Indiana: Supreme Court denies appeals in Charlie White case | fox59.com

Friday, the Indiana Supreme Court denied appeals in the case against Secretary of State Charlie White (R).

White was indicted by a Hamilton County grand jury earlier this year, on seven counts including voter fraud, theft and perjury. White is accused of voting in the wrong precinct while he was on the Fishers Town Council. White maintains it was an honest mistake. He’s also at the center of another investigation, accused of accessing a confidential report about him made by his predecessor, the previous secretary of state Todd Rokita (R).

Indiana: Recount Commission to hear complaint against Secretary of State | Evansville Courier & Press

This could be a rough week for Charlie White.

Indiana’s embattled Secretary of State is to be the subject of an eight-hour Indiana Recount Commission hearing Tuesday. The first-term Republican isn’t the only one who will be grilled by Democrats who want him thrown out of office.

His wife Michelle will, too. So will his ex-wife, Nicole Mills, and her husband. His neighbor will be subpoenaed. So will the developer of his new condominium and the saleswoman who showed it to him.

The purpose of the hearing is to determine whether White’s voter registration last year was valid. If it was not, he could be removed from office.

Editorials: Voter ID will pass, but issue not voting | The Clarion-Ledger

Mississippi needs to do more to stop voter fraud. Mississippi needs to make changes in voting procedures to make voting more accessible and convenient. Mississippi should always pursue efforts to ensure voter integrity.

There are a lot of things Mississippi could do to improve voting procedures. Voter ID isn’t one of them.

Requiring voters to show a photo identification at the polls would do little or nothing to achieve any of these admirable goals. Still, thousands of Mississippians have signed petitions calling for a voter ID amendment to be added to the state constitution and, in November, voters will most likely do just that.

New Mexico: Legislators question scope of New Mexico voter fraud investigation | Las Cruces Sun-News

Democrats on a legislative committee made Secretary of State Dianna Duran the butt of jokes and criticism Friday, saying she had mishandled an investigation into voter fraud.

Duran, a Republican, has forwarded 64,000 voter records to state police so its investigators can help determine whether any laws were broken. Those under investigation account for about 5 percent of New Mexico’s 1.16 million registered voters.

State Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque, told fellow members of the Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee that the massive scope of Duran’s investigation shocked him. He questioned her logic and her tactics. “I sure don’t think this is a public-safety issue,” McSorley said of Duran’s decision to involve police.

Editorials: Voter fraud: Time to undertake complete review | Las Cruces Sun-News

What started out as a review of 37 cases of possible voter fraud has mushroomed into a massive investigation by the State Police of some 64,000 cases. The Secretary of State’s Office, headed by newly elected Republican Dianna Duran, has turned over truckloads of voter records for the State Police to review.

Daniel Ivey-Soto, executive director of the organization that represents New Mexico’s 33 county clerks, has derided the investigation as a “64,000-record fishing expedition.” We disagree.

In fact, we’d like to see the investigation expanded further still, if that’s what it takes to finally bring resolution to an issue that has festered for far too long, casting doubt — justified or not — on our electoral process. And, while Ivey-Soto thinks the clerks would be better positioned to conduct such an investigation, we believe only a thorough and complete review by the State Police will be seen as credible.

Indiana: Charlie White going to great lengths to avoid answering questions | WISHTV

Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White won’t give up in his effort to win immunity before he testifies to the state Recount Commission in a proceeding meant to find out if he committed voter fraud.

White is scheduled to testify next week, but he’s worried that what he says will be used against him in a criminal case. That’s why he is now pursuing a third attempt to win immunity for what he says.

When White’s attorney asked the state Recount Commission to grant White limited immunity, what’s known as use immunity, for his testimony scheduled for next Tuesday, he got a confused response from Recount Commission Chairman Thomas Wheeler: “But I have never seen anybody other than a prosecutor give use immunity.”

Indiana: Court to hear White appeal on testimony | The Indianapolis Star

Charlie White is asking a judge to prevent his testimony during an election hearing Tuesday from being used against him in his criminal case. Marion Circuit Court has agreed to consider the issue Monday morning, just one day before the hearing.

The Indiana Recount Commission will hear testimony Tuesday regarding Democrats’ complaint that White was illegally registered to vote at the time he declared his candidacy for Secretary of State and shouldn’t be allowed to hold office. Democrats say that the Republican White’s opponent, Vop Osili, should replace White.

White has unsuccessfully sought to halt the Democrats’ complaint until his criminal case in Hamilton County is resolved. He has been charged with seven felonies, including three counts of voter fraud, and his trial is scheduled for Aug. 8.

Indiana: Secretary of State seeks immunity for testimony | Palladium

Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White has asked a judge to rule that his testimony before a state panel considering whether he should remain in office cannot be used against him in a criminal case alleging he committed voter fraud.

