A motion has been granted for a new trial for Pamela Moses, the Memphis woman sentenced to six years in prison earlier this month after being convicted a year ago on charges of illegally registering to vote.
ABC News' Linsey Davis speaks with activist Pamela Moses and her lawyer on her release from prison and how her voter fraud conviction was granted a new trial.
Pamela Moses, a Black woman in Memphis tried to figure out if she was a registered voter and eligible to vote. She wound up getting accused and convicted of illegally registering to vote and sentenced to six years in prison while white people convicted of similar crimes tend to get probation.
Watch more on this story below:
Pamela Moses, a Black woman, has been sentenced to six years in prison because of a voting error. Meanwhile, white individuals who are known to have committed blatant voter fraud have only received probation.
— Legal Defense Fund (@NAACP_LDF) February 4, 2022
There are two criminal justice systems in America. pic.twitter.com/o4UqowdpbF
Washington, DC – U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), who has led the fight against the Trump voter fraud commission in the Senate issued the following statement after President Trump dissolved the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity:
“Trump's Voter Fraud Commission was an offense, based on a lie, blatantly seeking to suppress votes. I introduced a bill to disband the commission. I am so glad it is no longer necessary. Now that this step backwards was stopped, let's restore the Voting Rights Act.”
In July, Booker introduced bicameral legislation with Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) that would repeal the executive order establishing the commission. The Anti-Voter Suppression Act was cosponsored by more than 90 lawmakers, including every Democratic Senator of color.
Additionally, the Government Accountability Office announced in October that it would investigate the commission after Booker and Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) urged the GAO to do so in a letter.
Booker also urged the state of New Jersey to reject Trump administration efforts to obtain sensitive voter information in a letter to state officials in July.
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker asked NJ state officials to reject any request from President Donald Trump's voter fraud commission for information about New Jersey voter rolls.
He said comments by Robert Giles, director of New Jersey's division of elections, didn't go far enough.
"I am alarmed by the purpose of this commission: to look into a nonexistent problem of widespread voter fraud as a guise to collect data that is likely to be used to suppress legal voting in future elections and to provide President Trump's outlandish and laughable claim that he actually won the popular vote with some appearance of legitimacy," Booker said.
Booker (D-N.J.) earlier called Trump's campaign comments about voter fraud "a blatant lie" and the commission "a thinly veiled voter suppression effort."
His latest comments came in a letter to Dennis Robinson, serving as acting secretary of state since Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno has recused herself from all election-related issues while running for governor.
Booker acted after Giles rejected the commission's request for information that went beyond names, addresses and birth dates to include last four digits of Social Security numbers, voting history, felony convictions, military service and registrations in other states.
New Jersey was one of 46 states that rejected the request in all or in part.
By George L. Cook III AfricanAmericanReports.Com
During a campaign rally in Detroit Donald Trump encouraged his overwhelmingly white supporters to go into "urban" areas on election day and to monitor what is going on. Read his quote below:
Here's the full Trump riff on voter fraud from this evening in Novi. Mich., in which he urges his supporter to monitor polling places. pic.twitter.com/S3Vt1TzOvW
— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) September 30, 2016
Like most Trump ideas this has not been very well thought out.
Now I have to ask what exactly are these monitors supposed to do? In many states, monitors/challengers have to be appointed by a candidate or party chair, and a list of challengers has to be submitted to the county board of elections at least two weeks before the election. They must also wear challenger badges even to go into the polling place to review what is going on and to challenge anyone they feel is not a legitimate voter. Also, you just can't challenge someone because you feel they shouldn't be there, there has to be a valid reason for that challenge and beings as these monitors don't live in the area or know the people that vote at that site on what basis would they question?
Here is a list of things challengers can't do here in my home state of New Jersey:
challenge any voter on the basis of race, ethnicity, expected manner of voting, or the location of the voter’s actual residence in a housing complex, ward or other part of town or county (N.J.S.A. 19:15-18);
sit with the district board workers;
stand over the district board workers;
touch any election materials;
go to the voting machine during the voting hours;
challenge the voter directly;
participate in the signature comparison process, which is the exclusive responsibility of the board worker;
harass or intimidate voters or cause any disturbance in the polling place. N.J.S.A. 19:34-29;
wear any campaign insignia whatsoever. This includes buttons or any clothing with indicia relating to any candidate, a political party or referendum. N.J.S.A. 19:34-15;
decline, refuse or neglect to wear the challenger badge or fail to present the challenger credentials to the district board upon arrival at the polling place. N.J.S.A. 19:7-6.
