U.S. Attorney William N. Nettles of South Carolina said on Monday that his office will do everything possible to protect the rights of the people in his state when they go to the polls on Nov. 2.
“Every citizen must be able to vote without interference or discrimination and to have that vote counted without it being stolen or diluted because of fraud,” Nettles said, according to The Charlotte Observer.
He announced in Columbia that Assistant United States Attorney Barbara M. Bowens will be in charge of the whole process, and that law enforcement agents will be on guard before and after the election to check possible voters right abuses. FBI officers will also be available to receive complaints about fraud, discrimination, suppression or intimidation at the polls, he said
Nettles explained what the voters should do in case of a fraud allegation. “They should first ask to have a challenge ballot. That’s always a good thing to do. The second thing they should do is call the county board of election and let the county board of election know what’s going on,” he declared.
South Carolina was one of the states that were the main targets of the Voting Right Act that Congress passed in 1965, prohibiting poll taxes, literacy tests and intimidation devices that had long prevented black people from voting. In the decades since the law was enacted, many blacks have been elected to public office in South Carolina as in other states of the old Confederacy.
What a dumb, dumb story. Every USAO appoints someone to fill this fuunction for every election. The person is called the District Election Officer. This has been going on all across the country for decades. Bowens will sit in an office on election day and do absolutely nothing - and certainly nothing about voting rights because the Blue Book gives that exclusively to the Voting Section of Civil Rights. Sheesh! Do you people actually know anything about the Justice Department? Do you ever do anything but print press releases?
Now a real news medium would ask why they didn’t appoint AUSA Chris Coates, who actually knows something about voting law.
Have no worries the amazing Bill Nettles is on the job!
Michael Phillips