Thread: Virginia’s governor-elect Terry McAuliffe already moving against guns

November 25, 2013 By Kyle Ebersole

Virginia’s governor-elect Terry McAuliffe already moving against guns

Virginia’s governor-elect Terry McAuliffe tapped anti-gun activist Lori Haas to serve in his 54-member “transition team” come January, 2014.
Haas has been an organizer for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence since 2010 and serves as the organization’s director in the Virginia Commonwealth. She has lobbied for gun legislation in Washington, DC and Richmond, Va. on numerous occasions.
The CSGV website reveals the organization’s mission statement as follows:

1) We are taking an aggressive approach with political advocacy. Our message to elected officials is simple: “The era of no accountability is over. If you do the NRA’s bidding and put our loved ones in the line of fire, we will educate your constituents about your record.” This strategy involves the use of social media campaigns and hard-hitting TV, radio and print ads.
2) We are building personal relationships with legislators and challenging them to become dedicated, long-term advocates for sensible gun laws. The victims and survivors of gun violence on our staff are the leaders in this lobbying effort. We are also looking to facilitate the advocacy of state/local activists whenever and wherever we can.
3) We are the first gun violence prevention group to talk about the issue in terms of democratic values, and to use the term “insurrectionism” to describe the NRA’s treasonous interpretation of the Second Amendment. By exposing the hypocrisy of the NRA’s “freedom” message, we have reframed the debate and put them on the defensive.

McAuliffe’s appointment of a CSGV organizer, in addition to the fact that his gubernatorial campaign was funded in part by Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns, shows that Virginians ought to expect a fight over their natural and constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms.

Tell your state government to declare gun-control laws “null and void”! Sign and send petitions here.

Tagged as: Gun Control, gun rights, lori haas, Terry McAuliffe

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http://www.conservativeactionalerts....-against-guns/

OCTOBER 3, 2014 3:29 PM
Something Is Rotten in the State of Virginia

Is anyone surprised by corruption in the McAuliffe administration?

By Charles C. W. Cooke

OCTOBER 3, 2014 3:29 PM

To the untrained eye, Virginia’s political scandals are beginning to become indistinguishable from one another. Reading reports last night of yet another brouhaha in the mother of states, my tired eyes struggled to place the words on the page in their appropriate context. For a brief moment at least, “McAuliffe” and “McDonnell” were one and the same; “Macca” slurred effortlessly into “Macaca”; and the cardinal sins of job-selling, gift-taking, and good old-fashioned bribery melted into a single morass, leaving me to wonder whether there is anyone left in Richmond who is on the level.

Americans are accustomed to wrongdoing in Chicago and Louisiana, and to such an extent that leaders in those places make the news these days if they do not end up disgraced or incarcerated. But now that the Old Dominion has been invaded by New Washington, one has to wonder whether Virginia, too, will join the ranks of the permanently iniquitous. It was, after all, only one month ago that Republican Bob McDonnell was found guilty of eleven counts of corruption, having taken more than $165,000 worth of gifts and loans from a businessman who wanted his company promoted. Now the mansion at Capitol Square is in the spotlight again. Per a report in the Washington Post, Governor Terry McAuliffe’s chief of staff, Paul Reagan, has been caught in a brazen and illegal attempt to induce a state senator to delay his retirement — an attempt that Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey suggestsconvincingly simply had to have come from the top. In June, the Post reports, Reagan “left a voice-mail message for a Democrat who was on the verge of quitting the General Assembly . . . saying that the senator’s daughter might get a top state job if he stayed to support the governor’s push to expand Medicaid.” Initially, McAuliffe’s spokesman denied the charge. But, having been “read a transcript of Reagan’s message,” the point was swiftly conceded. Conveniently enough, federal investigators were already on the scene in Richmond, the Democratic party having previously accused Republicans of playing a similar game. Time will tell which charges stick, but, if the Post’s Aaron Blake is to be believed, “McAuliffe’s got problems.”

