Sen. Cruz, Colleagues Submit Amicus Brief To Supreme Court in Brnovich v. DNC

Washington, D.C. - December 7, 2020 - (The Ponder News) -- U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Rick Scott, (R-Fla.), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), and Mike Braun (R-Ind.) today submitted a joint amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States in support of the petitioners in the case of Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee and in defense of laws that combat election fraud.

The amicus brief argues that the Voting Rights Act does not prevent states from enacting neutral election integrity measures like Arizona’s ban on ballot-harvesting, or other measures such as in-precinct voting requirements, voter ID requirements, election observer zones, and straight-ticket voting.

The full text of the amicus brief may be viewed here. Excerpts are below.

“‘The risk of voter fraud [is] real.’ As this Court has repeatedly confirmed, States have the authority and responsibility to ensure the integrity of their elections. These measures do not deny anyone the equal ‘opportunity’ to vote ‘on account of race or color.’ […]

“In the past decade, plaintiffs have pushed an aggressive Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act theory seeking to invalidate voting laws regulating absentee voting, precinct voting, early voting, voter identification, election observer zones, voter registration, durational residency, and straight-ticket voting. […]

“In the past few years, many recommended election-integrity regulations–which impose no

more than ‘the usual burdens of voting,’–have been challenged in a wave of novel Voting Rights Act litigation. […] “Were this Court to adopt the sweeping interpretation […] advocated by Respondents, these recommended laws and other neutral time, place, and manner voting laws would be put in grave danger across the country.”

Substantiated Claims of Election Fraud

New Boston, TX - November 6, 2020 - (The Ponder News) -- The Georgia Secretary of State has announced that there will be a recount, due to the closeness of the race. Over 40,000 military ballots are still not counted.

Michigan County has flipped back to Trump after a software glitch was found and fixed. Apparently over 40 other counties in Michigan were affected the same way, so stay tuned for updates about this. GOP is demanding all votes be checked again after this incident.

Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel is asking Minnesota State GOP Chairs to rally behind President Trump's allegations of election fraud. Apparently GOP has remained eerily quiet.

Most reports coming from the media about the election are still saying Trump's claims are "baseless" and "unsubstantiated", in spite of evidence of election tampering and software glitches, voting irregularities and denial of access to poll-watchers.

According to the Washington Times, "The Republican National Committee has legal teams on the ground in four battleground states and announced Friday there are numerous incidences of “voting irregularities.”

Mitch McConnel maintains that regardless of who wins, there will be a "peaceful transfer of power".

In Pennsylvania, thousands of provisional ballots will be set aside until officials can determine if they were valid, according to an order by the Commonwealth Court in a lawsuit brought by Republican candidates.

The Ponder believes there is enough "substantiated evidence" based on "solid proof" that the presidential election has been compromised. President Trump deserves to be backed up on his claims.

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American Thinker: Count and Recount Every 'Vote' Until You Win

First, they tried to bring him down with a sex "scandal" that almost elevated a creepy lawyer to a Democratic presidential contender. Then they cooked up a baseless impeachment. A virus came from China to later derail what could have been a landslide win for him. Then numerous blatant push polls tried to demoralize his supporters. (Just pick one. Less than a week before the election, an ABC News–Washington Post poll gave Biden a 17% lead in Wisconsin. Is there any way to sue these two corrupt companies?)
Read more...

TRUMP CAMPAIGN SCORES MAJOR ELECTION INTEGRITY VICTORY IN PHILADELPHIA

Philadelphia, PA - November 5, 2020 - (The Ponder News) -- Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. released the following statement on the Trump Campaign's major election integrity victory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:

"In a major victory for election integrity, election transparency, all Pennsylvania voters, and the rule of law, the Trump Campaign has prevailed in our suit challenging our Republican poll watchers’ complete lack of any meaningful access to the ballot processing and counting process.

"The eyes of the country are on Pennsylvania, but Pennsylvania Democrats, led by their radical left Secretary of State whose only goal is to steal this election from President Trump, has kept eyes off of the absentee ballot counting process. That ends now in Philadelphia.

"As a result of this incredible legal victory, the lower court’s order has been reversed. Now, according to the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, ‘all candidates, watchers, or candidate representatives’ shall ‘be permitted to be present for the canvassing process’ and ‘be permitted to observe all aspects of the canvassing process within 6 feet, while adhering to all COVID-19 protocols, including, wearing masks and maintaining social distancing.'

"For the good of the nation, every Pennsylvania county should follow the lead of this judge and provide access for observers to ensure transparency and integrity in Pennsylvania. That is the only way to ensure a fair, transparent election in which all Pennsylvania voters can have confidence their vote will count."

- Justin Clark, Trump 2020 Deputy Campaign Manger and Senior Counsel

Click here to read the order.

Defending the Integrity of Voting Systems Act Introduced in House

Washington, D.C. - June 14, 2019 - (The Ponder News) -- The Defending the Integrity of Voting Systems Act has been introduced in the House of Representatives. The bill would make it a federal crime to hack voting systems, allowing the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute those who seek to manipulate election systems equipment in federal elections.

