Great news breaking in Fairfax County this morning. Electoral Boards are split 2-1 in Virginia, one Republican, one Democrat and one member of the Governor’s party. When Bob McDonnell was elected, the Fairfax GOP placed noted voter-fraud conspiracy theorist Hans Von Spakovsky on the electoral board in the largest county in Virginia.
The result was massive lines at polling places with minority (Democratic) voters, while most GOP leaning precincts were able to go in and quickly vote with little wait time.
It was time to reappoint this month. The parties get to nominate three candidates, but judges usually take the first choice of the party. In Fairfax- judges have never bypassed the top choice of a party in the last 50 years (which is as far back as I could find people that remembered). Also the judges making the decision were all selected for the bench by Republicans in the General Assembly.So what did these GOP judges decide to do? In an unprecedented move in Fairfax County- judges for the first time in modern history have rejected the top choice of a political party for one of these positions. Instead, GOP lawyer Brian Schoeneman was appointed to the Board.
The GOP is already having a meltdown over this decision from the judges they appointed. Get out the popcorn, this is going to be fun to watch.
These judges deserve a lot of credit for standing up for voters and not the political party that put them on the bench.
UPDATE: In case it wasn’t clear above- Hans Von Spakovskywas the GOP’s top choice who was rejected.
Von Spakovsky remains a senior legal fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, so he’s not out of a job yet.
Elizabelle
Wow. Hadn’t heard that. Excellent news.
EconWatcher
Von Spakovsky has a shadowy and interesting family history, with a German mother and a White Russian father who spent World War II “fighting communists” in Yugoslavia (on behalf of whom?) and then landed in Huntsville, Alabama, along with Von Braun and other Nazi scientists. If you read between the lines, you get the impression the household he grew up in may have been unrepentant Nazi.
If you spent a few hours alone with Von Spakovsky, with a bottle of scotch and a tape recorder, I’ll bet you’d capture some interesting things about the world view he absorbed with his mother’s milk.
patroclus
Well, it’s excellent news only if GOP lawyer Brian Schoeneman doesn’t act like GOP lawyer Hans Van Spakovsky.
catclub
“Brian Schoeneman.” I know I have seen that last name as an incredible GOP hack, but apparently not as much of one as Spakovsky.
Gus
So it’s not all good news then.
mouse tolliver
We had a three hour wait time here, and only six voting machines. I could swear there were 12 voting machines the previous time I voted during an off year election where there was no wait time at all.
This is a winning issue for Democrats. Nobody was happy about those long lines.
DonT
@Gus:
republican patronage is forever
Face
Hans Von Spanky sounds like a Bond villain.
Litlebritdifrnt
Sorry to go OT so quickly but this IGMFU story really pisses me off
Talk about pulling up the ladder behind you. Wanker.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/22/north-carolina-unemployment_n_2741463.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003
It’s a Huffpost link
Roger Moore
The wingnut welfare you will always have with you.
Punchy
I have a feeling Hans was the deflection while Schoeneman was the real goal. Wasn’t he a Rove-picked Asst. Atty from MO who got the gig after Rove and Gonzo purged all the Dem/Indy Federal lawyers?
Seems like he might actually be more douchey than Von Sparks.
Wag
@Punchy:
That would be really difficult
schrodinger's cat
OT: Sully update.
His bad NYC experiences continue. He had some bad experiences while getting his beard trimmed. He waited for 2 hours at one shop, at another one the owner dropped his Ipad and a third one he got a bad trim. I loled, I wonder how many NYC barbers are Balloon Juice regulars.
MikeJ
@Punchy:
If that were true Von Spakovsky wouldn’t have been on the board last year during the election.
David Hunt
@mouse tolliver:
I disagree. I think there were a large number of Republicans that were happy about your long lines…
Kay
@Punchy:
The state Democratic party sent the judges a letter (pdf) that included a link to Jane Mayer’s New Yorker piece on Hans.
The piece was devastating. It just lays out the whole voter fraud lie.
Bob In Portland
Von Spakovsky’s folks were brought into the US after WWII to “escape from the Nazis”. As I recall it was years after the war and so they weren’t in any danger from Nazis by that time. Also, they settled in Huntsville, Alabama, right in the middle of where all those Nazi rocket scientists were resettled after the war. There is much speculation that the von Spakovskys were brought over by the CIA in one their several plans to import Nazis and fascists into the US to insinuate them into immigrant communities (see Christopher Simpson’s BLOWBACK).
So, of course, this spawn of Nazi satanists should be spending his time trying to prevent liberals and minorities from voting.
Mnemosyne
@Punchy:
If you read up on Spakovsky, you will see that would be very, very difficult. He’s basically the originator of the push for voter ID and helped write the crappy laws that were being pushed by ALEC.
Pale imitator Schoeneman will be a (very small, but actual) improvement.
Mnemosyne
@David Hunt:
Republican politicians, maybe. I doubt there were many Republican voters that day who were happy to be standing in a three-hour line.
David Hunt
@Mnemosyne: An underlying assumption of my statement was that funding and allocation of voting machines was arranged so that lines were longer in Democratic precincts. So even at that level, less problems than you might think.
poco
@Kay: Ahhh! Thanks for that link–have been puzzling over how that guy seemed so familiar. Of course, it was Jane Mayer’s brilliant expose. He doesn’t even realize that he is outing himself as a fascist, just thrilled that he is finally getting the recognition he deserves for fucking with this country’s democracy.
DonT
who’s Schoeneman’s chinaman? is the brother-in-law of one of the judges?
inquiring minds want to know
Mike in NC
Hans Von Spakovsky, huh? Does he wear a monocle?
Mike E
Fighting communists means allying with the Axis against Tito, the longtime premier who helped 2,000 Jews escape Nazi occupied Yugoslavia and attempted an alliance with the royalist Chetniks. The latter tried a parlay with the Axis to keep their prince in power, but they picked the wrong pony and got wiped out in the post war scheme of things. Hans’ parents were royalists, Nazis, or both.
Roger Moore
@Mike in NC:
I want to know if he sits there stroking a white Persian cat.
kay
@poco:
I love his name, too. They should all have comic book character names. Then we’d know right off!
Bob In Portland
@Mike in NC: An armband.
Bob In Portland
From Jane Mayer’s New Yorker article:
Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/10/29/121029fa_fact_mayer#ixzz2LfArBz8i
burnspbesq
Fairfax County is still part of Virginia, which means that its nightmare is far from over.
Woodrowfan
as one of the Democratic election officers (i.e. poll worker) in Fairfax County all I can say is THANK GOD!!!!!!!!!!!
Another Halocene Human
@Face: spankoffsky