The debate over illegal immigration in New Haven has people fired up, as Mayor DeStefano wants voting rights for illegal residents in the City of New Haven and he's explaining his reasoning behind it to News 8.
CT mayor wants illegals to vote
Says they already pay taxes indirectly
Updated: Wednesday, 14 Dec 2011, 12:36 PM EST Published : Wednesday, 14 Dec 2011, 11:24 AM EST
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is reacting coolly to New Haven Mayor John DeStefano's plan to ask the state legislature to allow illegal immigrants who live in the city to vote in municipal elections.
Malloy said Wednesday that "it's not an idea that I'm particularly comfortable with." The Democratic governor said he believes there are obligations and privileges that come with legal citizenship.
Malloy said he's still willing to "hear the mayor out" on his proposal, which follows the lead of other cities.
Immigrants who are in the U.S. legally or illegally, and may not vote now, would still be unable to vote in state or federal elections.
DeStefano said illegal immigrants pay taxes indirectly through rent and send their kids to New Haven schools and should be able to vote.
A citizen is a participatory member of a political community. Citizenship is gained by meeting the legal requirements of a national, state, or local government. A nation grants certain rights and privileges to its citizens. In return, citizens are expected to obey their country's laws and defend it against its enemies.
The value of citizenship varies from nation to nation. In some countries, citizenship can mean a citizen has the right to vote, the right to hold government offices, and the right to collect unemployment insurance payments, to name a few examples.
Living in a country does not mean that a person is necessarily a citizen of that country. Citizens of one country who live in a foreign country are known as aliens. Their rights and duties are determined by political treaties and by the laws of the country in which they stay. In the United States, aliens must obey the laws and pay taxes, just as U.S. citizens do. They must register with the U.S. government to obtain legal permission to stay for an extended length of time. Legal aliens are entitled to protection under the law and to use of the courts. They may also own property, carry on business, and attend public schools. But aliens cannot vote or hold government office. In some states they are not allowed to practice certain professions until they become citizens.
Under United States law, a noncitizen national is a person who is neither a citizen nor an alien but who owes permanent loyalty to the United States. People in this category have some but not all of the rights of citizens. For example, inhabitants of a United States territory may not have the right to vote. Noncitizen nationals of the United States include those people on the Pacific islands of American Samoa who were born after the territory was taken over by the United States in 1900.
Ward Whipple Editor, Civic Leader
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here's a Progressive definition of citizen: cit·i·zen(st-zn)
n.
1. A person owing loyalty to and entitled by birth or naturalization to the protection of a state or nation.
2. A resident of a city or town, especially one entitled to vote and enjoy other privileges there.
3. A civilian.
4. A native, inhabitant, or denizen of a particular place: "We have learned to be citizens of the world, members of the human community"(Franklin D. Roosevelt).
MOTHERS AGAINST ILLEGAL AMNESTY and Founder of Mothers Against Illegal Aliens; USAF Veteran The Rule of Law is the Law that Rules!
By Last month, U.S. Senator Harry Reid’s anchor baby Dream Act amnesty burned down in flames. But Washington DC insiders predict the bill will surface again in the future.
What does the bill advocate? It allows an estimated 2.1 million Mexican anchor babies born to illegal alien parents within U.S. borders to enjoy instant citizenship. That in turn would allow those ‘citizens’ to sponsor countless millions of their family into the U.S. via ‘chain migration’ or ‘family reunification’.
What did you discover about Mexican children born in foreign lands and how does it affect the Dream Act amnesty for anchor babies?
“Liberation!” said Dallacroce. “Anchor babies and US Citizenship are not and never have been the direction we as a country should choose. But we have for the last five years because as usual the Americans are always reacting to the actions of the open border clan.
“It was staring us right in the face! But we just didn’t look! Instead of trying to defend and protect the 14thAmendment of the US Constitution against children born to their illegal alien females while crossing our borders, we never looked at the Constitution of the country of these women who were birthing these children.
