What Is MO Secretary of State Carnahan Trying to Hide?

By Brian Simpson | 10:45 AM on February 26, 2010

The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of RedState.com.

Jim Durbin, editor of 24thstate.com, has been all over a case involving ACORN, Project Vote and the National Voters Rights Act (NVRA). You see, it seems that the Secretary of State’s office coordinated with Project Vote (one of ACORN’s many names) on a law suit against the state of Missouri that cost tax payers hundreds of thousands of dollars. As part of Jim’s investigation, he filed a Sunshine request with the Secretary of State’s office seeking information into the number of people registered to vote through the Department of Social Services. He’s trying to confirm the data that Project Vote has published in their own case study (PDF). After several weeks with no response, Jim received this:

Does not have any documents? Like Jim, I wonder how does this happen. The Secretary of State’s office is responsible for all voter registrations. The Department of Social Services had to turn over all of their registrations to the SOS. These documents aren’t even two years old at this point. Now, someone else can get into the legalities behind the SOS office not having the documents to prove that the state is in compliance with a law that it just lost a lawsuit over. I can only think of two possible reasons for the SOS office to not turn the documents over:

1. Incompetence: A highly likely outcome. {Just think about the actions of the SOS’s brother, Congressman Russ Carnahan).

2. They have something to hide. What they are trying to hide, I can’t exactly be sure. It certainly wouldn’t be the overly cozy relationship that Carnahan shares with ACORN. That’s not exactly a secret.

I’d say that Jim needs some help finding out. So, here is the contact information for the Missouri Secretary of State’s office:

Office of the Secretary of State
State Capitol, Room 208 or State Information Center, 600 W Main
Jefferson City, MO 65101

(573) 751-4936 [ SOS Information ]
[email protected]

If you continue to get stonewalled, just like Jim, maybe we might want to look at filing a complaint with the State Attorney General (PDF).