This just broke about an hour ago with concerns about voting practices. I wonder what the voting officials are doing about the possibility of Illegal Aliens finding ways of casting their votes? Don't forget that they are here illegally and since they are foreign nationals, they do not have the right to vote in our country anyway. Yet, one of Obama's henchmen, Luis Gutierrez has been publicly encouraging Illegal Aliens to get behind Obama!

Here is the link to the article that is printed below:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080908/ap_ ... ter_access

By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department pledged Monday to send election monitors around the country to help ensure access to the polls in November, even while acknowledging its limited power to enforce election laws.

Civil rights groups fear that an unprecedented minority voter turnout due to Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama might be countered by efforts to intimidate or otherwise block people who seek to cast their ballots.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey and other Justice officials met about 35 representatives from voter access watchdogs, hoping to assure them that having a smooth Nov. 4 election is a priority.

"The Justice Department has a limited but extremely important role to play in ensuring elections are fair and just," acting Assistant Attorney General Grace Chung Becker told reporters after the closed-door meeting.
Although federal prosecutors have in past elections focused on preventing voter fraud — in other words, making sure voters are eligible to vote — Becker said her goal was to broaden ballot access for as many people as possible.

She said the Justice Department will deploy hundreds of federal monitors around the country to make sure voters aren't unfairly kept from the polls.
In 2004, long lines at minority-dominated voting precincts in Ohio led to widespread complaints and a Democratic Party lawsuit that the election process unfairly helped President Bush win the state. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit nearly a year later.

NAACP political participation director Kristen Clarke said the monitors themselves are part of the problem. Although most of the monitors will be election lawyers and other government employees, prosecutors may also be deployed to watch over the polls.

"Historically, minority voters have experienced intimidation in their encounters with law enforcement at the polls," said Clarke, who attended Monday's meeting. "And deploying criminal prosecutors who lie at the hearts of law enforcement efforts could discourage them from turning out and participating in November.

"It could be intimidating to minorities and essentially keep them away from the polls," Clarke said.

Others who attended the 90-minute meeting gave it a mixed review, describing department officials as promising to protect voters' rights but failing to take steps to prevent past problems.

Campaign Legal Center associate counsel Paul S. Ryan said Justice officials would not rule out prosecuting voter fraud cases within a month before the election. Generally, doing so is discouraged for fear it could curb voter turnout and make the case appear politically motivated.

The department also indicated it was grappling with how to handle tactics to keep people away from the polls, such as false flyers and phone calls during past elections warning voters they could be arrested for unpaid parking tickets when they showed up.

But federal voting rights laws don't cover such "deception" violations, said Common Cause vice president Tova Wang — meaning states largely will have to pursue those cases.

"It's clearly something they're concerned about but don't have all the legal tools they need to pursue them," Wang said.
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