Read the rest of my Original Post.
UPDATE!
I received a call this week from an elderly woman (I’ll call her Betsy) who was approached outside her local market in July and asked to register to vote. Betsy responded that she was already registered but asked if the person could help her get an absentee ballot.
The bounty-hunter said: Sure, I can help you with that, but you need to fill out this form. As it turns out the form she was asked to fill out was a new voter registration card. The bounty hunter apparently changed her registration to Republican. Betsy knows she was switched because she received a phone call reminding Republicans to turn in their absentee ballots when they receive them.
I directed her to contact the Registrar of Voters to make sure how she was registered and if she was switched against her wishes, to file a complaint.
So much for the OC GOP assurances that this isn’t still happening.
I have learned from a reliable source that the Republican Orange County District Attorney should be filing charges and making some arrests early next week related to the earlier complaints.
It seems that the Republicans in Orange County, and the rest of the country for that matter, feel they can do anything and get away with it. Even after being caught, these fools are still paying bounty-hunters to switch voters’ registrations against their wishes. I guess they think, even if they get caught they won’t be prosecuted.
This certainly would explain why Tan Nguyen thought he could get away with his bone-head maneuver.
Why is the letter such a big deal? I mean, illegal residents are not allowed to vote and if they do, they will get deported or sent back to jail. The problem lies in how we all interpret the word immigrant. By definition, it means a person who migrates to another country, usually for permanent residence. So in the case of the letter, I believe the writer’s intention is to inform immigrants who are not naturalized citizens..because immigrants here in the US may not be citizens….so what is wrong with the letter?????? Didn’t illegal votes happen before? We should focus more on getting rid of illegal voters…the media is crazy for creating such a drama..we should really look at what’s the real problem here….What is wrong with speaking the truth? (the letter)
the letter is not voter intimidation…it is ILLEGAL voter intimidation…
Anon 1:51,
It’s a “big deal” because it is illegal to tell registered voters that they cannot vote. End of story.
Congressional Candidates shouldn’t be comitting crimes…don’t you agree? Even the Republican Party is distancing themselves from Nguyen because what he did was illegal.
You don’t like the idea of illegal immigrants voting–because it is a crime. Why are you okay with Nguyen sending out a letter that is against the law?
Dear anonymous posters;
For the record this post is about the Voter Registration fraud, planned, funded, and directed by the OC GOP.
However, I’ll respond to your comment anyway.
1) If the now infamous “Tran Letter” was truly illegal voter intimidation then it would have been sent to all foreign born registered voters. Not just Democrats and not just Latinos.
2) If the letter was truly not meant to intimidate voters it would not have lied about new federal computer system that does not exist.
3) The letter clearly states that “immigrants” may not vote and will be jailed if they do.
4) Voter eligibility is determined by the Registrar of Voters, these are the only individuals who may do so. It is considered voter intimidation if any registered voter is told that they may not vote by any other individuals that the state and local elections officials or their authorized agents.
Lets make this simple. In the deep south of this country African-Americans were told, prior to the passage and signing of the Voting Rights Act, that if they voted they would be jailed, beaten, killed, or otherwise deterred if they attempted to vote. In Mississippi, civil rights activists were murdered for trying to register African-Americans to vote.
The voter suppression demonstrated by Tan Nguyen, while less violent, is just as morally wrong as what was done more than 40 years ago.
It is simply illegal. Hence the outrage.
1) If the now infamous “Tran Letter” was truly illegal voter intimidation then it would have been sent to all foreign born registered voters. Not just Democrats and not just Latinos.
HOWEVER!, it is not illegal to send the letters out only to the people mentioned above
2) If the letter was truly not meant to intimidate voters it would not have lied about new federal computer system that does not exist.
Only to intimidate ILLEGAL voters, which is fine.
3) The letter clearly states that “immigrants” may not vote and will be jailed if they do.
Immigrants can be those that entered the US without a citizenship….. On every damn newspaper state that “The letter, written in Spanish, was mailed to an estimated 14,000 Democratic voters in central Orange County. It warns, ‘You are advised that if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time.’
In fact, immigrants who are adult naturalized citizens are eligible to vote.”
In another meaning, “immigrants who are not NATURALIZED CITIZENS are NOT eligible to vote.
This letter does not intimidate “voters” because it did say that if you are a citizen you are encouraged to vote.
4) Voter eligibility is determined by the Registrar of Voters, these are the only individuals who may do so. It is considered voter intimidation if any registered voter is told that they may not vote by any other individuals that the state and local elections officials or their authorized agents.
But the letter does not say that a registered voter may not vote…it only targets illegal voters…
I understand some of the bounty hunters got kicked out of Santa Ana College for their switcheroos.
This can also lead to disenfranchisement. Let’s say I stop and sign a petition to destroy pedophiles or support motherhood and apple pie. Unbeknown to me, the person who took my signature then falsified a voter registration affidavit with my information.
If I decide to apply for a Vote by Mail ballot, there will likely be discrepancy between my VBM application and the card the bounty hunter completed for me (w/out my permission). This has the potential to delay my voting materials or possibly not get any at all.
I got the lowdown from a couple of friends that this was going on. Would someone please stop checking affidavits to these people – they have no business registering voters.
Jan here is why the letter is illegal.
From the California Elections Code:
18500. Any person who commits fraud or attempts to commit fraud, and any person who aids or abets fraud or attempts to aid or abet fraud, in connection with any vote cast, to be cast, or attempted to be cast, is guilty of a felony, punishable by imprisonment for 16 months or two or three years.
18540. (a) Every person who makes use of or threatens to make use of any force, violence, or tactic of coercion or intimidation, to induce or compel any other person to vote or refrain from voting at any election or to vote or refrain from voting for any particular person or measure at any election, or because any person voted or refrained from voting at any election or voted or refrained from voting for any particular person or measure at any election is guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for 16 months or two or three years.
(b) Every person who hires or arranges for any other person to make use of or threaten to make use of any force, violence, or tactic of coercion or intimidation, to induce or compel any other person to vote or refrain from voting at any election or to vote or refrain from voting for any particular person or measure at any election, or because any person voted or refrained from voting at any election or voted or refrained from voting for any particular person or measure at any election is guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for 16 months or two or three years.
18543. (a) Every person who knowingly challenges a person’s right to vote without probable cause or on fraudulent or spurious grounds, or who engages in mass, indiscriminate, and groundless challenging of voters solely for the purpose of preventing voters from voting or to delay the process of voting, or who fraudulently advises any person that he or she is not eligible to vote or is not registered to vote when in fact that person is eligible or is registered, or who violates Section 14240, is punishable by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than 12 months or in the state prison.
(b) Every person who conspires to violate subdivision (a) is guilty of a felony.
The Tan letter clearly violated all of these sections of State law. There are companion federal statutes that apply as well since these letters were sent out in relation to a federal election.
The certification of eligibility to vote is determined by the elections officials who receive the voter registration affidavit. Once certified, the registered voter is to be, by law, presumed eligible to vote.
Chris,
you are truly being patient and thoughtful in your approach to this fraud. Whether you are unspinning statements;
1. purposely and maliciously spun by those who are attempting to distort fact, reason or logic for less than honorable ends;
or
2. from points of ignorance to blindly support an ideological system of beliefs, that, when, systematically discredited or invalidated, serve to affect the loss of face in the eyes of one’s peers, collegues and associates because of their rigorous and aggressive identification with the party/and or candidates called into question AND usually portraying an air of moral highground in doing so;
your effort is appreciated.