Lefty Watchdog Mum on FBI Investigation into Bogus Letters

Over the last few days, news outlets have been reporting on a fraudulent letter sent to selected residents of Florida, posing under the guise of the counties’ Supervisor of Elections.  The letter questions recipients’ eligibility to vote, and the Washington Post and others are now reporting that those recipients have largely been Republicans.

The FBI and state law enforcement are investigating letters – most of them sent to Republicans, including the president of the Jacksonville City Council and a former U.S. ambassador — telling them that they will be unable to vote unless they can prove American citizenship. Chris Cate, spokesman for the Florida Division of Elections, said Wednesday that his agency has received reports from 28 counties (including Broward, Duval, Hillsborough and Palm Beach) about the letters that were mailed with a Seattle postmark dated Oct. 17. He said authorities do not know how many letters were sent.

The letterhead sports the head of a bald eagle silhouetted against an American flag. The name of the appropriate county elections supervisor is also included. The letter says that the county has received information from the state “bringing into question your eligibility as a registered voter.” It directs the recipient to “please stop by our main office with any original documentation that demonstrates U.S. citizenship.” In bold lettering, it adds: “A nonregistered voter who casts a vote in the state of Florida may be subject to arrest, imprisonment and/or other criminal sanctions.”

Less than two weeks ago, a coordinated assault was launched against election-watch group True the Vote.  Complaints against the group, including allegations of intimidating minority voters and attempting to suppress votes, have been made by multiple left-wing organizations and several Democratic members of Congress.  A recent letter – one of several – sent to True the Vote by Representative Elijah Cummings (D-MD) falls just shy of accusing the group of committing crimes.

At some point, an effort to challenge voter registrations by the thousands without any legitimate basis may be evidence of illegal voter suppression. If these efforts are intentional, politically-motivated, and widespread across multiple states, they could amount to a criminal conspiracy to deny legitimate voters their constitutional rights.

True the Vote has dismissed such charges, citing them as second-hand criticism and characterizing them as “inaccurate, misleading and unfair.”

Yet last week, in response to the same complaints of those critics, a United Nations partner, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), announced that it will be deploying election observers to monitor polling stations across the country.

So, what’s the primary source of all this second-hand criticism?  That would appear to be one Brentin Mock of ColorLines and The Nation.

I took a look at Mr. Mock’s recent writings over at The Nation to see if he has addressed the recent salvo of voter suppression attempts in Florida – those letters the FBI is now investigating. 

Crickets.  Not a mention of it at the time of this writing.

But not surprisingly, there are dozens and dozens of posts attacking True the Vote and Republicans in general, with unfounded accusations of everything from suppressing women and minorities, to shutting out felons, to “shaking down” states on voter integrity issues.

J Christian Adams, an election law attorney and former official with the Voting Rights Section at the U.S. Department of Justice, was onto Mr. Mock’s hysteria earlier.  He debunked most of Mock’s claims and suggested that Mock was scaring away the very voters for which he purports to be advocating.

But perhaps Republican’s shouldn’t get too upset about Mock and his confederates terrifying democrats about armies of elderly ladies armed with clipboards. If Democrat voters really are so gullible to believe Mock’s myths, then perhaps the GOP should just sit back, relax, and let them scare the hell out of their own voters for no reason.

But heck, this is hysteria from someone who apparently sees voter suppression everywhere — including in… hurricanes?

With the election merely days away now, we can expect the hyperbole to escalate and the attacks to increase.  Breitbart News will continue to keep an eye on developments in these stories and others regarding complaints that aim to stop efforts to ensure our elections are free from fraud.