United States Attorney Committed to Ensuring Ballot Access, Voting Integrity in General Election

SAN FRANCISCO—To help ensure complaints of election fraud are directed to the appropriate authorities, United States Attorney Melinda Haag has named a District Election Officer to lead her office’s efforts in connection with the United States Justice Department’s nationwide Election Day Program. As part of his responsibilities, Assistant United States Attorney Daniel Kaleba will be on duty while polls are open during the Nov. 2 general election.

“Every voter has a right under the Constitution to have his or her vote fairly counted,” United States Attorney Haag said. “That right is fundamental. It is through the ballot box that government is held accountable to the people. Voting rights abuses and election fraud are crimes against both the individual and the government. They will be dealt with promptly and aggressively. Anyone who has information about voting rights abuses or electoral corruption should make that information available immediately to my office, the FBI, or the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department.”

On Oct. 8, 2002, former Attorney General John Ashcroft established a Justice Department-wide Ballot Access and Voting Integrity Initiative. The goals of that initiative are to increase the Department’s ability to deter election fraud and discrimination at the polls, and to prosecute offenses whenever and wherever they occur. The Department’s long-standing election day program furthers these goals, and seeks to ensure public confidence in the integrity of the election process by providing local points of contact within the Department for the public to report possible election fraud and voting rights violations while the polls are open on election day.

In addition to Kaleba, who is responsible for overseeing the District’s handling of complaints of election fraud and voting rights abuses in consultation with the Justice Department, the FBI will have special agents available in each field office and resident agency in the District to receive allegations of election fraud, intimidation, suppression and other election abuses. The FBI can be reached by calling (415) 553-7400.

Complaints about ballot access problems or discrimination can be made directly to the Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section in Washington at 1-800-253-3931 or 202-307-2767.

Further Information:

A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.

Electronic court filings and further procedural and docket information are available at https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

Judges’ calendars with schedules for upcoming court hearings can be viewed on the court’s website at www.cand.uscourts.gov.

All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office should be directed to Jack Gillund at (415) 436-6599 or by email at Jack.Gillund@usdoj.gov.

This site does not contain all press releases or court filings and is not an official record of proceedings. Please contact the Clerk of Courts for the United States District Court for official copies of documents and public information.