Donald Trump's baseless contention that anywhere from 3 to 5 million people voted illegally led to his dubious "Election Integrity" commission, headed by Mike Pence and anti-immigrant and voter ID law advocate Kris Kobach. Now Trump has tapped another crusader for restricting voting rights to sit on the panel, Hans Von Spakovsky. TPM's Tierney Sneed writes:
Von Spakovsky served in President George W. Bush’s Justice Department during an era when the agency came under fire for politicizing voting rights issues. Von Spakovsky approved Georgia’s voter ID law, over the objections of career DOJ employees. Since leaving the federal government, he has continued to be an advocate for restrictive voting laws and has fanned the unsubstantiated fears about voter fraud.
Von Spakovsky didn't just approve that Georgia law over objections, he also penned his own op-ed in support of it under a pseudonym so no one would know it was him. In other words, while working in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division in 2005, he cheated in support of a position that undermined civil rights and then later tried to cover it up. Here's the Washington Post, circa 2006:
After leaving Justice for the Federal Election Commission, von Spakovsky has acknowledged writing a law review article that endorsed photo identification, which was Georgia's approach, before the state's proposal was even submitted to Justice for review. He also took the unusual step of using a pseudonym, "Publius," in publishing the article, which appeared in the spring 2005 issue of the Texas Review of Law & Politics.
The article and its unusual authorship prompted a letter of complaint to the Justice Department last week from the Voting Rights Project, an arm of the American Civil Liberties Union that is opposed to Georgia's voter identification plans. The group said the article shows von Spakovsky had already made up his mind on the issue and that his attempt to hide his views may have violated Justice Department guidelines.
In addition, a link to the Publius article suddenly disappeared this week from the FEC Web site, which had featured the article among a list of von Spakovsky's writings.
Because nothing says "integrity" like lying.
Trump's commission already made headlines this week when it asked states to hand over the personal details and party affiliations of all voters. Gee, that doesn't sound fishy.
from Daily Kos http://ift.tt/2ttYgpb
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