“That is where this story should begin and that is where it should end! The Mexican Constitution, Chapter II, Article 30, paragraph II, states that you are a Mexican by birth if born on foreign territory, sons or daughters of Mexican parents born in national territory. There you have it! Anchor Babies are not U.S. citizens! They are citizens of Mexico according to the Mexican Constitution.
“April 4, 1997, President Sedillo of Mexico stated that “We will not tolerate foreign forces dictating and enacting laws on Mexicans. Our contention is that we are not enacting or dictating any laws on the Mexican illegal alien children born by illegal alien females in the US territory. Further, he states that “he was going to use all diplomatic and legal forces at his disposal to….protect Mexicans living in the United States.”
“A birth certificate is not in itself anything but a piece of paper. Just like a marriage license! Until you go to the church and get the blessing from your church then and only then is that “Marriage License” a valid marriage. The birth certificates that these illegal alien mothers have acquired are nothing more than a piece of paper without the full authority of allegiance to the United States of America. These illegal alien infants born in the USA are unable to swear allegiance to the USA and are unable to be automatically bestowed and granted something that they have never sworn allegiance too!
“The real dangers here are two fold. One is that these children are nationals and citizens of another country and they are voting in our elections. If we thought voter’s fraud with the Black Panthers was a problem, get ready for the wave of voters from a country called Mexico that already believes the southwest was stolen from them and they are determined to reclaim it!
“Second and more threatening to the United States of America is this. One day, you may have an “anchor baby” elected as President of the United States.
“A President, who has NEVER taken an oath of allegiance to the Constitution of the United States, because as I’ve already pointed out, the infant child was not able to take that Nationality Oath of Citizenship because the mother acquired a birth certificate. A mother that was illegally in the USA and who was a National Citizen of Mexico.
“And lastly, we have recently seen the President of Mexico get a standing ovation in our Congress and the day an “Illegal Alien Anchor Baby” sits in the seat as President of USA you will have the President of Mexico standing beside him as he takes his oath, AND ONLY OATH THAT KID WOULD EVER HAVE TAKEN to be the President of the United States of America.
“When and if that day comes, the USA will be no more. Mexico will have conquered the north and our borders will never be secure and every amnesty that will be granted will be granted to eternity!
“The 14th Amendment is not on trial! The 14th Amendment is clear! You have to be under the jurisdiction of the USA and under the Mexican Constitution, it’s clear, these kids and all those that came before since 1986 are citizens of Mexico!
“As John Lennon sang…..”Imagine”……looks like that is the direction they want to take us!
“The United States does not negotiate in hostage situations. Illegal Aliens and their children will no longer hold us hostage! Liberation is what Mothers Against Illegal Amnesty has found today.”
The following should be required by ALL states in order for ANYONE to cast a ballot. Any elected official that is in opposition to these simple, yet necessary requirements, needs to be voted out of office. Until we take the voting process seriously, we are exposing it to rampant voter fraud. Thus, any elected official that will NOT support these requirements must be a supporter of voter fraud.
***We must also make the crime of voter fraud a felony with a hefty prison sentence along with a hefty crime. The way it stands now, in Texas, if you are arrested for voter fraud, your sentence is likely to be the equivalent of a shoplifting conviction. THAT IS A TRAVESTY!
It is incumbent upon all of us to lobby our Senators and Representatives in order to get them to implement these simple requirements and protect the integrity of our votes.
Voter registration: A photo ID and proof of citizenship should be required to register to vote.
The registration period should end at least one week before an election.
States should be required to clean up their registration lists by comparing them with lists of citizens who have died, been convicted of felonies, or relocated. State election officials should be permitted to set up centralized national lists of such individuals. Federal immigration lists of non-citizens should be made available to the states.
Felons should not be permitted to register or vote before completing their sentences.
