Ex DOJ Voting Rights Chief: "It's Going to Take a Long Time to Cleanse" Department
By Zachary Roth - October 17, 2008, 5:34PM
A former top Department of Justice voting rights official -- who once worked with John McCain in defense of the senator's campaign-finance reform bill -- has added his name to the growing chorus that is denouncing the department's investigation of ACORN as a shameful and inappropriate politicization of Justice along the lines of the US attorney firings.
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He continued: "That's really not the proper role for the DOJ, and why their policies counsel otherwise."
To demonstrate that point, Hebert provided TPMmuckraker with a copy of the department's Manual on Federal Prosecution of Election Offenses.
Under a section headlined "Investigative Considerations in Election Fraud Cases", the manual reads:
When investigating election fraud, three considerations that are absent from most criminal investigations must be kept in mind: (1) respect for the primary role of the states in administering the voting process, (2) an awareness of the role of the election in the governmental process, and (3) sensitivity to the exercise of First Amendment rights in the election context. As a result there are limitations on various investigative steps in an election fraud case.
In most cases, election-related documents should not be taken from the custody of local election administrators until the election to which they pertain has been certified, and the time for contesting the election results has expired. This avoids interfering with the governmental processes affected by the election
Another limitation affects voter interviews. Election fraud cases often depend on the testimony of individual voters whose votes were co-opted in one way or another. But in most cases voters should not be interviewed, or other voter-related investigation done, until after the election is over. Such overt investigative steps may chill legitimate voting activities. They are also likely to be perceived by voters and candidates as an intrusion into the election. Indeed, the fact of a federal criminal investigation may itself become an issue in the election.
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http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/ex_doj_voting_rights_chief_its.phpI WISH KEITH OR RACHEL WOULD HAVE SOMEONE FROM TPM ON-THEIR COVERAGE HAS BEEN EXCELLENT!
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