Those who are wondering how a governor’s chief of staff could possibly be so unyieldingly naïve as to willingly record his corruption on tape might take a moment to remember who Terry McAuliffe is — and, for that matter, with whom he has typically elected to surround himself. Moreover, one might examine how he found himself in his present sinecure. As, in times of old, service rendered to the king would eventually garner a lord or lady a lucrative country seat, McAuliffe is now reaping the rewards of years spent assisting both the Clinton machine and the Democratic party at large. It is rare to witness an election in which a candidate is loathed as keenly by his supporters as by his opponents, but somehow McAuliffe managed to pull it off, benefiting ultimately from his powerful connections and the perceived extremism of his opponent and not from any talent for governing of his own. He is, Salon’s Alex Pareene wrote in 2013, “a soulless political animal with no redeeming human characteristics” whatsoever, and he is useful to his champions not as an independent leader but as a loyal and protean pawn who will do whatever it takes to get his own way. If Virginia is eventually to descend into the mire, voters could not have selected a better doyen than McAuliffe to steer the state downwards.

To his credit, perhaps, McAuliffe has never sought to conceal who he is. Rather, he has proven to be so startlingly candid about his sociopathy that he saw fit to compile the details into a book. Demonstrating an alarming lack of understanding as to how normal people operate, McAuliffe proudly recounted in his autobiography no fewer than five occasions on which he had left his wife in distress in order to go raise money — one of which, astonishingly, came while she was giving birth to his daughter. This, it seems, is par for the course. In consequence, even endorsements of him end up sounding like denunciations. McAuliffe is “the ultimate political insider” and “a self-described wheeler-dealer,” the Washington Post observed in the course of announcing its support for his candidacy, and “his stock in trade has been playing the angles where access and profit intersect.” Nevertheless, the paper proposed, he takes “sensible stands on key issues.” Among those “key issues” was Medicaid. Is anybody surprised that in pursuit of his goal, McAuliffe reverted to type?

In one sense at least, there is a perverse logic to McAuliffe’s tenure. If, as they routinely tell pollsters, American voters believe all of their politicians to be intractably corrupt, there is a refreshing honesty in their wishing to elect those who are the most upfront about their flaws. And yet, one suspects that McAuliffe is the product of something more than just mass electoral candor. As the United States becomes more politically divided, the scope for charlatans and hirelings will inevitably increase, character and judgment being less important in the age of Leviathan than ideological conformity and naked self-interest. Last year in Virginia, Republican Ken Cuccinelli evidently scared just enough of the electorate to permit McAuliffe to take charge, voters who were fully aware of how likely their charge was to embarrass them electing to return him anyhow. That such a man should be anywhere near a seat that, at various points and in one form or another has been held by Sir Walter Raleigh, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and James Monroe, is, historically speaking, rather distressing. That he should be the second governor in a year to find himself embroiled in a scandal does not bode well for the future. But if the machine rolls on unchecked, this is precisely what we should expect: sure, voters and power-players will say, he’s as crooked as they come, but he’ll direct the behemoth in my favor.
— Charles C. W. Cooke is a staff writer at National Review.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/389533/something-rotten-state-virginia-charles-c-w-cooke

I read these accounts of crooked political machines and sleazy backroom deals made by professional politicians with disgust. How do these people gain office? Through Voter fraud. It has become so pervasive that I cannot believe the Democrats and the NAACP go on record and claim that it doesn't exist as they cynically fight voter ID.

These are a few highlights for Virginia.

July 26, 2012: Voter Fraud and Voter-Registration Fraud in Virginia

A felon living in Louisa County [Virginia] registered to vote illegally and then cast a ballot in the 2008 presidential election after filling out and submitting a voter-registration form she received by mail from the Voter Participation Center, a State Senator who prosecuted the case confirmed Wednesday.

The case is the first known instance of voter fraud that resulted from voter registration mailings by the Voter Participation Center, a nonprofit that has distributed 5 million third-party registration forms across the country and nearly 200,000 in Virginia this year targeting Democrat-leaning voting blocs, such as unmarried women, young people and minorities.

State election officials and local registrars say hundreds, if not thousands, of the forms have been sent to ineligible voters, including dead relatives, children, non-U.S. citizens, already registered voters, and pets. The voting group, which has ties to progressive organizations, fills in the documents with the names and addresses of the people they are trying to reach.

In 2010, then Louisa County Commonwealth's Attorney Thomas A. Garrett Jr. — now a State Senator — prosecuted Bonnie Nicholson, 57, on felony charges of illegally registering to vote and unlawfully casting a ballot in the 2008 general election. (Source)

August 2012: Voter-Registration Fraud in Virginia

All is not well in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The state has announced the shocking preliminary results of an extensive police investigation of voter registration "irregularities" – a polite word for the ugly reality of voter fraud.

