http://www.elections.virginia.gov/wp...ardoCortes.png
This is where production of records required to be released effectively stopped. Over the courseof August and September 2016, responses from election officials rolled in, each one explainingthat state election officials had instructed them not to provide lists of non-citizens who hadbeen removed from Virginia’s voter rolls.The responses were nearly identical and soon it became clear thatthey were orchestrated by
Edgardo Cortes, the
Commissioner ofthe Virginia Department of Elections, and an appointee of
Governor McAuliffe. According to numerous county electionofficials, Commissioner Cortes had issued guidance to them,instructing them not to respond to our requests for recordspertaining to non-citizen voters. Some election officials kindlyprovided us the original communications from Cortes.The guidance from Commissioner Cortes included these instructions(19)
SEE CORTES' GUIDANCE ON PAGE 9 OF THE REPORT.
This is what a cover-up of alien voting looks like.
State election officials are preventing publicaccess not only to records showing the number of non-citizens who have successfully registeredto vote, but also records showing how many of them voted prior to being removed from theregistration rolls. 19
The email is reproduced in its entirety at Exhibit 5 to this report.10
Commissioner Cortes’ guidance was distributed statewide on August 19, 2016. Yet not untilSeptember 16 did Commissioner Cortes contact PILF. In his correspondence, CommissionerCortes offered to provide a “customized report” at a cost of $240,20 a report that he claimedwould satisfy our request concerning non-citizens. It wouldn’t.
Commission Cortes refused to provide a list of non-citizens who have been purged from theregistration list in each jurisdiction. He likewise refused to provide the voting history ofpurged non-citizens, reiterating his position that such information is not subject to release underthe NVRA’s public inspection provision, but is available only to “qualified entities” underlimited circumstances.21
The Virginia State Board of Election’s Excuses to Hide theScope of Alien Registration
The Drivers Privacy Protect ActAccording to the guidance issued to county election officials, Commissioner Cortes states that alist of registrants purged from Virginia’s registration lists cannot be provided to the publicbecause such information is protected from release by the federal Driver’s Privacy ProtectionAct (DPPA). This is nonsense.
The DPPA makes it “unlawful for any person knowingly to obtain or disclose personalinformation, from a motor vehicle record, for any use not permitted” by one of fourteenexceptions to the prohibition on disclosure.22 According to Commissioner Cortes, neither generalregistrars nor the Department of Elections can disclose a list of registrations cancelled byelection officials because, according to him, a registrant’s citizenship status, as indicated on hisdriver’s license application, is “personal information.”
Commissioner Cortes is plainly wrong fornumerous reasons.PILF seeks list maintenance records from election officials, not from any other state agency. TheDPPA prohibits only the disclosure of “personal information” from a “motor vehicle record.” 23“Motor vehicle record” is defined by the law; it includes “any record that pertains to a motorvehicle operator’s permit, motor vehicle title, motor vehicle registration, or identification cardissued by a department of motor vehicles.”24 Neither the registrant’s citizenship status nor thereason for the registrant’s cancelation is “personal information” under the DPPA. 20
This cost was later waived after we informed Commissioner Cortes that the NVRA permitselection officials to charge “reasonable costs” for “photocopying” only. 52 U.S.C. § 20507(i)(1).It does not permit election officials to impose costs for time spent producing records.21 The email is reproduced in its entirety at Exhibit 6 to this report.
22 18 U.S.C. § 2722(a).
23 18 U.S.C. § 2722(a).
24 18 U.S.C. § 2722(a).11
The DPPA prohibits the disclosure of only “personal information” and highly restricted personalinformation.”25 “Personal information” is defined by the law; it includes “information thatidentifies an individual, including an individual’s photograph, social security number, driveridentification number, name, address (but not the 5-digit zip code), telephone number, andmedical or disability information.”26 “Highly restricted personal information” is “an individual’sphotograph or image, social security number, medical or disability information.”27
List maintenance records pertaining to the removal of aliens from the rolls has nothing to do witha motor vehicle record or any protected personal information or highly restricted personalinformation.Voter HistoryCommission Cortes’ guidance directed local election officials to conceal records.
ADDITIONALLY:
Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe is also doing his part to make voting by non-citizens eveneasier. In April 2015, Governor McAuliffe vetoed legislation31 that would have required jurycommissioners to retain information from individuals not qualified to serve as jurors for reasonsthat would also disqualify them from voting, such as
•
not being a citizen of the United States
• no longer being a resident of the Commonwealth
• being a resident of another county or city in the Commonwealth
• having been convicted of a felony and having not provided evidence that their right tovote has been restored, or
•
having been adjudicated incapacitated.
The bill would have required the clerk of court to “make such information available to localelections officials so that they could cancel the registration of those individuals deemedineligible to vote. The bill’s purpose was clear: prevent ineligible residents from registering andvoting in Virginia’s elections.
Governor McAuliffe gave essentially no justification for his vetoof this commonsense law, stating only that the issue needed “addition study.”32 31 House Bill 1315, available at
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgibin/legp5...B1315ER+pdf.32 http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp...md+HB1315AG.16
It is unlikely that this report, or any amount of evidence demonstrating the rampant electionfraud taking place in Virginia, will convince Governor McAuliffe that additional safeguards toneeded to protect the voting rights of his constituents.Systems Failure: Inviting Aliens to Stay on the Rolls
https://publicinterestlegal.org/file...n-Virginia.pdf
