Onion Pirates
27-10-2004, 22:20
One party does not want many people to vote.
Guess which one?
They like to say they are opposing "fraud", but the result of their efforts is that fewer legitimate voters get to the polls.
Which is exactly what they want.
***************************
in Wisconsin:
Michigan Republican State Representative Says Detroit Vote Must be Suppressed
Milwaukee -- “On July 16, the Detroit Free Press quoted John Pappageorge, a Republican state representative [and former head of Bush campaign’s “Veterans for Bush”] from Troy, Michigan, who said, "If we do not suppress the Detroit vote, we're going to have a tough time in this election cycle." Detroit is 83 percent African American. Pappageorge later told the Associated Press that he was not advocating suppression of the black vote but that "you get it [the Detroit vote] down with a good message."” [Source: Progressive.org, 10/04]
What will the Republicans try in Wisconsin this November to suppress the vote? Will it be the green vest program, where Republican operatives disguised as election officials harass voters in Democratic areas? If you think it can’t happen here, don’t forget what the the Chairman of the Milwaukee County Election Commission Doug Haag said in the October 13, 2004 edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Remember, Haag, chief guardian of election laws in Wisconsin’s largest county, is also chairman of the Milwaukee County Republican Party:
“Why is there this need to get all these people registered? If people want to vote, they will vote. If they want to stay in bed and not vote, they don't have to bother.”
**************************************
in Pennsylvania
Attempted Voter Suppression in My Precinct
by Chris Bowers
It was bound to happen eventually. Republican attempts to suppress Democratic votes are so extensive, that they are now trying to move my polling place, along with sixty-two others in Philadelphia:
"It's predominantly, 100 percent black. I'm just not going in there to get a knife in my back."
--Matt Robb, Republican ward leader in South Philadelphia, on his last-minute request to move five Philly polling places in African-American neighborhoods.
Pennsylvania and its 21 electoral votes are the second-biggest "battleground" prize after Florida. John Kerry can't win here without a huge turnout in Philadelphia, especially in black neighborhoods that vote 90 percent Democratic. As a result, it's the first place you'd expect a GOP voter suppression effort.
And now it's here.
Chris Brennan (with a big assist from Dave Davies) has the scoop in today's Philadelphia Daily News. They learned that high-ranking state GOP and Bush operatives asked local Republicans to try to move 63 polling places at the last minute. Some 53 of the 63 polling places are in districts less than 10 percent white.(...)
Bob Lee, Philadelphia's voter registration administrator who's normally not given to partisan statements, said flatly: "They're trying to suppress the vote."
The move is almost certain to fail -- especially now that it's been exposed. Lee said it appears that the applications came into his office too late to allow for a hearing before Election Day.
I live in overwhelmingly Democratic and African-American West Philadelphia. In 2000, as you can see from the "Democratic" link in the previous sentence, West Philly went for Gore by close to 100%, so it does not take a genius to figure out that many of the precincts they want to move are in my neighborhood.
I can give a lot of reasons why I will never vote for a Republican. However, the fact that racist Republican leaders like Matt Robb (who has probably never crossed 40th street in his life) are trying, on orders from the Bush campaign, to disenfranchise me because I live in a predominantly African-American neighborhood is #1 on that list.
*****************************************
All over the place
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.
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."
[from the Manchester Guardian (UK)]
**********************************
So what about "fraud", about actually putting one voter at the poll in place of another?
Oh, Bush Cheney and Rove are busy at that too:
Found the following links which all seem to point to the same company that is suspected of tearing up Democratic voter registration forms in Las Vegas. It has set up registration drives in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Florida and Nevada and is accused of the same things in most if not all of these states. Sproul & Associates is a Republican consulting firm run by Nathan Sproul, former head of the Arizona Republican party and Arizona Christian Coalition.
Nevada:
Voters Outreach of America AKA America Votes tears up Democratic voter registration forms in Nevada.
