Justice Department civil rights lawyer Hans von Spakovsky [NOT pictured] steered the agency toward voting rights policies not seen before, pushing to curb minor instances of election fraud by imposing sweeping restrictions that would make it harder, not easier, for Democratic-leaning poor and minority voters to cast ballots.
In interviews, current and former federal officials and civil rights leaders told McClatchy Newspapers that von Spakovsky:
-Sped approval of tougher voter ID laws in Georgia and Arizona in 2005, joining decisions to override career lawyers who believed that Georgia’s law would restrict voting by poor blacks and who felt that more analysis was needed on the Arizona law’s impact on Native Americans and Latinos.
-Tried to influence the federal Election Assistance Commission’s research into the dimensions of voter fraud nationally and the impact of restrictive voter ID laws – research that could undermine a vote-suppression agenda.
-Allegedly engineered the ouster of the commission’s chairman, Paul DiGregorio, whom von Spakovsky considered insufficiently partisan.
Von Spakovsky, who declined to comment on these allegations, is among more than a dozen present and former Justice Department officials drawing congressional scrutiny over the administration’s alleged use of the nation’s chief law enforcement agency for partisan purposes.
MCCLATCHY WASHINGTON BUREAU: I TOLD You So!
PREVIOUSLY: Allow Us To Connect The Dots, This Was All Part Of A Karl Rove Plot To Render Democracy In This Country Null & Void And Replace It With GOP Perma-Rule? We Are NOT Making This Up!