Marion Circuit Judge Louis Rosenberg has set a hearing on the motion for Monday, the day before the Indiana Recount Commission will hold its own hearing on the Democratic Party’s civil challenge to the Republican White’s candidacy in the November election.

If Rosenberg grants White’s request for partial immunity, his testimony to the recount panel couldn’t be used against him at the criminal trial set for August. The request also covers his wife, Michelle Quigley-White, who the motion says also could face criminal proceedings.

Indiana: Indiana Supreme Court won’t reconsider ruling on White | The Indianapolis Star | indystar.com

The Indiana Supreme Court has declined to reconsider its decision to let Democrats proceed with their challenge to Charlie White’s eligibility to hold office.

Democrats claim White was illegally registered to vote when he filed paperwork to run for Secretary of State and isn’t eligible to hold office. They say Democrat Vop Osili should replace him. The Indiana Recount Commission will have a hearing on the issue Tuesday.

Indiana: Indiana Secretary of State, family blast prosecution | Evansville Courier & Press

Convinced that Charlie White is being treated unfairly, the embattled Indiana secretary of state and his family are lashing out at the prosecutors who are building the case against him.

White sent a letter to the Allen County prosecutor’s office complaining that one of the two special prosecutors in the case, Dan Sigler, committed voter fraud himself.

It’s one of the charges on which a Hamilton County grand jury indicted White earlier this year, and White has complained before that he believes he is being selectively prosecuted.

New Jersey: Morris County New Jersey freeholder race remains in doubt as recount finds 4 Parsippany residents voted twice | Daily Record

A manual recount today of 1,605 absentee ballots reduced Morris County Republican freeholder candidate William Hank Lyon’s slim primary lead over incumbent Margaret Nordstrom to just six votes, down from last week’s tally of 10.

But the race is hardly over, as a new wrinkle has emerged in that county election workers have discovered that four Republicans registered in Parsippany voted twice, both by absentee and provisional ballots, and the state Attorney General’s Office has been asked for guidance.

Massachusetts: Wait — Did Mitt Romney Commit Voter Fraud? | Boston Magazine

Last year, the presidential hopeful cast a ballot for Scott Brown for U.S. Senate. One problem: Romney may not have been living here at the time. Or so says Fred Karger, a 2012 GOP presidential candidate who’s filed a complaint with state election officials, a hard copy of which I have from Karger’s office. Here’s Karger’s complaint:

Romney and his wife, Ann, bought a home in La Jolla, Calif., in 2008 for $12.5 million. A year later, they sold their $3.5 million place in Belmont and, according to Karger, took up residency, well, it’s not really clear where they took it up, except it didn’t seem to be in Massachusetts. By 2009, Mitt was sort of campaigning and sort of on his book tour. Home was wherever he finished the day. Sometimes it was in California. Sometimes, Karger says, and the National Journal bears this out, it was in New Hampshire. But it probably wasn’t in Massachusetts.

Editorials: Focus on Charlie White hearing | The Indianapolis Star

Allowing cameras in the Indiana Recount Commission’s hearing on Secretary of State Charlie White’s eligibility to hold that office is the right decision.
Indiana’s Open Door Law clearly gives the public the right to “observe and record” meetings of governing bodies of state and local public agencies. The Indiana Supreme Court upheld that right in its 1989 decision in Berry v. Peoples Broadcasting Corp., where the court said cameras and tape recorders could not be banned from public meetings.

One can appreciate that White and his wife, Michele, may be uncomfortable testifying about where they lived or slept at particular time, but that’s a key element in the question as to where White lived and where he should have voted in the 2010 election.

The public’s right to know whether one of the top elected officials should be removed from office, overturning the election result, trumps the uneasiness witnesses may experience knowing their testimony is being videorecorded.

Massachusetts: Fred Karger’s Voter Fraud Allegations Against Mitt Romney | The Daily Caller

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a leading candidate for the Republican nomination for president, is facing allegations that he committed fraud when he voted in the January 2010 Massachusetts special election. The allegations come from fellow Republican presidential candidate Fred Karger, a self-desribed “old opposition research campaign consultant” who is running a long-shot campaign.

Karger filed a complaint Monday with the State of Massachusetts, asking that Romney be investigated for registering to vote from an address that he did not live at. During the special election Romney was living in one of two places, and neither of them was in Massachusetts, Karger alleges.

Indiana: White seeks to ban TV cameras in Recount Commission hearing | The Indianapolis Star

Tuesday’s hearing on Charlie White’s eligibility to serve as Indiana Secretary of State will be streamed online, the Indiana Recount Commission decided today.

White’s attorney expressed that some questions at the hearing might be inappropriate in reference to his sex life. Commission members said if that’s the case the cameras can be turned off.

