I first diaried about racist voter suppression in New Mexico here. It has also been written about at NMFBIHOP and at the New Mexico Independent.
This media coverage isn't enough exposure for these slime bags. Like cockroaches, they need to be exposed to some sanitizing sunlight. I hope that with more exposure they will be forced to go back through their manholes into their dark and sinister homes in the sewer systems below our city streets.
To recap, The New Mexico GOP, with the alleged guidance of local attorney Pat Rogers,
is harassing and intimidating Hispanic voters. Under the guise of flushing out unregistered voters, an alleged private investigator named Al Romero is showing up at voters homes and demanding personal information from them.
There are also allegations that Rogers is showing up at these homes himself, in the flesh.
But two civil rights groups are fighting back...with lawsuits. The ACLU and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund are both involved.
The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico today filed a lawsuit against a Republican state lawmaker who released confidential information while making claims of vote fraud, a private investigator hired by a prominent Republican attorney, and as-yet-unnamed members of the state party. The lawsuit alleges that key members of the Republican Party of New Mexico violated the privacy rights of voters and illegally interfered with their right to vote.
Local Republican, Justine Fox-Young alleged "undeniable proof" of voting fraud in New Mexico. Turns out their "undeniable proof" is questionable, at best.
Fox-Young, an Albuquerque Republican, said at that press conference that members of the party had used Social Security numbers to run credit checks and driver’s license checks on the newly registered voters, but according to ACLU-NM, Fox-Young and others "illegally used private Social Security numbers to do background checks of legal voters and illegally disseminated confidential voter information to the press."
The GOP is allegedly comparing voters social security numbers to the voting rolls. Where did they get these social security numbers?
...according to the ACLU’s Simonson. "This information never should have made it into the hands of the GOP. The fact that they used that information is illegal. They broke the law. And moreover, one of the things that we hope to see come out of this lawsuit is evidence that points us to who released this information into the hands of the GOP," he said.
Aside from the theft of private social security numbers, there are allegations that this voter suppression effort is race based. I haven't seen a complete list of all of the plaintiffs in this suit. However, at first blush, it appears they are all Hispanic.
According to ACLU staff attorney George Bach, the number of plaintiffs and defendants in the lawsuit could grow. "There were 92 individuals whose registrations were unlawfully obtained, and as the litigation progresses we will determine exactly how many [participate]," he said.
There are also questions about how this new round of voting suppression is tied to the firing of David Iglesias. Iglesias says it all here:
David Iglesias says he's shocked by the news, leaked today to the Associated Press, that the FBI is pursuing a voter-fraud investigation into ACORN just weeks before the election.
"I'm astounded that this issue is being trotted out again," Iglesias told TPMmuckraker. "Based on what I saw in 2004 and 2006, it's a scare tactic." In 2006, Iglesias was fired as U.S. attorney thanks partly to his reluctance to pursue voter-fraud cases as aggressively as DOJ wanted -- one of several U.S. attorneys fired for inappropriate political reasons, according to a recently released report by DOJ's Office of the Inspector General.
Iglesias, who has been the most outspoken of the fired U.S. attorneys, went on to say that the FBI's investigation seemed designed to inappropriately create a "boogeyman" out of voter fraud.
The ACORN investigation is merely a ruse to suppress votes next Tuesday.
Know that there is a Pat Rogers in every state. Each trying to circumvent the Democratic process.
I suspect there will be more to come.