GOP secretaries of state raise alarm about non-citizen voting
02/12/15 03:51 PM
By Zachary Roth
WASHINGTON – A group of Republican state election officials took their campaign to raise the alarm about an alleged epidemic of non-citizen voting to Washington this week.
At a Beltway conference and in testimony on Capitol Hill, several GOP secretaries of state called for added safeguards to prevent voting by non-citizens, and said President Obama’s executive order on immigration will increase the threat.
“I’m concerned about it,” Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach said in an interview Wednesday while attending a conference held by the National Association of Secretaries of State. “It’s a very real problem of aliens registering to vote.”
In a letter sent late last month to Obama, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted warned that the immigration order, which shields around 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation, would worsen the problem by adding to the number of non-citizens who have driver’s licenses, which can then be used to register to vote. The White House has not responded to the letter.
Husted declined an interview request at the conference. But Kobach said he shares Husted’s concern.
“If you increase the population of people who are not U.S. citizens getting driver’s licenses, it necessarily follows that these errors that keep happening will increase as well,” said Kobach, a former Bush administration aide who, before running for elected office, played a prominent role in drafting and promoting some of the harshest state-based immigration laws.
On Thursday, both Kobach and Husted reinforced those concerns in testimony before a House committee.
“It is a certainty that the administration’s executive actions will result in a large number of additional aliens registering to vote throughout the country,” Kobach said in his opening statement. “In states like Kansas, we have been working hard to address the problem of aliens illegally voting in our elections. The administration’s actions have set us back in our efforts, increasing the risk of stolen elections and gravely undermining the rule of law.”
Kobach called the problem of non-citizens registering to vote “a massive one, nationwide.”
Husted’s testimony was more measured. He acknowledged that non-citizen voting is not a “systemic or widespread problem,” but nonetheless called on the federal government to share access to databases that would let state officials track non-citizens with social security numbers.
In his testimony, Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap, a Democrat, offered a different view, saying fears about non-citizen voting were “completely without basis.”
Indeed, voting by non-citizens is extremely rare. A 2013 investigation conducted by Husted’s office found that just 17 non-citizens voted in Ohio in 2012. That’s even though nearly 200,000 non-citizens in the state already have driver’s licenses, according to the state’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Obama’s immigration order is expected to affect around 25,000 people in the state.
One non-partisan expert last week, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told msnbc last week the issue is “much ado about nothing” and “political posturing.”
Still, Kobach said in the interview that the immigration order offers more ammunition for his position in a court case he’s currently pursuing against the federal government over whether he has the power to require that people show proof of citizenship when they register to vote. The Election Assistance Commission, a federal agency, argues that states can’t change the federal voter registration form to impose additional requirements. That form already requires people to attest, on penalty of perjury, that they are citizens.
During a presentation by the EAC commissioners at the conference Wednesday, Kobach asked them directly about the scope of their authority on the issue. And when all the secretaries of state were asked to name their top priorities for the year, Kobach said his was to prevail in the case and return control of voter registration process to the states.
There was plenty support for Kobach’s crusade from other Republicans. Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, seated next to Kobach, asked the commissioners whether and when they might rule on the Kansan’s request (Georgia, too, wants to require proof of citizenship from those registering to vote.) Wyoming’s Ed Murray said he agreed with Kobach about the need for states to control the process. And Colorado’s Wayne Williams asked the commissioners whether the EAC should exist at all.
Separately, Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske said in a brief interview she’s “very confident” that her state will pass a voter ID law. Cegavske, a Republican and voter ID supporter, said three separate bills are currently being drafted.
Cegavske added that the lawmakers are looking to Indiana’s ID measure as a model, because it was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2008. That law is classified as “strict” by the National Conference of State Legislatures.
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/gop-secre...citizen-voting
Obama amnesty creates loophole for illegal immigrants to vote in elections
Driver’s licenses, social security numbers facilitate improper registration, officials warn
By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Thursday, February 12, 2015
President Obama's temporary deportation amnesty will make it easier for illegal immigrants to improperly register and vote in elections, state elections officials testified to Congress on Thursday, saying that the driver's licenses and Social Security numbers they will be granted create a major voting loophole.
While stressing that it remains illegal for noncitizens to vote, secretaries of state from Ohio and Kansas said they won't have the tools to sniff out illegal immigrants who register anyway, ignoring stiff penalties to fill out the registration forms that are easily available at shopping malls, motor vehicle bureaus and in curbside registration drives.
Anyone registering to vote attests that he or she is a citizen, but Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted said mass registration drives often aren't able to give due attention to that part, and so illegal immigrants will still get through.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris W. Kobach said even some motor vehicle bureau workers automatically ask customers if they want to register to vote, which some noncitizens in the past have cited as their reason for breaking the law to register.
