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State Party Chair Tells Local Officials That Anything Goes
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008
Robert Wechsler
There are many ways for elected officials to undermine democracy, but
trying to scare people away from registering to vote is among the most
insidious.
This is what Jeffrey M. Frederick, member of the Virginia House of Delegates (legislature) and chair of the Virginia Republican Party (RPV), is doing. According to the RPV's own press release, "Even more troubling, Frederick said, was the opportunity for identity theft when citizens register to vote with these groups, as people must give a correct social security number on the voter registration form."
Click here to read the rest of this blog entry.
"These groups" is a reference to the Community Voters Project and its partner organizations who are registering thousands of young people in Virginia. The basis for this accusation of identity theft is as follows, according to yesterday's Washington Post editorial:
There are three important things to note here. First, the supposedly dangerous organization discovered the faked forms, fired the perpetrators, and reported what happened to the authorities. Two, Mr. Frederick reported this as "three individuals in Hampton, Virginia being arrested and charged with voter registration fraud, a Class 5 Felony." No mention of how they came to be arrested or what they did, because that might have undermined his argument that the organization might be stealing people's identities. Three, what was done hurt no one. No one was prevented from registering or voting, no one's identity was taken, no unregistered individual could have voted. This horrible fraud was just a way for three young people to get paid, and their firing sends a good message to others who might have been thinking the same thing.
And yet Frederick demanded an investigation "into what appears to be coordinated and widespread voter fraud activities occurring throughout Virginia."
This is shouting "Fire" in a crowded theater when someone lights up a cigarette. For a state representative and state party chair to do such a thing breaks no ethics code, but it doesn't get more unethical. It shows that his desire to win an election for his party would lead him to scare people off from registering to vote. And it sends a message to local officials in his party that anything goes, as long as it's legal, no matter how abhorrent.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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This is what Jeffrey M. Frederick, member of the Virginia House of Delegates (legislature) and chair of the Virginia Republican Party (RPV), is doing. According to the RPV's own press release, "Even more troubling, Frederick said, was the opportunity for identity theft when citizens register to vote with these groups, as people must give a correct social security number on the voter registration form."
Click here to read the rest of this blog entry.
"These groups" is a reference to the Community Voters Project and its partner organizations who are registering thousands of young people in Virginia. The basis for this accusation of identity theft is as follows, according to yesterday's Washington Post editorial:
Two teenagers and another young adult
who are accused of falsifying names and Social Security numbers while
canvassing for new black and Hispanic voters in Hampton, apparently to
meet quotas and keep their jobs with their employer, the Community
Voting Project. As it turns out, the faked forms were discovered by the
employer, who promptly fired the three and reported them to authorities.
There are three important things to note here. First, the supposedly dangerous organization discovered the faked forms, fired the perpetrators, and reported what happened to the authorities. Two, Mr. Frederick reported this as "three individuals in Hampton, Virginia being arrested and charged with voter registration fraud, a Class 5 Felony." No mention of how they came to be arrested or what they did, because that might have undermined his argument that the organization might be stealing people's identities. Three, what was done hurt no one. No one was prevented from registering or voting, no one's identity was taken, no unregistered individual could have voted. This horrible fraud was just a way for three young people to get paid, and their firing sends a good message to others who might have been thinking the same thing.
And yet Frederick demanded an investigation "into what appears to be coordinated and widespread voter fraud activities occurring throughout Virginia."
This is shouting "Fire" in a crowded theater when someone lights up a cigarette. For a state representative and state party chair to do such a thing breaks no ethics code, but it doesn't get more unethical. It shows that his desire to win an election for his party would lead him to scare people off from registering to vote. And it sends a message to local officials in his party that anything goes, as long as it's legal, no matter how abhorrent.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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