On Tuesday, a Los Angeles County jury convicted California State Senator Roderick D. Wright (D) of false residency voter fraud, after finding that he lied about his address on voter registration and candidacy papers.
Wright’s crime was an elite form of voter fraud, which, along with almost all of the most prevalent forms of voter fraud, would not have been prevented by polling place Photo ID restriction laws.
The jury was not persuaded by Wright’s claim that he resided in the Inglewood residence of his common law stepmother. Prosecutors presented extensive evidence that established that Wright resided in an “upscale Baldwin Hills neighborhood” that was outside the district. They found that, in addition to lying about his address on his voter registration and candidacy papers, he fraudulently voted in five elections.
As we have repeatedly explained, most recently in covering a recent judicial determination that Pennsylvania’s Photo ID law violated that state’s constitution, cases involving in-person voter impersonation by ordinary citizens — the only type of voter fraud that can possibly be prevented by polling place Photo ID restrictions — are about a scarce as hen’s teeth. False residency, by contrast, is a form of voter fraud that has reached epidemic proportions amongst our political elites in both parties, especially, as Brad Friedman has tirelessly documented, amongst the very high-level Republicans who hypocritically call for Photo ID restrictions for everybody else.
Where millions of innocent Americans are at risk of disenfranchisement as a result of the phantom menace of in-person voter fraud, prosecutions of elite politicians for false residency voter fraud have been rare. In one of those rare instances, former Indiana Republican Secretary of State Charlie White was convicted in 2012 of three counts of felony false residency voter fraud. His conviction was particularly ironic, given that he was the chief election official in the first state in the nation to implement polling place Photo ID restrictions. Despite his felony voter fraud charges (and four others) White has not had to serve so much as a single day in jail. Wright, a Democrat, faces up to eight years in prison.
[Update 1/31/2014: Following a meeting by the Democratic caucus, California State Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg (D) announced that Wright will retain his seat pending appeal. However, the Democratic caucus, which sports a super-majority in the state Senate, removed Wright from his position as the Chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.]
Here are just a few of the cases of false residency voter fraud we’ve documented over recent years, by some high-profile GOPers you will be very familiar with…
False residence voter fraud and high level Republicans
“¢ MITT ROMNEY: During the Summer of 2012, long-shot GOP candidate Fred Karger filed a complaint with Massachusetts officials charging that the GOP 2012 nominee for President of the United was illegally registered to vote in his son’s unfinished basement in Belmont, MA, despite having moved out of the state several years earlier. The release of Romney’s 2010 federal tax returns did little to dispel the concern. Romney failed to include his state returns in his release (or those from 2009) which would likely show, as Karger detailed, Romney was not a resident of Massachusetts at the time he voted for Scott Brown in the January 2010 U.S. Senate special election to fill the seat of the late Ted Kennedy. Romney, who had houses in CA and NH, did not, in fact, own a house in MA until July of 2010 (in anticipation of another Presidential run), despite the fact that state law defines residency as “where a person dwells and which is the center of his domestic, social, and civil life.” Residents in Belmont, MA, told Karger that neither he nor his wife had been seen in the town since selling their mansion and moving out of state years earlier.
“¢ INDIANA SEC. OF STATE CHARLIE WHITE: In February of 2012, White was tossed out of office after being declared guilty of three voter fraud felonies, having been found by a jury to have registered and voted from a residence where he did not actually live. (The same thing that Romney appears to have done, as noted above.) Although White was convicted on a total of six felonies, he did not have to serve even one day in jail. Instead he received one year of home detention. Prior to that, in a separate civil case, White was ordered immediately removed from office by a circuit court judge who found that his fraudulent registration made him ineligible to be on the ballot when he was elected in 2010 in the first place. Ironically enough, Indiana was the very first state in the nation, in 2008, to institute polling place Photo ID restrictions, despite being unable to cite a single instance of in-person voter fraud in state history. Those restrictions, however, failed to keep White himself, the state’s top election official, from committing voter fraud.
“¢ SEN. RICHARD LUGAR: In February 2012, the long-serving Senator from Indiana was accused of doing exactly what his state’s Sec. of State Charlie White was tossed out of office for — not living at the address where he was registered to vote. In this case, the allegations came from Tea Party supporters of Richard Mourdock who defeated the popular Lugar to become the Indiana Republican Party U.S. Senate nominee. They charged that Lugar had been registered at a house where he had not lived since 1977. As in White’s case, Indiana’s First-in-the-Nation polling place Photo ID law failed deter any fraudulent voting by the erstwhile Senator.
