May 2005: Conservative Activist Organization Urges Justice Department to Investigate US Attorney for ‘Malfeasance’ regarding Voter Fraud Claims

The Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a conservative activist organization in Washington state, sends a three-page letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales urging the Justice Department to investigate US Attorney John McKay (see October 24, 2001) for misconduct. The foundation charges that McKay “has committed malfeasance by systematically refusing to act on evidence of election fraud delivered to his office.” The foundation, along with several Republican leaders in Washington state, say that McKay willfully ignored complaints of election fraud in the hotly contested 2004 governor’s race between Christine Gregoire (D-WA) and Dino Rossi (R-WA—see December 23, 2004 - January 12, 2005). McKay opened an investigation, but did not empanel a grand jury to investigate further (see January 4, 2005, Late 2004 or Early 2005 and Late 2004). McKay will later say that his office found no grounds for the voter fraud allegations: “We had lots of instances of incompetent handling of an election. What we didn’t find was a criminal act.” The director of that group’s voter integrity project, Jonathan Bechtle, later says that he believes his group’s complaint was forwarded to the Justice Department office that oversees US Attorneys, but will say, “I couldn’t get any information out of them as to the conclusion.” [Washington Post, 3/19/2007; Iglesias and Seay, 5/2008, pp. 133]