Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler denies having political motives for pursuing a civil case against a Republican political operative who has been indicted on criminal charges for allegedly arranging thousands of misleading robocalls during the 2010 gubernatorial election. To demonstrate that he truly is acting without political motives, Gansler should immediately investigate CASA de Maryland’s attempts to intimidate voters attempting to halt implementation of Maryland’s Dream Act. Del. Michael Smigiel, R-Eastern Shore, told The Washington Examiner that callers from around the state informed him that CASA operatives were interfering with the referendum petition drive and harassing voters, even to the point of deliberately standing between them and the signature gatherers. Under Article 16 of the Maryland Constitution, the people have a right to pursue a referendum that voids the actions of the state legislature, which in this case is an extremely unpopular law forcing taxpayers to subsidize college tuition for illegal immigrants.
As Smigiel points out, CASA’s actions are “more in-your-face than robocalls,” and thus constitute a more serious attempt at voter suppression. Equally egregious is the State Board of Elections’ initial decision to hand over original petition documents containing tens of thousands of signatures so CASA could take them to an outside firm for copying. Smigiel says election officials admitted they had done so in the past by handing over documents to the American Civil Liberties Union. He also refuted state elections administrator Linda Lamone’s subsequent claim that “it was never going to happen,” noting that “the argument was over logistics, not whether [the original petitions] would be released.”
CASA, which lobbied heavily in favor of the Dream Act and referred to petition gatherers as “a small minority of extremists,” has a vested interest in the outcome of the referendum, which will be on the November ballot if the required 55,736 signatures are verified by today’s deadline. However, the Elections Board will not allow either the public or the press to observe this process. Referendum backers are prepared to go to court if the petition is disqualified behind closed doors — even though state law requires that all such political matters be heard in Annapolis. That’s another law that needs to be changed. Maryland voters have the right to challenge state laws without fear — and it’s Gansler’s job to protect them. The attorney general should be just as aggressive prosecuting current attempts at voter suppression as he is of those in the past.
