Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. See, e.g., Haynes, 1992 WL
296782, at *1; Townsley, 843 F.2d at 1073–75; United States v.
Howard, 774 F.2d 838 (7th Cir. 1985); United States v. Olinger, 759
F.2d 1293 (7th Cir. 1985); Anderson, 481 F.2d at 689. Another case
involving a public scheme turned on the necessary participation of a
notary public who falsely notarized forged voter signatures on absentee
ballot materials in an Indian tribal election. United States v. Wadena,
152 F.3d 831, 855 (8th Cir. 1998).
A private scheme is a pattern of conduct that does not involve
the necessary participation of a public official acting under color of
law, but that can be shown to have adversely affected the ability of
qualified voters to vote in elections in which federal candidates were on
the ballot. Examples of private schemes include: (1) voting
fraudulent ballots in mixed elections, and (2) thwarting get-outthe-vote or ride-to-the-polls activities of political factions or parties
through such methods as jamming telephone lines or vandalizing
motor vehicles.
Public schemes may be prosecuted under Section 241
regardless of the nature of the election, i.e., elections with or without a
federal candidate. On the other hand, private schemes can be
prosecuted under Section 241 only when the objective of the
conspiracy was to corrupt a specific federal contest, or when the
scheme can be shown to have affected, directly or indirectly, the vote
count for a federal candidate, e.g., when fraudulent ballots were cast for
an entire party ticket that included a federal office.
2. Deprivation of Rights under Color of Law: 18 U.S.C.
§ 242
Section 242, also enacted as a post-Civil War statute, makes it
unlawful for anyone acting under color of law, statute, ordinance,
regulation, or custom to willfully deprive a person of any right,
privilege, or immunity secured or protected by the Constitution or
laws of the United States. Violations are one-year misdemeanors
unless bodily injury occurs, in which case the penalty is ten years,
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