Allegations of voter fraud have been followed by allegations of voter suppression by officials in northern California鈥檚 Siskiyou County.
Late last week, the Siskiyou County Sheriff鈥檚 Office and the District Attorney鈥檚 Office announced they鈥檇 assisted investigators from the state in checking out alleged voter fraud. The release didn鈥檛 say what the alleged violations involved or if any instances of voter fraud were found.
But now, local activists say sheriff鈥檚 deputies armed with military-style weapons used the investigation to intimidate residents from the Hmong ethnic community in an effort to discourage them from voting. Andy Fusso, with the Siskiyou Forward Movement, says he's concerned.
"This is a community of people who have been in the US for many, many years," he says. "They fought alongside the US in the Vietnam conflict. So it鈥檚 not a question of illegals voting. It鈥檚 really having targeted a certain ethnic group."
The Redding Record Searchlight the state attorney general鈥檚 office and the American Civil Liberties Union sent representatives to Siskiyou County in response to multiple reports of voter intimidation by county officials.
Sheriff Jon Lopey calls the accusations 鈥渆rroneous鈥� and 鈥渦nfounded.鈥�
鈥淲hen San Francisco attorneys and the ACLU start getting involved in the county business and then start making accusations when they don鈥檛 even have the facts, I think it鈥檚 just unwarranted and I think it鈥檚 unethical, as well鈥�.
Lopey says he suspects the accusations came from marijuana proponents trying to discredit his county鈥檚 law enforcement efforts.
