When you’ve been so low, there’s nowhere to go without digging

There’s something very dangerous in believing that your cause is righteous. What it can lead to is the idea that the ends justify the means, no matter how wrong they might be or how trivial the gains might be.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

See, there is a time and a place where the ends justify the means. The Civil War was a prime example. It cost hundreds of thousands of lives, but it ended perhaps the most degenerate institution the world has ever seen, one that should have been anathema in the United States from day zero.

Tilting At Windmills is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

But most of the time, the stakes aren’t as big as that, even if you believe someone is an existential threat to democracy. That makes it so the ends can only justify the means when the means are within the confines of the law.

And that brings us to these three chuckleheads .

A San Bernardino County man was arrested today on a federal grand jury indictment charging him and two other defendants with paying people on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles to sign petitions using stolen identities of registered voters to qualify initiatives on ballots in California elections.

James Brass, 47, a.k.a. “Lord,” of Victorville, was arrested this morning and is expected to make his initial appearance this afternoon in United States District Court in Riverside.

Also charged in the two-count indictment are two petition circulators who worked for Brass: Courtney Price, 49, of Jacksonville, Florida, and Jateisha Herron, 33, of Boron, California.

All three defendants are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit identity fraud in furtherance of a state felony. Brass and Price are charged with an additional count of identity fraud in furtherance of a state felony.

“These defendants are charged with using stolen identities of registered voters to manufacture signatures on ballot petitions used to shape California law,” said First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “They allegedly used people, including members of Skid Row’s vulnerable homeless population, to try to cover up their tracks. The charged conduct undermines the confidence voters have in our election systems, and we will vigorously investigate and charge anyone invol ved.”

Now, we don’t know what the ballot initiatives were, but it seems that Brass and company were paid by the signature , which might have incentivized the alleged fraud.

But let’s understand what this really tells us, and it’s not just one single thing.

First is the obvious: This is fraud, and we’re told that fraud simply cannot happen in our electoral system.

We can all see that as total BS now. We already knew it, but this is a case of the thing they said never happened just happened again. If they’ll do this for a ballot initiative, why should we assume it never happens anywhere else?

It also raises serious issues about just how much this is happening, because there’s no way to assume it’s just one person doing a thing.

Understand that where there’s financial gain to be found, someone will find a way to take advantage.

Locally, my own investigation into voter fraud was prompted by a campaign manager telling me about being approached by a woman who worked at a nursing home. She promised she could deliver however many votes were needed, for the right price.

This was telling enough, but when another candidate was able to show how one resident of one of these homes needed help filling out her ballot, but somehow helped someone else fill out theirs — Georgia limits how many people one person can help, you see — it was enough for me.

I wrote the report…then was berated by the chairman of the election board because I didn’t take this to him first, which I wasn’t obligated to do, either legally, morally, or professionally.

This stuff happens, either due to money or ideology. The truth is that the reasons don’t matter.

Share

That’s why I want to see our elections secured. Require an ID showing citizenship. If that’s too high a barrier for some to clear, then advocate for easier access to IDs. Don’t pretend that our elections are secure enough, especially when both sides have leveled cheating allegations against the other side in recent years.

In this case, they took advantage of the vulnerable to make a quick buck. Whoever they were collecting for got just as screwed as everyone else, assuming they didn’t know or care about how the signatures were generated.

But because so many of the homeless are mentally ill and, obviously, desperate, this bunch took advantage of that to make a quick buck.

There’s a point where you’ve gotten as low as you can.

These people hit that point, but they’d brought a shovel.