Mike Pence Accused of Voter Suppression in Indiana Raid

[Evo]

Indiana officials are trying to block almost 45,000 black citizens from voting

Seems the voter's rights group wants the Justice department to look into this and the local police want to leave it with the local county prosecutors they work with. Either way, Police spokesman Bursten said the process will take weeks.

The voter registration applications flagged by election officials in Marion and Hendricks counties “contained minor inaccuracies like missing Zip codes and area codes,” Varoga said. “Based on the fact that they found (problems in) 10 forms out of tens of thousands . . . to launch a statewide investigation into a voter registration program is a political agenda.

Varoga said the investigation and raid were done to cripple his group's voter registration effort and to create fear and confusion among black voters. “Every single public employee involved in this illegal voter suppression and abuse of law enforcement is a partisan Republican,” he said. “With every unlawful action and every partisan statement, they are providing more evidence that this is an abuse of civil rights and voting rights.

A progressive advocacy group is launching an advertising campaign accusing Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who also is the Republican vice-presidential nominee, of allowing voter suppression after state police raided the offices of a voter registration program aimed at signing up African Americans.

Varoga estimates that 45,000 people, most of them African Americans, might not be able to vote on Nov. 8 if investigators put a hold on applications collected by the group during its investigation. The group has asked the Justice Department to investigate, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, an advocate for voting rights, sent a letter to Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson asking her to take steps to ensure that eligible voters who signed up through the voter registration drive will not be disenfranchised.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-police-raid-registration-program-in-indiana/

 

[SW VandeCarr]

It's pretty brazen unless there's evidence of widespread fraud. Why would they do this now? It's bad optics as Indiana is assumed to be safe for Trump-Pence. There is a Senate race where Evan Baye is a stong Democratic candidate and two House seats are held by Democrats.

 

[micromass]

That's why I used a second mainstream news source when I saw Yahoo News had linked there.

It's still an invalid source. Per PF rules, it should be deleted.

 

[Evo]

It's still an invalid source. Per PF rules, it should be deleted.

No problem.

 

[Evo]

More information, it will be interesting to see how this unfolds, hopefully the people that legally filled out their voter registration will be allowed to vote. If people have been involved in fraud, then they should be punished.

Indiana's Republican Secretary of State, Connie Lawson, raised alarm on Tuesday when she warned of widespread voter registration fraud, saying thousands of records had been altered. But she backed off somewhat Wednesday, acknowledging that the changes could just be residents correcting their names or birth dates online ahead of the election.

Varoga said some voter registration applications the group submitted to county clerk's offices were missing information, but none were fraudulent, and Patriot Majority had flagged applications it knew were incomplete.

"Her voter file is a mess and poorly maintained," Varoga said of Lawson's comments. He said the GOP official is "relying on a flawed database to mischaracterize a law-abiding effort to register voters in the state."

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/group-indiana-investigating-registered-black-voters-42953311

 

[Kevin McHugh]

All politics is dirty, but dirty politics is despicable.