Also, the commission denied a request by that White’s wife, Michelle, that not to be subpoenaed to testify because of the possibility of self-incrimination. The commission said she must show up and assert her Fifth Amendment rights.

Indiana: Recount Commission rejects defense motions in Indiana Secretary of State’s hearing | Evansville Courier & Press

Both the current and former wives of embattled Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White will testify next week before a state panel that is considering whether to remove the Republican from office. So will Dan Parker, the chairman of the Indiana Democratic Party, which is pressing the case. And he’ll have to bring records with him that demonstrate when he first learned of the residency issues that he believes should disqualify White.

The Indiana Recount Commission made those decisions Tuesday afternoon at a hearing that precedes one scheduled for June 21, during which it will take eight hours of testimony on whether White should be removed from office.

Editorials: Lions and Tigers and Fraud, Oh My! Secretary of State Kris Kobach Is at It Again | Katie O’Connor/Huffington Post

In a recent column in the Wall Street Journal, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach takes a victory lap trumpeting the passage of his voter ID law. He writes: “You can’t cash a check, board a plane, or even buy full-strength Sudafed over the counter without [a photo ID]. That’s why it’s not unreasonable to require one in order to protect our most important privilege of citizenship.” Voting, however, is not a privilege; it is a fundamental right guaranteed by more constitutional amendments than any other right we have. Cashing a check, getting on an airplane, and buying a nasal decongestant are not similarly enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.

The putative targets of photo ID and proof-of-citizenship laws are alleged perpetrators of registration and in-person voter impersonation fraud. However, voting rights groups have obtained records from Kobach’s own officethat deflate his claims that “[v]oter fraud is a well-documented reality in American elections.” The disclosed report, which covers Kansas elections from 1997 to 2011, shows merely 221 incidents for 14 years of elections, and 200 of these could not have been prevented by the new proof-of-citizenship and photo ID requirements. These include more than 98 fraudulent or erroneous absentee ballot applications, 18 instances of attempted or completed double-voting in different precincts or jurisdictions, 17 instances of felons voting, 16 instances of absentee ballot fraud, as well as reports of electioneering and voter intimidation. Photo ID and proof-of-citizenship laws, which at their best can only confirm identity at the polls and block ineligible noncitizens from registering, simply do not prevent any of the above conduct.

National: Did Mitt Romney Commit Voter Fraud? | Mother Jones

Did Mitt Romney commit voter fraud when he cast a ballot for Scott Brown in last year’s special election in Massachusetts? On Monday, one of his lesser known opponents for the GOP presidential nomination, Fred Karger, filed a complaint with Massachusetts state election officials alleging that he voted for Brown, as well as in other Massachusetts elections, when he was not in fact a resident of the Bay State.

In his complaint, Karger lays out a chronology of Romney’s real estate moves since his failed presidential bid in 2008. According to Karger’s timetable, Romney and his wife, Ann, bought a $12.5 million home in La Jolla, California, in May 2008. (“I wanted to be where I could hear the waves,” Romney told the AP of his move to the West Coast.) Thereafter, Romney became a regular at California political events, even campaigning for Meg Whitman during her gubernatorial bid. A year later, in April 2009, the Romneys sold their home in Belmont, Massachusetts, for $3.5 million, and registered to vote from an address in the basement of an 8,000 square-foot Belmont manse owned by their son Tagg. But where the Romneys really lived these past couple of years seems to be a bit of a mystery. While Romney was appearing at so many California political events people were speculating he was going to run for office there, the National Journal reported in May 2009 that the Romneys had made their primary residence a $10 million estate in New Hampshire.

Indiana: White says special prosecutor in his case voted illegally | The Indianapolis Star | indystar.com

Embattled Secretary of State Charlie White has filed a complaint against one of the special prosecutors in his felony voter fraud case, alleging he is guilty of the same offense White’s charged with.

White, 41, filed the eight-page complaint to Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards Friday. White accuses Special Prosecutor Dan Sigler, his ex-wife Nancy Sigler and current wife Sherie Hampshire of voting at the wrong polling sites in the past six years.

Sigler denied the accusations, calling it “sour grapes” on White’s part.

Editorials: Opposing view: ID laws ensure election integrity | Hans A. von Spakovsky/ USAToday.com

Why are states such as Texas and Kansas passing voter ID laws? Quite simply, to ensure the integrity of our election process.

Our View: Republican ID laws smack of vote suppression

All Americans who are eligible to vote must have the opportunity to do so. But it’s equally important that their ballots are not stolen or diluted by fraudulent votes. That is one of the reasons that Americans — by an overwhelming margin, across all racial and ethnic lines — support such common-sense reform.

Voter ID can significantly defeat and deter impersonation fraud at the polls, voting under fictitious names, double-voting by individuals registered in more than one state, and voting by non-citizens. As the Supreme Court has pointed out, “flagrant examples of such fraud … have been documented throughout this nation’s history.”

