Not crazy about this:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...
A judge in Virginia on Friday rejected a request by state Democrats to reinstate about 40,000 voters from state voter rolls.
The judge's ruling is the latest in an ongoing legal battle between state Democrats, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) over the rolls because the voters registered in other states. Critics of the purge argue that it's an attempt to help Cuccinelli win the gubernatorial election; he's currently trailing behind Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe in the polls. But U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton on Friday said that Democrats had not provided sufficient evidence to prove that the purge was politically motivated. - TPM, 10/18/13
Here's a little more info:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
“I just don’t find that there’s a strong showing here of any inequitable treatment or the deprivation of anyone’s rights,” U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton said as he denied the Democrats’ request.
Lauren Harmon, the party’s executive director, said after the hearing that officials had not decided if they will pursue further legal action but were pleased, at least, that their suit shined a light on what they consider a tainted process.
The lawsuit stemmed from an anti-voter fraud program, known sometimes by the shorthand Crosscheck, that allows officials in the states that use it to compare voter rolls and weed out those who are registered in more than one place. This year, the program flagged more than 300,000 names, and the state forwarded more than 57,000 of those to local election officials for further review and possible removal.
In the lawsuit filed in federal district court in Alexandria, the Democratic Party alleged that the program was rife with error, citing three examples of Virginians who were improperly removed from the voting rolls. They also argued that local election officials were treating the 57,000 names they were supposed to review in different ways. Some, the Democrats said, removed names without any review, while others did not remove any names at all. - Washington Post, 10/18/13
And Ken Cuccinelli (R. VA) owns this voter purge:
http://www.msnbc.com/...
Cuccinelli’s office defended the purge in court, noting that more than 18,000 voters who appeared on the original list were ultimately left on the rolls after county registrars determined they were eligible. “The system worked,” the AG’s office concluded.
It’s Cuccinelli’s job as attorney general to argue for the state’s position, though he has declined to defend some state moves in the past. Cuccinelli’s campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment on the merits of the purge.
Virginia Democrats say that Cuccinelli shouldn’t be involved in the purge case given that he is on the ballot next month. Because poor and minority voters tend to move more often, purges like Virginia’s tend to flag more Democrats than Republicans—meaning it could benefit Cuccinelli when he faces Democrat Terry McAuliffe next month. Democrats asked him to recuse himself, but he’s declined.
“That is a really dangerous conflict, where he has a substantial personal stake in the outcome of all of these decisions that are made, large and small, but especially in who’s qualified to vote on election day and who’s not,” Brian Coy, a spokesman for the Virginia Democratic Party, told MSNBC. - MSNBC, 10/18/13
So yeah, that does suck. But will the voter purge help Cuccinelli's chances? Probably not:
http://www.politico.com/...
Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe has an 8-point lead in the Virginia governor’s race, a new poll found, the latest evidence of his advantage with less than three weeks left until Election Day.
The NBC4/NBC News/Marist poll found McAuliffe winning 46 percent of likely voters, compared with 38 percent for GOP Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and 9 percent for libertarian Robert Sarvis. If the election were a two-way race between McAuliffe and Cuccinelli, McAuliffe’s lead would increase to 9 points, 52 percent to 43 percent.
The new numbers are consistent with other recent polling in the race, most of which gives McAuliffe a high single-digit lead. A POLITICO poll out last week found McAuliffe leading by 9 points, 44 percent to 35 percent. - Politico, 10/17/13
A big reason why McAuliffe is ahead in the polls is because he's leading with women voters and they have quite a few good reasons to not vote for Cuccinelli:
http://www.fairfaxtimes.com/...
