skunk
Oct 20, 2004, 01:01 PM
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/markosmoulitsas/story/0,15139,1331610,00.html
Hollow Victory
US blogger Markos Moulitsas is wary of Republican attempts to 'steal' another election
Wednesday October 20, 2004
It was Monday morning, the first day of early voting in Florida, and only an hour went by before the system collapsed in Broward County, ground zero for the 2000 fiasco in the state. Potential voters were turned away in this heavily Democratic county as election officials delivered a litany of excuses. The person in charge of elections is the secretary of state, Glenda Hood, a Republican.
It was an inauspicious beginning to Florida's election season, and a reminder that Democrats must remain vigilant against Republican efforts to steal yet another election. And in that regard, Republicans have been mighty busy.
A small sampling of what Democrats face:
Florida
Still facing lawsuits over its "felon list", which improperly excluded thousands of voters in 2000, Florida adopted a second felon list just as flawed as the first. While designed to prevent felons from voting, the list was purposely created so broadly that it stripped thousands of people of their legitimate right to vote. What's worse, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported that Republican governor Jeb Bush - brother of George Bush - knew the list was flawed and still rushed it into service. The state eventually junked the list under public pressure after more than 2,500 people were discovered inappropriately included in the list.
Meanwhile, Ms Hood ruled that voter registrations would be deemed incomplete if registrants forgot to check off the box affirming their citizenship, even though they affirm their citizenship elsewhere on the form. The ruling has excluded three times as many Democrats as Republicans.
Nevada
A voter registration outfit, funded by the Republican party, set up booths around public areas to register voters to vote. However, back at the company's headquarters, Democratic registrations were said by a former employee to have been shredded and tossed. The outfit, which has operated in Oregon, West Virginia, and several other states, is now under investigation for suspected voter registration fraud. A Republican judge in Nevada subsequently ruled against allowing the thousands of disenfranchised voters to vote in November.
Ohio
The Republican secretary of state, J Kenneth Blackwell, attempted to destroy thousands of new voter registrations because - he claimed - they were not printed in the proper card stock (a heavy 80-pound stock). Registration forms had been photocopied on regular paper and even printed in local newspapers. After intense public pressure Blackwell backed off.
Meanwhile, voters in heavily Democratic Cleveland have been receiving mysterious pre-recorded calls telling them their voting location has been changed. Local election officials are investigating the malicious calls. The so-called "robocall", in fact, is now a staple of dirty campaigning.
Wisconsin
The Republican in charge of ballot printing in Milwaukee County, one of the most heavily Democratic in this important swing state, has ordered the printing of 250,000 fewer ballots than election officials asked for in this high-interest race. In fact, the 679,000 ballots the county had offered to print is less than the total used in the 2000 election. The issue remains unresolved.
New Hampshire
The New England chairman of the Bush/Cheney '04 operation, Jim Tobin, recently resigned over his alleged role in an illegal phone-bank jamming operation in 2002. New Hampshire Democrats had set up a phone bank operation to call supporters and urge them to the polls. Tobin, as head of the Republicans' north-east Senate operations, hired a firm to place thousands of automated hang-up calls to that phone bank, tying up the lines and preventing the Democrats from getting their supporters to the polls. His history did not stop him getting promotion within the Bush campaign this year.
South Dakota
While not a presidential battleground state, South Dakota is the home of two bitterly contested federal races - that of Democratic Senate minority leader Tom Daschle and Democratic freshman congresswoman Stephanie Herseth. The nephew of Daschle's opponent was caught handling absentee ballots, claiming to be a notary when he is not. Larry Russell, the state director of the South Dakota Republicans' "get out the vote" efforts, resigned over questions surrounding absentee ballot applications. National Republicans promptly transferred him and five of his team members to Ohio, a promotion to the coveted battleground state.
There is more, lots more. There are several clearing houses of voter suppression and fraud online, like the Voter Registration Fraud Clearinghouse and Vote Watch 2004.
These efforts are not isolated incidents, but part of the Republican Party's "Victory" programme. While ostensibly a voter registration and "get out the vote" operation, the programme includes a concerted nationwide effort by Republicans to lock in their electoral gains by any and all means necessary. Sounds like partisan rhetoric, sure, until you hear it from the source. Alluding to the fraud committed by his party in his home state of South Dakota, former Republican governor and congressman Bill Janklow told the Associated Press last week that the entire Victory programme is rife with electoral fraud: "These people are cheating. When you tamper with it, you cheat the system. And cheating in elections is the worst form of cancer because it's uncontrollable."