Oregon:
Company claiming affiliation with non-partisan 'America Votes' to register voters in Oregon is actually GOP consulting firm Sproul & Associates, Inc.
West Virginia and Pennsylvania:
Sproul & Associates AKA America Votes workers in WV and PA refuse to register Kerry voters.
Oregon
Democrats in Oregon have complained that canvassers for Arizona based Sproul & Associates have been pressuring residents to register as Republicans so that they can get paid.
Arizona
Arizona Nader campaign was assisted in its petition drive by an unlikely figure: the ultra-conservative former executive director of the Arizona Republican Party, Nathan Sproul.
About Sproul:
Good background story on Sproul and his political track record, cached on Google.
The link:
Here is the direct link between Sproul and Voters Outreach of America.
According to several sources, two of the contractors Sproul hired to oversee petition gathering for No Taxpayer Money For Politicians -- Aaron "A.J." James, who directs Voters' Outreach of America, and Diane Burns -- were also paid by Sproul to get as many signatures as possible for Nader.
Good stuff, so far. But the reader then asks the key question -- who is paying for these efforts?
The answer?
KLAS-TV, Las Vegas:
"The company has been largely, if not entirely funded, by the Republican National Committee."
CareerBuild.com listing:
Help wanted ad for Voters Outreach of America says "Paid for by the Republican National Committee".
The Republican Party is funding these efforts. The link is direct and unambiguous.
Meanwhile, Bob Johnson has got a diary with more information on this developing scandal. As he says,
[C]ritical is the fact that Sproul and his organization misrepresented themselves to voters as a legitimate, nonpartisan GOTV organization. That is fraud, my friends.
The Googlemonkeys are ferreting out all sort of great info. Might be time for a dKosopedia entry on this to consolidate all this info.
(Two great examples of participatory journalist at its finest.)
So is John Kerry's AG gonna prosecute these people?
What about Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris?
Democrats needs to frame it this way:
"How can Republicans claim to be for free elections in Iraq when they are trying to suppress votes here in America?"
[daily kos]
Guess which one?
They like to say they are opposing "fraud", but the result of their efforts is that fewer legitimate voters get to the polls.
Which is exactly what they want.
***************************
in Wisconsin:
Michigan Republican State Representative Says Detroit Vote Must be Suppressed
Milwaukee -- “On July 16, the Detroit Free Press quoted John Pappageorge, a Republican state representative [and former head of Bush campaign’s “Veterans for Bush”] from Troy, Michigan, who said, "If we do not suppress the Detroit vote, we're going to have a tough time in this election cycle." Detroit is 83 percent African American. Pappageorge later told the Associated Press that he was not advocating suppression of the black vote but that "you get it [the Detroit vote] down with a good message."” [Source: Progressive.org, 10/04]
What will the Republicans try in Wisconsin this November to suppress the vote? Will it be the green vest program, where Republican operatives disguised as election officials harass voters in Democratic areas? If you think it can’t happen here, don’t forget what the the Chairman of the Milwaukee County Election Commission Doug Haag said in the October 13, 2004 edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Remember, Haag, chief guardian of election laws in Wisconsin’s largest county, is also chairman of the Milwaukee County Republican Party:
“Why is there this need to get all these people registered? If people want to vote, they will vote. If they want to stay in bed and not vote, they don't have to bother.”
**************************************
in Pennsylvania
Attempted Voter Suppression in My Precinct
by Chris Bowers
It was bound to happen eventually. Republican attempts to suppress Democratic votes are so extensive, that they are now trying to move my polling place, along with sixty-two others in Philadelphia:
"It's predominantly, 100 percent black. I'm just not going in there to get a knife in my back."
--Matt Robb, Republican ward leader in South Philadelphia, on his last-minute request to move five Philly polling places in African-American neighborhoods.
Pennsylvania and its 21 electoral votes are the second-biggest "battleground" prize after Florida. John Kerry can't win here without a huge turnout in Philadelphia, especially in black neighborhoods that vote 90 percent Democratic. As a result, it's the first place you'd expect a GOP voter suppression effort.
