Investigators seek massive North Carolina voting records

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Gary D. Robertson, Associated Press
Updated 5:35 pm CDT, Wednesday, September 5, 2018



Photo: Gerry Broome, AP
FILE - In this Oct. 20, 2016, file photo, people line up under the morning sun for early voting at a center in Raleigh, N.C. Federal investigators in North Carolina are seeking an enormous number of voting records from dozens of state and local election offices weeks before the midterm elections. Documents and the state elections board confirmed the U.S. Attorney's Office in Raleigh issued subpoenas recently on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to the state board and local boards in more than 40 counties.


RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Federal investigators in North Carolina are seeking an enormous number of voting records from dozens of election offices weeks before the midterm elections, demands that may signal their expanded efforts to prosecute illegal voting by people who are not U.S. citizens.

. . .

The subpoenas direct the information — which the state elections board estimates would cover well over 20 million documents — be provided to a Wilmington grand jury Sept. 25, or before that to a Raleigh-area immigration agent. Higdon's office had no comment Wednesday, a spokeswoman said. Last month's news release said the investigation into voting fraud was ongoing.

Still, voting rights activists described the massive document request as a fishing expedition that could discourage lawful voting. Separately, election officials are worried about trying to meet the deadline while gearing up to administer elections for Congress, legislature and constitutional amendments. Counties could seek deadline delays and the state board plans to discuss its subpoena at a Friday meeting.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Investigators-seek-massive-North-Carolina-voting-13206931.php

[ToTheStreets]

1. GOP

The current GOP is the biggest threat this country has ever faced.

[underthematrix]

2. This is puzzling because there are 12 House seats

and the Repubs have 9. They have both senate seats. This may be a cover for something else.

[joet67]

3. They're just trying to obfuscate the whole gerrymandering problem they have. nt

[msongs]

4. vote suppression. election fraud. racist republican extortion. but wait, there's more.... nt

[Midnight Writer]

5. They are losing the gerrymander case, so they are moving to Plan B: Voter Suppression.

[wishstar]

6. Meanwhile no federal resources to safeguard systems from Russian hacking

"Kareem Crayton with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice said the subpoenas "raise very troubling questions about the necessity and wisdom of federal interference with the pending statewide elections."
"With so many well-established threats to our election process from abroad, it is odd to see federal resources directed to this particular concern," Crayton said in a release.
Greg Flynn, vice chairman of the Wake County elections board, which received a subpoena, said he's concerned the solemnity of the secret ballot will be threatened should investigators scrutinize absentee ballots. Unlike ballots cast on Election Day, absentee ballots can be linked back to the individual voter. The state elections board counts nearly 2.3 million such traceable ballots cast during the five-year period in the 44 counties.
"The broad scope of this subpoena suggests that they don't understand how elections work and how elections are managed," Flynn said in an interview."

This seems to be purely political on two fronts- to attack immigrants and make voters think there is massive fraud requiring passage of Voter ID laws.

[pnwmom]

7. Why doesn't this violate the Justice Department policy of not taking actions within 60 days

that would affect an election? The deadline is September 25.

Isn't this going to affect races all over the state?

[DeminPennswoods]

8. It's a mess

The federal court has ruled twice now that NC's congressional districts are unfairly gerrymandered. Had their second ruling not come so close to the mid-terms, they would have ordered a new map. There's no doubt after the mid-terms, there will be a court order to draw new districts.

[pnwmom]

9. This is a whole separate issue. This is about allegations of voter fraud. n/t

[DeminPennswoods]

11. It's just a general mess in NC

gerry-mandering, voter suppression, trying to usurp the gov's powers and so on.

[bucolic_frolic]

10. NC has been under Republican control for quite awhile

Are they trying to prove state officials were lax, or were their actions lax in order to feed such a case?

I actually don't think they're going to find very much. Voting illegally does not produce a certain, immediate payout. Any chance of "success" is vague, uncertain, dependent on party. Who is going to jump through all the hoops for voting illegally with such dismal outcome? The number of party zealots in illegal immigrants (a small population to begin with) who would actually vote must be a tiny tiny number indeed.

More likely would be fake illegal voters to feed this twisted case.