Texas
Report Says 12 Girls at Sect Ranch Were Married
December
24, 2008 The New York Times By DAN FROSCH
Texas child
welfare officials have concluded that a dozen under-age girls living
at the
ranch of a polygamist sect that was raided in April were involved in “spiritual”
marriages to older men.
It also said that hundreds of children at the ranch had suffered neglect through
their exposure to such improper relationships.
The findings were released Tuesday in a report by the Texas Department of Family
and Protective Services that focused on the sect living at the Yearning for Zion
Ranch in Eldorado.
[
... ]
After receiving a call alleging child abuse at the ranch from someone claiming
to be a teenage sect member, the authorities raided the West Texas compound and
removed 439 children. The raid drew national attention for weeks as the state
grappled with placing the children in foster care, and the F.L.D.S. went to
court to win their return.
Both the Texas Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals ruled that the raid had
been too broad, that it was not backed by evidence of sexual abuse, and that
there had been no grounds to seize the children. Ultimately, all but one of the
children were returned to their parents, and the authorities have investigated
whether the original report of abuse was a hoax.
Since the raid, however, 12 men living at
the ranch were indicted
[ prétérit passif
]
by a grand jury in Eldorado, on charges including the
sexual assault of a minor and bigamy.
September
25, 2008 The New York Times By IAN URBINA
More than a
million people have lost[
present perfect
actif ] their homes through foreclosure in
the last two years, and many of them are still registered to vote at the
address of the home they lost[
prétérit actif ]. Now election officials and
voting rights groups are struggling to prevent thousands of them from losing
their vote when they go to the polls in November.
Many of these voters will be disqualified at the polls because, in the tumult of
their foreclosure, they neglected to tell their election board of their new
address. Some could be forced to vote with a provisional ballot or challenged by
partisan poll watchers, a particular concern among Democrats who fear that poor
voters will be singled out. That could add confusion and stretch out lines that
are already expected to be long because of unprecedented turnout.
Federal election officials say they are concerned that voters are not being
properly informed of how to update their addresses.
“Our biggest concern is that many of these voters will stay home or that poll
workers will give misinformation,” said Rosemary E. Rodriguez, the chairwoman of
the federal Election Assistance Commission, which oversees voting.
Todd Haupt, a home builder, lost his home in Josephville, Mo., to foreclosure
last year, and said he had since become much more interested in politics. But
asked whether he had remembered to update his voter registration information
when he moved into his parents’ home in St. Charles, Mo., Mr. Haupt, 33, paused
silently. “Is that required?” he said. “I had no idea.”
“I’ve moved [
present perfect
actif ] three times in the past two years,”
he added. “Keeping my voter registration information was not top on my mind
because I figured it was all set already.”
Ms. Rodriguez said the commission issued a notice this month encouraging voters
to update their registration information before the Oct. 6 cutoff date imposed
by many states for new voter registrations. She added that the commission
considered issuing a notice this month informing local officials how to handle
these voters, but in the end decided not to give poll chal-lengers any ideas on
new tactics for singling out voters.
Many of the nation’s highest foreclosure rates are also in crucial swing states
like Colorado, Florida, Michigan and Ohio. Because many homeowners in
foreclosure are black or poor, and are considered probable Democratic voters in
many areas, the issue has begun to have political ramifications. Political
parties have long challenged voters with expired registrations, but the possible
use of foreclosure lists to remove people from the rolls — though entirely legal
— has become a new partisan flashpoint.
Last week, Senator Barack Obama’s campaign filed a lawsuit in federal court,
seeking to prohibit the Michigan Republican Party from using foreclosure lists
to single out and challenge voters. The state Republican Party has denied having
any such plans.
Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, sent a
letter last week along with a dozen other Democratic senators to Attorney
General Michael B. Mukasey asking him to ensure that voters facing foreclosure
are not harassed or intimidated at polling places.
