Legal Commentary

Obama Campaign Slams McCain, Bush For Voter Suppression Scheme

By TChris

Shameless voter suppression and intimidation efforts by Republicans might finally gain widespread public notice -- further cementing the view that John McCain will do anything to win. The Obama campaign aggressively called out the McCain campaign and the Bush administration today.

The Obama campaign charged Friday that John McCain, in concert with the Bush administration, has embarked on a studied effort to disrupt Election Day in many states and suppress the vote. In a conference call with reporters Friday, Robert Bauer, chief counsel for the Obama campaign, suggested that a flurry of fraudulent registration complaints recently, and a subsequent leak by FBI officials that the agency was investigating the incidents, were part of a coordinated attempt by McCain and the administration of President Bush to intimidate voters.

Bauer said the timing of the comments and the leak suggested a “partisan plot” to suppress the vote on Election Day.

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In a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey released Friday by the Obama campaign, Bauer called the “current bogus claims of vote fraud" and the McCain campaign’s attempts to breathe life into the allegations by urging Justice Department investigations was “history repeating itself."

The Republicans used similar tactics to suppress the vote in 2000 and 2004, Bauer wrote. The Democrats say the Acorn incidents are overblown. Moreover, they say fraudulent registrations don’t necessarily lead to fraudulent votes, since other controls are in place to prevent that.

The leaks that the FBI recently began investigating hark back to an on-going inquiry into whether the Justice Department was improperly involved in voter suppression activities in 2004, Bauer said. In his letter, he said the “Department has yet to recover its credibility’’ following the events of 2004.

Justice Department officials promised to review the letter. Wow thanks!

Go here for more information about voter suppression and disenfranchisement.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on October 17, 2008 (boomark / email).