I'm sure most states have similar regulations for monitors/challengers and with that in mind what could they possibly do other than to hope to intimidate voters in "urban" areas. Unfortunately for those Trump supporters dumb enough to follow Trump's advice they will find out that black voters from 18 to 90 years old don't intimidate easily. These fools who felt that had some type of power because they support Trump will find themselves being the ones who are intimidated and quickly realizing that like voting for Trump this was a bad idea.
By George L. Cook III AfricanAmericanReports.Com
A U.S. appeals court on Friday struck down a North Carolina law that required voters to show photo identification when casting ballots, ruling that it intentionally discriminated against African-American residents.
The ruling is likely to be seen as a boost for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton going into November's election. The state is politically important as it does not lean heavily toward either Democrats or Republicans, and Clinton is heavily favored among black Americans over Republican nominee Donald Trump.
The court's decision also canceled provisions of the law that scaled back early voting, prevented residents from registering and voting on the same day, and eliminated the ability of voters to vote outside their assigned precinct.
Critics argue that voting laws enacted by North Carolina and several other states are designed to drive down turnout by minorities and poor people who rely more on flexible voting methods and are less likely to possess state-issued photo IDs.
In its ruling, a three-judge panel at the U.S. Appeals Court for the Fourth Circuit said the state legislature targeted African-Americans "with almost surgical precision."
"We cannot ignore the recent evidence that, because of race, the legislature enacted one of the largest restrictions of the franchise in modern North Carolina history," Judge Diana Motz wrote.
Voting rights advocates heralded the decision as a major victory.
"This ruling is a stinging rebuke of the state's attempt to undermine African-American voter participation, which had surged over the last decade," Dale Ho, director of the Voting Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. The ACLU was one of the groups that challenged the law in court.
[SOURCE]
Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson on Wednesday dismissed the idea restrictive anti-voter fraud requirements could be racist, echoing the position of Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach – a champion of such measures who has called accusations of racism a personal insult.
“I’ve made it my personal project, every time I visit a country outside the U.S. to ask what do they do to ensure the integrity of voting? There’s not one single country anywhere – first world, second world, it doesn’t matter – that doesn’t have official requirements for voting,” Carson said.
“My question to those people who say we’re racist because we apply those standards: Are all the other countries of the world racist? I don’t think so. Voting is an important thing. Obviously, you want to make sure that it’s done by the appropriate people.”
Read more: Ben Carson, GOP presidential candidate, dismisses idea anti-voter fraud measures racist
In states such as Ohio, Wisconsin, and North Carolina voting times and polls have been curtailed and some type of voter ID is required. Let's be honest these are attacks on voting rights by conservative / republican legislatures. These laws effect mostly minority and lower income voters who vote democrat in overwhelming numbers. If anyone says otherwise they are either on drugs or seriously delusional.
We also have to deal with the fact that many of these laws may hold up in court. You see what republicans have quietly done is change their argument from the nonsense of voter fraud which they couldn't prove to one of voter fairness. They are now making the argument that it's not fair that urban counties can afford to keep polling sites open longer and have more early voting days when rural counties can't. They argue that there should be uniformity among all polling sites. This argument stands a much better chance of holding up in court.
Because of that can hope for the best but prepare for the worst.
We can whine, bitch, and moan about these laws or we can get ready to deal with them.
We should not even wait for these cases to wind their way through the courts. We should start mobilizing now. We should learn these laws inside and out. We must now what we are fighting against and be so prepared for it that these laws restricting voting are rendered useless.
Here are four things I think we need to do:
* Organize drives to get people voter ID. We must find those without ID and help them get it and provide transportation if nescecary. If there are state programs that will pay for the ID we must make sure people know about them and take advantage of them.
* Make sure that everyone that is eligible to vote is registered. Groups such as the NAACP, Urban League , National Action Network, and churches can help here. We as citizens can get our friends and family registered. It's not hard I have worked on many voter registration drives and one just have to be willing to give their time.
* We must learn where all of the early polling sites are and the hours that they are open. We must then bus voters there. If it means we have to use our own cars to give those a ride who can't get there because of the distance then so be it.
* We must flood these states with volunteers from other states to help out with all of the above. It's going to take a lot of organization and man power to get this done.
I'm sure that people much smarter than me can think of other things we can do but I believe these are things we should start doing NOW to get ready for the 2014 mid-term elections.
So what are we going to do people? Bitch and moan or take action?
George Cook AAReports.com
