RNLA member J. Christian Adams wrote an opinion
piece that appeared in Sunday’s edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer about the Black Panthers case about voter
intimidation that led to his ultimate resignation from the Department of
Justice. He makes
his own case to “debunk a few of the myths.”
As Adams notes, there have been those who have claimed
that the incident was “no big deal.”
Although some (interestingly someone who was actually born in Philadelphia)
have revised their commentary to conclude after discussions with those involved
in the matter that “there was ‘little’ evidence of actual voter intimidation,
rather than ‘no evidence,’” there are others who don’t consider the whole
picture. Among them, Rick Hasen of the
Election Law Blog concluded
that it was “small potatoes.”
As someone who grew up in the Philadelphia area and
volunteered for poll watching, I question whether these people are realistic
about what really goes on in the City of Brotherly Love. To be blunt: It isn’t brotherly.
Take some recent examples (and this is just the tip of the
iceberg as there are probably more than this):
In May 2011, according to the Philadelphia
Weekly, “a representative of Democratic candidate Bobby Henon says that
sample ballots are being distributed in the Sixth District that appear very
similar to the Democratic City Committee ballots, but in fact are not. The
individuals handing out the ballots are refusing to give their names. The judge
issued an order to prohibit the distribution of these ballots.”
In November 2011, there was an allegation on Election
Journal that polling officials were illegally handing out Democrat
ballots. There’s a photo. Would you believe that this would be done by
polling officials? I mentioned it to
someone who also is from the Philadelphia area, and his response is
telling. He replied with an honesty that
only comes from living in the area. He
said, “Only in Philadelphia.”
Also this year, the car of a Philadelphia mayoral candidate
was vandalized
at least ten times. That candidate, Karen
Brown, commented, “This is what happens in Philadelphia politics, you can’t
even have a fair race.”
If you don’t believe me, listen to MSNBC’s Chris Matthews,
who like me, was born and raised in the Philadelphia area. He said:
I know this goes on. It has gone on in
old-time politics. It has gone on since the ‘50s that I know about. People call
up, see if you voted or you‘re not going to vote. The [sic], all of a sudden,
somebody does come and vote for you. This is an old strategy in big city
politics… I know all about it in North Philly. It‘s what went on. And I believe
it still goes on.
The RNLA aspires for elections to be open, fair and
honest. The first step to achieve that
is recognition of what is the reality. We
need to learn what really goes on in elections day. It’s not open, fair and honest. And prosecution of election crimes is hard. Some things that go on might not make it into
the words of a report.
Rick Hasen still claims that what happened at the
Philadelphia polling place was a “tiny incident.” J. Christian Adams’ arguments can be found here, but it’s true that a picture
(or in this case, a moving picture) tells a thousand words. The video of the Black Panthers that Adams
references can be viewed here. Ask yourself if you were there, would you be
intimidated?
Tiny incident? Small
potatoes? I think not.