We’ve had a few days’ break from Mr. Blanche, so we might as well chuckle at the latest failure. He really is having to clean up after Bondi, except he’s not doing very well. It’s another bad day, another failure, but the DoJ hasn’t given up, and Trump hasn’t given up, so it chugs slowly along. Slow is actually an understatement. It inches along. Maybe. At 2 in the morning when the moon is dark and it isn’t raining. Appreciation for Raw Story:
A Republican judge handed acting Attorney General Todd Blanche his 10th straight court loss in the Department of Justice’s quest to force states to hand over voter rolls. Judge Joseph N. LaPlante, a George W. Bush appointee in New Hampshire, dismissed every count of the federal government’s lawsuit against the state Monday. No court has granted the Justice Department’s request.
Remember this? One of those things to root out fraud among voters, except this is not something the federal government can do. The elections belong to the states. But they keep trying to get this information. It’s almost pointless by now. There isn’t enough time to do much of anything with all that information before midterms. And it’s pointless.
“The Attorney General all but abandoned any allegation that a HAVA violation had taken place,” LaPlante wrote. HAVA — the Help America Vote Act — was one of two laws DOJ used to justify seizing states’ voter rolls, including full names, addresses, driver’s license numbers and the last four digits of voters’ Social Security numbers. “The demand does not identify any factual anomalies in New Hampshire’s voter registration data, nor does it point to any complaint or pattern suggesting noncompliance,” LaPlante wrote.
In other words, bugger off. Go away. Because the judge says so. It also sounds like he was saying the DoJ didn’t have jurisdiction over this. Either way, the judge says they don’t. It seems that more and more judges (SCOTUS doesn’t count) are overwhelmingly tired of all this nonsense from the DoJ and the administration. If we are tired of it, how much worse must it be for them?
“‘Absurd results‘ would follow from forcing states to hand over their own voter databases, LaPlante wrote — the law was never meant to reach ‘a state’s own evolving work product.'” The stakes go beyond New Hampshire. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, DOJ demanded full, unredacted voter rolls from at least 44 states and Washington, D.C. Most have refused. DOJ also admitted in court that a Department of Government Efficiency employee at the Social Security Administration signed an agreement with an outside group whose stated aim was to “find evidence of voter fraud and to overturn election results in certain States”.
Gee, that organization sounded like they were going to *create* evidence of voter fraud to turn over elections, hmmm? State voter roll changes have to be ongoing for reasons too many to list. Let’s just start with an address change. We moved a mile and ended up in a completely different precinct. That’s one small reason. And that’s just two people. So we all agree that state voter rolls are ongoing and crazy. Something would change at practically the same moment they were handed over. Pointless.
See you soon! (Assuming I can get my keyboard back from my cat for more than 2 minutes at a time.)
Friends, I know everybody begs you for money. I promise you that, of all the outlets bugging you for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest-working. We’re a bunch of old, disabled people, except one writer in his mid-50s. But the rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the ability to continue our quest to tell the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