“¢ REP. TODD AKIN: Speaking of U.S. Senate candidates, the one nominated in 2012 by the Missouri Republican Party to face incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill that year, had been voting for years from a property outside of his own Congressional district where he does not live, as reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch at the time. The charges echo those against Romney, Lugar and White. Akin’s house, as the paper found during the campaign, was vacant and long-scheduled for suburban re-development. Still, the Congressman had continued to use it as his voting address for some seven elections, ever since the time that he and his family moved to their new house in a different town some 18 miles away.
“¢ JON HUNTSMAN: In March of 2011, the then GOP Presidential hopeful was also identified as possibly having committed voter fraud. In his case, the former Governor remained registered to vote at the Executive Mansion in Utah well over a year after he had become the U.S. ambassador to China. As the Salt Lake Tribune noted at the time: “Huntsman voted by absentee ballot for last year’s general election using the state-owned mansion on South Temple as his Utah residence “” months after Gov. Gary Herbert settled into the historic building and Huntsman purchased a home in Washington, D.C.”
“¢ANN COULTER: Among many other recent cases of high-profile GOP voter fraud. Please remember (since the media didn’t much tell you about them in the first place): GOP superstar ANN COULTER’S multiple cases of demonstrated voter fraud (in both FL and CT). Coulter evaded prosecution in CT only after the state’s Election Commission ignored key evidence revealing that she resided in NY but used her parent’s house to vote in CT.
* * *Ernest A. Canning has been an active member of the California state bar since 1977. Mr. Canning has received both undergraduate and graduate degrees in political science as well as a juris doctor. He is also a Vietnam vet (4th Infantry, Central Highlands 1968). Follow him on Twitter: @Cann4ing
* * *Please help support The BRAD BLOG’s fiercely independent, award-winning coverage of your electoral system — now in our ELEVENTH YEAR! — as available from no other media outlet in the nation…
Hey Brad. Glad to hear you’re on the mend. Excellent reporting, perspective and history. By citing historical violations by high-profile people, it gives readers “the rest of the story” as Paul Harvey loved to say.
Thanks for doing what you do and please, don’t give up!
Explain to me why this guy is tried but the cons that committed the same crime are not?
The only thing more stunning than finding this piece on bradblog.com is seeing that Ernie is the author. And although the piece quickly conformed to the acceptable bradblog standard, i.e. it turned into a GOP hit piece, I must express my thanks. Now Ernie, you have something to refer to in your defense just like Brad has his Joe Miller piece from several years ago. Hot dang this place is about right vs. wrong!
To answer Lews question: One of the “cons” has been convicted. The others have not because there is no evidence to convict. Anybody can make an accusation, thankfully our legal system has a higher standard than Ernies “an accusation = guilt if they’re a Republican”.
WingnutSteve came out of his bunker long enough to mutter @ 3…
I’m sorry you seem to have no clue about what Ernie has written here, much less me. But they don’t call you guys “low information voters” for nothin’.
Again, that would also be grotesquely incorrect. But, again, see the part above about “low information”. (For those who don’t know of Steve and his Wingnut World, yes, every single GOP voter fraud case detailed above is very well documented. None of them even questionable. Moreover, in almost every single case above, the complainant was also a Republican. Just FYI. But “Wingnuts” like Steve count on you being like them and, therefore, unable to click on an actual link to read actual information before forming an inaccurate opinion about it.)
By “higher standard”, you mean, for example, an old boyfriend who’s in the FBI inappropriately interceding in a local case to prevent a voter fraud conviction? I guess, as a two-time George W. Bush voter, insider backscratching, power-brokering and blatant corruption is Steve’s idea of “higher standards”. Amirite, Steve?
I’d ask if you were embarrassed to make such an ass out of yourself here, but you’ve answered that question (over and again) years ago. So, I’ll just say, enjoy the SuperBowl, Wingnut! Christie 2016!
WingnutSteve @3, alluding to the fact that this article begins by addressing the felony false residency voter fraud conviction of a Democrat, writes:
I guess you didn’t bother to click on the link I provided to my earlier piece, False Residency: Epidemic Form of Elite Voter Fraud That Cannot Be Prevented by Photo ID, in which I wrote:
How sad that you are incapable of removing your ideological blinders. Instead of ignoring the “R” and the “D” someone places at the end of their name and examining each case based upon the facts, you insist that any criticism of Democrats is good reporting and criticism of Republicans amounts to biased reporting, facts be damned!
