Quotes from Judge Arthur Tarnow's Decision
Operation King's Dream, et al. v. Connerly, et al.
29 August, 2006
The Court finds that the MCRI engaged in systematic voter fraud by telling voters that they were signing a petition supporting affirmative action. …
If the proposal eventually passes, it will be stained by well-documented acts of fraud and deception that the defendants, as a matter of fact, have not credibly denied. …
The People of Michigan should also be concerned by the indifference exhibited by the state agencies who could have investigated and addressed MCRI's actions but failed to do so. With the exception of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, the record shows that the state has demonstrated an almost complete institutional indifference to the credible allegations of voter fraud raised by Plaintiffs. If the institutions established by the People of Michigan, including the Michigan Courts, Board of State Canvassers, Secretary of State, Attorney General, and Bureau of Elections, had taken the allegations of voter fraud seriously, then it is quite possible that this case would not have come to federal court. …
Gratz was either ignorant of the state's failure to investigate the plaintiff's allegations, or that she deliberately lied by stating that the Bureau of Elections had investigated those claims. …
In reviewing Gratz's testimony as a whole, it is difficult to determine where the line between willful ignorance and deliberate deception could be drawn. …
Unfortunately, her lack of clarity and forthrightness seems typical of the MCRI's approach, which is best characterized by the use of deception and connivance to confuse the issues in the hopes of getting the proposal on the ballot. …
The Court finds that MCRI and its circulators engaged in a pattern of voter fraud by deceiving voters into believing that the petition supported affirmative action. At the evidentiary hearing and oral argument conducted in this Court, neither the state defendants nor the MCRI defendants presented an adequate defense either to the facts set forth in the Michigan Civil Rights Commission's Report or to the testimony elicited during the evidentiary hearing. The evidence overwhelmingly favors a finding that the MCRI defendants engaged in voter fraud. …
Jennifer Gratz's confusion at the evidentiary hearing as to the purpose of the MCRI's proposal supports the Court's conclusion that the MCRI deliberately encouraged voter fraud and did nothing to remedy such fraud once it occurred. …
Precisely because of the state's indifference to valid allegations of voter fraud, this case has fallen through the cracks and reached federal court. …