Sounds like it's going well...
Hollow Victory
US blogger Markos Moulitsas is wary of Republican attempts to 'steal' another election
Wednesday October 20, 2004
It was Monday morning, the first day of early voting in Florida, and only an hour went by before the system collapsed in Broward County, ground zero for the 2000 fiasco in the state. Potential voters were turned away in this heavily Democratic county as election officials delivered a litany of excuses. The person in charge of elections is the secretary of state, Glenda Hood, a Republican.
It was an inauspicious beginning to Florida's election season, and a reminder that Democrats must remain vigilant against Republican efforts to steal yet another election. And in that regard, Republicans have been mighty busy.
A small sampling of what Democrats face:
Florida
Still facing lawsuits over its "felon list", which improperly excluded thousands of voters in 2000, Florida adopted a second felon list just as flawed as the first. While designed to prevent felons from voting, the list was purposely created so broadly that it stripped thousands of people of their legitimate right to vote. What's worse, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported that Republican governor Jeb Bush - brother of George Bush - knew the list was flawed and still rushed it into service. The state eventually junked the list under public pressure after more than 2,500 people were discovered inappropriately included in the list.
Meanwhile, Ms Hood ruled that voter registrations would be deemed incomplete if registrants forgot to check off the box affirming their citizenship, even though they affirm their citizenship elsewhere on the form. The ruling has excluded three times as many Democrats as Republicans.
Nevada
A voter registration outfit, funded by the Republican party, set up booths around public areas to register voters to vote. However, back at the company's headquarters, Democratic registrations were said by a former employee to have been shredded and tossed. The outfit, which has operated in Oregon, West Virginia, and several other states, is now under investigation for suspected voter registration fraud. A Republican judge in Nevada subsequently ruled against allowing the thousands of disenfranchised voters to vote in November.
Ohio
The Republican secretary of state, J Kenneth Blackwell, attempted to destroy thousands of new voter registrations because - he claimed - they were not printed in the proper card stock (a heavy 80-pound stock). Registration forms had been photocopied on regular paper and even printed in local newspapers. After intense public pressure Blackwell backed off.
Meanwhile, voters in heavily Democratic Cleveland have been receiving mysterious pre-recorded calls telling them their voting location has been changed. Local election officials are investigating the malicious calls. The so-called "robocall", in fact, is now a staple of dirty campaigning.
Wisconsin
The Republican in charge of ballot printing in Milwaukee County, one of the most heavily Democratic in this important swing state, has ordered the printing of 250,000 fewer ballots than election officials asked for in this high-interest race. In fact, the 679,000 ballots the county had offered to print is less than the total used in the 2000 election. The issue remains unresolved.
New Hampshire
The New England chairman of the Bush/Cheney '04 operation, Jim Tobin, recently resigned over his alleged role in an illegal phone-bank jamming operation in 2002. New Hampshire Democrats had set up a phone bank operation to call supporters and urge them to the polls. Tobin, as head of the Republicans' north-east Senate operations, hired a firm to place thousands of automated hang-up calls to that phone bank, tying up the lines and preventing the Democrats from getting their supporters to the polls. His history did not stop him getting promotion within the Bush campaign this year.
South Dakota
While not a presidential battleground state, South Dakota is the home of two bitterly contested federal races - that of Democratic Senate minority leader Tom Daschle and Democratic freshman congresswoman Stephanie Herseth. The nephew of Daschle's opponent was caught handling absentee ballots, claiming to be a notary when he is not. Larry Russell, the state director of the South Dakota Republicans' "get out the vote" efforts, resigned over questions surrounding absentee ballot applications. National Republicans promptly transferred him and five of his team members to Ohio, a promotion to the coveted battleground state.
There is more, lots more. There are several clearing houses of voter suppression and fraud online, like the Voter Registration Fraud Clearinghouse and Vote Watch 2004.
These efforts are not isolated incidents, but part of the Republican Party's "Victory" programme. While ostensibly a voter registration and "get out the vote" operation, the programme includes a concerted nationwide effort by Republicans to lock in their electoral gains by any and all means necessary. Sounds like partisan rhetoric, sure, until you hear it from the source. Alluding to the fraud committed by his party in his home state of South Dakota, former Republican governor and congressman Bill Janklow told the Associated Press last week that the entire Victory programme is rife with electoral fraud: "These people are cheating. When you tamper with it, you cheat the system. And cheating in elections is the worst form of cancer because it's uncontrollable."
Sounds like it's going well...
