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Bush Undermines Democracy with Attack on 200,000 New Ohio Voters
By Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet
Posted October 27, 2008
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How far will an already politicized Justice Department go to assist Republicans win on November 4?
As the 2008 presidential election heads into its final week, the current president threw a political wild card on table
late Friday, when he asked Attorney General Michael Mukasey to investigate the status of 200,000 Ohio voters.
George W. Bush's request, if honored, could be politically explosive. It would remind voters of the Department of
Justice's partisan abuses of power in the scandal surrounding the firing of seven U.S. attorneys in 2006 who did not
deliver 'voter fraud' convictions.
It could be a big distraction, drawing attention away from issues that call for legitimate DOJ intervention, such as
shortages of voting machines in minority precincts in Virginia and Pennsylvania, compared to nearby white precincts.
That disparity would violate existing civil rights law.
Or it could interject a complicating dynamic into the already heavily litigated Ohio general election, by adding the
Department's weight to GOP legal claims that pre-emptively question the legitimacy of a close vote count in a key
battleground state.
Either way, the Department must choose if it will remain silent or get involved in an action that would go well beyond
its historic role of quietly monitoring elections and avoiding messages to voters.
"This is taking the politicization of this to a new level, and the last thing we need is for the elections officials and
voters of Ohio to be put in a chaotic situation in the last days before the election," Jon Greenbaum of the Lawyers'
Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, told the Washington Post, reacting to the White House request.
The White House, according to the same Post report, described its actions as a routine referral to a federal agency as
requested by a member of Congress, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH). Boehner had written to Mukasey early last
week but received no response.
The Obama campaign reaction was to send the fourth letter this month to Mukasey urging he ensure the Department does not
interfere "to satisfy desperate partisan political demands."
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