I’m in the business of facts. Numbers, names, quotes – if I get ’em wrong, I’m at the mercy of my editors, sources and audience (particularly all you lovely online commenters).
Sadly James O’Keefe’s lies probably just inspired his followers.
The conservative filmmaker’s latest endeavor “exposed” voter fraud in North Carolina when he claimed two non-citizens, Zbigniew Gorzkowski and William Romero, had voted in recent elections, according to ThinkProgress.org. Trouble is, Gorzkowski and Romero are citizens.
In fact, if O’Keefe had done a simple Nexis search for “Zbigniew Gorzkowski”, he would have found a single article from the News & Observer in 2008 noting that Gorzkowski and his wife are naturalized citizens:
“Customers flock through the red door of Zbigniew “Ziggy” and wife Halina Gorzkowski’s European grocery and flower shop to buy one of the 12 varieties they sell. The pierogis and 400 eastern European food items and flowers are also punching the naturalized citizen couple’s ticket for their version of the American Dream.”
ThinkProgress spoke with Gorzkowski, “who verified that this information was indeed correct and he had been an American citizen since the late 1980s. Therefore, his votes in the 2008 and 2010 elections were not only perfectly legal, but encouraged as a civic duty.”
O’Keefe’s “proof” that Romero had committed voter fraud was that he refused jury duty in 2010 for not being a citizen but then registered to vote on December 5, 2011, as though there was no possible way his citizenship status could have changed in the interim year.
ThinkProgress published a redacted a copy of his certification of naturalization, issued on Feb. 4, 2011.
O’Keefe vowed to correct the story if someone could prove that he was wrong. No doubt the bastion of morality will stick to his word.
- ThinkProgress
This article appears in May 15-22, 2012.
Why does anyone pay any attention to this guy?
He has already proven what he is.
So you are saying he lied about his citizenship to get out of jury duty, not when he voted?
Read the story, genius. He became a citizen on Feb. 4, 2011, AFTER he refused jury duty in 2010 but BEFORE he registered to vote on December 5, 2011.
No. Michael, the COPY was issued in 2011…he became a citizen in the 1980’s. read.
OK, I didn’t read it…nevermine…
Did Fox News run with O’Keefe’s story? I can’t bear to watch that channel, but am wondering if Hannity et al picked up the “voter fraud” story from this “hard-hitting journalist of utmost integrity”.