Wednesday, November 30, 2011

More on the Taylor Property

I am quoted in a Channel Four story on the questions regarding the number of voters registered at an property owned by Senator Lena Taylor. Of course - as is always and necessarily the case with televison newcasts - what could be included in the broadcast is only part of a longer interview. It is my view that the matter needs to be investigated.

In my opinion, the best reading of the law is that a person, to properly register from that address, must have sheltered there for at least ten days prior to the election or, arguably,  to have once established a domicile there and not yet acquired a new one. Given the capacity of the building and the large number of registrants and voters from that address, it is reasonable to question whether this was in fact the case. This is particularly so in light of Senator Taylor's reported statement that her mother allowed the address to be used for voting purposes for people who "come and go" and the large number of voters who were "vouched for" by the elder Taylor.

This is not to say - and I emphasized during the interview and on this blog - that anything untoward occurred. We don't know that yet. It is possible that there is a benign explanation for what appears to be an unusually high number of voters at the address. Nor do I think we should rush to suggest that anyone involved acted with malicious intent. We only know that there are reasons to ask questions. Further detail on how I think the answers to those questions should be evaluated can be found here.

On the other hand, the incident can be seen as an example of why voter registration and practice needed to be tightened.

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