« previous | MUCK HOME | next »
Conyers Has More Questions For DOJ's Tanner
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers has issued a statement in in response to Paul Kiel's reporting earlier today on the unprecedented written public assurance that DOJ voting rights chief John Tanner gave to election officials in Ohio that the Justice Department had found no evidence of intentional African-American voter disenfranchisement in the 2004 election.
As Paul reported, Tanner wrote a June 2005 letter to election officials in Columbus, Ohio, offering a lengthy explanation for why the Department had not discovered sufficient evidence of discrimination, the effect of which was to "poison the well" for future litigation or investigation of the alleged election improprieties.
In his statement, Conyers says:
"I am concerned about the extreme lengths Mr. Tanner went to in order to justify the reasons African-Americans were not treated equally in the 2004 Ohio election. The committee needs to consider this matter. I am aware of no precedent for the Department acting in this capacity in the past.
Tanner has been asked to testify before Conyers' committee, though no date for his testimony has been set.
The full text of Conyers' statement appears below the fold:
Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) released a statement in response to news reports that Department of Justice (DOJ) Voting Section Chief John Tanner's investigation of the 2004 election in Ohio concluded that long lines and late voting precincts were due to the fact that white voters tend to cast ballots in the morning (i.e., before work) and black voters cast ballots in the afternoon (i.e., after work). The news report appeared online at the popular blog, TPMmuckraker.com."I am concerned about the extreme lengths Mr. Tanner went to in order to justify the reasons African-Americans were not treated equally in the 2004 Ohio election. The committee neds to consider this matter. I am aware of no precedent for the Department acting in this capacity in the past.
"The Department of Justice – since the Voting Rights Act of 1965 – has a responsibility to thoroughly investigate allegations of voter suppression and discrimination, like those made in Ohio in 2004. I look forward to hearing more from Mr. Tanner in our committee later this month as he testifies about his work as chief of the voting section. The 2004 election exposed serious deficiencies in this section's failure to adequately investigate and prosecute voter suppression efforts nationwide and I hope he is prepared to address this issue head on."
Conyers issued a comprehensive report on voting discrepancies in Ohio in 2004, titled, What Went Wrong in Ohio, and found huge racial disparities in how voting machines were distributed in white and black precincts, among other findings. Tanner, in contrast, in a 2005 letter detailing his findings, says he found no discrepancies in the number of voting machines and attributed the long lines to the tendency of African-American voters to vote after work, as opposed to in the morning hours.
The full story is available at: http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004438.php.
Comments (17)
DC Pol Sci wrote on October 12, 2007 6:14 PM:I can't wait to see Tanner defend his remark that "minorities don't become elderly like white people do; they die first" in front of the 78-year-old African-American Conyers.
Ellen wrote on October 12, 2007 7:06 PM:Right on. First Harper's, now Conyers. Kudos!
Rusty Austin wrote on October 12, 2007 7:38 PM:What has happened at DOJ is beyond all sense of decency and integrity, It's turned itself into a Kangaroo court, with tragic consequences. Prosecutions have been brought with the goal of bringing the full power of the Federal government to bear against innocent Democrats. No doubt Seigelman is the tip of the iceberg, and the case against ACORN was so blatantly partisan it's beyond me how they got away with it, and continue to do so. Unless Conyers is prepared to pursue criminal charges against these people, up to and including the president, he might as well not even bother because they are all thumbing their noses at him now.
The Obnox wrote on October 12, 2007 10:00 PM:If Mr. Conyers and his staff don't already read TPM, they certainly need to. You guys could keep them busy for the next 5 years.
At some point back in time, TPM went from just a good blog to a great little news organization. I couldn't put my finger on when it happened exactly, but it's unmistakable today. You all deserve many kudos for the great work you do. Keep it up.
Kent Mueller wrote on October 12, 2007 10:38 PM:Mighty White of him to say so, but where were the long lines of White voters in the morning, being made late for work, presumably, by the same lack of voting machines?
Even if this isn't the worst administration on record, it's sure as hell the weirdest.
azportsider wrote on October 13, 2007 12:14 AM:Kent,
this isn't the worst administration on record, nor even the weirdest. They set out to subvert the Constitution, and have nearly succeeded.
In my book it's certainly the most unAmerican administration in history. Other adjectives come to mind too, 'despicable' leading the pack these days.
Publius Valerius Publicola wrote on October 13, 2007 12:44 AM:Tanner's analysis of number of voters per machine based on the turnout is fundamentally flawed.
