11 Alabama, were convicted for abuse of the absentee balloting process. Some 68 voter fraud investigations are in progress nationally at the present time. they are located in Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, Illinois, New York, Indiana, Kentucky, Texas, Delaware, Missouri, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Mississippi, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The vast majority of the subjects of these ongoing investigations are white. In three Georgia Counties, and in two Louisiana Parishes, the investigations involve vote fraud directed at black votervictims by white political figures. As noted earlier, one of the North Carolina matters involves victimization of Cherokee Indians by whites. We are also presently evaluating information furnished to us by a Mississippi civil rights leader to determine whether a federal investigations is warranted into alleged election crimes in that state. The purpose of the election crime program is, of course, to secure a meaningful franchise to all citizens by punishing those who seek to corrupt the balloting process. I can assure this Subcommittee that we intend to continue to discharge our frequently difficult duties in this complex and critically important area in a fair and evenhanded manner. I appreciate the Subcommittee's attention, and would be pleased to answer its questions. DOJ-1985-09 Mr. EDWARDS. Thank you, Mr. Keeney. We will be operating under the 5-minute rule. Do you want me to be first? Mrs. SCHROEDER. Go ahead. Mr. EDWARDS. Let's see. These 75 ballots were in the possession of the probate judge; is that correct? Mr. KEENEY. Seventy-five ballots were in the possession of His Honor. Mr. EDWARDS. They were impounded by the judge? Mr. KEENEY. They were impounded by the judge and officials with respect to the marking of them and then they were subsequently obtained by us by subpoena. Mr. EDWARDS. How did the Department of Justice get them? Mr. EDWARDS. By subpoena from the judge? Mr. KEENEY. From the election officials. Mr. EDWARDS. They were in the hands of the election officials? Do you know how long? Mr. DONSANTO. Long enough to tabulate the ballots. Mr. EDWARDS. The election was certified, I believe, and—— Mr. KEENEY. Our execution in getting at the ballots came after the electorial process had run its course. Mr. EDWARDS. Did your office consider the problems that black people have had in that particular year for a couple hundred years? Was that taken into consideration that harassment is an old, old story down there? Did you talk about that? Mr. KEENEY. We were aware of the fact there were allegatins in the past. Mr. EDWARDS. Allegations, Mr. Keeney, that there were not just allegations. This part of the country is- Mr. KEENEY. They are allegations as far as I am concerned. I can't prove them, Mr. Chairman, but it was commonly accepted that the white power structure in Alabama in the past had used this device for maintaining themselves in power if that is what you mean. We were aware of this. We discussed it, as is our usual procedure, and before we went ahead with the prosecution we discussed it with the Civil Rights Division, and as is our custom we notified them of our intention to proceed, as they had worked with a number of these people. One of the persons in particular has been a leader of the civil rights movement for a number of years. They were aware of the individuals, who they were, what their roles have been in the civil rights movement, but there attitude as far as we told them, we were going ahead, we have this evidence, and they recognized that we have a responsibility to proceed when we have substantial allegations of criminality. Mr. EDWARDS. Didn't the Civil Rights Division suggest conducting a major FBI investigation two months before an election and up until the day of the election was perhaps risky business, and had implications of chilling the voter turnout, especially among those people being questioned by FBI agents? Mr. KEENEY. I am not aware of it, of such a comment. There may have been such a comment made, but I am not aware of it at the moment, Mr. Chairman. Mr. EDWARDS. But you knew the investigation was going on all that time before the election? Mr. KEENEY. The investigation wasn't going on all that time. To my understanding, Mr. Chairman, the election, the investigation— let me put this in perspective. The investigation was not an open investigation. Allegations had been received that the defendants in this case and other people were accumulating absentee ballots so we were right in the area right before the election. But our activity with respect to it, there were no interviews conducted. There was nothing done that should have had any chilling effect on the electorial process, Mr. Chairman. We deliberately avoided anything like that. We followed the normal processes. We don't get actively into election fraud violations until the election process has run its course. Mr. EDWARDS. On what day? Mr. KEENEY. That is a little deviation here, and you might ask. I am sure there has been some suggestion to this, and I will explain that later. Mr. EDWARDS. Thank you. When did the Justice Department become involved in the Perry County case, how many days before the primary? Mr. KEENEY. My colleague tells me it was about 2 days before the election. Mr. EDWARDS. Before the primary? Mr. DONSANTO. Primary, yes. Mr. EDWARDS. And after the primary and up until the general, the investigation was going on with FBI agents floating around, correct? Mr. DONSANTO. The first round of interviews, Congressman, was conducted during October. Mr. EDWARDS. Mr. Turner testified that he was talked to 1 day after the primary. Mr. DONSANTO. That is possible. Mr. KEENEY. Wasn't there a runoff, Mr. Chairman? Mr. EDWARDS. No. Now, was this initial activity precleared by the Public Integrity Section as required? Mr. KEENEY. Yes. Mr. DONSANTO. Yes. Mr. EDWARDS. Were you receiving any political pressure from any elected officials to conduct this investigation? Mr. KEENEY. Absolutely not. If there is any political pressure, it never reached me, Mr. Edwards. I supervised the Pubic Integrity Section. If anybody were attempting to influence them, they would have to go through me. Mr. EDWARDS. My last question is