As the Richmond Times-Dispatch has reported, the investigation has resulted in charges filed against 38 people across the state, with a warrant issued for a 39th person who can't be found. " According to reports, most of those cases have resulted in convictions, while 26 more cases continue to be investigated "nearly 3 years after the Board of Elections forwarded more than 400 voter and election fraud allegations from 62 cities and counties to the Virginia State Police for individual investigation." And Richmond, the city with the highest minority population in the group, had the largest number of election "irregularities" referred for prosecution.

The scam in several jurisdictions involved left-wing voter advocacy groups asking convicted felons to register to vote even though their felon-status prevented them from casting a legal ballot. These liberal groups would convince the felons that they could register to vote and that their voting rights had been or would be restored. "Don't worry," they essentially said, "just register and we'll take care of the legalities." In the end, Virginia officials now believe, the felons cast illegal votes, which effectively diluted and nullified the votes of law-abiding Virginians. (Source)

August 6, 2012: Voter-Registration Fraud in Virginia

Virginia election officials decided Monday to not take action against a D.C. group that sent voter registration cards to dead people, children and pets and prompted calls for an investigation from Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

The Virginia Board of Elections said it was already working with the Voter Participation Center to improve the group's registration practices so ineligible voters would not be targeted in the future.

Romney's campaign recently called for an investigation of the group, which targeted minorities and young voters when it sent out 200,000 registration cards. The campaign said it was satisfied with the board's decision.

"The Voter Participation Center has already admitted its misconduct, and we are glad that the State Board of Elections quickly convened a meeting on the issue," said Romney spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg. "Even in the absence of a formal investigation, we are heartened that the group is being forced to stop mailing misleading, [partially completed] voter registration forms in Virginia."

The Voter Participation Center's effort led to about 15,000 legal registrations, though the group admitted that many ineligible voters also inadvertently received cards. State election officials said they received hundreds of complaints about the group's latest mailing. (Source) and (Source)


August 9, 2012: Dead People on the Voter Rolls in Virginia

Around 10,000 deceased people were recently found on Virginia's voter rolls by the State Board of Elections. (Source)

August 11, 2012: Voter Fraud in Iowa

An Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation agent has been assigned to work full-time with Secretary of State Matt Schultz's office to look into allegations of voter fraud, the Republican election chief's top cause, state officials confirmed Friday.

Schultz's office said it will spend up to $280,000 in tax dollars over the next two years for the services of Special Agent Daniel Dawson, who has been reassigned from the major crimes unit to work exclusively on voting and election fraud issues. DCI assistant director Charis Paulson said Dawson is already looking into about 2,000 possible voter fraud violations identified through data matching performed by Schultz's office. (Source)

August 31, 2012: Voter Rolls with Large Numbers of Ineligible Names

Months after Judicial Watch warned election officials in a key battleground state to remove ineligible voters from its rolls JW has uncovered an alarming case that proves the integrity and legitimacy of the electoral process is not being ensured as required by federal law.

The story, out of Florida, is almost unbelievable but JW has all the documentation to prove it. JW obtained publicly available data that indicates voter rolls around the country—including key swing states—contain the names of individuals who are ineligible to vote. They include Mississippi, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Florida, Alabama, California, and Colorado. JW found that there appear to be more individuals on voter registration lists in these states than there are individuals eligible to vote, including dead people. (Source)

IF YOU THOUGHT THAT ACORN WAS A THING OF THE PAST.
February 5, 2014: Voter Fraud in Multiple States (ACORN):

AR – 1998: A contractor with ACORN-affiliated Project Vote was arrested for falsifying about 400 voter registration cards.

CO – 2005: Two ex-ACORN employees were convicted in Denver of perjury for submitting false voter registrations.
– 2004: An ACORN employee admitted to forging signatures and registering three of her friends to vote 40 times.

CT – 2008: The New York Post reported that ACORN submitted a voter registration card for a 7-year-old Bridgeport girl. Another 8,000 cards from the same city will be scrutinized for possible fraud.

FL – 2009: In September, 11 ACORN workers were accused of forging voter registration applications in Miami-Dade County during the last election. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the state attorney’s office scoured hundreds of suspicious applications provided by ACORN and found 197 of 260 contained personal ID information that did not match any living person.
– 2008: Election officials in Brevard County have given prosecutors more than 23 suspect registrations from ACORN. The state's Division of Elections is also investigating complaints in Orange and Broward Counties.
– 2004: A Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokesman said ACORN was “singled out” among suspected voter registration groups for a 2004 wage initiative because it was “the common thread” in the agency’s fraud investigations.