Tennesseans have already been victims of hacking. A now defunct Twitter account posing as the Tennessee Republican Party in 2016 was actually an account run by Russians with 100,000 followers. In 2018, the Knox County Election Commission website was the victim of a cyberattack that didn’t change any election results but did shut down the site for a period of time on election night.

Bipartisan experts agree that paper ballot machines, which provide an auditable back-up in the event of an attack, are the best way to ensure the integrity of our system. The federal government has appropriated funds to the states to help convert to paper ballot machines.

Republicans Rep. Ben Cline (R-VA), Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) and Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) and Democrats Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) are co-sponsoring the bill.

Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi Calls For Emergency Hearing On Allegations Of Election Fraud In North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District

Schaumburg, IL - December 7, 2018 - (The Ponder News) -- Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL, 8th) of the Oversight Committee issued the following statement in response to the reports of election fraud in the race for North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District:

“As credible reports of concerted election fraud emerge from North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District, it is imperative that Chairman Gowdy call an emergency hearing of the Oversight Committee before the end of this term. The right to vote, and to have that vote fairly counted, is a fundamental, bedrock principle of our democracy. In North Carolina, we have witnessed substantial evidence of an effort to deny that right to seniors and voters of color in order to steal an election. The facts must come to light and if these allegations are proven, they must be answered for and prevented from happening again.”

Judicial Watch Sues California and Los Angeles Over Dirty Voter Registration Rolls

By Judicial Watch




Washington, D.C. - December 14, 2017 - (The Ponder News) -- Judicial Watch announced that it filed a federal lawsuit against Los Angeles County and the State of California over their failure to clean their voter rolls and to produce election-related records as required by the federal National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) (Judicial Watch, Inc.et al. v. Dean C. Logan, et al. (No. 2:17-cv-08948)). The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California’s Western Division on behalf of Judicial Watch, Election Integrity Project California, Inc., and Wolfgang Kupka, Rhue Guyant, Jerry Griffin, and Delores M. Mars, who are lawfully registered voters in Los Angeles County.

Judicial Watch argues that the State of California and a number of its counties, including the county of Los Angeles, have registration rates exceeding 100%:

Eleven of California’s 58 counties have registration rates exceeding 100% of the age-eligible citizenry.

Los Angeles County has more voter registrations on its voter rolls than it has citizens who are old enough to register. Specifically, according to data provided to and published by the EAC, Los Angeles County has a registration rate of 112% of its adult citizen population.

The entire State of California has a registration rate of about 101% of its age-eligible citizenry.

Judicial Watch points out that this is due in part to the high numbers of inactive registrations that are still carried on California’s voter rolls:

About 21% of all of California’s voter registrations, or more than one in five, are designated as inactive.

California has the highest rate of inactive registrations of any state in the country…. Los Angeles County has the highest number of inactive registrations of any single county in the country.

Although these inactive registrations should be removed after a statutory waiting period consisting of two general federal elections, California officials are simply refusing to do so.

Judicial Watch explains that, even though a registration is officially designated as “inactive,” it may still be voted on election day and is still on the official voter registration list. The inactive registrations of voters who have moved to a different state “are particularly vulnerable to fraudulent abuse by a third party” because the voter who has moved “is unlikely to monitor the use of or communications concerning an old registration.” Inactive registrations “are also inherently vulnerable to abuse by voters who plan to fraudulently double-vote in two different jurisdictions on the same election day.”

Judicial Watch sent a written request for public records on November 16, 2017, and another on November 29, 2017, seeking information about “the number of inactive registrations on the voter rolls in Los Angeles County,” but was told each time that there were no responsive records.

Last summer, Judicial Watch sent a broader request for voter roll records that Los Angeles County and the State of California are required by the NVRA to keep and to make publicly available. Nothing was produced in response to this request. Judicial Watch points out that it is impossible to believe that there were no responsive records:

Los Angeles County, with over five million active voters and massive list maintenance responsibilities, and the Secretary of State of California [must] have exchanged emails responsive to [Judicial Watch’s] request for “all email or other communications between the Secretary’s Office and all California County voter registration officials concerning . . . [i]nstructions to the counties concerning their general list maintenance practices and obligations” and “[n]otices to the counties concerning any failure to comply with their voter list maintenance obligations.” Such emails should have been produced.

Section 8(a)(4) of the NVRA requires states to implement a program to remove ineligible registrants; and to turn over relevant records and information. Judicial Watch argues:

Los Angeles County is failing to properly conduct the list maintenance required by the NVRA by failing to properly train employees, failing to require and enter registrants’ birthdates, and failing to timely process reports that registrants have died, have committed disqualifying felonies, are mentally incompetent, or have registered twice.

Judicial Watch asks that the court enjoin Los Angeles County and the state of California from further violating the NRVA, and compel them to “develop and implement a general program that makes a reasonable effort to remove from Los Angeles County’s rolls the registrations of ineligible registrants.” Judicial Watch asks to inspect and copy the requested voter roll records.

