Montgomery Jensen Loses, Twice

This was a bad week to be Monty Jensen, Crow Wing County, MN.
Why?  Because Monty Jensen and his band of Tea Partier-ish conservatives have been involved in a prolonged effort to disenfranchise vulnerable adults and other disabled voters in Minnesota, but have failed, repeatedly and decisively.  This week, they failed not once, but twice, landing on the front page of the Strib for their second sound defeat.
Disabled voters are a demographic that lean strongly for Democrats, because as a party the Democrats have tended to be supportive of their needs and abilities, while conservatives have not. As a result, disabled voters are among the targeted demographic for voter suppression. From the official Democratic web site, to be specific (my emphasis in larger type - DG):
Democrats have a long and proud history of fighting for voting rights that continues to this day. One of the most important rights of American citizens is the right to vote—the right to have a say in who our leaders are and how our government should work. But the path to full voting rights for all American citizens was long and often challenging, and for far too many people, obstacles to voting remain even today.

The expansion of voting rights did not happen overnight; it was the product of a continued struggle by many people over many years. To this day, many voters still face difficulties at the polls, from registering to casting a ballot to having their votes counted. Those particularly vulnerable are minority, young, elderly, poor, and disabled voters, as well as military members and veterans. And in many parts of the country, voters are underserved by a lack of polling places, outdated voting machines, and unnecessarily complicated laws.

The voting process by disabled  voters is safe.  There is no support for the 'maybe, might be, coulda woulda but-what-if' abuse of the voting process by disabled voters, or their caregivers, (either union or non-union). Nothing about this really has anything to do with valid objections to disabled citizens voting, EXCEPT for discouraging and disenfranchising voters who tend to vote for Democratic candidates.

If there was one thing more than any others, that have convinced me that conservatives with strong influence in the Republican, Tea Party, and to an extent Libertarian parties, are corrupt, it is the harming of fellow citizens exercising their right to vote, as much or even more than the blatant corruption by special interests like ALEC.
Who IS Monty Jensen?
He's a member of a small extreme far right group loosely associated with the tea party that is trying to gain attention for themselves by making false claims of voter fraud in outstate Minnesota.

On Tuesday he lost his primary bid for office in Crow Wing County, coming in last (unless you count the write in).

Crow Wing County Board District 1
16 of 16 precincts
Monty Jensen - 243
W - Paul Koering - 346
W - Philip Trusty - 433
Doug Kern - 245
Marv Begin (write-in)

It did not sound like what you could call a 'hard fought' campaign, at least not for the winners, given this quote from the guy who came in second:

Roused from sleep, Koering said he was surprised at the results but welcomed them.
“I never campaigned or knocked on one door or spent one penny,” Koering said. “This kind of surprises me. I guess the people still think Paul Koering can do a little good. That’s wonderful.”

On Friday, his bogus law suit, yet one more right wing effort at voter suppression - well, technically two more attempts at voter suppression in one suit, got bounced out of federal court, an utter failure on all counts.
From the front page of the  August 18 2012 STrib:
Registering at polls affirmed
U.S. judge dismissed suit that challenged two statewide election practices. A federal judge dismissed a wide-ranging legal challenge to Minnesota's election day registration system and to the status of voters under court-ordered guardianship

Article by: JIM RAGSDALE , Star Tribune

Minnesota's popular system of election day voter registration, used by more than 540,000 voters in the 2008 presidential election, survived a federal court challenge that could have limited its use in November's presidential and statewide election.
U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank on Friday dismissed a wide-ranging lawsuit filed by the Minnesota Voters Alliance, state Rep. Sondra Erickson, R-Princeton, and others that challenged both election day registration and voting rights for disabled people who are under court-ordered guardianships.
"This decision today means that the half-million Minnesotans who were relying on election day registration to update their registration, or because they just turned 18, this means they will be able to vote smoothly," said Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, a defendant in the suit.
Erick Kaardal, attorney for the plaintiffs, who argued that the election day registration allows votes to be counted before the voters' eligibility can be confirmed, said he will immediately appeal.
"We think we could still be in play for the November 2012 election," he said.
A second issue in the suit involves voting by severely disabled people whose affairs are controlled by legal guardians.

I would disagree with the description used her by reporter Ragsdale here of severely; there are very high functioning people who for some reason need the assistance of a guardian or conservator, who have retained their voting rights in court.