IN – 2008: Election officials in Indiana have thrown out more than 4,000 ACORN-submitted voter registrations after finding they had identical handwriting and included the names of many deceased Indianans, and even the name of a fast food restaurant.

MI – 2008: Clerks in Detroit found a "sizeable number of duplicate and fraudulent [voter] applications" from the Michigan branch of ACORN. Those applications have been turned over to the U.S. Attorney's office for investigation.
– 2004: The Detroit Free Press reported that “overzealous or unscrupulous campaign workers in several Michigan counties are under investigation for voter-registration fraud, suspected of attempting to register nonexistent people or forging applications for already-registered voters.” ACORN-affiliate Project Vote was one of two groups suspected of turning in the documents.

MO – 2008: Nearly 400 ACORN-submitted registrations in Kansas City have been rejected due to duplication or fake information.
– 2007: Four ACORN employees were indicted in Kansas City for charges including identity theft and filing false registrations during the 2006 election.
– 2006: Eight ACORN employees in St. Louis were indicted on federal election fraud charges. Each of the eight faces up to five years in prison for forging signatures and submitting false information.
– 2003: Of 5,379 voter registration cards ACORN submitted in St. Louis, only 2,013 of those appeared to be valid. At least 1,000 are believed to be attempts to register voters illegally.

MN – 2004: During a traffic stop, police found more than 300 voter registration cards in the trunk of a former ACORN employee, who had violated a legal requirements that registration cards be submitted to the Secretary of State within 10 days of being filled out and signed.

NC – 2008: County elections officials have sent suspicious voter registration applications to the state Board of Elections. Many of the ACORN submitted applications had similar or identical names, but with different addresses or dates of birth.
– 2004: North Carolina officials investigated ACORN for submitting fake voter registration cards.

NM – 2008: Prosecutors are investigating more than 1,100 ACORN-submitted voter registration cards after a county clerk found them to be fraudulent. Many of the cards included duplicate names and slightly altered personal information.
– 2005: Four ACORN employees submitted as many as 3,000 potentially fraudulent signatures on the group’s Albuquerque ballot initiative. A local sheriff added: “It’s safe to say the forgery was widespread.”
– 2004: An ACORN employee registered a 13-year-old boy to vote. Citing this and other examples, New Mexico State Representative Joe Thompson stated that ACORN was “manufacturing voters” throughout New Mexico.

NV – 2009: Nevada authorities indicted ACORN on 26 counts of voter registration fraud and 13 counts of illegally compensating canvassers. ACORN provided a bonus compensation program called “Blackjack” or “21+” for any canvasser who registered more than 20 voters per shift, which is illegal under Nevada law.
– 2008: Nevada state authorities raided ACORN's Las Vegas headquarters as part of a task force investigation of election fraud. Fraudulent registrations included players from the Dallas Cowboys.

OH – 2008: ACORN activists gave Ohio residents cash and cigarettes in exchange for filling out voter registration card, according to theNew York Post. Some voters claim to have registered dozens of times, and one man says he signed up on 72 cards.
– 2007: A man in Reynoldsburg was indicted on two felony counts of illegal voting and false registration, after being registered by ACORN to vote in two separate counties.
– 2004: A grand jury indicted a Columbus ACORN worker for submitting a false signature and false voter registration form. In Franklin County, two ACORN workers submitted what the director of the board of election supervisors called “blatantly false” forms. In Cuyahoga County, ACORN and its affiliate Project Vote submitted registration cards that had the highest rate of errors for any voter registration group.

PA – 2009: Seven ACORN workers in the Pittsburgh area were indicted for submitting falsified voter registration forms. Six of the seven were also indicted for registering voters under an illegal quota system.
– 2008: State election officials have thrown out 57,435 voter registrations, the majority of which were submitted by ACORN. The registrations were thrown out after officials found "clearly fraudulent" signatures, vacant lots listed as addresses, and other signs of fraud.
– 2008: An ACORN employee in West Reading, PA, was sentenced to up to 23 months in prison for identity theft and tampering with records. A second ACORN worker pleaded not guilty to the same charges and is free on $10,000 bail.
– 2004: Reading’s Director of Elections received calls from numerous individuals complaining that ACORN employees deliberately put inaccurate information on their voter registration forms. The Berks County director of elections said voter fraud was “absolutely out of hand,” and added: “Not only do we have unintentional duplication of voter registration but we have blatant duplicate voter registrations.” The Berks County deputy director of elections added that ACORN was under investigation by the Department of Justice.