Ken Cuccinelli has waged a crusade against women’s health throughout his career — as a state senator, he even touted himself as the “most aggressive pro-life leader.” When legislation came up clarifying that birth control was not a form of an abortion, Cuccinelli voted against it — twice. Cuccinelli co-sponsored extreme and dangerous so-called “personhood” legislation with his running mate, attorney general candidate Mark Obenshain. If enacted, this legislation could have interfered with a woman’s personal, private medical decisions relating to birth control, access to fertility treatment, management of a miscarriage, and access to safe and legal abortion. He made defunding Planned Parenthood a top priority by offering budget amendments that would have cut off Virginia women from Planned Parenthood’s preventive health services like birth control and lifesaving cancer screenings.
His crusade against women’s health and rights intensified when he became attorney general. Ken Cuccinelli bullied a Virginia medical board into passing targeted restrictions on abortion providers that have already forced two women’s health centers that provided a wide-range of preventive services to shut their doors. Cuccinelli was the first attorney general to file suit against the Affordable Care Act, just minutes after it was signed into law. The new health care law has already benefited around 765,000 women in Virginia who now have access to birth control and other basic health care without deductibles or copays, but Ken Cuccinelli still opposes it. And Cuccinelli was one of only three state attorneys general who refused to support the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.
Beyond Cuccinelli’s terrible record on women’s health, the agenda he has outlined is just as extreme and alarming. Ken Cuccinelli has offensively compared his ideological crusade to restrict access to safe and legal abortion to the fight against slavery, has suggested people should be willing to “go to jail” to fight expanding access to affordable birth control, and has said that his “ultimate goal” is to end safe and legal abortion in America. - Fairfax Times, 10/18/13
By the way, there's a good interview with McAuliffe about his vision for Virginia's economy you should check out:
http://wydaily.com/...
How will you make Virginia competitive for out-of-state businesses looking for a place to set up shop? Will Hampton Roads benefit from those proposals?
I believe Virginia is facing some challenges but that we also have tremendous resources and opportunities. I have laid out an agenda to maintain Virginia as a business friendly state and that agenda will benefit all areas of the Commonwealth, including Hampton Roads.
Infrastructure – particularly transportation infrastructure – is a critically important business and quality of life issue. I was a strong supporter of the bipartisan transportation compromise passed during the last legislative session, and I encouraged members of my party to support the Governor, Lt. Governor and Speaker. The next governor will have adequate transportation resources, and addressing congestion and mobility in Hampton Roads will be a top transportation priority for me as governor.
Tourism is critical to Virginia’s economy and that of Hampton Roads, and I will continue to expand our promotion efforts, but without the ability to get our visitors in and out effectively our economy will suffer. I look forward to working with the business community to determine what projects might best serve that end.
Additionally, I am a firm believer that the Port of Virginia is one of our most valuable assets. I did not support the proposal to privatize the port and I will work to ensure that the port is seen for the driver of economic development that it is. That means ensuring stable governance, strong executive support, and working to alleviate the gridlock that slows down commerce to and from the port.
Without qualified and ready workers, Virginia businesses will struggle to be successful. Virginia has a strong tradition of supporting world-class educational institutions, and I share the traditional Virginia view that education is an investment, not an expense. That’s why I want to focus resources on our community colleges, invest a greater percentage of our overall higher education spending toward financial aid, and ensure that our Pre-K through 12 system has adequate state support. Further, I plan to reform the SOLs, so that the timing and format of the tests better measures progress. This will allow Virginia to increase effective accountability for our schools and improve educational outcomes.
Finally, as a businessman, I know that regulations and a state’s regulatory environment can have a significant impact on your success. I believe that we need clear rules of the road, but that regulations should be enacted with an eye toward accomplishing their goal with the greatest ease of compliance and least burden on our citizens. In general, I think the state’s regulatory framework has been good. Where there are problems, I plan on empowering the Chief Jobs Creation Officer to solve them for current and incoming Virginia businesses. - Williamsburg Yorktown Daily, 10/17/13
Lets make sure Cuccinelli's efforts to purge voters were a waste and make sure our base comes out for McAuliffe on November 5th. Here's the voter information you'll need to go vote:
http://www.sbe.virginia.gov/...
You can click here to donate or get involved with McAuliffe's campaign:
http://terrymcauliffe.com/