Voter Suppression

Gov. Martin O'Malley and a longtime aide to former Gov. Bob Ehrlich had an interesting little exchange during the Dundalk 4th of July parade. The story came to me by way of Annapolis lobbyist Bruce Bereano, who attended the parade with the aide, Greg Massoni, and former Gov. Marvin Mandel. Massoni's brother lives along the parade route, and Bereano, Mandel and Massoni gathered at the house to watch it, as they've done for years. Massoni had a banner with anti-O'Malley slogans: "We deserve better than O’Malley.

Paul Schurick's recent conviction for voter fraud is a sad coda to the 2010 Martin O'Malley-Bob Ehrlich gubernatorial rematch: Sad because Mr. Schurick tainted his reputation as one of the state's best political strategists, and sadder because Governor O'Malley almost certainly would have been re-elected no matter what late-campaign shenanigans Mr. Schurick pulled. But the saddest thing about Schurick's conviction is that his actions are merely one small part of a larger and more systematic attempt by conservative strategists to find ways to suppress voter turnout in service to Republican partisan advantage.

A group of Maryland's leading Democrats criticized Republicans yesterday over what they assailed as the GOP's "secret playbook" to suppress voter turnout on Election Day. Democrats referred to the Maryland Republican Party's 13-page poll watcher handbook, which includes step-by-step details on how to challenge those who may be casting fraudulent votes. The handbook insists that watchers warn election judges of the risk of jail time for failure to report the challenges. "This is a conscious, premeditated plan of voter intimidation and vote suppression on Election Day," said U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, a Baltimore Democrat, during a news conference in Baltimore, where he was flanked by Attorney General J. Joseph Curran; the Democratic nominee for attorney general, Douglas F. Gansler; and others.

UPDATED Tuesday 1: 30 p.m. with confirmed reports of voter-suppression robocalls. While I have had many issues with the partisan nature of Ed Schultz's coverage from Wisconsin in the last year, I have to admit that Monday night the MSNBC host appeared to be providing an important public service to voters of that embattled state. During an interview with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, the Democratic candidate challenging Republican Scott Walker in Tuesday's recall vote, Schultz asked about reports of robocalls telling potential voters that if they had signed petitions to recall Walker, there was no need to go to the polls Tuesday, because their votes were already registered.

State prosecutors rested their election fraud case Wednesday against a top aide to former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. after introducing matter-of-fact campaign documents addressing a plan to suppress African-American votes. The documents, seized by FBI agents through raids and subpoenas in their investigation of Ehrlich campaign manager Paul Schurick and political consultant Julius Henson, show the activities of Henson's company, Universal Elections Inc., in the buildup to the November 2010 gubernatorial election.

Two longtime political operatives who worked last year on Republican former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s gubernatorial return campaign were indicted today for ordering what the state prosecutor called deceptive robocalls intended to suppress votes on the night of the election. Julius Henson and Paul Schurick each face three counts of conspiracy to violate Maryland election laws, one count of attempting to influence a voter's decision and one count of failing to provide an authority line (on campaign material)

WASHINGTON - Laying down a marker for the incoming administration and the new Congress in his final days in office, President Clinton called yesterday for enactment of a sweeping set of proposals aimed at racial reconciliation and reducing disparities between whites and minorities. In a report to Congress, he urged adoption of several policies long championed by civil rights organizations. But neither the Republican-led Congress nor President-elect George W. Bush has shown much inclination to move in the direction Clinton recommended.

It began before it began. This was in 1905, when the great black scholar W.E.B. DuBois called a meeting of prominent black men. They met on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls because hotels in their own country would not accommodate them and formed what became known as the Niagara Movement. The Movement, which held a subsequent meeting at Harper's Ferry, W.Va., issued a statement that said, in part, "We claim for ourselves every single right that belongs to a freeborn American, political, civil and social, and until we get these rights, we will never cease to protest and assail the ears of America."

Political consultant Julius Henson returned to the witness stand Monday and placed blame for a controversial Election Day 2010 robocall on a top campaign aide to former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. Henson told jurors in Baltimore Circuit Court that he was eating with his granddaughter at a Baltimore McDonald's at 4:42 p.m. Election Day when Ehrlich campaign manager Paul Schurick called him and authorized Henson to arrange the call — which prosecutors...