Frank dismissed the claim, which had set off alarms among disability advocates.

 Having read the decision by Judge Frank, which you can read here, I don't think there is a prayer of solid legal grounds to prevail on appeal. The suit failed utterly in every possible way - and properly so. More on that bogus complaint about voting by people with disabilities below...

Boosting turnout

Minnesota's spot at or near the top in voter turnout is largely due to the four-decades-old system of election day registration, which Ritchie said can add 5 to 9 percent in election turnout.

 Minnesota's spot at or near the top in voter turnout is largely due to the four-decades-old system of election day registration, which Ritchie said can add 5 to 9 percent in election turnout.
The Minnesota Voters Alliance, a small activist group, and other plaintiffs argued that those registering on election day -- 542,257 of 2.9 million total votes in 2008 -- cannot be vetted as thoroughly as those registering weeks or months before the election.

A better description of The Minnesota Voters Alliance is a small group of right wing extremist crackpots of the conspiracy theories and tin foil hat wearing variety, and public pests bent on voter suppression tactics to win elections for the right, because they can't win in a fair election that allows ALL legal voters to participate. Instead they try to engage in voter suppression against any group they believe might vote Democratic in an election they might lose. It represents NOT a concern for honest elections - we have demonstrated repeatedly and legally that we have those - but rather an ugly tactic and strategy to interfere with the targeted voting of others from opposition parties.

Pointing to recent close elections, including Al Franken's 312-vote victory over Norm Coleman in the 2008 U.S. Senate race, the plaintiffs said same-day registration votes could make a difference.

This is the essence of their unhappiness.
Despite the recount, despite the months and months the court case over the Franken/Coleman election dragged on examining the voting ad nauseum, they didn't LIKE the outcome.
They have no valid complaint with the election, other than they didn't like the result, so they grasp at non-existent voter fraud. Every scrutiny of the election ballots concludes the same thing - an honest but close election. But this is a myth, a hoax, an utterly fraudulent conspiracy theory the extremist fringe right holds to with the same death grip as the die-hard birthers, that the election was stolen by a Democratic voter fraud conspiracy. And they don't mind making false statements to try to advance the claim - or in some cases a few bucks off their gullible fact-averse fellow right wing nuts.

But the judge said "to establish a constitutional violation based on voter irregularities, election officials must have engaged in invidious discrimination or intentional misconduct," which was not alleged in the complaint. And he said the lawsuit was "based on the erroneous premise that election officials must verify voters' eligibility before their votes are counted."
Under Minnesota election statutes, the judge said, voters themselves certify their own eligibility to vote, or risk prosecution if they lie.
On the guardianship issue, Frank rejected the argument that it is a violation of the state Constitution to presume that all those under guardianship have the right to vote. The Legislature defines what guardianship means, the judge said, adding: "Absent a specific determination by a court that the individual lacks the capacity to vote, full voting rights are preserved under Minnesota law."
"This decision means that the voice of people with disabilities can still be heard at their polling places in this election year," Steve Larson of the Arc Minnesota, an advocacy group for people with developmental disabilities, said in a statement.
Looking toward appeal Kaardal and Andy Cilek, president of the voters' alliance, said they looked forward to fighting the issue through the appeals process. "What we have is the court failed to address the constitutional issues in our complaint," Cilek said. Kaardal added: "It's the first step in a long process of federal court review of our claims regarding election day registration."
With Thursday's decision, attention now turns to cases pending before the Minnesota Supreme Court involving a proposed photo ID constitutional amendment. Ritchie sees both the lawsuit and the proposed amendment as part of a campaign to eliminate election day registration, which he said is supported by conservative organizations such as the American Legislative Exchange Council, known as ALEC. The Minnesota Supreme Court has been asked to determine whether the photo ID amendment can remain on the ballot in its current form, and also what the proper titles should be for both it and a proposed amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage. Those decisions are expected within weeks.

