Right Wing Racism, Voter Suppression, and Election Fraud: Recent Indictments in MD

It has been a recurrent theme on the right that liberals / Democrats "steal elections".  As a result, the issue of voter fraud, voter suppression, and related issues in election fraud and manipulation have become a recurrent theme in my writing here on Penigma. 

What I have uncovered is that there is far greater activity to alter the vote by the Right, by conservatives and Republicans.  Investigation demonstrates very little improper or illegal activity by the left, despite the Right's blind belief and relentless repetition of the claim without supporting facts.

A case in point:

From the Baltimore Sun, June 16, 2011 by way of Governors Journal:
By Annie Linskey and Julie Bykowicz

Two longtime political operatives who worked last year on Republican former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s gubernatorial return campaign were indicted today for ordering what the state prosecutor called deceptive robocalls intended to suppress votes on the night of the election.

Julius Henson and Paul Schurick each face three counts of conspiracy to violate Maryland election laws, one count of attempting to influence a voter's decision and one count of failing to provide an authority line (on campaign material). Schurick also is charged with one count of obstruction of justice.

The Baltimore Sun in their article provided a link to the actual indictments.  As regular readers already know, I read court documents; some of them are quite entertaining.  Others are rather dry, but informative.  These are the former. 
From page 2,

"7.  ...The Plan centered on what was termed "The Schurick Doctrine", which was "...designed to promote confusion, emotionalism and frustration among African Democrats, focused in precincts where high concentrations of AA vote." [sic]  The Plan stated that "[t]he first and most desired outcome [of the Schurick Doctrine strategy] is voter suppression."  The Plan focused on 536 precincts, and provided that "[v]oter suppression operations will take place in 472 precincts, and we found that 64 precincts warrant persuasion operations..."

The Right frequently protests they are not racist, and it is true that some of them are not; but some of them are, in so far as they demean or target a segment of the electorate on the basis of race for voter suppression.  I think it is fair to assert that this is pretty clearly an attempt at black voter suppression when the people indicted themselves refer to their intent to commit voter suppression.  It is pretty hard to spin this as anything else, given their own wording.

The indictment goes on, on page 9, to state:

"44.  ..."Counts by County of African American Voters"; a second page captioned "Proposed African American Messaging", and numbered at the bottom center as page "1"; a third page captioned "Proposed AA Messaging Cont..." and numbered at the bottom center as page "2".

From the Baltimore Sun article, continuing:

Edward Smith, Jr., Henson's attorney, said his client will plead not guilty. Peter Zeidman, an attorney for Schurick, said the charges are "based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the facts."

"When the truth comes out," Zeidman said, it will be clear that Schurick "did not violate any laws."
An arraignment in Baltimore Circuit Court is scheduled for July 18.

The former governor was not accused of wrongdoing. He released this statement: "I believe in the rule of law. I believe in my friend and colleague, Paul Schurick. I hope a fair resolution is reached as quickly as possible for both Paul and Mr. Henson."

The indictment, handed up by a Baltimore City grand jury, came after an eight-month investigation by State Prosecutor Emmet Davitt into tens of thousands of robocalls that went out late on Election Day. A caller instructed voters in Democratic areas to stay home and “relax” because Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley had already won. In fact, the polls were still open.

The indictments are in fact pretty clear about the meetings with the campaign leadership, the payment, the phone calls made directing the robocalls to take place, the confirmation that the calls were made and how much was to be paid for those robocalls.  The indictments are pretty clear about exactly what election laws were violated and how.  The investigation appears to be meticulously conducted; the evidence is pretty overwhelming.  I cannot see from reading the Grand Jury Indictments how it is that there is any "fundamental misunderstanding of the facts" as the defense attorney alleges.

From what I read in the Baltimore Sun article, and from the Indictment, this appears to be very clearly a case of race targeted voter suppression, of election dirty tricks, conducted with careful planning by the campaign of the Republican candidate for Governor in Maryland.  The Republican candidate lost, but one wonders, had he won, if the investigation would have been as successful.

Reading cases like this, it is much more difficult to believe the protestations from the right that they have no interest in keeping voters from the polls who don't vote their way when they claim voter fraud, and when they pass Voter ID legislation without any proof that voter fraud is occurring or that their legislation would in fact prevent the voter fraud they fear.  One means is illegal, one means is to try legalize voter suppression; the goal is the same.

A genuine respect for representative government, for the principles of the Founding Fathers in this country, is to encourage the widest possible participation in elections and in government.  The Right doesn't really seem to care about those principles when it means they don't win by honest means.