Vote-Suppression Guru Spakovsky Is Back At It in VA targeting Asian immigrants

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Vote-Suppression Guru Spakovsky Is Back At It
Zachary Roth | April 8, 2010, 3:34PM

TPMmuckraker's favorite voter-suppression guru, Hans Von Spakovsky, is back in the saddle.

As you might remember, Spakovsky, a northern Virginia resident, was appointed earlier this year to a seat on the three-member Fairfax County Board of Elections, after a stint as a consultant to the US Commission on Civil Rights. And this week, Spakovsky and the board's other Republican member sparked outrage by voting to direct the BoE registrar to no longer publicly distribute voter registration forms in languages other than English.

It's unclear what the stated rationale for the move is. Neither Spakovsky nor Carol Ann Coryell, the other board member who voted for the change, immediately responded to requests for comment.

The shift might not sound like such a big deal, in part because the forms will still be available online, and will still be processed if submitted. But Fairfax County is exceptionally diverse. More than a third of residents speak a language other than English in their homes, and 28 percent are foreign born, according to a recent report. Distributing registration forms at public events is a key way to reach new potential voters, especially those who aren't likely to go looking online. So the move, say some Democrats, will likely make it harder for significant numbers of non-English speaking people -- predominantly Democrats, of courts -- to vote.

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http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/vote-suppression_guru_spakovsky_is_back_at_it.php?ref=fpblg

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1. von Spakovsky as Head of the Voting Section in DoJ's Civil Rights Division:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/spakovsky-letter/?resultpage=2&