September 23 - October 2004: New Mexico Republicans Issue Numerous ‘Voter Fraud’ Complaints, Recommend that Voter Fraud be Used as a ‘Wedge Issue’ to Impact Upcoming Elections

New Mexico Republicans hammer US Attorney David Iglesias (see October 18, 2001) with demands to investigate what they perceive to be a blizzard of voter fraud cases. Iglesias has just established an election fraud task force to look into such allegations (see September 7 - October 6, 2004). On September 23, the executive director of the New Mexico Republican Party, Greg Graves, asks Iglesias to investigate the alleged theft of Republican voter registration forms from the office of a voter registration organization. On September 29, prominent New Mexico Republican Patrick Rogers sends an email to Iglesias and over 20 people associated with the New Mexico Republican Party, including staff members for Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM), Representative Heather Wilson (R-NM—see August 17, 2004), and state party chairman Allen Weh. Rogers calls for Republicans on the state and federal levels to use “voter fraud” as what he calls a “wedge issue” to influence the upcoming elections. Rogers writes in part: “I believe the [voter] ID issue should be used (now) at all levels—federal, state legislative races and Heather [Wilson]‘s race.… You are not going to find a better wedge issue.… I’ve got to believe the [voter] ID issue would do Heather more good than another ad talking about how much federal taxpayer money she has put into the (state) education system and social security.… This is the single best wedge issue, ever in NM. We will not have this opportunity again.” Referring to previous complaints he has registered with Iglesias’s office about alleged voter fraud perpetrated by an Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) worker (see September 15-19, 2004), Rogers writes: “Today, we expect to file a new Public Records lawsuit, by 3 Republican legislators, demanding the Bernalillo county clerk locate and produce (before Oct 15) ALL of the registrations signed by the ACORN employee.” On September 24, Weh sends Iglesias and a number of Republican figures an email about voter fraud allegations that says in part: “We are still waiting for US Attorney Iglesisas [sic] to do what his office needs to do to hold people accountable, and have informed him that doing it after the election is too late. I have copied him on this email for his info.” He sends an email to Iglesias that reads in part, “Vote fraud issues are intensifing [sic], and we are looking for you to lead.” On October 21, Graves sends Iglesias a copy of a complaint to the Bernalillo County Clerk asking that the Republican Party be allowed to inspect ACORN voter registration cards allegedly found during a drug raid. Weh continues to send emails to Iglesias about pursuing voter fraud allegations throughout the month of October, reminding him in one email, “The game clock is running!” [US Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 9/29/2008] In 2008, Iglesias will write that he investigated each allegation, and, with the concurrence of the FBI and the Justice Department, found no prosecutable charges. “Being close doesn’t count in prosecutions where the government has to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt,” he will write. “The facts did not support what the law required.” However, he will write, it is easy for partisan Republicans to conclude that he is unwilling to aggressively pursue voter fraud cases. It is not long, he will write, before he begins hearing “the rumblings of a whispering campaign among Republican operatives giving voice to their discontent.” [Iglesias and Seay, 5/2008, pp. 87] In 2007, investigative reporter Greg Palast will explain how the process worked. He will say that Republican operatives gave Iglesias and his office “110 names. They wanted them, for example, to arrest some guy named, say, roughly, if I remember, like Juan Gonzalez, and say he voted twice, stealing someone’s ID. Well, in New Mexico there may be two guys named Juan Gonzalez. So Iglesias just thought this was absolute junk, absolute junk stuff, and he wouldn’t do it. So it’s all about trying to create a hysteria about fraudulent voting.” [Democracy Now!, 5/14/2007]