In Ohio, liberal-leaning groups are planning to help people in foreclosure and
families who are homeless to vote by using a five- to seven-day window starting
Sept. 30 when state residents are permitted to register and cast an early ballot
simultaneously. The Republican Party has filed[
present perfect
actif ] a lawsuit in state court to block
registering and voting on the same day, arguing that state law forbids it.
Asked whether his party planned to use foreclosure information to compile
challenge lists, Robert Bennett, a spokesman for the Ohio Republican Party, said
the party did not discuss its election strategies in public.
[After this article was published, Mr. Bennett sent an e-mail message adding
that the Ohio Republican Party condemns "any effort to challenge the eligibility
of voters based on home foreclosures."]
Similar questions were raised two years ago over how to deal with more than a
million people who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Some of these voters
were never found, while others were able to vote with absentee ballots or at
satellite locations outside New Orleans.
“Foreclosure victims are distinctly vulnerable because they are not officially
recognized as a group needing voting help,” said Robert M. Brandon, president of
the Fair Elections Legal Network, a liberal-leaning voting rights group.
Last month, his organization sent letters to the secretaries of state in
Arizona, Florida, Missouri and Ohio, asking them to better educate foreclosure
victims on their rights. The letters argued that the laws in these states do not
bar such voters from voting in their former jurisdictions if their intent is to
move back as soon as circumstances allow.
On Wednesday, Jennifer L. Brunner, the Ohio secretary of state who is a
Democrat, sent out an advisory to all local officials instructing them what to
do if anyone who has lost a home to foreclosure shows up at the polls. If the
address listed for such voters is no longer valid, and they moved outside the
precinct, Ms. Brunner said, poll workers are instructed to send the voter to the
polling place that corresponds to the voter’s new address. The voter will then
be given a provisional ballot — special ballots that can be counted only after
the voter’s eligibility is verified — at the proper polling place, the directive
said.
The state requires that election officials send a notice to all registered
voters verifying their address 60 days before an election to check the accuracy
of the voter rolls. This month, Ms. Brunner ruled that an undeliverable notice
will not be grounds enough on its own for a voter to be removed from the
registration lists.
So far, election officials in Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Ohio
have sent out[ present perfect actif
] notices to residents in select
counties who have filed[
present perfect
actif ] for a change of address but who have
not updated[
present perfect
actif ] their voter registration.
But the number of people who have moved,
through foreclosure or for any other reason, far exceeds the number of people
who have notified their election boards. In Ohio, 375,000 people filed
change-of-address forms with the Postal Service, but when state officials sent
them cards asking for updated registration information, only 24,000 responded.
In Missouri, where 250,000 people notified the Postal Service of their move,
only 22,000 told the election board.
Robin Carnahan, the Missouri secretary of state, and a Democrat, said that she
is trying to get local election officials to increase the number of poll workers
to deal with any confusion or challenges of voters.
In 2004, a Republican Party official challenged a large number of voters at a
largely black precinct in Boone County, Mo., causing a backup. Such challenges
can cause long lines at polling places if there are not enough poll workers to
pull challenged voters out of line, or if the workers have to consult with
higher-level election officials for each challenge.
State political parties have traditionally
used[
present perfect
actif ] the mail to determine which voters to
challenge. By sending out mailings to voters likely to be of the opposite party,
and then seeing which mailings are returned as undeliverable, they know whom to
challenge at the polls for not living at their registered address. Using public
lists of foreclosed homes, however, can save money by allowing a party to avoid
sending out mailings.
William Nowling, a spokesman for the Michigan Republican Party, said that
Democratic complaints about foreclosure victims being singled out were baseless.
“We are not using foreclosure lists in any way,” Mr. Nowling said, accusing
Democratic groups of engaging in fear-mongering by spreading rumors of such
plans. “Our voter integrity efforts are solely designed to fight voter fraud
perpetrated by the Democrats, of which there is ample proof and examples,
including previous elections where the F.B.I. had to seize and secure ballots in
Detroit because ballot boxes were being stuffed.”
