American Center for Voting Rights

From Ballotpedia
Jump to: navigation, search

This article is outside of Ballotpedia's coverage scope and does not receive scheduled updates. If you would like to help our coverage scope grow, consider donating to Ballotpedia.

BP-Initials-UPDATED.png
 		This organization is no longer active or there has been no visible activity. Do you have any information or see anything that needs updating? Notify our editors.

The American Center for Voting Rights or ACVR was a nonprofit organization founded by Mark F. "Thor" Hearne that operated from March 2005 to May 2007 and advocated for laws it believed would reduce what it deemed voter intimidation and electoral fraud, including requiring photo ID for voters. Its lobbying arm was called the American Center for Voting Rights Legislative Fund.[1]

Background

ACVR was founded in Midlothian, Virginia as, according to its site, "a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) legal and education organization committed to defending the rights of voters and working to increase public confidence in the fairness and outcome of elections"[2] and declared that it did not "support or endorse any political party or candidate."[3] Its lobbying arm, the American Center for Voting Rights Legislative Fund was chartered as a 501(c)(4) non-stock corporation.[4]

Leadership

ACVR's officers included the following:

  • Mark F. "Thor" Hearne, founder and general counsel. Former vice president and director of election operations for the Republican National Lawyers Association.[5] Served as national election counsel to George W. Bush's George W. Bush presidential campaign, 2004|2004 campaign and Missouri counsel to his George W. Bush presidential campaign, 2000|2000 campaign. Founded ACVR with encouragement from Karl Rove and the White House.[6] Helped Missouri Senator Delbert Lee Scott draft Missouri's voter ID law,[7] which was later ruled unconstitutional.[8]
  • Robin DeJarnette, executive director. Founder and executive director of the Virginia Conservative Action PAC.[9]
  • Jim Dyke, publicist. Communications Director of the Republican National Committee (RNC) during the 2004 campaign.[10]
  • Brian Lunde, Chairman. A former Executive Director of the Democratic National Committee who ran Democrats for Bush in 2004.[11]
  • Alex Vogel, a former Republican National Committee lawyer whose consulting firm was paid $75,000 for several months' service by Vogel as the center's Executive

Director.[5]

  • Pat Rogers, board member. An attorney from New Mexico who had handled Federal civil rights cases,[12] he pushed Justice Department officials to fire U.S. Attorney David Iglesias for inattention to voter fraud.[13] This dismissal fell under scrutiny as part of a Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy|larger, allegedly improper pattern of political influence.

Activities

ACVR endorsed the September 2005 recommendations of the Commission on Federal Election Reform, which was co-chaired by former president Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker.[14][15] Among its publications on the topic of voter fraud were "Democrat operatives far more involved in voter intimidation and suppression in 2004 than Republicans,"[16] "Vote Fraud, Intimidation & Suppression - The 2004 Presidential Election,"[17] and "Ohio Election Activities and Observations."[18]

External links


Footnotes

  1. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named fraud
  2. ↑ "ACVR Refers Voter Fraud Investigation To Department of Justice, Congressional Oversight Panel". 2005-03-21. http://web.archive.org/web/20050324134344/www.ac4vr.com/news/acvrnews032105.html. 
  3. ↑ "ACVR Legal Statement". http://web.archive.org/web/20051026094759/www.ac4vr.com/legal/statement.html. 
  4. ↑ "United States Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit Crawford v. Rokita". http://brennancenter.org/dynamic/subpages/download_file_48888.pdf. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Greg Gordon, "Was campaigning against voter fraud a Republican ploy?", McClatchy Newspapers, July 1, 2007
  6. ↑ Waas, Murray (2007-05-31). "The Scales Of Justice", National Journal, National Journal Group. Retrieved on 2007-05-31. 
  7. ↑ Scott Lauck (2006-10-23). "(dead link) Voter ID decision denounced as "activist"", Lawyers Weekly. 
  8. ↑ Natalie Hrubos (2006-09-14). "Missouri judge rules voter ID law unconstitutional", Jurist. 
  9. ↑ "VCAP: "Our People"". http://vcap.org/OurPeople.php. 
  10. ↑ "(dead link) Bio at Jim Dyke & Associates" (2007-06-14). 
  11. ↑ "Brian Lunde's bio from ac4vr.org as cached by ZoomInfo". http://www.zoominfo.com/people/lunde_brian_818736676.aspx. 
  12. ↑ Committee on House Administration: Testimony By Mr. Patrick Rogers (2006-06-22).
  13. ↑ Amy Goldstein (2007-03-19). "Justice Dept. Recognized Prosecutor's Work on Election Fraud Before His Firing", Washington Post. 
  14. ↑ "Commission on Federal Election Reform". http://www.american.edu/ia/cfer/. 
  15. ↑ "American Center for Voting Rights". http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=21014. 
  16. ↑ Mark F. "Thor" Hearne and Brian A. Lunde (2005-08-02). "Democrat operatives far more involved in voter intimidation and suppression in 2004 than Republicans". American Center for Voting Rights. http://web.archive.org/web/20050806013650/www.ac4vr.com/reports/072005/default.html. 
  17. ↑ Mark F. "Thor" Hearne and Brian A. Lunde (2005-07-21). "Vote Fraud, Intimidation & Suppression - The 2004 Presidential Election"". American Center for Voting Rights. http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/Vote_Fraud_Intimidation_Suppression_2004_Pres_Election_v2.pdf. 
  18. ↑ Mark F. "Thor" Hearne et al (2005-03-21). "Ohio Election Activities and Observations". American Center for Voting Rights. http://web.archive.org/web/20050425104337/www.ac4vr.com/news/OhioElectionReport.pdf. 

Portions of this article have been taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Copyright Notice can be found here.

v • e
Influencers
MainInfluencer Project Badge.png
Influencers

This influencers-related article is a sprout; we plan on making it grow in the future. If you would like to help it grow, please consider donating to Ballotpedia.

Retrieved from "https://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php?title=American_Center_for_Voting_Rights&oldid=9932488"