FEC Nominee Caroline Hunter emailed in 2004 Ohio Caging Scheme

As has been covered extensively at TPM muckraker and noted by Adam B on the front page here today, the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) has been disabled by the Bush Administration's efforts to confirm notorious vote-suppression guru Hans von Spakovsky to the FEC.

Democrats rightly continue to block approval of von Spakovsky.  However, in another shameless effort to install Republican Partisans in influential positions in our elections bureaucracy, the Bush Administration has nominated for the FEC a lawyer intimately acquainted with how to suppress voters:

Caroline Hunter

Caroline Hunter was deputy director of the White House Office of Public Liaison until her nomination and approval as an elections assistance commissioner (EAC) in February of this year.  Despite that she had never worked in election administration, Caroline Hunter was approved by Senate voice vote, in what some described as "necessity" to fill the commission before the 2008 elections.

Democrats were aware of questions about Hunter's qualifications, Gantman said, "but currently on the commission there are two Republican nominees and one Democratic nominee. With the 2008 election approaching, it was important that these positions be filled without any ongoing partisan standoff. And it became clear to us that in order to move commissioners, we needed to move both the Democratic and Republican nominees. That that's the only way these would move through the Senate."

Well, now, Caroline Hunter is nominated for the FEC, a position considerably more important to the upcoming elections.  I hope her nomination is given considerably more scrutiny.

Before she joined the Bush White House, Caroline Hunter, was an attorney for the Republican National Committee, serving as RNC Deputy Counsel before the 2004 elections.  Indeed this experience was recently touted by Republican EAC chairwoman Donetta Davidson:

....Hunter, who stepped down in October as deputy director of the White House Office of Public Liaison, studied many states' election laws during her stint with the Republican National Committee.

 [bold mine]

In considering her experience as a trooper for the RNC, I certainly hope that our Democratic Senators will ask her about her role in the efforts by the Ohio Republican Party in collaboration with the RNC to cage voters in 2004.

Caging
"Caging" is a method of voter suppression in which first-class mail is sent to registered voters to confirm their addresses. If the letter is returned to the sender, the name and address on the returned mail is entered into a database known as "caging list."  This list can then be used to challenge voters who show up at the poll to prove their residence and eligibility.  The RNC has historically used caging lists to suppress likely democratic voters.  The lists of the 1980's disproportionately affected minority voters, leading to lawsuits against the RNC. In 1982, a consent decree signed by the RNC prohibited caging efforts directed at voter suppression of minority populations.

Caging in Ohio, 2004.
For Background see this article.

The consent decree was the basis of a successful challenge to Republican use of caging for voter suppression in Ohio in 2004. The documents from this court case are public records and allow us to see Caroline Hunter's involvement in the scheme.

Although the RNC argued that the caging lists were designed and implemented by the Ohio Republican Party rather than the RNC, emails between the Ohio Republican Party and the RNC show clear RNC involvement and collusion.  The principal RNC operative involved in the Ohio caging emails was Tim Griffin, whose role in caging may have helped derail his appointment as US Attorney of Arkansas.  But also copied on the emails detailing the use of challenge lists was CAROLINE HUNTER.

Caroline Hunter is as bad as von Spakovsky
So the question that Democratic Senators need to ask before approving Republican Partisan, RNC vote-suppression consigliere Caroline Hunter to the Federal Election Commission is:

1.  Did you, as RNC deputy counsel, approve of Tim Griffin's 2004 vote caging schemes in Ohio?

2.  Are you aware of other RNC vote caging schemes initiated in 2004, such as that in Duval County, Florida?

3.  Are you aware that many of the RNC caging schemes that you were apparently apprised of, violate consent decrees and discriminate against minority voters?

Here is the data:
Cast of characters:

Court documents and excerpt:

PDF WARNING:Declaration_of_Caroline_Hunter_and_emails_exh_d.pdf
Court exhibits from US District Court, District of New Jersey, Civil Action No. 81-3876, containing emails from Tim Griffin and other RNC and Bush-Cheney ‘04 operatives, outlining plans to use lists in Ohio and throughout the country in 2004 ballot challenges.