James O’Keefe – Voter Disenfranchisement’s Best Friend

-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger

Is there massive voter fraud or is this claim simply a cover for voter disenfranchisement? Those who claim that the voter fraud meme is itself a fraud, have been given a prime piece of evidence in the form of the latest James O’Keefe video. O’Keefe’s video intended to show two examples of non-citizens, and one example of a dead person, who are registered as voters in North Carolina. The video was immediately praised by Michelle Malkin, Breitbart.com, and The Daily Caller.

Upon further examination the non-citizens were actually citizens and the dead person was very much alive.

One example of a non-citizen voting that O’Keefe cites is that of Zbigniew Gorzkowski. ThinkProgress did a Nexis search and found a news article stating that Gorzkowski was a naturalized citizen. ThinkProgress called and spoke with Gorzkowski who verified that he had been an American citizen since the late 1980s.

O’Keefe’s video purports to show William Romero as another example of a non-citizen voting. Romero’s refusal of jury duty in 2010 for not being a citizen was O’Keefe’s proof that Romero wasn’t a citizen when Romero registered to vote in December of 2011. The problem: Romero was issued a Certificate of Naturalization on February 4, 2011, as shown below (click to enlarge).

The O’Keefe video purports to show ballots being handed out to the dead. An O’Keefe operative approaches a poll worker and says his name is “Michael G. Bolton.” Then there a break in the video (at 4:43) and the poll worker tells the operative to sign or make a mark in the pollbook to affirm his identity.

However, during that video edit, in the raw video the pollworker says “You must be a junior? … Michael G. Bolton, Jr.?” to which O’Keefe’s operative responds: “That would be correct.” Another Nexis search reveals that Michael G. Bolton, Jr., the son of the deceased Michael G. Bolton, is registered to vote at the address given to the pollworker. The widowed mother of Michael G. Bolton, Jr. claims her son is very much alive.

James O’Keefe is a best friend for those who want to expose the voter fraud movement as a voter disenfranchisement movement.

H/T: MediaMatters, ThinkProgress (& here, & here), TPMMuckraker.