Absentee voting:
The use of absentee ballots should be limited to individuals who are unable to vote in person, including those who are ill or disabled, and soldiers stationed overseas. A copy of a photo ID should be submitted along with all absentee ballots. The signatures on absentee ballots should either be notarized or witnessed by two other individuals who provide their own addresses and telephone numbers. The number of voter signatures any one individual is permitted to witness should be limited. Only voters, immediate family members and caregivers should be allowed to deliver absentee ballots on behalf of voters.
Provisional ballots:
The use of provisional ballots should be limited to voters who actually need them. Provisional voters should affirm that they are registered and eligible to vote, and display a photo ID to the election official, who then verifies eligibility at the central registration office. Voters who are at the wrong polling place should be sent to the correct one.
Voting at a polling place:
A photo ID and proof of citizenship should be required to vote.
Election monitoring and sanctions for fraud:
Non-partisan groups should be permitted to appoint poll watchers.
State officials should be given greater powers to investigate election abuses.
Individuals who commit vote fraud should be routinely prosecuted, fined, and jailed. At present, such prosecutions are infrequent and jail sentences are almost non-existent.
Is vote fraud a serious problem in America? Let’s look at where we are today, and how we got here.
Opening the door to fraud
In 1993, Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act, better known as the “Motor Voter” law. Its stated goal was to increase voter registration and participation in Federal elections while safeguarding the integrity of the process and ensuring “accurate and clean” registration rolls. Motor Voter required motor vehicle departments, welfare offices, and other government agencies to provide forms and register voters, made it illegal to check the IDs of applicants, and ordered states to allow registration by mail.
This opened the door to a massive increase in fraudulent registrations. Motor Voter made it possible for someone to register under several false names, request an absentee ballot for each, and cast multiple votes with little chance of being detected. John Fund reported in his book Stealing Elections that the number of registered voters in Philadelphia increased by 24% from 1995 to 2004, even as the city’s population declined by 13%.
The 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA) required those who register by mail to show an ID when casting their first vote, but this did nothing to address invalid registrations already on the books. Also, many states permit first-time registrants to avoid the ID requirement by turning in their forms directly to election officials. A 2009 study estimated that US registration rolls contain more than 16 million invalid voters.
According to Fund and other experts, most widespread vote fraud occurs in large cities controlled by the Democratic Party. It comes as no surprise that Democrats frequently attack efforts to reduce fraud as civil rights violations or vote suppression, and consistently oppose efforts to require citizens to show identification in order to vote.
A recent poll found that 82% of Americans think a photo ID should be required to vote. However, only 25 states ask for any form of identification. A photo ID is required by just seven.
A PowerPoint presentation available at ElectionCenter.org describes new legislation Congressional Democrats are pursuing to increase Federal control over elections. Among the proposals: eliminating voter ID requirements, national voting rights for felons (who vote overwhelmingly for Democrats), Federal voter registration, mandatory availability of registration on Election Day and availability of absentee ballots to all voters. There is little doubt that such measures would make it much easier to commit fraud.
Non-citizens who vote
Many non-citizens use easily-obtained voter registrations to acquire other documents identifying them as U.S. citizens, along with other benefits such as social security and even government jobs. According to a recent Heritage Foundation study:
There is no systematic review of voter registration rolls by states to find non-citizens, and the relevant federal agencies – in direct violation of federal law – refuse to cooperate with state election officials seeking to verify the citizenship status of registered voters.
Local officials in several states who tried to remove felons and non-citizens from the registration rolls have also been sued by leftist groups alleging civil rights violations.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office found in 2005 that up to 3 percent of the 30,000 individuals called for jury duty from voter registration rolls in one U.S. district court were not U.S. citizens.
Voter Registrar Paul Bettencourt told Congress in 2006 that the extent of illegal voting by foreign citizens in Harris County, Texas was impossible to determine but that it “has and will continue to occur.” Bettencourt observed that 22% of county residents were born outside of the U. S., and more than 500,000 were non-citizens.