If the voting machines were saturated during long periods during the day, and if he only considers the number of completed ballots (i.e., the turnout) and ignores the number of frustrated voters who gave up waiting, then all he has proven is that on average the voters in predominately white precincts completed their ballots faster than voters in predominately black pricincts.
And without any information it's impossible to say what factors caused the disparity in ballot completion rates. It might be something as simple as their were more pages on the ballot in some precincts, or it might be that some precincts skipped voting on some races (i.e., deliberate undervotes).
left coaster wrote on October 13, 2007 1:58 AM:Besides the voting rights issues raised in this segment, the House Judiciary Committee needs to investigate the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. Conyers and other members of Congress filed law suits last year over the legality of this law, but nothing has been done since the Democrats came to power.
Conyers and the the Federal judiciary need some prodding and TPM has some very persistent investigators. The DRA of 2005 is illegal! Please investigate the 2005 DRA.
JEP wrote on October 13, 2007 8:05 AM:'...minorities don't become elderly like white people do..."
ESPECIALLY IN "NOOSE" COUNTRY...
THIS GUY'S A PATENT BIGOT, AND THEY NEVER KNOW HOW TRANSPARENT THEY ARE.
Keep after em. Muckrakers!
You guys are leading the way, don't let up!
And thanks immensely for all you do.
PS I know you have seen this already, but here's a NYTimes link worthy of clicking!
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/13/washington/13general.html
One more General bites the proverbial dust! BUSH WAS NOT LISTENNG TO HIS GENERALS, NOT EVEN THE ONES HE PUT IN COMMAND!!!
JEP wrote on October 13, 2007 8:12 AM:Obnox;
"At some point back in time, TPM went from just a good blog to a great little news organization. I couldn't put my finger on when it happened exactly, but it's unmistakable today."
The MSM fumbled the 4th Estate football...
And folks like Josh picked it up and ran with it.
And made a touchdown (or two).. with a little help from his Muckraking front line.
inedal wrote on October 13, 2007 4:24 PM:ok so conyers questions these people, finds they are doing wrong, but never takes the next step and does anything about their transgressions!
how about getting some justice?
and many of the people he tries to question simply do not show up (Miers, Rice, etc).
why not get them on contempt charges?
what is the point of all this talking, etc. if the bad guys never get punished?
bajajazz wrote on October 13, 2007 6:38 PM:it's just a big show, leading nowhere.
I too am weary of the do-nothing Kabuki dance that passes for investigations these days. I think old age and too much time in office has something to do with it. Conyers is 78. Dingell is 81 and in office for 52 years, long enough to protect Detroit out of business. Every time Levin, his Senate counterpart steps up to a microphone, he seems and sounds so tired I feel sorry for him. And Rockefeller is just a big name boat anchor on the Intelligence committee and Feingold seems to be the only one with any fire in the belly. Rangel has been around forever and that phlegmy voice of his is a real turnoff, I wish he'd hawk and spit before he starts to talk. Leahy still seems to have some fire but he too has crapped out in following up on enforcing the subpoenas his committee has issued. Seems to me too many of them in both houses are there just for their personal ego trips and have long forgotten that they're actually supposed to be doing something.
bajajazz wrote on October 13, 2007 6:39 PM:I too am weary of the do-nothing Kabuki dance that passes for investigations these days. I think old age and too much time in office has something to do with it. Conyers is 78. Dingell is 81 and in office for 52 years, long enough to protect Detroit out of business. Every time Levin, his Senate counterpart steps up to a microphone, he seems and sounds so tired I feel sorry for him. And Rockefeller is just a big name boat anchor on the Intelligence committee and Feingold seems to be the only one with any fire in the belly. Rangel has been around forever and that phlegmy voice of his is a real turnoff, I wish he'd hawk and spit before he starts to talk. Leahy still seems to have some fire but he too has crapped out in following up on enforcing the subpoenas his committee has issued. Seems to me too many of them in both houses are there just for their personal ego trips and have long forgotten that they're actually supposed to be doing something.
DallasNE wrote on October 13, 2007 9:39 PM:What is so distressing about this is that Ken Blackwell was responsible for this voter suppressing of African-American voters. What is it with African-Americans like Blackwell and Clarence Thomas that they are so eager to discriminate against their own race. They are the worst kind of Americans.
