[JURIST] Former US Attorney Bradley Schlozman [official profile], alleged to have improperly influenced decisions to prosecute voter fraud, has resigned his post in the Executive Office of US Attorneys at the Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website], DOJ spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said Wednesday. Schlozman, who previously had served as acting chief of the DOJ Civil Rights Division [official website], was US Attorney for the Western District of Missouri following the resignation of Todd P. Graves [firm profile] last year. Graves was fired when he refused to endorse a 2005 voter fraud lawsuit that Schlozman filed against Missouri. Graves told reporters [JURIST report] in May that he was forced to resign after political clashes with the DOJ in 2006. Allegations [Globe report] have been made that Schlozman played a key role in a Republican scheme to stir up fears of voter fraud days before the 2006 elections to encourage support for a voter identification law. The Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] has since expanded its investigation of the US Attorney firings to include the dismissal of Graves and a possible link to voter fraud prosecutions.

Schlozman is the latest DOJ official to resign amid allegations that the 2006 firings of at least nine US Attorneys [JURIST news archive] were politically motivated. He testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee that his role in the alleged voter fraud scare was minimal and that he merely supported approval of a Georgia law requiring all voters to show photo identification [JURIST news archive]. The law was later ruled unconstitutional, but in June 2007, the Georgia Supreme Court dismissed a challenge to the law for lack of standing [JURIST report]. McClatchy Newspapers has more.