Election Law
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal upholds convictions for use of NCIC database in an election contest. United States v. Jordan, Case No. 06-12583 (11th Cir. September 11, 2009), which can be found here.
In the 1998 general election, the incumbent sheriff of Jefferson County, Alabama, was defeated in his bid for reelection by 37 votes. He suspected that numerous felons not eligible to vote had cast ballots in the election and he hired an attorney to contest the election. After obtaining a list of persons who voted absentee in the election, the attorney and the sheriff had employees of the sheriff’s office run the names of 829 persons on the absentee voter list through the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and its Alabama counterpart, the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center (ACJIC).
Both the sheriff and his attorney were convicted of conspiracy in violation of Title 18, U.S.C. § 371 and of violating Title 18 U.S.C. 641 which prohibits conversion of any record or thing of value of the United States or any department or agency thereof, by receiving, retaining and converting NCIC records for a non-law enforcement purpose. The Court rejected the claim that the defendants were entitled to use and possess the NCIC printouts in order to prosecute the election contest, noting that such use was not a law enforcement purpose.
