Project Vote Pillaged The State Of Missouri, And I’ve Had Enough

by Josie Wales

Do you remember Katherine Harris?   It is an article of faith for those on the Far Left that in the 2000 presidential campaign, a relatively minor state official “ruined” the hopes and dreams of the progressive movement and ushered in the “worst decade ever.”  The Secretary of State Project ostensibly was started to address the issue of a future Katherine Harris.  Their website states its goal is “to provide an easy-to-use, low-cost vehicle for online donations to reform-minded Secretary of State candidates and incumbents in key battleground states.”  They’re pretending to be a funding vehicle, but this is only one piece of the puzzle.  Only when we examine the broader picture, a combination of the Secretary of State Project, Project Vote, ACORN, The Brennan Institute, etc., do we begin to understand the underlying goals of the progressive movement: a fundamental change in the electoral process to establish the dominance of progressive politics.

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It is easy to miss the forest for the trees.  SOS Project’s website is cluttered with information on donations and the various state candidates for secretary of state endorsed by the group.  But when you look at the details of what the project actually does, you begin to see that the group is only one cog of the progressive plan to alter elections prior to the vote.  Whether it be the stated goal “to establish state political committees that will conduct innovative independent expenditure campaigns,” the fact that SoSP’s endorsed candidates have carried the progressive banner across state-lines, the criteria for endorsement by SoSP, or the actual personalities involved, we begin to see the interconnected web of progressive politics.  Don’t be fooled that this is some funding group to put Democrats in position to watch close elections.  This is a broader plan to alter the very nature of our elections.

Take, for instance, an instructive series of events in the state of Missouri.  In March 2007, Project Vote contacted Missouri SoS Robin Carnahan about possible violations of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).  In the following months, employees of the SoS were in contact with Project Vote to address these possible violations.  After various Sunshine Requests and “investigative” studies, Project Vote along with its allied organizations sued Deborah Scott, Director of the Missouri Department of Social Services (DSS).   An initial court order in July of 2008 forced DSS to comply with Project Vote’s interpretation, but that wasn’t enough.  Faced with a change in governor (and party), a judge with a history of favorable Carnahan rulings, a lack of money, and without the protection, guidance or assistance from Robin Carnahan’s office, Missouri’s Department of Social Services settled in June of 2009. Project Vote and its teams of lawyers were able to plunder $450,000 from Missouri taxpayers in attorneys’ fees for a case they never had to prove – namely a preposterous reading of the ”motor voter” law that puts the burden of registration on state officials as long as they aren’t the Democratic Secretary of State.

Robin Carnahan is a Secretary of State Project endorsed candidate because: 1) she is not a Republican, 2) she is a Carnahan (Missouri’s dumbed-down version of the Kennedy’s), 3) she is a willing executioner of the national progressive agenda, and 4) her campaign and government staff demonstrate the revolving-door of progressive organization employment.  Again, she is only one cog of the progressive-wheel.  In the example above, she was the vehicle by which the national progressive movement imposed its agenda upon Missouri state politics.

We’re going to be taking a closer look at the processes involved with the above-mentioned lawsuit.  The NVRA was passed in 1993, and one of its provisions required various state social service entities to be designated as voter registration agencies.  In Missouri, agencies under the DSS were to provide voter registration services to every person utilizing the DSS. Additionally, each state was to designate a State officer or employee as the “chief State election official to be responsible for coordination of state responsibilities under this Act.”  Missouri designated the Secretary of State as the chief State election official and directed the Secretary to coordinate state responsibilities under the Act.  The SoS was also responsible for providing voter registration applications in all offices that provide public assistance.  To any reasonable person, that puts Robin Carnahan in charge of the process.

Robin Carnahan was first elected Missouri SoS in 2004.   She had three years to correct electoral problems prior to Project Vote’s lawsuit, and in fact was campaigning in 2008 for another four year term while the suit was ongoing.   SoSP endorsed her 2008 bid for Missouri SoS presumably because she is a reform-minded candidate, but after now four years in office, she had failed to reform the election process  to the point that a national progressive group was able to raid state coffers and impose their will on state officials not powerful enough to fight back.  If Carnahan agreed that there was a need to reform Missouri’s electoral system, why then did Project Vote feel the need to sue?  Was Carnahan not competent enough to bring these reforms?  Did she lack the ability to make the changes needed, or was she afraid to do so for her future political aspirations?  As for Project Vote, was a lawsuit against the state, but not the secretary of state, the proper way to bring about reform?  And how exactly does taking $450,000 from Missouri in attorneys’ fees help the state electoral process?  It does not.  And that is the point.  $450,000 went to Project Vote and a host of other progressive organizations to pay their lawyers for bringing the suit, not correcting the problem.  Consider it a reward for bringing it to the attention of the state of Missouri, with the help of course, of Robin Carnahan, whose staff failed to protect the state from a lawsuit designed to pay the legal arm of ACORN (keep in mind that Project Vote is ACORN, letterhead not withstanding).

Missouri’s case was unique because it involved the assistance and not the resistance of the state’s top election official.  Buoyed by Missouri’s cash, Project Vote and its allies now plan assaults on other states.  The conduct of Missouri SoS Robin Carnahan in the period leading up to the 2009 settlement is only one story, but it is instructive to the big picture. In upcoming articles, we’re going to connect the dots on how the progressive movement is attempting to co-opt state and local politics in the name of a national agenda.  Examining the interconnected web of Secretary of State project beneficiaries, we’re going to expose the methods and purpose of this facet of the national progressive movement.   There are a number of pundits, bloggers, and political operatives who have repeatedly made the mistake of assuming the Secretary of State Project is designed to prevent another Katherine Harris.  That represents just a small portion of their real agenda.  In the coming weeks and months, we will analyze the state focused political and judicial assault on our elections, so as to understand the nature of this beast, and thus gain the tools necessary to defeat it.


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Posted Feb 3rd 2010 at 10:43 am in ACORN, Justice/Legal | 54 Comments