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TechnoratiGOP Strategy: Voter Suppression
In the 2000 Presidential election, reporter Greg Palast, author of "The Best Democracy Money can Buy," broke the story of Florida's illegal voter purges, in which Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris kept 57,000 votes, most of them African-American, from being counted. Their names resembled names of persons convicted of crimes. The state eventually acknowledged that the purge was improper - two years after the Supreme Court selection of George W. Bush.
During the 2004 Presidential election, 350,000 voters were disenfranchised in Ohio alone, enough to give the election to George W. Bush instead of the legitimate winner, John Kerry. The evidence was laid out in a Rolling Stone article by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
A series of articles in 2004 by Adam Cohen, NY Times reporter, "Making Votes Count," details the problems states had during the 2004 election with voter disenfranchisement.
Now, with the debates over and Obama enjoying a sizeable lead in election polls, the only question remaining is whether we will have a fair election. This would not be a question had suppressing the vote not become a cornerstone of Republican electoral strategy.
Paul Weyrich, a principal architect of today's GOP and co-founder with Jerry Falwell of the Moral Majority, infamously said, "Many of our Christians have what I call the 'goo-goo' syndrome - good government. They want everybody to vote. I don't want everybody to vote... As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."
Since 2003, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, at least 2.7 million new voters have had their applications to register rejected. "Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law," the NY Times reported last week.
In the October 30, 2008, issue of Rolling Stone, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Greg Palast detail how deterring and discarding Democratic ballots may determine the next president. (Article not yet posted.)
In Florida, the Republican-dominated legislature created fines up to $5000 per violation for groups that fail to meet deadlines for turning-in voter-registration forms or for trivial administrative errors. Such legislation caused the League of Women Voters there to abandon it's registration drive, resulting in applications plummeting to fewer than 10,000.
Under the so-called Help America Vote Act, almost every state can demand a "perfect match" between a voter's identification and every other government record for that person - right down to precisely spelled name, address, and misplaced hyphens. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, as many as 20 percent of New York driver's licenses have typing errors disqualifying voters. In California, a Republican Secretary of State blocked 43 percent of all new voters in Los Angeles in 2006 for failure of a "perfect match." In Florida, in 2006 and 2007, more than 15,000 new registrants were blocked by imperfect matches, three-fourth of which were Hispanic or black.
Prior to the Help America Vote Act, bipartisan county election officials maintained voter records. Now, that power is given solely to the secretaries of state - partisan officials. All told, states reported scrubbing at least 10 million voters from their rolls on questionable grounds between 2004 and 2006. In swing-state Colorado, nearly one in six of voters have been eliminated from their rolls. "Vote caging," or targeted mailings to identify potential voters who's addresses have changed, illegally disallows that person's vote, if the mailing to the old address is returned. Requiring unnecessary identification impacts Americans of color who traditionally do not carry driver's licenses or state ID.
The Rolling Stone article concludes, "If Democrats are to win the 2008 election, they must not simply beat John McCain at the polls - they must beat him by a margin that exceeds the level of GOP vote tampering."
22 Comments so far
Show AllThis can get even uglier; it's not in the bag, but O'Bama has to win. I agree with Nader and McKinney far more on the issues, but supporting and working for them doesn't make strategic sense in the present emergency, where the people's struggle for economic survival and the fight to save our republic from the fascists are on the line.
Supporting Obama makes sense not just to stop McCain at the ballot box - and in the courts and on the streets in the fight over who actually won the election - but for building the movement which, win or lose, will have to confront those same forces after the election.
Let me share with you a letter from a friend, an old leftie and union activist in Western Pennsylvania, to a woman in a "safe state" who's supporting Nader:
< How does it advance the broader progressive movement to work for Obama in a 'safe' state, assuming there are such things? That's a big mushball of a question, but the answer rests of knowing that casting the ballot is the LEAST important thing to do regarding the election.
< Here's my short list of things I've accomplished here in Western PA because I'm working for Obama, as an independent 'Progressives for Obama' and PDA activist, which is also an independent inside-outside group, and couldn't have done very well otherwise:
< 1) I've met with an got to know a number of low-to-middle income Black activists in the area, set up voter reg tables with them at their churches, and together with them, circulated petitions for the 'million door knocker for peace' campaign. No way to do this if I was anti-Obama.
< 2) I've met with dozens of the Obama youth volunteers, had long positive discussions with them on everthing under the sun, now they're coming to our PDA events, and several have come to our weekly antiwar vigils. No way I could have none this as anti-Obama.
< 3) I meet every Saturday morning with 50-100 blue collar white guys--steelworkers, elecctrial workers, SEIU service workers. We work in teams visiting every union family in the County, getting their views on everything, but spend a good amount of time knocking down the racist attacts on Obama, from white workers to white workers. We meet and sum thing up and talks wider politics after each round of canvassing. A bunch of these guys are now coming to our PDA meetings. If I was anti-Obama, I'd be shown the door.
< 4) I've worked to have the community-based Blacks, the Obama youth, the the union workers in the same room, getting to know each other and working on the same projects. Again, no way as anti-Obama.