Al in Austex wrote on October 13, 2007 10:20 PM:Okey Dokey ,..
modmom wrote on October 14, 2007 10:16 AM:bahajazz - we need to send the Oversight Committee members some love , not just complaints. This is a kabuki dance -that part of the investigation we can see .But we can't know what is going on behind the scenes -how much damaging evidence did former acting AG Comey give when he was deposed behind closed committe's doors by Hill Staffers- You could ask the same question regarding FBI Director Mueller's closed door debrief to the Hill Staffers. One reason that Miers et al have not been served with contempt of congress is at this point in time Conyers & Leahey might not need to cite them with contempt. The Hill Staffers have limited resources so they are to be sure prioritizing whom & what criminal impeachable activity to address.
Meanwhile we all need to be support our team .
Patience is a virtue. Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Just look at this one democratic stronghold -Lucas County (Toledo) to see how corrupt the Ohio vote was:
Blackwell, OH SOS Investigation of the Lucas County BOE
includes the fact that REPUBLICAN VOLUNTEERS were allowed UNSUPERVISED ACCESS to UNSECURED BALLOTS prior to the election, as well as this list:
*failure to maintain ballot security
*Inability to implement and maintain a trackable system for voter ballot reconciliation .
*failure to prepare and develop a plan for the processing of the voluminous amount of voter registration forms received.
*issuance and acceptance of incorrect absentee ballot forms.
*manipulation of the process involving the 3% recount.
*disjointed implementation of the Directive regarding the removal of Nader and Camejo from the ballot .
*failure to properly issue hospital ballots in accordance with statutory requirements.
*failure to maintain the security of poll books during the official canvass
*failure to examine campaign finance reports in a timely manner.
*failure to guard and protect public documents ....etc.
-One-half of the ballots printed and used in the 2004 general election in Lucas county were stored in an open space on the fhird floor of the county warehouse with no security measures in place.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation on Lucas County BOE page 4
-Live ballots were delivered to polling locations a week in advance of the election. Although the ballots were retrieved, one board employee who was assigned to the warehouse informed the SOS staff that he did not believe all the ballots were successfully retrieved.
SOURCE; SOS Investigation, page 5
-Lucas County BOE failed to record or retrieve ballot stub numbers of absentee voters’ ballots as required by statute OH Revised Code 3505.23. It was reported by an elector that her mother had received not one, but three absentee voter ballots. there was no way to determine if similar incidents occurred and if so how many.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation, page 7
-October 4, 2004 was filing deadline for new voter registrations. At that point there were approximately 20,000 unprocessed voter registration applications with less than a month before the election. One mail tray containing 4,500-7,000 (estimates vary) unprocessed “Project Voter” registrations were discovered on or about October 18,2004.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation pg 10
***Of interest here is information obtained from the SOS website entitled ElectionsVoter/results 2003 and 2004 which show the # of registered voters number change from ‘03-’04 was 11,947 in Lucas County: reg voters 2003 in Lucas=288,190 ; registered voter in 2004=300,137.
-In late September or early October an employee of the Ohio Republican Party contacted Sam Thurber (*involved with politician wife Maggie Thurber in Noe scandal.) wanting to inspect and have copies made of all recently returned voter registrations, Ohio Republican Party offered to furnish volunteers to assist with copying postcards. No one at the Lucas County BOE can confirm that anyone was assigned to supervise Republican volunteers. On their second day of copying, a BOE employee, Jennifer Bernath, Democratic Booth Official) saw republican party volunteers peeling off the yellow return stickers applied by the post office. (Violation of RC 149.43 (B) (I) , and agruably a violation of 149.351.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation, pgs 18-19
-The Swanton 3 poll book turned up missing and has never been recovered.
JNagarya wrote on October 15, 2007 6:17 PM:SOURCE: SOS Investigation pg 16
Is the prosecution of the Qwest executive who refused to violate the law -- many months before 9/11 -- another on the list of political prosecutions?
This isn't only the most unAmerican administration in our history: it is out-and-out anti-American. The word that comes to mind isn't "despicable," but TREASONOUS. There couldn't be a more concerted and obvious, and deliberate and systematic, assault on the Constitution unless the military were used for that purpose.
The coalition of hate-America-first-and-always-groups that stole the election in 2000, and have abused the gov't structures and power to continue their destruction of our system of laws -- the Constitution -- clearly includes the KKK and their fellow lunatic fringe white supremacists.
With Nixon, there was a cancer on the presidency. Today the cancer is that which has been made of the presidency.