Yes Brad, it’s been “well documented” and the “evidence” isn’t even questionable. That is, if left wing blog sites of known conspiracy theorists such as yours are to be believed. Reality on the other hand would lead most reasonable people to believe that if there existed well documented and unquestionable evidence there would be a conviction.
Ernie, you made my point with the exact same link to the exact same piece which you have used before to somehow prove that you are fair in your “journalism”. One sentence buried in the middle of a Republican hit piece in which you proclaim all the Republican folks to be criminals when the truth is that most of those folks have never even been charged with a crime let alone convicted. Now in future days you don’t have to copy and paste that one sentence (as you did in your comment) to ensure people actually read it. Now you can just link to this piece and the headline says it all.
Back to my bunker i.e. reality.
WingnutSteve @6 wrote:
Hmmm! I guess all those Republicans who alleged that fellow Republicans had committed false residency voter fraud, including the ‘Tea Party’ supporters of Richard Mourdock, were members of “left wing blog sites of known conspiracy theorists.”
Another epic swing and miss by our ideologically blinded, resident wing nut.
While we are on the subject of “conspiracy theorists,” WingNutSteve, what are we to make of Republicans who insist that there is a need for polling place Photo ID restrictions because of an “epidemic” of voter fraud despite irrefutable evidence that in-person voter impersonation — the only type of voter fraud that can be prevented by their proposed Photo ID laws — are a scarce as hen’s teeth?
Nice job changing the subject ernie.
Short answer: I’m against any law which may disenfranchise any legal voter.
Long answer: We live in a world where elections are decided by the smallest of margins. A local election in Texas within the last year or so was decided by one vote so I believe we need to ensure everyone who votes is a legal voter. I don’t buy your excuse that this type of fraud is rare so we should ignore it. Take that, and the fact that almost all of the polling place ID horror stories come from extremists on the left such as the MSNBC turds and you and Brad, and I don’t buy the horror stories. It’s already been established in this thread that, if it’s against someone in the GOP, you willingly accept any accusation as fact. Add to that the facts that even thinkprogress.org considers Brad and his site to be nothing more than conspiracy theorists, and that MSNBC almost always puts a racism angle to their accusations… well that brings your claims about photo ID laws into question. Far left ideology doesn’t equal facts. If people don’t have an ID, they should get one.
Amongst his latest illogical mumblings, WingnutSteve @8 offers up the hopelessly inconsistent statements that, when it comes to polling place Photo ID laws, he doesn’t “buy” the “excuse that this type of fraud is so rare so we should ignore it,” yet tells us that he is “against any law which may disenfranchise any legal voter.”
Wow! Either Steve is utterly dishonest (which I believe is the most probable descriptor) or he has his head buried so deep inside the right wing disinformation bubble that he can’t recognize reality when it smacks him in the face.
For example, in PA Photo ID Law Found Unconstitutional; State Court Issues Permanent Injunction, I covered a Photo ID bill, that according to the GOP’s own expert, threatened to disenfranchise as many as 300,000 otherwise eligible voters even though the Republicans who insisted on passing the law could not point to a single case of in-person voter fraud have occurred at any time in the now more than 200 year history of what is one of our nation’s founding states.
Get that, Steve. Zero cases of voter fraud were used to justify a Photo ID law that disenfranchised 300,000 perfectly lawful voters!
Next, Steve emerges from the wing nut netherworld long enough to eloquently inform us:
I see, so the three judges of a unanimous U.S. District Court who offered up this polling place Photo ID “horror story” were obviously “extremist left wing turds:”
Those three judges made a judicial determination that the TX Photo ID law disproportionately had a retrogressive impact on the voting rights of minorities and the poor. But, of course, those “factual findings” are in Steve’s warped worldview, simply “left ideology.”
Although those three judges said that a “law that forces poorer citizens to choose between their wages and their franchise denies or abridges their right to vote,” Steve disingenuously says, “if people don’t have an ID, they should get one.”
Steve adds, “I don’t buy the horror stories.”