< 5) Finally, if and when our local Dem incumbents do show up at these things, we shake the hands of those who oppose the war, tell them to do more, since we've got their back, and get on the case of those who don't, but we do it in a context where they pay much more attention to it than otherwise. As a Green of third party, even if their was one around here, I'd be ignored.
< And I've done all this without going to a single meeting of the local Dems. In fact, I don't even know if they've had one. That means all the gains, contacts, allies, new members, and lists we've gained belong to us, not them. I could go on and on, but you should have the idea by now. In brief, look at the election as an ORGANIZER, not just as a VOTER.>
Exemplary!
Joe
Awesome job! I wish I could've been this involved...damn college for getting in the way of stuff that really matters!
I don't want to believe it, but it's obvious:
Once again, the 2008 presidential election has been set-up for a close-race theft by the GOP nominee McCain, via Bush Justice Dept. officials working in 'hands-off' defacto collusion with criminally-acting state GOP election operatives.
And once again in 2008, the same phoney "voter registration certification problems," along with the same "ballot counting techo-problems," both of which made it legally impossible to determine objective presidential vote counts in 2000 and 2004, are now either re-occuring or promising a re-occurance.
Moreover, as in 2004: increasing numbers of private corporations which poll presidential preferences among the national electorate are publishing percentages that show either confusing, incommensurate, or incomprehensible polling disparities bewtween McCain and Obama or, alternately, and more tellingly, ever-diminishing polling 'error margins' between the two.
I'm sure you're probably right. However, new voter registrations are up in record numbers, most of them democrats. I have a feeling that many, many people will flip out if the rethugs steal it. Don't be surprised if there's rioting and mayhem.
There damn well better be this time.
Too bad the US Justice Department has been relgated to an enforcment and intimidation arm of the GOP
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
Indeed.
The should be a law that people like this REpugnant scum lose their right to 1) vote, 2) campaign, 3) donate and 4) run for office for life if convicted of vote suppression fraud.
Alternatively, we could just break their kneecaps - if only it wasn't so much work.
It's one thing to register as a party affiliate. It's another to vote. Let's all just get out there and vote please.
Huge Republican Voter Registration Fraud Uncovered by LA Times. 80% of People Surveyed Were Dems or Independents Duped Into Registering as Republicans! Where is the FBI on This One?
Check this site:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-fraud18-2008oct18,0,1216330.story?track=ntothtml
From the article you linked to:
"Election officials and lawmakers have launched investigations into the activities of YPM workers in Florida and Massachusetts. In Arizona, the firm was recently a defendant in a civil rights lawsuit. Prosecutors in Los Angeles and Ventura counties say they are investigating complaints about the company."
But no sign of the FBI.
BTW, YPM stands for Young Political Majors and they get $7 to $12 for each registration from the rethug party.
I assume it's illegal to register a voter without their knowledge, by tricking them with a fake petition. (Hey, shouldn't fake petitions be illegal?) And if you are legitimately registering voters, shouldn't you register them under the party of their choice? Shouldn't it be illegal to deny them a choice and automatically register them republican?
Here is what I don't understand about the Republicans' efforts to suppress voters who are likely to vote Democratic. These guys know, do they not, that if circumstances were different, the Dems might try to pull the same stunt(s). Just imagine the uproar that would occur if the Dems stole an election. Heck, it might even get blasted all over the MSM. These Republicans are sleezy little fuckers but I can't believe that they are dumb enough not to see the risk that they may someday get a taste of their own medicine.
How will the Republicans supress the voters in their own party that are going to vote Democratic, Libertarian, or Independent? There won't be many of them left.
I was just thinking, after reading the artical, that maybe we should all vote Republican. But then they'd steal the ballots and dump any voting Democrat, and then probably make a list and put us all in prison for life as vote terrorists.
Please note the recent change in the November election.
Democrats: election day for registered democrats remains 11/4.
Republicans: election day for registered republicans has been moved to 11/5.
Independents and other parties: you may vote on either day, 11/4 or 11/5.
This is to avoid long waits at the polls due to an expected unusually large voter turnout for this presidential election.
Please help spread the information regarding these changes in order that all registered voters are assured of the opportunity to cast their ballots.
-- EKATON --
Where did this information come from? Who decided Election Day would become two days dividing the parties??? SOURCES PLEASE!
I think it's a ruse to get stupid rethugs to miss the voting deadline.
Yeah, I just realized that. A great repug stategy in reverse. Would serve them right if it flew - uh, I mean if it worked.
Gee...the Republicans are having some fun - YPM in California hired by the California Republican committee stands in front of grocery stores and other places of business catching people doing their chores with a petition for tougher laws against child molesters. In fact, they are using the signatures to re-register these people as Republicans. Check out the story in today 10/18/2008 Los Angeles Times. This is actual fraud - not just laziness. Shame on the Republicans.
I was told by a Democratic activist that this happened in 2004 on college campuses throughout Ohio and Pennsylvania. Except, they were petitions to legalize marijuana...and the Republicans used them to change their addresses and challenge every single student trying to cast a vote. According to him, this is how Bush won Ohio and thus the election.
"Shame" is NOT the appropriate word.