The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing June 7 on a bill that would criminalize deceptive election practices. The Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Act of 2007 (S. 453) is cosponsored by Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Charles Schumer (D-NY). It would make it illegal to purposefully misinform or confuse voters about an upcoming election. The House Judiciary Committee already approved a companion bill (H.R. 1281) in March. The bill, should it become law, would give nonprofit organizations that monitor elections new tools to combat voter suppression and intimidation. Witnesses testify to deceptive practices in Maryland during 2006 election Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) — a strong supporter of the legislation — testified about his own experience with dishonest campaign tactics. During his 2006 campaign for Senate against then Lt. Governor Michael Steele (R), deceptive fliers were distributed in predominantly African American communities in Prince George's County, MD, on election day. The fliers displayed a "Democratic Sample Ballot" with the names of the two Republican candidates — incumbent Governor Robert Ehrlich and candidate Steele, implying that Democrats were endorsing Steele. At the hearing, Cardin said these kinds of deceptive campaign tactics "undermine and corrode our very democracy and threaten the very integrity of our electoral process." Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler (D) also testified before the Committee and spoke of witnessing long lines of Prince George's County citizens, mostly African Americans, waiting at polling places to vote on election day. Gansler called for an end to these types of "senseless obstacles" to voting and noted that the legislation currently being considered builds upon the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which was aimed at protecting voters from intimidation. During the 2006 election, there were numerous reports of similar attempts to disenfranchise and confuse voters. Election Protection, a nonprofit that monitors elections, received more than 26,000 calls during October and November from voters in 31 states reporting electoral problems they had encountered. Legislation would enable nonprofits to file complaints with Attorney General The Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Act of 2007 amends federal criminal law to make it illegal for any person to intentionally misinform another in regards to:

1. the time, place, or manner of conducting any federal election; or
2. the qualifications for or restrictions on voter eligibility for any such election.

The pending bill, moreover, makes the intent of stopping another person from voting a key aspect of the offense. The legislation would impose penalties of up to $100,000 and five years in prison for knowingly conveying false information about an election. The legislation enables groups and individuals to file criminal complaints reporting fraudulent election practices or communications with the U.S. Attorney General. The bill would also give individuals the right to file suit in order to stop deceptive practices as they occurred. Currently, the U.S. Department of Justice is not obliged by law to investigate claims of voter suppression and intimidation. Under the new law, the Justice Department would be required to prepare reports for Congress after each election documenting 1) occurrences of voter deception and suppression, and 2) the efforts the department plans to undertake in order to prevent similar crimes in the future. Other testimony Also testifying before the Judiciary Committee in support of bill were: Obama; Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Schumer; Jack Johnson, County Executive, Prince George's County, MD; Hillary Shelton, Director of the Washington Bureau of the NAACP; John Trasviña, President of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund; and Richard Briffault, a law professor at Columbia University. Briffault argued that the bill does not limit free speech as protected under the First Amendment. Testifying in opposition to the bill was William B. Canfield, a partner specializing in federal elections law at the Washington, DC, law firm of Williams and Jensen. Canfield testified that he was opposed to the bill because of its "overly wide scope" and because, in Canfield's opinion, "the Department of Justice has all the authority it needs to root out such wrong-doing." The Commissioner of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Peter Kirsanow, also spoke at the hearing, urging the members to add three deceptive practices to the bill not currently included: fraudulent registration, multiple registration, and compromised absentee ballots. House committee passed companion bill in March In March, the House's version of the bill passed the Judiciary Committee. The act was co-sponsored by Reps. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) and Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI), along with 60 other House members. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), chair of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, hailed the Committee's endorsement of the bill, saying the legislation "is absolutely necessary to protect voters — especially voters in minority communities, and voters with limited English language proficiency — from the dirty tricks brought to light in our hearing." An earlier version of the bill was first introduced in 2005 but did not make it past the Judiciary Committee.