No one is trying to “sell” these “horror stories” to brain dead wing nuts. Attorneys, who amass significant factual records and expert testimony, present those “horror stories” as established fact to astute jurists, like those on the Missouri Supreme Court who saw through the GOP “voter fraud” deceptions in declaring the “Show-Me State’s” Photo ID law unconstitutional.
Brad and Ernie, take some biblical warnings to heart. Please stop casting your pearls to swine. My experiences with my dearly departed brother in exchanges such as your here never proved fruitful. At the moments in debate when cornered and forced to deal with realities, he would always fall back on how he ‘feels’ abouth things. You will never win over Wingnuts as they simply can’t admit what they’ve learned is garbage.
You’re right ernie. No one is trying to sell the horror stories to brain dead wing nuts. Conspiracy theorists like Brad are trying to sell the horror stories to a couple dozen or so people (based on the lack of almost any comments on most pieces here) who frequent this site. Earth to Brad! You don’t have to sell anything to them, they bought in lock stock and barrel years ago. This site was a great idea at one time. But it has become so idealogically biased that a piece can’t even be written about a CA dem being convicted of a crime without the story quickly turning into the typical GOP hit piece where no evidence is necessary for you boys. The squeeky wheel has lost his way into the abyss of conspiracy theory and slander. Continue pandering to leftists who feed on hate, and cast aside any attempt to maybe change a mind or two along the way by attempting some legitimate journalism. THAT’S a success story!!!
WingnutSteve continued his long sad continuing spiral into wingnut irrelevancy @ 6 with:
Thanks for confirming, once again, that you didn’t bother to click on any of the links documenting the evidence in the story that you either don’t understand or didn’t bother to read before commenting on it. (Ya know, evidence from folks like a former GOP candidate for President of the United States, “Tea Party” candidates, etc. etc. But, hey, MSNBC! “Leftists”!)
In any case, as I’m nothing if not a uniter, I’ll thank you for “proving” in your graf above you’re a RW loon conspiracy theorist. After all, you’ve charged over and over and over again that BENGHAZI!!! and the IRS “scandal” aren’t pretend scandals at all, but are very very serious crimes by the Obama Administration. Well, I guess not. By your own admission, “most reasonable people” would “believe that if there existed well documented and unquestionable evidence there would be a conviction.”
Huh. No conviction, then obviously no crime at the IRS or in regard to BENGHAZI!!! Yet you keep pulling that nonsense out here (without even any evidence at all, much less unquestionable evidence) time and time again, choking the same silly chickens year after year. Nutty. It’s almost as if you can’t even keep your own bullshit straight or something.
WingnutSteve stayed out of his survival bunker long enough to say @ 8:
Heheheh…Just had to comment on that one. MSNBC are “extremists on the left”? Seriously? Much less me? Really???
Sigh. You. Are. Darling, Steve-o.
BTW, those “horror stories” about your fellow Americans being denied their right to vote come from sources like the courts, the people kept from voting, actual independently verifiable statistics from databases, etc. Surely you will learn, some day, before or after you have your stroke, that simply because Fox “News” doesn’t report it to you, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
As to your lie that you are “against any law which may disenfranchise any legal voter,” you’ve made that lie clear all by yourself. Virtually zero evidence of voter fraud that would be deterred by polling place photo ID, mountains of evidence showing that hundreds of thousands of legal voters are, in fact, disenfranchised by such laws. But, since Fox “News” doesn’t tell you about such evidence, it doesn’t exist! It’s “extreme leftist”!
The question is not about whether “people…have an ID”, or whether Big Government loons like you demand they must get one. The problem for those legal voters is not “an ID”. Seriously, have you failed to read any of our reporting on this matter over the last 10 years? How about anybody else’s reporting, for that matter?
Aren’t you even a little embarrassed to keep getting things so wrong here, so often, over and over and over?
Sigh…
Hey Steve, lookie over there, Black Panthers!
Looks like voter fraud is only a prosecutable offence if a Democrat does it. Romney’s criminal act of lying about his residence and illegal voting will go unpunished, since millionaire narcissists are well-known dwellers of unfinished basements.
Two weeks before the Republican convention in 2000 Dick Cheney changed his address from Texas to Wyoming, as the Constitution requires the president and vice to represent different states. Did he move from Texas, or just change his mailing address? He certainly represented Texas business and political interests (see Halliburton no-bid contracts etc), and I always wondered if this constituted voter fraud and if we had 8 years of a Constitutionally illegitimate Executive Branch.