if there is legislation on the move in your state that you’d like to see passed/defeated.
Maryland
HB 29 – Requiring individuals who apply to register to vote after June 30, 2015, to submit proof of United States citizenship; providing that individuals who are not citizens of the United States are not qualified to be registered voters; requiring an applicant for voter registration to submit specified documents or information to prove United States citizenship; etc. Maryland voters are encouraged to show their support by writing members of the Election Law Subcommittee.
Oregon
HB 2177 -- Directs secretary to register as elector each nonregistered person who is qualified to vote and to notify persons how to decline registration and how to adopt political party affiliation. Increases maximum number of electors in precinct from 5,000 to 10,000. Establishes July 1, 2015, as date for determination of total number of registered electors in this state for purpose of maintaining status as minor political party for 2016 general election. Prohibits public record disclosure of voter registration information for persons under 18 years of age who are registered to vote. Declares emergency, effective on passage. Oregon voters are encouraged to contact the House Committee on Rules.
Washington
SB 5184 – Authorizing counties to establish and conduct polling place voting. WA voters are encouraged to contact the Senate Government Operations & State Security Committee to share their thoughts on the bill.
Help TTV with the Click of a Button
TTV receives calls and emails all the time from people wanting to know how they can help. Even though jobs as election observers or voter roll research aren’t for them, they still want to show their support. If this sounds like you, then look no further. True the Vote unveiled its first crowdfunded campaign to raise support for our ongoing efforts to expose the truth about the IRS targeting scandal. We hope you’ll check out our first-ever True the Vote Fundly campaign and then spread the word to your own network of liberty-loving friends. If you are a veteran email forwarder or a social media maven, we need you! You can track our progress on the page and see the impact you’re making. Get started today!
My latest at PJ Media:
“Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner has introduced legislation which would have the effect of placing all of Virginia’s election laws under Justice Department oversight, and Virginia isn’t the only state that would fall into federal election receivership….
Virginia satisfies Sensenbrenner’s new triggers. Remember, under Sensenbrenner’s proposal, one statewide violation and four violations by any local or county government trigger federal oversight, including past administrative objections by the attorney general. Five strikes, and you’re in.
Here are the cases which would capture Virginia for Justice Department control . . . .
Presto — Virginia would fall under federal control, and the Department of Justice bureaucrats would leverage federal power over every election in the state. Virginia faces this perverse outcome: a plan created black-majority congressional districts so that the Justice Department would approve the plan, then a federal court finds (after the Shelby ruling struck down the DOJ power) that creating those black-majority districts violates the law, and that violation will be used to place Virginia back under federal control.
Virginia has suffered constitutional whiplash, and Sensenbrenner’s bill would keep it going.”
It’s pretty clear the advocates of the VRAA bill didn’t count on it capturing Virginia, especially under such constitutionally dubious circumstances of partial coverage morphing into full coverage after Virginia was cited as the bailout darling.
The proposed VRAA the civil rights industry has drafted finds a way to screw the home states of four key Republican leaders who stand in the way of the proposal: Speaker Boehner, Rep. Steve Chabot, Rep. Trent Franks and Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte. The VRAA proponents get an F for strategic thinking.
From Chairman Grassley’s written questions.
b. Stephanie Celandine Gyamfi, an attorney with the Department’s Voting Rights
section, was found to have engaged in perjury during a 2013 DOJ IG investigation. In
addition, Ms. Gyamfi posted comments regarding an ongoing matter at the Voting
Rights section suggesting that the State of Mississippi should change its motto to
“disgusting and shameful.”58 If confirmed, what steps will you take to ensure that
appropriate disciplinary action is taken in this case, and will you pledge to provide
updates to this committee about the status?
RESPONSE: As the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, I am not
familiar with the details of this matter, so I am not in a position to know what personnel actions
have taken place to date or whether they were appropriate. If I am confirmed as Attorney
General, I will commit to ensuring that the Department holds accountable any employees who
are found to have committed misconduct.
In response to questions from Senator Vitter, Loretta Lynch assured the Senator she is committed to enforcing Section 8 of the NVRA. This might be [unwelcome] news to the folks in the Voting Section.
20. As Attorney General, will you commit to equal investigation and enforcement of Section
7 and Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA)?
RESPONSE: The Department enforces a number of federal voting rights statutes, including the
NVRA. If I am confirmed as Attorney General, I am committed to enforcing all of those laws in
an even-handed manner.
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