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New Jersey Gets Registration Reprieve
by Michael Martinez
Federal prosecutors let New Jersey election officials off the voter-registration hook late last week -- for the time being.
The Justice Department on Friday announced an agreement with New Jersey to allow the state until May 30 to build a voter-registration database required by federal law. The Garden State, along with about a dozen others, missed a Jan. 1 deadline to complete its database.
The agreement, which Justice announced along with a complaint, outlines a timetable to bring New Jersey into full compliance with the Help America Vote Act, a 2002 law enacted after the controversial 2000 presidential election.
"We were very concerned that four years had passed without compliance with federal voting laws by the state attorney general's office," U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie said in a statement. "We are very pleased that [Attorney General Stuart Rabner] has taken this issue so seriously and has put the resources of his department behind fixing it as soon as possible."
Voting jurisdictions in New Jersey will be allowed to use pre-existing registration systems during the fall election, according to Rabner, whose office oversees the state's Elections Division.
"All voters who are eligible to cast a ballot will be able to do so this November," Rabner said. "We have been working diligently on creating a single statewide voter-registration list and will continue to move forward on this task."
In Alabama, a commission established by Gov. Bob Riley to oversee the completion of his state's database this week announced that it expected to hire a contractor by mid-January next year. AP reports that Riley, a Republican, also told the panel to avoid injecting politics into the project.
A federal judge this summer appointed Riley as "special master" of the state's election system after Justice sued the state over its failure to build the registration database. The move effectively made Riley the state's top election official. Democrats have decried the appointment, saying it is inappropriate for Riley to be in that position while running for re-election.
"This is about voting," he said. "It should have nothing to do with political campaigns."
The state has been given until Aug. 31 to complete its registration database.
Garden State Challenges U.S. Spying Suit
In documents filed in federal court last Friday, meanwhile, New Jersey's Rabner urged the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by Justice to block the state's investigation into whether telephone companies have violated privacy laws by helping the National Security Agency conduct anti-terrorism surveillance in the United States.
Rabner said in a brief filed in U.S. district court in Trenton, N.J., that the federal government cannot sue to preclude a state's top law enforcer from requesting information to enforce state laws.
The phone companies are suspected of giving NSA the calling records of their customers without consent. Justice argued that national security would be compromised by the state investigation.
According to Rabner, it is inappropriate for Justice to invoke the state-secrets privilege in this particular case. He also accused the federal government of attempting to block scrutiny into legally suspect behavior.
"It is one thing for the federal government to invoke the state-secrets privilege as a shield during an ongoing proceeding to prevent disclosure of information that threatens national security," he said. "It is quite another to invoke the privilege as a sword in an attempt to establish disputed facts and demand summary relief in the form of a permanent injunction against a state official seeking to enforce state law."
Rabner also disputed the notion that the administration can administer surveillance without having to answer to anyone, especially in light of news reports that the program could violate privacy laws.
"Surely, if Congress intended to vest such sweeping powers in the president to the derogation of state officials and the detriment of the general public's privacy rights, it would have stated so expressly," he said. "There is no statement of intent anywhere in federal law that would preclude the attorney general's investigation."
Ohio Candidate's Web Column May Prompt Suit
A former aide to Democratic Rep. Ted Strickland is threatening to sue Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell over an Internet column released this week by Blackwell's gubernatorial campaign staff.
The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Blackwell, the Republican battling with Strickland for the governor's office, circulated an Internet column this week naming a former aide to Strickland who was arrested in 1994 for exposing himself to children. In a debate this week, Blackwell also accused Strickland, who is leading by double digits in most polls, of covering up the aide's arrest.
Marc Mezibov, the aide's attorney, told the Enquirer that the aide is considering a lawsuit against Blackwell for disclosing his identity and for inappropriately disseminating information from sealed court documents.
"This is so preposterous,'' Mezibov said. "We are concerned that a record which has been judicially ordered as expunged, and the arrest records and related records sealed, has been disseminated by a public official. That is a matter which we do not take lightly."
A spokesman for the Ohio Republican Party said the item was fair game.
Indiana Gov. Daniels Pumps Iron On YouTube
A video of Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels pumping iron, running laps and performing calisthenics made its way onto the popular video-sharing site YouTube this week.
The Indianapolis Star reports that the clip is a promotion for Daniels' InShape Indiana initiative to encourage Hoosier State residents to live healthier lifestyles. It features Daniels and the hosts of a morning radio show in Indianapolis sweating through a workout routine that includes stretching, free weights, medicine-ball work and aerobics.
The soundtrack to the montage includes Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" and Olivia Newton-John's "Let's Get Physical."
At the end of the video, Daniels said it is particularly important that young people get in the habit of exercising at an early age.
"For a lot of folks in their later years, if we can just get them walking, that would be a big victory," he says. "But if you get the kids doing a little more, they may stick with it."
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