your timing. It started at or before the primary and continued throughout the general election with a major investigation by the FBI. Everybody in the area knew there was a big investigation going on. Doesn't that bother you? Don't you think that is intimidating to black people, especially black people who have been subjected to voter discrimination for decades? Mr. KEENEY. Well, to the extent it was extensive and overt, I would have to concede that it could have some chilling effect. It also could have a salutary effect, Mr. Chairman, in insuring that the November election was held in a proper manner. Mr. EDWARDS. Well, thank you. Mr. Sensenbrenner? Mr. SENSENBRENNER. Yes. Thank you very much. It seems to me that what the chairman and the Democratic majority are trying to prove is first, that this investigation was racially motivated, and I think, Mr. Keeney, you have successfully rebutted that by pointing out that complainants were black and the voters whose votes were allegedly tampered with were black as well. I guess the second question is when there was any justification to believe that absentee ballots had been altered between the time they left the circuit clerk's office and the time that they were returned for counting. Do you have any copies of any of the ballots to show the committee so that we could look at them on their face to see what they look like? Mr. KEENEY. Mr. Sensenbrenner, I would like to offer for the committee's review the altered ballots. I would ask this, Mr. Chairman. These belong to the county in Alabama. They do not belong to us. We subpoenaed them. We have to return them. If the committee wants to make any use of them, I would request that copies be made. I think just a cursory examination of these documents will demonstrate clearly that they are altered ballots. Mr. EDWARDS. Thank you. Mr. KEENEY. These are the ones that were offered in evidence. Mr. SENSENBRENNER. I would like to ask to look at them on the record, and at least make a couple of observations in what I have seen. Could somebody bring these ballots up to the desk? Mr. EDWARDS. While we are waiting, if the gentleman will yield. Mr. SENSENBRENNER. I yield. Mr. EDWARDS. I want to point out it was not the chairman making an allegation or a claim that these investigations might be racially motivated. This was the testimony from three witnesses this morning very clearly on the record. Mr. SENSENBRENNER. You have just by random picked the first ballot out of the stack which is a ballot from an Easel Stevens, witnessed by Albert Turner and Evelyn Turner. Mr. Stevens' signature is in blue ink. There are votes cast for a number of candidates in blue ink. Mr. Albert Turner's witness signature is in black ink, and for a member of the county commission there is a black ink scratch off of one name with a blue X by it and a black X by the name of another candidate. The same thing has happened for tax assessor where one of the names was scratched off in black ink that appears to have a blue X by it and there is a black X by another one. It seems to me this is a prima facie case where some questions ought to be asked at the very least. I know that the intent of the voter is to be adhered to under all conditions, but this very much looks like a spoiled ballot to me because of the difference in ink. I will show this to the chairman. It came out of this envelope. Mr. KEENEY. Mr. Sensenbrenner, I am going to add with respect to that, with respect to each one of them we called the indicated voter and that person did testify that the ballot, as you have it in your hands, was not the ballot as that person executed it. Again, going back to the racial thing, all of these witnesses are black, I might say. Mr. SENSENBRENNER. Well, I would-let me ask you one further question, and that is that ballots that are enclosed in each of these envelopes were the ballots that were in there, so it is that voter's ballot, right? Mr. KEENEY. Yes. The reason we are able to demonstrate that, Mr. Sensenbrenner, is kind of fortutitous from the prosecution's standpoint because when the local judge issued the numbering order, he ordered that both the envelope and the ballot inside be numbered so that we could go back and tie up a ballot with an individual. Otherwise we would have had altered ballots and the envelope thrown away so we had no idea who they were. But this is the unusual circumstance in this case. From an evidentiary standpoint it was fortuitous. Mr. SENSENBRENNER. Just to recapitulate, you received a complaint from black candidates in that election in the democratic primary. You investigated following the primary based upon that complaint. The ballots were numbered pursuant to Alabama law, and an order by the probate judge of the county that has got jurisdiction. When the ballots were opened up and what appeared to have been done, as I described, was uncovered, then the FBI went out and interviewed the voters whose ballots were opened up. Mr. KEENEY. Exactly. Mr. SENSENBRENNER. These voters stated that they didn't vote for the candidate in black ink, as in the case that I have described, they voted for the original candidate whose name was scratched out; is that correct. Mr. KEENEY. That is right. Mr. SENSENBRENNER. And they had no idea of how their vote was changed. Did they so state that? Mr. DONSANTO. By and large, yes, Congressman. It is difficult to generalize. By and large, they did not know. They won't speculate as to who did it. Mr. SENSENBRENNER. But they didn't do it. Mr. DONSANTO. They didn't do it, no, sir. Mr. SENSENBRENNER. Could I ask that the material that has been turned in be photocopied and made a part of the committee record and the originals be returned to the Justice Department and yield back the balance of my time. [See Appendix 2, p. 194.] Mr. EDWARDS. Without objection, so ordered. To continue following Mr. Sensenbrenner's thoughts, after discovering these allegedly falsified ballots, indictments were secured and a trial was held, and the man was found not guilty. Mr. KEENEY. The three persons were found not guilty, that is right, yes. Mr. EDWARDS. So it doesn't quite jibe with the black and white description that has been submitted to this committee. Mr. SENSENBRENNER. Will the gentleman yield? Mr. EDWARDS. Sure. |