SEIU International Executive Vice President Eliseo Medina recently stated that granting amnesty to non-citizens (“immigration reform”) could add 8 million new Democratic voters.
Voting early and often – the risks of early and absentee voting
The bipartisan 2001 National Commission on Election Reform found the increased use of absentee ballots and early voting inconsistent with five key objectives of fair elections:
Assure the privacy of the secret ballot and protection against coerced voting
Verify that only duly registered voters cast ballots
Safeguard ballots against loss or alteration
Assure their prompt counting
Foster the communal aspects of citizens voting together
Nevertheless, those trends have continued unabated. Large-scale absentee voting also creates delays in deciding elections – delays that offer additional opportunities for fraud.
“No excuses” early voting (voting early without having to provide a reason) is now allowed by 36 states, and often begins as early as 45 days before the actual election.
Experts view absentee ballots as the largest single source of fraudulent voting. For an excellent case study of how this works in practice, see A Stolen Election in Greene County, Alabama. Author Hans von Spakovsky describes the typical procedure:
The conspirator applies for an absentee ballot by forging a voter’s signature on the application or obtaining the signature through coercion, trickery, or bribery.
The election official mails the absentee ballot and voter affidavit to the address listed on the application, either a real address or one controlled by the conspirator.
Election officials usually post the names of voters who were sent absentee ballots and the dates they were mailed, making it easy for the conspirator to intercept them. Ballots may be also sent to addresses controlled by the conspirator.
The conspirator completes the absentee ballot and forges the voter’s signature, or else the voter signs and completes the ballot as directed by the conspirator.
The conspirator then mails or hand-delivers the ballot to the election official.
Manufacturing an election crisis
The changes that are making our election system less manageable, less accountable, and more vulnerable to fraud did not come about by accident.
Leftists in Washington have used the financial crisis to nationalize General Motors, the mortgage industry, and much of the banking system, and are working diligently to socialize and redistribute health care services. Now they are preparing “solutions” to the election crisis they themselves created. Read what the Los Angeles Times has to say about universal voter registration. Notice how the article frames the new proposal as “putting
ACORN out of business” but ignores its vast potential for new fraud.
As Simpson points out, the Universal Registration scheme is entirely consistent with the Cloward/Piven strategy of manufactured crisis, which seeks to undermine government institutions by overwhelming them with demands for services. The goal is to achieve a socialist state that will redistribute the nation’s wealth.
ACORN was specifically created to execute this strategy, targeting our elections through its voter mobilization arm, Project Vote. Cloward and Piven themselves were long-time proponents of the 1993 Motor Voter Act, and joined President Clinton on the podium for the signing ceremony. Early in 2010, Frances Fox Piven joined the Project Vote Board of Directors.
Author Richard Poe writes:
The stated purpose of Project Vote is to work within the system, using conventional voter-mobilization drives and litigation to secure the rights of minority and low-income voters under the U.S. Constitution. However, Project Vote’s actions suggest that its true agenda is more radical. Its activities appear to be aimed at overwhelming, paralyzing and discrediting the voting system through fraud, protests, propaganda and vexatious litigation.
During the 2008 election, members of the New Black Panther Party stood outside a polling place in Philadelphia, waving nightsticks and threatening elderly voters. The Department of Justice filed suit against the group, but then abruptly dismissed all charges, despite the fact that the blatant acts of intimidation had clearly violated the Voting Rights Act.
Internal DOJ memos and news reports revealed that career attorneys in the Voting Section who were working on the case were overruled by Obama political appointees.
Advocates for clean elections should expect little help from the Obama Administration.
Buying the referee – the Secretary of State Project
The Secretary of State Project was created in 2006 by the Democracy Alliance, a 527 non-profit organization funded by anti-capitalist billionaire George Soros that has given out more than $100 million to leftist groups, including ACORN. SoSP was formed to place Democrats in crucial Secretary of State jobs that oversee elections in swing states. Races for these jobs are little-noticed and lightly funded, and significant infusions of SoSP cash played a key role in electing Democrats in Iowa, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico and Ohio in 2006 and in Missouri, Montana, Oregon and West Virginia in 2008.
