Nicholas Riley...our first attacker!

Sorry about the length of this post. It's something I won't spend a lot of time doing in the future, but on July 2, 2012, a "fellow" from the New York University School of Law, named Nicolas Riley, published the very first formal hit piece we have seen that attacks the great work (by our volunteers) to remove self-confess non-US citizens from the voter roll in Wake County, NC. I'm sure it won't be the last hit we ever take; but even though he ran off half-cocked, Mr. Riley deserves the recognition for being the quickest to shoot at us.

But before I start, there are some "Forward" remarks to be made: Not to call anybody names or anything; but I was torn by the principles expressed in Proverbs 26:4-5, so it took a while to decide how to address this young ideologue's slanted screed. With apologies to Dr. Michael Graves, for my breaking convention (by editorializing too much), here goes an attempt at something he might call "a close reading"....

Mr. Riley's hit piece began with a history lesson on the ugly, Democratically controlled history of the South. Note that he suppressed mentioning the Dems by name, but he discussed how a bunch of bigoted racists challenged the voting rights of 150 "colored people." Of course, he failed to mention the Republican Party affiliation of those former slaves. After all, such inconvenient truth might obfuscate his race-baiting rhetoric. So, he agitated the emotions of his Southern-hating colleagues and closed the paragraph with the obligatory reference to the "Jim Crow era."

Mr. Riley's second paragraph bridges to the modern-day activities of some patriots who are "disenfranchised" by the relative ease with which organized criminal groups can steal an election. Those people are fed up with parties stealing victories through Franken-style recounts or uncounted ballots suddenly "found" in the trunk of a car in a Washington State Governor's race. Those people are worried about the activities of ACORN-type groups in the "battleground state" we call "home." And those people are my colleagues in an organization I established called, Voter Integrity Project of North Carolina. Okay...now that we know the biases of both sides...back to the contextual reading.

In classic guilt-by-association propaganda fashion, his second paragraph actually began with this glittering jewel: "Last month, it looked like this troubling chapter from North Carolina’s history was about to repeat itself." He then reported some of the facts with a link to the current status of our challenges and then passed another so-called "fact" without providing any reference to their source.

The alleged fact, "most of whom were voters of color..." was news to our research volunteers. It surprised us because one of the first steps we used in the process was to strip away irrelevant data like sex, race and party affiliation. We are a non-partisan organization and do not want to give anybody the chance to misuse our research methods for their own pet biases. We would rather report the findings without pressure from either political party and let the chips fall where ever they may. Besides, a data base of six million (plus) voters is big enough without any unnecessary data fields. But before leaving this so-called "fact," we would like for Mr. Riley to explain how he conducted HIS research into that bombshell finding. If he actually performed the analysis, we would like to see his work. We would also like him to quantify his term, "most" as he abused it.

He then reported the dismal (from our perspective) results of our preliminary hearing: Almost all of our original challenges were dismissed for "lack of evidence." I won't bore the reader with the details of the hearing when scrolling down this blog page would be adequate. The bottom line is that we flew a paper airplane into a dogfight. In other words, we were out-maneuvered by a Board of Election that seems less interested in voter integrity than they are in destroying anybody who dares question their practices. We are appealing, whether or not we can locate a lawyer willing to work for the good of the cause (in lieu of money)...and speaking of legal counsel.

It might be relevant to point out that Mr. Riley is a bright political hack with all of the WASP credentials that our ruling elite require of its participants. Yes... he even went to Bill Clinton's old law school: Yale. Oh, but apparently he couldn't pass his Bar Exam! His bio includes a footnote beside his title, "Counsel/Fellow," that says, "*Not admitted to practice law." While not a fan of personal attacks, this point is relevant to the next part of his hit piece.

He uses his "lawerly cred" in the next three paragraphs to recite and summarize NC election law as it relates to voter challenges. While not an exhaustive list, it manipulates our complex law to make it look simple. With all due respect to both Mr. Riley and to the late Andy Griffith, these laws are designed for the Griffith era, when everybody knew anybody who was attempting to vote. Our state's simple-minded challenge process even allows for challenges on election day, right at the polling station--while it studiously prevents citizens from challenging voters who are flooding the system with fictional names and addresses and then voting by absentee ballot. It also prevents citizens from challenging anyone who registers on election day with nothing more than a facsimile of a utility bill to prove residence.  (As Ann Coulter might ask, "How hard are THOSE to fabricate?!")

North Carolina is only one of 13 states stupid enough to allow that practice (called "same-day voting"), but our electoral system is so broken that the criminal organization formerly known as "ACORN" sniffed weakness and moved in to register 5,000 voters in 2008. I should point out that anybody who has ever stood in front of a big-box store, trying to register voters on a Saturday knows how hard it is to register even 20 new voters, so registering 5,000 suggest some rather... innovative... techniques.

One of my personal heroes, Susan Myrick, is no stranger to the electoral process after working several years at the Wake County Board of Elections before getting replaced in an apparent Leftist putsch. In one of her many articles and blog postings on the fraud-friendly NC election laws, Ms. Myrick said our state's election officials have "succeeded in creating a system that makes it virtually impossible to detect fraud." She made that statement in answer to yet another vote-fraud denier who uttered their mantra: "There is no vote fraud in NC." That lie goes right up there with, "these are not the droids you are looking for." So don't fall for their silly "Jedi mind tricks." None??!! Really??!! Well, if that's true, I only need to bring one to disprove their claim. Cool! Here is one now!

Back to the text, Mr. Riley ends his article on a high note, calling for "modernization" that amounts to a North Korean style electoral process where everyone gets registered to vote, even if they have no clue what the issues are.

Looking at the entirety of Mr. Riley's article, it fits into a tired story line that accuses anybody concerned about our fragile, fraud-friendly electoral system as being somehow racist or bigoted. Another recent post at a left-wing site called NC Blue, provided a hotlink (to our website) on the word, "whitebread." Their meme is that anybody wanting to work the polls with a goal of preventing voter fraud is secretly a racist, bent on voter intimidation. We're not talking about the billy-club wielding kind of violent intimidation favored by the New Black Panthers and condoned by the Eric Holder Justice Department either. We're talking about extreme stuff like taking a picture of the guy who showed up at one early voting site three times in a single day, using a different utility bill to prove his (new) identity each time he voted. Note to citizens: Poll workers were prevented by-law from asking that creep for photo ID.

But the Leftists in media and government will scoff, "where is the proof of that wild claim?" Well, the truth is that it's a he-said, she-said situation until you have more than a few witnesses. In the past, Republicans have only mustered a smattering of helpers. But this is a call out to those who care more about our Constitution than they care about any particular political party. If you have read this far, you might be interested in helping us gather the "proof" this time around! To be done right, we will need as many as 50,000 North Carolina citizens who are willing to help guard our electoral process this November. The time is long gone when we could go vote and then trust the governing class to serve their office with integrity. If you want to help with this last-ditch effort to save America from a stolen election, please visit our website and give us some contact information...or even some cash!

Warning: If you join us, you will be called names. But please remember two things: First, we outnumber the Left on this issue no matter how hard their media allies twist the truth. Both Civitas and an April 2011 Elon University polls show wide public support for REAL voter ID. Second, anybody who suggest you are racist for supporting voter integrity (and real ID) needs to explain with their superior reasoning why they would be okay flying on an airliner that accepted utility bills as a proper form of ID. Join us!