Logan Churchwell spoke to the lawsuits. First on the Mississippi "loss", it was lost on a summary judgement but True the Vote believes it was handed good news in the fine print. They believe that third party groups trying to enforce voting laws won by forcing recognition of their message, as the court admitted that True the Vote is unique and not normally seen. The judge admitted that Congress hasn't made it easy to know what information under the law is available and wants Congress to do its job in that area. The federal judge said that True the Vote brought their lawsuit before waiting long enough to file.
Engelbrecht said that True the Vote is moving on from that lawsuit now and considers it closed. She also wanted to be clear about True the Vote not being a part of the Chris McDaniels campaign challenge. True the Vote was there to validate irregularity reports.
The federal lawsuit against the I.R.S. is ongoing. True the Vote filed a brief to expedite the discovery process as reports that emails are disappearing brought about a sense of urgency. The judge said no to that request but a decision on regular discovery is due any time, as it was to be within 60 days from a July date.
The same day Engelbrecht last testified before Congress, a complaint was filed against Rep Elijah Cumming, Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee. This is brought about by rumors of coordination between DOJ and Cumming's office and Lois Lerner (I.R.S.).
This story broke just Tuesday: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/09/09/Letter-Holder-Aide-Accidentally-Calls-Issa-For-Help-Spinning-IRS-Scandal
A Senior Communications Aide for Department of Justice's Attorney General Eric Holder called the office of the House Chairman of the Oversight Committee, handling the IRS scandals, thinking it was the office of Democrat Elijah Cummings, Ranking Member of that committee. It was made clear that the call was to discuss coordination between Cummings' office and DOJ about the IRS scandal investigations, which includes True the Vote. Founder and President of True the Vote Catherine Engelbrecht has testified several times before the committee.
The aide, Brian Fallon, is a former senior aide to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and a well-known personality on Capitol Hill. The letter describes Fallon as “audibly shaken” when he realizes his request to leak documents to help get ahead of news stories about them was mistakenly made to the very office he was seeking to undermine. Issa believes the call was intended to be made to Democratic Rep. Elijah Cumming's staff, the ranking member on the oversight panel, the letter said.According to the letter, Fallon – who is not named in the letter but confirmed he made the call – asked if the aides could release the IRS scandal documents to “selected reporters” to give Fallon an “opportunity to comment publicly on it.”Fallon explained to Issa aides that the Justice Department's Office of Legislative Affairs had not permitted him to release the documents to the public and he wanted to get ahead of the story “before the Majority” – meaning Issa – could share it, according to the letter.Issa aides – who had placed the call on speakerphone – were “caught off guard by the unusual nature of the call and the odd request” and asked Fallon to “e-mail the material for evaluation.”“At this point,” Fallon “abruptly placed the call on hold for approximately three minutes.” When Fallon returned to the call, “he was audibly shaken. He immediately stated that there was a 'change in plans' and that there would be no effort” by DOJ to release the material early.Fallon “proceeded to pitch the idea that the Department and the Committee should 'help one another' while simultaneously saying that 'you need to say what you need to say.'”
So, it sure sounds like the rumors were well founded.
Engelbrecht then spoke about the present concentration on the November 2014 elections and three (3) new tools in the toolkit for those interested in integrity of elections.
1. Poll Watcher training. This has been re-tooled from the original launch in 2012. True the Vote doesn't place poll watchers but trains those who are interested in this. It is up to the volunteer to get placed at a polling place, "a place to serve", usually through a political party.
2. True the Vote Research Database. The original version went live on the website in 2011 and has been modified since. Recently the database was taken down from the website and rebuilt. A more stable data platform is being tested and it will go live again soon.
3. Vote Stand. This is a new to the marketplace online app. It is a Voter Fraud Android & iOS App re-release. It will be found at www.votestand.com when it goes live. It will definitely be ready for the November 2014 elections. Volunteers and voters are encouraged to say something if they see something at voting polls, such as fraud or suppression. This app is a way of reporting it to True the Vote in real time.
Engelbrecht noted that polling shows that over 80% of voters agree with Voter ID laws.
The Texas Voter ID lawsuit is in court now. For the first time ever, DOJ kept this lawsuit at the district level, not at the federal level.
There is more waiting in the wings, we were told. Immediately after the November 2014 elections, True the Vote vows to go into full mode for 2016 elections. There is the promise of a 2015 True the Vote Summit. "Believe me when I say we are very focused" , said Engelbrecht.
Engelbrecht ended with "Hang on. There is a lot of work to do and it is going to take all of us." "We believe we really can True the Vote."
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