Should only American citizens vote in our elections? Take a stand!

Steve Abernathy of the Davidson County Election Commission needs our help!.  He is fighting to ensure that only U. S. citizens are allowed to vote in our elections and he is being resisted in this effort.  There will an important vote on this issue this Thursday, March 21st.  The letter from Steve Abernathy below offers more details about this issue.  I plan to attend this important meeting. Please join me and take a stand for fair and honest elections.

What: Davidson County Election Commission Meeting
When: Thursday, March 21st, 1PM
Why: To ensure only American citizens can vote in our elections
Where:  800 2ndAvenue South, Davidson Conference room

Please arrive early.  The room will only hold about 50 people but there will be overflow rooms with monitors to watch the proceedings.  We need to pack the rooms and the halls.  Show the Elections commission we care about this issue. 

 

An Open letter from Steve Abernathy of the Davidson County Election Commission

Dear Friends

I am writing to you this morning asking for your prayers, wisdom, and strength.  Many of you know me from the community in Southeast Nashville I live in, some from Clarksville High School where I attended, and others that I have worked with over the years with the Bell System.  I retired from the Bell System via Avaya Communications in 2001 after 28 years, and then worked 9 more years for PM Telco that worked closely with Avaya.

For the last four years I have been working as a Davidson County Election Commissioner supporting the Electoral process.  In case you don’t know where Davidson County is, that is Nashville, Tennessee.  Prior to that appointment, I had worked in several elections as  a Poll Officer, so I understand the process pretty well.   We have just finished our review of the November Presidential Election and from that effort I have discovered some disturbing things that cause me great concern about our Electoral process, not just in Tennessee, but across this great country of ours.

 The most serious issue surrounds non-US Citizens being registered to vote.  We are not talking about illegal immigrants who have entered our country illegally. They are not allowed to vote, unless they use forged documents which is very rare.  We are talking about legal immigrants who have followed the law and because of instructions and guidelines in a Federal Law called the “Motor Voter Act”, that was signed by Bill Clinton in 1993, and was mandatory in all 50 states by 1995, these legal immigrants are being mistakenly registered to vote in some instances.  There are two serious problems with this happening that should concern you and your Secretary of State where you live.

Number one, because these legal immigrants are being mistakenly registered to vote when they obtain their Driver’s license, their vote could disenfranchise your vote.
 

Number two, when these legal immigrants work through the process of US Citizenship and it is discovered by the Immigration authorities they have registered to vote or actually voted, they would be guilty of a felony and could be deported.

Both these issues are terribly unfair to US Citizens and the legal immigrants who are doing the right thing, but getting caught in a trap that they are unaware of until it is too late.  

I have personally been to the Tennessee Department of Safety and watched the process work.  There are two group that can obtain a Tennessee Driver’s license. Group one includes US citizens that have a birth certificate showing they were  born in the United States or people born outside the United States, but who have completed the naturalization process to become a US Citizen.  The 14th Amendment to the Constitution specifically states that only US Citizens are allowed to vote in our Federal elections and most of the State elections depending on the laws in your individual state.
 

Group two includes non-US citizens that are in the United States legally and are classified as a “Lawful Permanent Resident”.  They can use many documents to prove they are in the country legally, such as a Green Card (I-551), Foreign passport saying that the holder has been processed for an I-551, Permanent resident Re-entry permit(I-327), Travel document for refugees (I-571), or an I-94 document.   These non-US citizens are required to get a Drivers license in order to drive in their particular state and because of the instructions in the “Motor Voter Act”, they are automatically asked if they want to ”Register to Vote”, even though the documents they are using to get their Drivers license clearly indicate they are not a US Citizen.  The Tennessee Department of Safety employees can tell the applicant that only US Citizens are allowed to vote, but if the non-US citizens don’t have a good understanding of the language or laws governing who is allowed to vote, they may say they want to register to vote.  The TDOS employees are required to work with the applicant to complete the voter registration document and send it to the respective County Election Commissions for processing. Unfortunately, the documentation that would show the County Election Commission the applicant is not a US Citizen is not transferred with the Voter registration documentation.
 

I want to be clear on this issue. The Tennessee Department Safety employees are just following the voter registration process as defined by the Motor Voter Act. They are not doing anything wrong according to their guidelines.    The Motor Voter Act guidelines are the problem and negatively impact the accuracy of our Voter rolls across this country.

On March 21st, 2013, there will be a meeting at the Davidson County Election Commission, 800 2ndAvenue South, Davidson Conference room, beginning at 1 pm.  I will be attempting, with the help of my fellow Election Commissioners,  to “fix” this problem for Davidson County.  If we are successful, it could change the electoral process for all of Tennessee and possibly across this Nation.  This is why I am writing you this morning. I am fighting forces that are trying to keep the size of this problem hidden from the American public.  Those forces are the Department of Justice, Metro Nashville Legal department, and unfortunately members of both political parties.  This should be a non-partisan issue because we must all follow the laws and Constitution of the United States if we want our county to remain a free democracy.
 

 If your schedule will allow and you can come to the meeting and show your support for my efforts, I will be forever grateful.  We will have stickers you can put on your shirt or blouse showing your support.  Please feel free to share my email with family members or your neighbors so they can be involved in this effort.   If you can’t attend, send an email to your Secretary of State and ask them what they are doing to insure non-US Citizens are not being registered to vote by mistake.

 

The Secretary of State for Tennessee is Tre Hargett, his email address is Tre.Hargett@tn.gov or you can call his office at 615-741-2078.

 

God Bless America!

 

Steve Abernathy

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