Indiana: Secretary Of State Charlie White, Under Investigation For Voter Fraud, Calls for Special Prosecutor To Investigate Special Prosecutor Dan Sigler For Voter Fraud | Advance Indiana

The special prosecutor who brought criminal charges against Secretary of State Charlie White alleging he committed voter fraud by casting a vote in a precinct in which he allegedly did not reside is facing a criminal complaint against him for the very same charges he has brought against White.

The person leveling the charges against Special Prosecutor Dan Sigler is Secretary of State Charlie White. If the allegations White alleges against his accuser are true, it’s a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

New Mexico: State Police to probe 64K records for voter fraud | Las Cruces Sun-News

New Mexico State Police will review a staggering 64,000 voter cases to determine if any fraud has occurred in recent elections. Public Safety Director Gorden Eden outlined the scope of the investigation during an interview last week. He said the voter files were turned over to state police by Secretary of State Dianna Duran.

Duran, a Republican, publicly told legislators in March that her staff had uncovered 37 instances of possible voter fraud, though she said her investigation had only begun.

That small stack of what Duran called “questionable” cases has turned into a mountain of files for police to pore over. Duran said her staff had flagged tens of thousands of voter records that needed “further review” by criminal investigators.

National: Debunking Misinformation on Photo ID | Brennan Center for Justice

Last week, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed (“The Case for Voter ID”) by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.  In the piece, Kobach touts restrictive voter ID bills, including the Kansas “Secure and Fair Elections Act,” which he drafted and Governor Sam Brownback signed into law a few weeks ago.  Kobach argues that (1) voter ID laws will not actually prevent any eligible citizens from voting; and (2) they will prevent in-person voter fraud, which he claims is a substantial problem.

But his arguments are built on inaccuracies, unsupported allegations, and flawed reasoning.  Because Kobach takes direct aim at the Brennan Center in this op-ed, we thought a thorough review of his claims was in order. We sent a letter to the editors at the Journal rebutting some of his claims, but the paper did not publish it.

West Virginia: Commission president demands proof of fraud in Kanawha County election challenge | Charleston Daily Mail

Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper is asking that failed Democratic mayoral candidate Janet “J.T” Thompson bring evidence to the commission regarding her allegations of voter fraud by the county clerk.

Carper had a strongly worded letter hand-delivered to Thompson Wednesday. In the letter, Carper asks Thompson to publicly present evidence of her claims.

“If you do not have proof of these allegations through evidence, I would recommend you withdraw your contestation and apologize,” he wrote in the letter. “I’ll call a special meeting for her to come in if I have to,” he said when reached by phone Wednesday.

Peru: Accusations and acrimony as Peruvians go the polls | The Independent

Bitterly divided, and with the hand of history weighing uneasily on their shoulders, the people of Peru went to the polls yesterday to select a new President. The race is too close to call and, regardless of the outcome, seems likely to result in an acrimonious recount and allegations of voter fraud.

The election required voters to make what observers called an “unhappy choice” between two polarising figures from opposite ends of the political spectrum. Both candidates devoted recent weeks to explaining away scandalous episodes from their past, and convincing the nation that they won’t pursue an extremist agenda.

Missouri: Todd Akin votes in Town and Country, but does he live there? | stltoday.com

U.S. Rep. Todd Akin raised his family on a sprawling homestead in this St. Louis County burg, where a modest home now sits among a collection of weathered sheds. Earlier this month, old newspapers had accumulated in the long driveway that separates the property from surrounding suburban mansions.

About 18 miles west, the Republican congressman and his wife own a secluded ranch house near the county line in Wildwood. On a recent afternoon, Akin’s Chevrolet Blazer was parked out front, and a dog sat in the driveway.

Which house is Akin’s official residence?

China: Grassroot elections show path best suited for Chinese democracy | GlobalTimes

Authorities in South China’s Guangdong Province recently reported 12 typical cases of voter fraud in local village elections since 2008. Candidates tried to rig the elections by buying votes, tampering ballots and even grabbing ballot boxes to prevent people from voting.

Differing from Western practice, China’s democratic experiment has adopted a bottom-up path. Village elections, first launched in 1987, have prevailed nationwide since the early 1990s.

Some liberal scholars simply describe China’s democratization as copying the Western model, and fail to observe the specific conditions of the nation. Just like other countries undergoing social transformation, China has seen its own problems in its experiments with democratization.

Indiana: Indiana court denies delay in White case | Indystar

The Indiana Supreme Court said Friday the state recount commission should go ahead and reconsider whether Republican Secretary of State Charlie White was a valid candidate for the office to which he was elected. Democrats challenged White’s candidacy after the November election, saying he wasn’t eligible to seek the office. A Hamilton County grand jury…