"It's a guarantee it will happen," Mr. Kobach said.
Democrats disputed that it was an issue at all, saying Mr. Obama's new policy, which could apply to more than 4 million illegal immigrants, doesn't change anything in state or federal law.
Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia's nonvoting member of Congress, accused Republicans of an effort at voter suppression.
"The president's executive order gives immigrants the right to stay — immigrants who have been here for years, immigrants who have been working hard and whose labor we have needed," Ms. Norton said. "The Republicans may want to go down in history as the party who tried once again 100 years later to nullify the right to vote. Well, I am here to say they shall not succeed."
Rep. Stephen F. Lynch, Massachusetts Democrat, said he doubted illegal immigrants would risk running afoul of the law — which could get them deported — just to be an insignificant part of an election.
The hearing was the latest GOP effort to dent Mr. Obama's executive action, announced in November, which grants tentative legal status and work permits to as many as 4 million illegal immigrant parents whose children are either U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents. The president also expanded a 2012 policy for so-called Dreamers, or illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, granting them tentative legal status and work permits as well.
Republicans say there are a host of unintended consequences, including the chances of illegal voting, a perverse incentive created by Obamacare that would make newly legalized workers more attractive to some businesses than American workers and complications with the tax code.
The newly legalized workers can apply for back refunds from the IRS even for years when they didn't file their taxes, agency Commissioner John Koskinen told Congress on Wednesday.
Mr. Koskinen said the White House never spoke with him about potential consequences before Mr. Obama announced his policy changes. The secretaries of state who testified to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Thursday said they too never heard from Mr. Obama ahead of time.
Mr. Husted has written the Obama administration asking for help in identifying the name and date of birth of all noncitizens who get Social Security numbers, which he said would allow states to go back and clear illegally registered voters from their rolls.
He said the administration hasn't responded.
"Why I wrote the letter is I want to comply with federal law," he said.
Matthew Dunlap, Maine's secretary of state, said he believed the laws already on the books are good enough to stop any voting mischief in his state, and he doubted illegal immigrants had incentive or intent to try to interfere with U.S. elections.
"My experience is they don't come here to vote, and they don't come here to drive. They come here for a better life," he said.
Mr. Kobach countered with a story about a legal permanent resident who had not yet become a citizen but who registered and voted nonetheless, and who said she wanted to support candidates who would help her earn citizenship faster.
Only four states require proof of citizenship before someone registers to vote, Mr. Kobach said. And even in those states, the federal government offers voter registration cards that don't require proof of citizenship, giving determined illegal immigrants a way to circumvent checks.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...mmigra/?page=1
The Real Agenda Behind Obama’s Lawbreaking Amnesty
The depths of evil this administration will explore no longer surprises me.
L. Todd Wood — February 13, 2015
the United States illegally can stay if they want to–and that HE gets to decide who those people are, not Congress. Conservatives and independents have real problems with this blatant, illegal usurpation of power that the Founders intended for the legislative branch of government. We have all watched as those here in the country illegally have demonstrated and even demanded equal rights and privileges as American citizens–as they are no longer afraid of law enforcement in this country.
Concerns about the effects on American workers, crime, and terrorism have been at the forefront of the discussion amongst the Right. However, the White House’s real agenda was made clear by officials testifying in front of Congress this week. The Washington Times reports:
Quote:
President Obama’s temporary deportation amnesty will make it easier for illegal immigrants to improperly register and vote in elections, state elections officials testified to Congress on Thursday, saying that the driver’s licenses and Social Security numbers they will be granted create a major voting loophole.
Having illegals vote in elections in the United States illegally for Democratic candidates (who will then put into place laws that allow them and their friends and families to become citizens and hop on the American gravy train) is the Holy Grail for the Democratic (or should I say anti-American) Party. To the Left, the end justifies the means. With voter ID laws being passed around the country, an illegal with a drivers license and social security number can still vote!
What a deal!
The Times goes on to say:
Quote:
Kansas Secretary of State Kris W. Kobach said even some motor vehicle bureau workers automatically ask customers if they want to register to vote, which some noncitizens in the past have cited as their reason for breaking the law to register. It’s a guarantee it will happen,” Mr. Kobach said.
No wonder Obama pushed so hard to get his version of immigration reform through Congress and then just decreed his agenda illegally when Congress didn’t act. Now, the Dems can just get as many illegal aliens in the country as possible; and Obama can decree that they can vote! Presto: that change he was looking for in America just happened.
The depths of evil this administration will explore no longer surprises me.
http://www.westernjournalism.com/rea...2eAgdKvmVBR.97