Monty Jensen has some kind of problem with disabled people; last month he opposed a new state group home to replace a state hospital facility that was closing.  The group home would house mentally and physically disabled.  Monty joined in with the pitchfork and torches crowd having hysterics that the group home was going to house both the disabled and sex offenders.
Yeah, like THOSE populations are ever housed together in a residential facility, much less one placed near an established day care operation.  The fear of the disabled as being different, and other, and therefore scary appeals to the lowest common denominator.
Given Jensen LIED about the circumstances of his claim to see vulnerable adults being manipulated while voting.
First, he lied about 'just happening to see them while stopping by for an early voting ballot'.  The truth is he and his organization were uncredentialed voter challengers.  There is a procedure for properly being a poll watcher, who is credentialed for voter challenges; their group didn't, and apparently couldn't get those credentials.  But they hung out anyway around the county auditor's offices.
Then Jensen lied about WHEN he saw the voting he claims was illegal taking place.  He made a very specific claim about his observation in Youtube videos.  The problem is........those voters were not in the building at that time, and hadn't been for quite a while.  You can't see people who aren't there - unless you are Monty Jensen.
It bothered me how it was that Jensen singled out these particular voters on the second to the last day before the general election voting.  A possible answer is in his little group of crazies, to which the treating mental health professional who cares for those individuals belongs.
This is not a new theme; it has been advanced by former Sec. State Mary Kiffmeyer, currently one of the key political players with conservatives, especially conservatives legislators, on behalf of ALEC special interest groups.  ALEC is behind a lot of voter suppression efforts, including voter ID, restricted voting hours, and efforts to eliminate same day voting registration.  They also seek to replace our current system with provisional ballots, which in practice are often not counted, even when they are legitimate votes.  In conjunction with this theme of exploited disabled voters, the right wing extremists out for voter fraud like to bash unions, specifically union care givers.  Local blogosphere stooges play along, promoting the notion that people who care for patients in other care facilities are secretly using them to cast absentee ballots. 

This was the first hint I picked up on that this was another hoax that the right was trying to spread, as a voter suppression strategy.  I've learned to sniff for the stink of a lie when I see stupid and implausible, easily verified or repudiated claims, that are advanced by people who insist on remaining anonymous while they make unsupported and false accusations. When they throw in a little gratuitous union bashing, the stench of mendacity gets even stronger.
Monty Jensen included extensive rants in his videos and in at least some of his interviews, claiming that Unions were behind wholesale hauling of vulnerable adults by nurses and other care giver unions to polling places, as part of a Democratic Conspiracy to STEAL ELECTIONS.  In that instance, he failed to do his conspiracy homework - the facility was not unionized at all. It was another lie, but lies characterize this entire disabled voter scam the tin foil hat political crazies are pulling.
The upshot of Jensen's efforts was that a sheriff's department independent investigation revealed no attempt to coerce or persuade or in any way improperly influence the voting of disabled people.  Unless otherwise informed by a guardian or the court of ineligibility, a person who is a care giver is REQUIRED to transport, and if requested, to assist a disabled person in voting.  Because the group hoe in this case has exclusively high level performing residents, a number of their clientele regularly vote in elections and take pride in doing so.  Interviews investigating the claims of voter influence were pursued by local media, both print and broadcast, without finding any basis for the claims - including speaking with the disabled people who wanted to be on record about how important voting was to them.
That was not sufficient. One of the individuals who it turned out COULD legally vote, was coerced into testifying to untrue statements to advance the claims of the crazy political fringe group.  In private, he told the County Attorney that what he had stated publicly was not true, that he was not coerced into voting and that his choices were his own, but that his parent MADE HIM SAY THOSE THINGS.  And he broke down and cried over it, in obvious distress by having been so exploited by Monty Jensen and his associates in a false claim.
If anyone is guilty of exploiting vulnerable adults, it is Monty Jensen and his associates.  He apparently harbors ill will towards disabled people, and wants to prevent them living in area communities.  He panders to the lowest common denominators of fear and ignorance.  He is factually inaccurate, and he does not mind wasting a lot of county and state and federal money to try to engage in voter suppression.
But Jensen keeps losing, as well he should. 

He is a stain on the right, although out towards the fringe (or unraveled).  Those who engage in the same lies and fear mongering over voter fraud.  He will not prevail in his su it; it appears to be legally flawed.  The only real question remaining is how much of the taxpayer's money he will waste before he fails for the last time, and maybe whether or not he will be caught in perjury or not.  Because when someone lies as often as Jensen appears to have done, you have to wonder if - or more likely when -THAT is going to happen.