And now it's here.
Chris Brennan (with a big assist from Dave Davies) has the scoop in today's Philadelphia Daily News. They learned that high-ranking state GOP and Bush operatives asked local Republicans to try to move 63 polling places at the last minute. Some 53 of the 63 polling places are in districts less than 10 percent white.(...)
Bob Lee, Philadelphia's voter registration administrator who's normally not given to partisan statements, said flatly: "They're trying to suppress the vote."
The move is almost certain to fail -- especially now that it's been exposed. Lee said it appears that the applications came into his office too late to allow for a hearing before Election Day.
I live in overwhelmingly Democratic and African-American West Philadelphia. In 2000, as you can see from the "Democratic" link in the previous sentence, West Philly went for Gore by close to 100%, so it does not take a genius to figure out that many of the precincts they want to move are in my neighborhood.
I can give a lot of reasons why I will never vote for a Republican. However, the fact that racist Republican leaders like Matt Robb (who has probably never crossed 40th street in his life) are trying, on orders from the Bush campaign, to disenfranchise me because I live in a predominantly African-American neighborhood is #1 on that list.
*****************************************
All over the place
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.
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."
[from the Manchester Guardian (UK)]
**********************************
So what about "fraud", about actually putting one voter at the poll in place of another?
Oh, Bush Cheney and Rove are busy at that too:
Found the following links which all seem to point to the same company that is suspected of tearing up Democratic voter registration forms in Las Vegas. It has set up registration drives in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Florida and Nevada and is accused of the same things in most if not all of these states. Sproul & Associates is a Republican consulting firm run by Nathan Sproul, former head of the Arizona Republican party and Arizona Christian Coalition.
Nevada:
Voters Outreach of America AKA America Votes tears up Democratic voter registration forms in Nevada.
Oregon:
Company claiming affiliation with non-partisan 'America Votes' to register voters in Oregon is actually GOP consulting firm Sproul & Associates, Inc.
West Virginia and Pennsylvania:
Sproul & Associates AKA America Votes workers in WV and PA refuse to register Kerry voters.
Oregon
Democrats in Oregon have complained that canvassers for Arizona based Sproul & Associates have been pressuring residents to register as Republicans so that they can get paid.
Arizona
Arizona Nader campaign was assisted in its petition drive by an unlikely figure: the ultra-conservative former executive director of the Arizona Republican Party, Nathan Sproul.
About Sproul:
Good background story on Sproul and his political track record, cached on Google.
The link:
Here is the direct link between Sproul and Voters Outreach of America.
According to several sources, two of the contractors Sproul hired to oversee petition gathering for No Taxpayer Money For Politicians -- Aaron "A.J." James, who directs Voters' Outreach of America, and Diane Burns -- were also paid by Sproul to get as many signatures as possible for Nader.
Good stuff, so far. But the reader then asks the key question -- who is paying for these efforts?
The answer?
KLAS-TV, Las Vegas:
"The company has been largely, if not entirely funded, by the Republican National Committee."
CareerBuild.com listing:
Help wanted ad for Voters Outreach of America says "Paid for by the Republican National Committee".
The Republican Party is funding these efforts. The link is direct and unambiguous.
Meanwhile, Bob Johnson has got a diary with more information on this developing scandal. As he says,
[C]ritical is the fact that Sproul and his organization misrepresented themselves to voters as a legitimate, nonpartisan GOTV organization. That is fraud, my friends.
The Googlemonkeys are ferreting out all sort of great info. Might be time for a dKosopedia entry on this to consolidate all this info.
(Two great examples of participatory journalist at its finest.)
So is John Kerry's AG gonna prosecute these people?
What about Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris?
Democrats needs to frame it this way:
"How can Republicans claim to be for free elections in Iraq when they are trying to suppress votes here in America?"
[daily kos]