Vermont Officials Seeking to Prosecute Voter Reform Advocates

-By Warner Todd Huston

Publius Forum:

James O’Keefe of Project Veritas released another undercover video at BigJournalism.com, this one showing that voters in Vermont could simply go to a polling place, give any name — for instance those of dead Vermonters — and be given a ballot.

As a result of the release of the video, Vermont officials had what can only be called a quixotic reaction. They want to prosecute the producers of the video instead of cleaning up their system.

Vermont’s Democrat Secretary of State, James Condos, told reporters in Vermont that he wants to go after O’Keefe and his video crew.

“My next phone call is to Bill Sorrell’s office,” Condos said, referring to the state’s top prosecutor. The crime of voter fraud is punishable in Vermont by a fine of up to $100 and/or up to one year in jail.

O’Keefe took to his Twitter account to respond to reports of the threats being handed down by Sec. of State Condos.

“State of Vermont calls for my prosecution. This is really getting old,” he wrote. Not long afterward, O’Keefe Tweeted, “The appropriate analogy is someone filming a bank vault door wide open, not doing or taking anything. Changes in the system would happen.”

Condos noted that Vermont has no voter ID law and that the poll workers did not break the law in the videos. O’Keefe, however, noted that this is just the point. Anyone can claim to be anyone at all and be allowed to vote without question.

Catherine Engelbrecht, chief of the Houston-based voter integrity group True The Vote, agrees with O’Keefe. “It’s been proven time and again that using photo ID’s actually improves voter turnout, including the turnout of minority voters, because it increases voter confidence,” Engelbrecht said.

O’Keefe also pointed out that he and his crew broke no laws as none of them ever took a ballot and actually voted so any attempt to prosecute him would be baseless..



The description of the video reads as follows:

On Super Tuesday in Vermont, Poll workers caught on tape handing out Ballots in names of dead people and giving out ballots in living people’s names to anyone who walked in. Bars, hotels and city clerk issuing civil union all required ID.

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–Samuel Johnson