TX – 2008: In Harris County, nearly 10,000 ACORN-submitted registrations were found to be invalid, including many with clearly fraudulent addresses or other personal information.
– 2008: ACORN turned in the voter registration form of David Young, who told reporters “The signature is not my signature. It’s not even close.” His social security number and date of birth were also incorrect.

VA – 2005: In 2005, the Virginia State Board of Elections admonished Project Vote and ACORN for turning in a significant number of faulty voter registrations. An audit revealed that 83% of sampled registrations that were rejected for carrying false or questionable information were submitted by Project Vote. Many of these registrations carried social security numbers that exist for other people, listed non-existent or commercial addresses, or were for convicted felons in violation of state and federal election law.

In a letter to ACORN, the State Board of Elections reported that 56% of the voter registration applications ACORN turned in were ineligible. Further, a full 35% were not submitted in a timely manner, as required by law. The State Board of Elections also commented on what appeared to be evidence of intentional voter fraud. "Additionally,” they wrote, “information appears to have been altered on some applications where information given by the applicant in one color ink has been scratched through and re-entered in another color ink. Any alteration of a voter registration application is a Class 5 Felony in accordance with § 24.2-1009 of the Code of Virginia."

WA – 2007: Three ACORN employees pleaded guilty, and four more were charged, in the worst case of voter registration fraud in Washington state history. More than 2,000 fraudulent voter registration cards were submitted by the group during a voter registration drive.

WI – 2008: At least 33,000 ACORN-submitted registrations in Milwaukee have been called into question after it was found that the organizations had been using felons as registration workers, in violation of state election rules. Two people involved in the ongoing Wisconsin voter fraud investigation have been charged with felonies.
– 2004: The district attorney’s office investigated seven voter registration applications Project Vote employees filed in the names of people who said the group never contacted them. Former Project Vote employee Robert Marquise Blakely told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he had not met with any of the people whose voter registration applications he signed, “an apparent violation of state law,” according to the paper. (Source)
April 22, 2012: Voter Fraud in Virginia

Results of an ongoing Virginia State Police investigation of voter registration irregularities from the 2008 general election may signal a more significant voter fraud issue than some state lawmakers realized.

As Virginia legislators hotly debated a voter ID bill that narrowly passed the General Assembly, many were unaware of a state police investigation that, so far, has resulted in charges against 38 people statewide for voter fraud. Warrants have been obtained for a 39th person who can't be located.

A majority of those cases already have resulted in convictions, and 26 additional cases are still being actively investigated nearly 3½ years after the state Board of Elections forwarded more than 400 voter and election fraud allegations from 62 cities and counties to Virginia State Police for individual investigation. (Source) and (Source)

May 25, 2012: Voter-Registration Fraud in Virginia

Two more people have been charged with voting fraud offenses following a Virginia State Police investigation of voter registration irregularities from the 2008 general election that so far has yielded 40 arrests statewide.

Sheila J. Peterson, 53, was indicted Monday by a Chesterfield County [Virginia] grand jury on one felony count of making a false statement on an election form on Oct. 3, 2008, according to court records. Last week, Michael Anthony Harris, 50, was arrested in Chesterfield on a similar charge for an offense that occurred on Sept. 26, 2008, records show.

Chesterfield authorities allege that both defendants registered to vote for the 2008 election despite having been previously convicted of felonies. Felons cannot vote in Virginia unless their rights are restored by the governor.

The arrests are the latest to come from a state police review of 400-plus complaints forwarded to the agency for investigation in October 2008, before the November election, by then-State Board of Elections Secretary Nancy Rodrigues. So far, 40 people have been charged and warrants have been obtained for a 41st person who can't be located. A majority of those cases have resulted in convictions, and 24 additional cases are being actively investigated, state police said. (Source)

HERE WE GO AGAIN.

April 23, 2014: Voter-Registration Fraud in Virginia and Maryland

A crosscheck of voter rolls in Virginia and Maryland turned up 44,000 people registered in both states, a vote-integrity group reported Wednesday.

“The Virginia Voters Alliance is investigating how to identify voters who are registered and vote in Virginia but live in the states that surround us,” Alliance President Reagan George told the State Board of Elections. (Source) and (Source)

More Virginia voter fraud at the link -

http://www.alipac.us/f9/voter-fraud-...rt-1-a-312266/