jonetta rose barras: Should these DC cases be called voting fraud or mistakes?

When the DC Board of Elections unexpectedly announced last week that it was levying “civil fines” of up to $500 against six individuals for violating election laws in 2020 because they registered in multiple jurisdictions and voted twice, I was reminded of stories my grandfather shared about the miraculous feats performed by his cousin Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau that sometimes involved making people appear or disappear in thin air during broad daylight. The activities of New Orleans’ legendary sorcerer may have been entertaining. However, those perpetuated by the BOE are troubling and raise questions about the agency’s management of one of the government’s most critical tasks — the operation of fair, safe and ethical elections, regardless of external atmospheric or human conditions.

For nearly two years, District residents knew nothing about the six election violators. In fact, the BOE and its staff had insisted during a series of public roundtables and hearings that there was no evidence of voter irregularities or fraud in the 2020 general election. 

In its legally required post-election reports, prepared in 2021 and 2022, BOE does not mention any of the double-voting cases. Interestingly, they also aren’t referenced in an audit conducted by Fors Marsh Group for the Office of the DC Auditor and published in November 2021 — although that report documents many other problems with the 2020 primary and general elections.

In March 2021, the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) informed DC of a problem with double registration by some voters and double voting. A national, nonpartisan, nonprofit data collection and analysis organization funded and governed by states, ERIC aims to help its members maintain accurate rolls and detect possible illegal voting. 

Every 60 days the states send ERIC their voter registration data, which is examined to determine whether voters have moved to a different state or within the same one; whether there are duplicate registrations; and whether there are deceased voters listed on the rolls or recorded as having marked ballots. BOE’s executive director Monica Evans is a member of ERIC’s board. 

Even after the March notification, District election officials waited a full eight months, until November 2021, to open their own investigation. “DCBOE’s Data Services Division and its Office of General Counsel conducted the investigation with voter data provided by the [ERIC] and its member states,” BOE spokesperson Sarah Graham wrote in an email to me earlier this week, adding that “final findings” were reached in December 2022.

Now, a year later, the BOE has moved to cite and fine the violators — Vanessa Rubio, Renee Diggs, Jessica Miser, Marcella Gooding, Eddie Bishop and Margaretta Sibert-Dean. “All of the voters listed voted in Maryland, along with DC,” Graham wrote. “The reasoning for each fine will be provided in the Board’s executive orders, which haven’t been released yet.” (The orders were posted on the BOE’s website today.)

When I asked why there was a delay in taking action, she asserted there wasn’t one in “securing the information” and that the agency “proceeded with enforcement after it had received information from all jurisdictions involved who provided information to DCBOE.”

And yet, as the orders released today indicate, the BOE’s general counsel did not meet with violators for a pre-conference hearing to understand their side of the story until August 2023.

To reiterate: The agency was alerted to possible fraud in March 2021. The general counsel didn’t meet with violators until August 2023, and the board didn’t levy fines until this month.

Legal sources who requested anonymity told me that violating laws against double voting is a felony. Should the BOE have levied civil fines? Did the agency consult with the Office of the Attorney General before announcing its decisions? A spokesperson for the OAG said, “We cannot comment on whether we were consulted on BOE’s decisions.”

In another email to me, Graham wrote, “Violations of prohibitions on voting twice fall under the Board’s authority to refer election law violations to a prosecutorial authority and/or impose, upon recommendation of the Office of the General Counsel, civil fines of up to $2,000 for each violation of ‘any provision’ of the elections laws.”

Authority or not, it seems to me, someone voting twice in either a local or presidential or congressional election should get more than a slap on the wrist, which is the only description that could accurately be applied to a $100 or $500 fine.

Am I right, or what?

“This whole thing raised more questions than it answered,” said Dorothy Brizill, founder and director of the government watchdog group DC Watch. “Should we have any confidence that it is not more than 10 people?”

Considered an expert on DC election processes and the operations of the BOE, Brizill cited as an example the fact that one case involved a mail-in ballot where the voter argued that the signature on that document wasn’t his. The BOE ultimately concluded that, in fact, the signature on the ballot didn’t match the official signature card in the agency’s voter file; as a result, there was no fine imposed. “Then, why even bring the case?” asked Brizill.

Equally important, BOE officials said they were checking signature cards against those on mail-in ballots that were submitted. If that were the case, shouldn’t they have discovered the phony signature upon their initial review prior to the ballot being counted?

“We don’t know if this is a single matter or whether it is part of a conspiracy. We just don’t know,” continued Brizill. “It all speaks to the need for someone to roll up their sleeves, not play nicey-nice and ask tough questions.”

OK, let’s be clear: These cases shouldn’t be seen as some Donald Trump MAGA advance for questioning the District’s 2024 election. 

The BOE said in its news release that it is “currently reviewing ERIC voter history data related to the 2022 General Election to determine whether any District of Columbia voters engaged in illegal voting activity.”

Patrick Mara, chair of the DC Republican Committee, told me during an interview earlier this week that he and local party officials have been focused on getting BOE to clean up voter rolls, a process he described as the “centerpiece of election integrity.”

“Overall, the way we run elections, there literally is no check on anything,” continued Mara, “and because of the transiency issue in DC, it could be a bigger problem.”

Truth be told, none of us should be surprised about the sudden appearance of belated disclosures by the BOE or the fact that these same problems may arise again in 2024 when the next presidential election is held.

There was a voter roll problem in 2016. And the 2020 general election was an absolute mess; 2022, which was all local, was only slightly better.

I reported in 2020 that voters complained about not receiving their absentee ballots. This occurred even though the DC Council, reacting to the impact of the pandemic, had required for the June primary that one be sent to any voter who asked. Sometimes, after a complaint, BOE officials mailed a second ballot. The BOE’s tracking system failed multiple times, leaving people confused about whether their mailed-in ballot had been received and reviewed. 

To make matters worse, then-Councilmember Elissa Silverman demanded the BOE allow people who said they were in that situation to vote online, a system that was supposed to be reserved only for those with disabilities or for members of the military. Then, BOE officials started hand-delivering ballots.

Have mercy!

Election experts at Fors Marsh interviewed DC voters and surveyed social media sites and found citizen frustration with an “ongoing lack of communication by DCBOE” and with the fact “that rather than proactively addressing issues and informing voters of changes DCBOE reacted to events ‘too little too late.’”

“These challenges disproportionately impacted voters in certain wards, with Ward 8 residents experiencing more difficulties with the by-mail voting process,” added Fors Marsh staffers in their report.

Hoping to resolve issues related to the timely receipt of mail-in ballots during the primary, the council mandated the BOE send ballots to every registered voter that November. It did that, issuing “421,791 ballots” for the general election, according to the Fors Marsh audit. However, “48,018 of them (11.4%) were returned as undeliverable — an undeliverable rate more than eight times higher [than] the national average of 1.4% undeliverable ballots.”

For the 2022 primary, BOE mailed out 402,323 ballots, 65,398 of which were returned undeliverable. For the general election, 508,543 ballots were mailed; 87,921 were returned.

In other words, things are not getting better at the BOE. Is there any wonder why BOE officials are hinting that there may be more civil fines coming out of the 2022 election?

With such persistently questionable activities, District residents should expect the national Republican Party to use DC, a predominantly blue state, as proof positive of voting irregularities or voter fraud. Can we blame them?

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jonetta rose barras is an author and DC-based freelance journalist, covering national and local issues. She can be reached at thebarrasreport@gmail.com.