SoSP Secretary Jennifer Brunner quickly made her presence known, ruling in 2008 that Ohio residents must be allowed to register and vote on the same day during early voting. She tried, unsuccessfully, to invalidate a million Republican absentee ballots over a triviality, and also refused to provide county election boards with a list of 200,000 registration forms in which the name did not match the driver’s license or Social Security number.
Minnesota’s fraudulent Senator
Years of leftist planning and effort all came together in 2008 in Minnesota, where the nation’s closest statewide election pitted Democrat Al Franken against Republican incumbent Senator Norm Coleman. Presiding over the election was SoSP Secretary Mark Ritchie, whose extensive ties to ACORN wereignored by the media. Immediately after taking office, Ritchie took steps to dismantle the ballot reconciliation program set in place by his predecessor, making it impossible to validate the number of ballots issued against the number of votes cast. Shortly before the election, Ritchie was to investigate serious problems found in the registration rolls, including 261,000 duplicate registrations and 63,000 voters who had listed non-existent addresses. He dismissed the request as an attempt “to create a cloud over an election so people don’t accept the outcome.” After the polls closed, Secretary Ritchie reported that his office “received no reports whatsoever of fraudulent voting occurring.”
The final vote showed Republican Coleman with a narrow 725 vote victory. It wasn’t enough. Over the next 4 days, his lead fell to 221 as officials “discovered” errors in the vote. Most came from three small precincts controlled by Democrats, and nearly all the reported errors helped Franken. Other irregularities included “misplaced” ballots turning up in an official’s trunk and vote total errors that affected only the Senate race.
The process continued during the official recount, as the Minnesota Canvassing Board discovered just enough “ballot errors” to narrowly put Franken in the Senate. Author John Lott analyzed some of the Board’sinconsistent decisions, nearly all of which favored the Democratic candidate.
After the election, outside investigators checked voting records against criminal records and found that 1,400 convicted felons had voted illegally. Incredibly, 17,000 more ballots were tallied in the Senate race than there were actual voters.
The Secretary of State Project plans to support Ritchie again in 2010, obviously pleased at his handling of what the group calls “a scrupulously fair and transparent election recount.”
What’s next?
Clearly, there is work to be done. The problem is serious, systemic, and getting worse.
The solution is for ordinary citizens who care about honest elections to get involved, right where they live.
The ongoing corruption of our elections exists for a variety of reasons, including:
A lack of citizen awareness, involvement, and adequate training
Federal legislation limiting how states and localities can detect and prevent fraud
Inefficient and ineffective election processes at the state and county levels
Advocacy groups pushing “reforms” that increase the opportunities for abuses
Unwillingness on the part of officials to preempt fraud and prosecute abusers
We intend to address these problems through the following initiatives:
Mobilizing and training volunteers who are willing to work as election monitors
Aggressively pursuing fraud reports to ensure prosecution when appropriate
Providing a support system for our volunteers that includes live and online training, quick reference guides, a call bank to phone in problem reports, information on videotaping at polling places, and security as necessary
Creating documentaries and instructional videos for use in recruiting and training
Raising awareness of the problem through strategic outreach efforts including advertising, social networking, media relations, and relational marketing
Voter registration programs and efforts to validate existing registration lists, including the use of pattern recognition software to detect problem areas
Harris County, Texas is the second largest voting block in the nation, and the shortfall of conservative poll workers here is staggering. There are more than 1,200 open poll worker positions – and this is typical of the situation in many large cities. Unmonitored elections invite fraud. Unless we are willing to take action, we are effectively complicit in the corruption that begins at the ballot box and rises to the highest levels of government.
Check out their website and donate your time or money to help them in their endeavor of protecting our votes: True The Vote
As Joseph Stalin said: "The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything."
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