Voter Suppression Cancer Spreads to Federal Government...

Is there really an effort to suppress voting in the U.S.? Of course.

As I’ve written before, voter suppression laws attack constituents on both ides of the aisle, but it impacts typically dense urban areas that vote Democratic the most. That's worth a few less rural GOP voters. 

Scheme to Suppress Votes!!! Thanks to open records requests, the curtain has been pulled away, and Republicans can no longer deny it.   

What happened: 

AP: An email provided to AP through open records requests offers a glimpse into the mindset of Brian Newby, executive director of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, who decided — without public comment or approval from bosses — that residents of Alabama, Kansas and Georgia can no longer register to vote using a national form without providing proof of U.S. citizenship.

The Problem, it's legal, resulting in a lawsuit: 

The U.S. Supreme Court has said that states must accept and use the federal voter registration form, and an appeals court ruled in 2014 in a lawsuit filed by Kansas' Republican Secretary of State Kobach that states could not force the commission to require residents to provide proof-of-citizenship documents on the national form.

The Courts Don't Matter. So Kobach managed to see one of his guys, Newby, into the federal agency via fellow Republican commissioners. Way to work the system:

1. As a finalist for the job of executive director, Newby said in a June email to his benefactor, Kris Kobach, that he was friends with two of the commissioners at the federal agency, and told Kobach: "I think I would enter the job empowered to lead the way I want to. I wanted you in the loop," Newby emailed Kobach.

2. Kobach said he spoke to one, and possibly two of the Republican commissioners, about Newby prior to his hiring. "I told that person I thought Newby would be excellent and he was one of Kansas' most talented county election officers.

Kobach Lied: Newby wasn't just under investigation, it turned out he fraudulently spent taxpayer money and threw a "conference" for the Republican commissioners who hired him: 

3. But documents from open records requests show that as early as April 2015 ... Kobach met with county officials to discuss concerns about Newby's job performance ... Those concerns led officials to call for an audit of the Johnson County election office Newby led.

4.The audit found Newby intentionally skirted oversight of government credit card expenses, wasted taxpayer funds and improperly claimed mileage and travel expenses while at his former job in Kansas. Newby has called the audit inaccurate and misleading.

5. Among the questionable expenditures was more than $18,000 that county taxpayers spent for a conference in Kansas City ... it was organized by Newby and all three federal commissioners spoke at that conference, which was in September while Newby was under consideration for the job.