Judicial Watch sent a notice-of-violation letter in August 2017 to threatening to sue California and certain of its counties over their violations of the NVRA. California was one of 12 states to receive such letters from Judicial Watch.

“California may have the dirtiest election rolls in the country,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Federal law requires states to take reasonable steps to clean up their voting rolls. Dirty voting rolls can mean dirty elections. This lawsuit aims to ensure that citizens of California can have more confidence that their elections are fair and honest.”

Judicial Watch Senior Attorney and Director of its Election Integrity Project Robert Popper recently provided testimony to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity concerning the NVRA. Popper was formerly Deputy Chief of the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department.

Judicial Watch sent notice-of-violation letters threatening to sue 11 other states having counties in which the number of registered voters exceeds the number of voting-age citizens, as calculated by the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2011-2015 American Community Survey: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Tennessee. Judicial Watch informed the states that should they fail to take action to correct violations of Section 8 of the NVRA, it would file suit.

Judicial Watch previously filed successful lawsuits under the NVRA against Ohio and Indiana that resulted in those states taking several actions to clean up their voting rolls. Judicial Watch is currently suing Kentucky over its failure to remove ineligible voters as required by the NVRA, and is suing the State of Maryland and Montgomery County over their failure to release voting-related records.

Judicial Watch is being assisted by Charles H. Bell Jr., of Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk, LLP; and H. Christopher Coates of Law Office of H. Christopher Coates.


See more headlines at The Ponder News Web Site

Democrat Candidate Caught Conspiring to Commit Election Fraud in Pennsylvania

Source: Department of Justice

Washington, D.C. - October 25, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- A federal grand jury sitting in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania returned an indictment today charging two Philadelphia-area political consultants with a scheme to use a political candidate’s campaign funds to make illegal contributions to his opponent’s campaign to secure the opponent’s agreement to drop out of a 2012 congressional primary race.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Acting U.S. Attorney Louis D. Lappen for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania made the announcement.

According to the indictment, Donald “D.A.” Jones, 62, of Willingboro, New Jersey, and Kenneth Smukler, 57, of Villanova, Pennsylvania, were charged with conspiracy, causing unlawful campaign contributions and causing the filing of false reports to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), and Jones was charged with making false statements to the FBI, in connection with a falsification scheme involving unlawful contributions to the campaign of former Municipal Court Judge Jimmie Moore, a candidate for the Democratic Party’s nomination for Member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2012 Democratic race for Pennsylvania’s First Congressional District. According to the indictment, those payments came from the campaign committee of Moore’s opponent for the purpose of removing Moore from the race. Moore pleaded guilty to the charge of causing false statements to the FEC in connection with this matter on Oct. 2.

As alleged in the indictment, in or about February 2012, Moore withdrew from the primary election pursuant to an agreement with his opponent, who promised $90,000 in campaign funds to be used to repay Moore’s campaign debts. Under the applicable law, a contribution from one authorized campaign to another could not exceed $2,000 for the primary election. Therefore, the $90,000 payment from Moore’s opponent’s campaign to pay Moore’s campaign debts constituted an unlawful campaign contribution.

According to the indictment, the FEC requires campaigns to file periodic reports itemizing the campaign’s contributions and expenditures during the reporting period. However, in order to conceal the unlawful contribution and its source, Moore instructed his campaign manager, Carolyn Cavaness, to create a company whose sole purpose would be to receive the funds from his opponent’s political campaign and repay Moore’s campaign debts. As described in the indictment, those payments were routed through Voter Link Data Systems (Voter Link) and D. Jones & Associates, political consulting companies run by Smukler and Jones.

According to the indictment, the defendants used false invoices to generate a paper trail intended to justify the payments from Moore’s opponent’s campaign committee, and Cavaness, acting at Moore’s direction, used a portion of the money from the opponent’s campaign committee to repay Moore’s campaign debts, including debts to Moore and Cavaness themselves. Cavaness pleaded guilty to the charge of causing false statements to the FEC in connection with this matter on July 25.

According to the indictment, to further conceal the scheme, the defendants willfully caused Moore’s campaign committee to file false reports with the FEC that did not disclose or reference the funds received from his opponent’s campaign committee; did not mention Voter Link or D. Jones & Associates, the companies through which the payments were routed; and falsely listed the same debts owed by Moore’s campaign that had been disclosed on earlier reports, despite the fact that those debts had been repaid using funds from Moore’s opponent’s campaign committee. Likewise, the defendants willfully caused the opponent’s campaign committee to file false reports with the FEC that did not mention the use of campaign funds to repay Moore’s campaign debts. Finally, the indictment alleges that Jones made material false statements to FBI agents investigating this matter, telling them that Cavaness had performed work in exchange for the opponent’s campaign funds that were routed through D. Jones & Associates, when in fact Cavaness never performed any such work.

An indictment is not a finding of guilt. It merely alleges that crimes have been committed. A defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

The FBI conducted the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Gibson Eric Gibson of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and Trial Attorney Jonathan Kravis of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section are prosecuting the case.