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“LOUISIANA CONTESTED ELECTION” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Senate section on pages S8821-S8822 on Sept. 4, 1997.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
LOUISIANA CONTESTED ELECTION
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, periodically, I report to the Senate on the work of the Rules Committee investigation into alleged fraud and irregularities that may have affected the outcome of the 1996 Louisiana Senate election. Our committee is conducting this investigation under the authority given the Senate pursuant to article 1, section 5 of the Constitution of the United States.
Briefly recapping, I reported on May 8 of the committee's efforts to secure a bipartisan investigation. On May 23, I reported our efforts to obtain the detail of FBI agents to the committee and the agreement to issue over 130 subpoenas, although for election records only. Then, on June 26, I reported that the Rules Committee Democrats had, unexpectedly, withdrawn from the investigation--after only 2 weeks of committee action in the field. FBI support, likewise, was terminated by the Attorney General.
I also reported that the results of the investigation had revealed a significant failure, by election officials, in numerous Louisiana statutory provisions designed to safeguard the election from voter fraud. Given these numerous breaches of law, although many appeared to be unintentional, I believed the Senate had an obligation to examine a broad number of areas where the potential for fraudulent acts and voting could have occurred.
On July 31, the committee authorized me to continue the preliminary investigation and granted me, by resolution, the authority to issue subpoenas. To date, I have issued 38 subpoenas, in addition to the 134 Senator Ford and I jointly agreed to issue, which have resulted in thousands of pages of documents as well as the appearance of numerous witnesses at 4 days of hearings held in New Orleans. We have received testimony from officials in the LIFE [Louisiana Independent Federation of Electors, Inc.] organization, as well as the owners of Carl Mullican Communications, Inc. [CMC], organizations prominently mentioned in the Jenkins petition and supporting documents.
We have received testimony from representatives of gambling-related companies, witnesses who have voted more than once or had knowledge of those who had, van drivers on election day, and election officials, including one who worked on election day as both an election official and as a canvasser for a gambling company.
Our investigators have also interviewed hundreds of people, regarding allegations of: mismatched signatures, precincts closing beyond the prescribed closing hour, multiple voting, noncompliance with State voting laws, and involvement of gambling industry in the election.
On August 29, GAO detailed three persons to the committee to assist in the examination of election documents received as a result of subpoenas. We are now negotiating for an additional detail of qualified accountants to help examine the subpoenaed gambling industry documents.
We also have requested the Department of Justice to reconsider its withdrawal and to return this case with added support. To date, we have been met with their continued resistance.
As I concluded the second series of Louisiana hearings, on August 27, I stated that further hearings were needed. In consultation with the committee, I will soon set our next hearing.
The pullout of the Democrats. and resultant loss of FBI support have complicated our task, but we are continuing to make progress in this investigation. My goal remains to ensure that the committee's work is performed in keeping with the precedents of the Senate in past election cases and to give the full committee my honest judgment of the established facts. The committee will then report to the full Senate its honest judgment of these facts respecting the Senate's duty under the Constitution of the United States.
Suffice it to say, the results of this investigation to date are as yet incomplete. We do not have that body of facts to convincingly state that fraud or irregularities did, or did not, affect the results of the 1996 election for the U.S. Senator from Louisiana.
As developments occur, of such significance as to inform Senators, I again will give a timely report.
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