Obama's General Counsel Asks Special Prosecutor to Investigate McCain Campaign's Claims of Voter Fraud

Robert Bauer, general counsel for Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign, sent a letter today to Attorney General Michael Mukasey requesting that special prosecutor Nora Dannehy add recent allegations of partisan misconduct within the Justice Department to her investigation of criminal offenses stemming from the 2006  U.S. Attorney firings.

In his letter, Bauer, a partner in Perkins Coie's Washington office, alleges that Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign and the Republican Party made false claims of voting fraud as part of a Republican effort to influence the presidential election. The letter accuses Republican officeholders of calling on the Justice Department to investigate allegations of fraud, and Justice Department officials of spurring what he called "baseless" investigations.

“History is repeating itself. As Election Day approaches — just as in 2004 and 2006 — Republican Party officials and operatives nationwide, including the candidates themselves, are fomenting specious vote fraud allegations, and there are disturbing indications of official involvement or collusion,” Bauer writes.

Bauer says a McCain assertion during Wednesday’s presidential debate -- that voter fraud threatened “the fabric of democracy” -- is an example of a false claim.

Bauer also cites an Oct. 16 Associated Press report that says Sarah Palin told a crowd of supporters, “In this election, it’s a choice between a candidate who doesn’t disavow a group committing voter fraud, and a leader who won’t tolerate voter fraud.” Palin was making a reference to ACORN, a nonprofit group that has mounted a major voter-registration effort this year. The McCain campaign has accused the group of committing voter fraud by submitting invalid voter registration forms. The Obama campaign has denied any affiliation with ACORN.

In a teleconference call today, Bauer said the McCain campaign’s claims of voter fraud put unnecessary pressure on the Justice Department to investigate unsubstantiated allegations and that two officials within the department had anonymously leaked information about fraud investigations to the media.

“This is a sham antifraud campaign that comes 24-hours after John McCain’s dramatic pronouncement about tearing the fabric of democracy and now you have a leak of this supposed fraud from the Department of Justice. It’s creating an environment of fear and intimidation,” Bauer says.

Bauer’s allegations of misconduct come on the heels of a Supreme Court decision today that overturned a lower court’s order requiring state officials in Ohio to supply information that would have made it easier to challenge prospective voters.

The ruling marked a setback for Ohio Republicans, who had sued in an attempt to force the Democratic secretary of state in Ohio to provide information about database mismatches to county officials.

The McCain campaign did not immediately return calls for comment.

Comments

[Republicat]

How could it be "too late" for the Republicans to question voter fraud if the
early voting just started? If there is no
voter fraud then the 200,000 vote cards would check out. And there would be no questions. As it is I'm left feeling there's a rat in the wood pile. Way too many questions remain about Obama that the media hasn't addressed.

[Fireshadow]

Way to go! It's about time the Republican's got called on their intimidation and "frivolous lawsuits" to try and steal another election. And the only fraud being perpetrated is against ACORN by McCain and the rest of the Republicans. Any fraudulent registrations were ALREADY REPORTED BY ACORN (as required by law) to keep those signature gatherers who are faking signatures from doing it!!
THis whole issue is a scam by republicans to try and justify losing because they can't accept that America is not on their side anymore! Republican= right wing extremists!
p.s. this is not voter fraud, but REGISTRATION fraud, and it was already properly being dealt with without Republican interference. There is no voting problem except what republicans keep creating to try and cheat by suppressing the vote in another election.

[George Perkins]

We have been tracking the issue of vote fraud and sham accusations of voter fraud since 2000 at http://www.blackvoternet.com/votefraud.htm Most accusations of voter fraud have been proven baseless. This article has useful information but does explain why this is relevant to special prosecutor Dannehy's investigation of the firings of US attorneys. Actually, Bauer has finally joined many others in linking the ACORN harassment to these US Attorney firings, several of which revolved around their failure to adequately harass voters to suit Republican tastes.

[SMP]

Voter fraud is a serious matter and it should be impartially investigated. I can't understand why McCain after alleging voter fraud is now trying to stop an impartial independent investigation into it - unless of course the GOP claim of widespread voter fraud is itself a fraudulent claim by a party grasping desperately for any tactic to claw back its poll deficit. Looks like Florida 2004 is being revisited by the GOP.

I'm all for an independent DOJ investigation into voter fraud, and so should everyone who is against voter fraud.

[athy4change]

This whole thing is another attempt by the RNC to suppress votes. It is only fraud if you try to vote more than once. I hope it is investigated and stopped. RNC - don't you get it? You lose - game over - stop encouraging hatred, racism and voter suppression. Take it like an American and be quiet! America does not need 4 more years of dishonest politicains in the White House. Go OBAMA/BIDEN!

[david]

The Republicans see it as such a big deal? Now we will see them have to ante up big time to play this game. They lost before the Supreme Court today but (psst 2 members of the Court have interacted with Bill Ayers -- keep it secret, you can only whisper about it). 200,000 more voters in Ohio -- Get Joe (Sam) the plumber (well not actuallty a plumber) help out. He works in a two plumber shop and makes $250,000? Really? Wow. Having paid for plumbers it might be true.

[PhDiva]

1. Remember that McCain was a KEYNOTE SPEAKER FOR AN ACORN EVENT in 2006. Was he tearing the fabric of democracy then?

2. Thank goodness somebody is actually protecting voter's rights. This entire action by the McCain campaign is designed to intimidate democratic voters, especially BLACK, POOR, and YOUNG voters to either a. prevent them from voting or b. prevent their votes from counting. (It looks like John Lewis was right about the McCain Palin segregationist impulses)

3. What happened to the honorable John McCain was used to know and respect. Is this how he wants to win, by stopping young people and black people from voting. I'm deeply disappointed in him.

[Janice]

If the shoe fits:

I feel sorry for you. You are so naive & gullible.

[If The Shoe Fits]

Gee, if there wasn't such a widespread problem of ACORN voter registration fraud within multiple (swing) states being investigated by the federal government and the FBI, I'd say Barry would have a leg to stand on. If...