This is pretty sad story about Randy Wertz, Voter Registrar of Montgomery County, Virginia, and a typical Republican hack.
Every four years, conservative Voter Registrars send out false and deceptive press releases with one intent: making it more difficult for people to vote. Montgomery County, Virginia is home to Virginia Tech University. There has been a massive voter registration drive which has registered thousands of college students to vote. This apparently scared Randy Wertz, the conservative Voter Registrar there.
Wertz sent out a press release false and deceptive. It read:
"The Code of Virginia states that a student must declare a legal residence in order to register. A legal residence can be either a student's permanent address from home or their current college residence. By making Montgomery County your permanent residence, you have declared your independence from your parents and can no longer be claimed as a dependent on their income tax filings -- check with your tax professional. If you have a scholarship attached to your former residence, you could lose this funding. And, if you change your registration to Montgomery County, Virginia Code requires you to change your driver's license and car registration to your present address within 30 days."
Independent experts called this letter "incredibly chilling," "unsubstantiated" and "incorrect." Wertz defended his action by making it clear that he was engaged in partisan thuggery:
"What's happening is they're [voter registration drives sponsored by candidates, mostly the Obama campaign] going out across campus over here and just getting people to sign the registration forms left and right and not telling them issues to consider, or telling them the incorrect information. Before they make the decision to register with us, they need to check with the accountant who does the taxes. They need to check if they're on their parents' health insurance. By being at a separate permanent address, does that affect their insurance?
"I was just trying to inform them of things to consider, and then once they've made an informed decision and decide to come with us, we welcome them."
Sure, when you're falsely claiming that students can no longer be claimed as a dependent by their parents under federal law, and when you're falsely claiming that students will lose their health insurance, you're really "informing people of things to consider." What Mr. Wertz was really doing was lying about the "consequences" of registering to vote on a campus in order to keep voters who won't vote his way from voting in the election. The truth of the matter is federal law says students who register to vote on-campus can still be claimed as a dependents by their parents at tax time; the truth of the matter is that no student has ever lost their health insurance because they registered to vote on-campus. The truth of the matter is that there is a major Supreme Court decision which specifically states that students have the right to register to vote at their campus addresses (Symm vs. United States, 439 U.S. 1105 (1979)). Three days after his initial press release was sent out, Wertz posted another press release which admits that he abused the powers of his office while repeating his partisan lies:
"The Montgomery County Registrar's Office does not have a position on whether registering to vote in Montgomery County will have an effect on a student's benefits such as health insurance, financial aid, taxes, scholarships, etc. Indeed, the Registrar's Office is prohibited from offering advice on those issues. Questions regarding the effect--if any--that registering to vote in Montgomery County will have on a student's benefits should be directed to the agency administering those benefits."
Here Wertz clearly admits he abused the power of his office. He clearly admits that he had no authority to issue a press release advising students to not register to vote on-campus. If Wertz had no power to do something, why did he do it anyway? It's probably because Wertz doesn't like who many students will vote for. He probably wanted to reduce the number of students who are registered to vote in Montgomery County in order to benefit people he agrees with (read Republicans). Wertz' actions were successful. Wertz bragged to the New York Times:
"Indeed, the Montgomery County registrar, E. Randall Wertz, said several students had canceled their local registration over their worry about the possible consequences."
This kind of partisan thuggery is nothing new. The American Prospect notes that reducing the number of voters in a college town has long been a goal of the Republican Party and its hacks in Voter Registrar's Offices:
"But the patchwork system opens the door for opportunistic partisans to utilize legal harassment and red tape to suppress a crucial voting bloc. 'In our experience,' says Waterville Maine City Councilman Henry Beck, 'Republican operatives close to election time bring up the issue in hopes that they can complicate voting or ... shave off a couple hundred voters in this or that college town.'"
It's clear that Wertz' initial press release was part of a sordid tradition of conservative Voter Registrars attempting to place obstacles between qualified citizens and the voting booth. If Wertz had any integrity, he would admit that and resign; but partisan hacks like Wertz rarely have integrity. Now that the New York Times has caught on to his thuggery, Wertz is blaming the interns. According to the Times,
"Mr. Wertz said the initial release had been written by an intern whom he asked to summarize the guidelines. Although the second release used the state’s precise language, he said, it still left room for confusion. In other counties, registrars have refused to accept dormitory addresses as residences. But so far, the state has not set clear standards."
Let me spell this out for you, Mr. Wertz, your name is on the letter head sent out by the office. You should read every press release that is sent out by the Montgomery County Voter Registrar's Office. That you had an intern write a press release for you, that you apparently didn't bother to read the intern's press release before sending it out, and that you were unaware of a major Supreme Court decision which is directly relevant to your job, indicates that you are an incompetent person who should not be holding public office.
The ACLU's Virginia Chapter has criticized Wertz' actions, and corrected the record. Lord knows that a partisan hack like Wertz won't bother to read the ALCU's document; if we're lucky, maybe Wertz will pass off the ACLU's letter to the intern. Lord knows that Wertz doesn't really care about the freedom to vote; Wertz only wants people who agree with him to vote. These facts makes it clear that Wertz' continued tenure in a Voter Registration office is untenable. Partisan hacks have no business determining who can vote, or counting votes. As long as Wertz is the Voter Registrar of Montgomery County, Montgomery County's elections cannot be labeled as free and fair.
The right to vote is a sacred right. Millions of soldiers have died for this sacred right. Some Virginia Tech students--who are members of the Army National Guard or veterans going to college after a tour of duty in Iraq--have probably been shot at for that right, some may have even lost limbs for that right. Randy Wertz' actions would deny those soldiers and veterans the right to have a say on who is the next commander-in-chief. It's why Randy Wertz is a despicable partisan hack who is unworthy of public office. It's why Randy Wertz must immediately resign from the position of Voter Registrar for Montgomery County.