Voter fraud and disenfranchisement

[Guest guest]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/10/31/192155/73

 

Voter fraud and disenfranchisement

by kos

 

Sun Oct 31st, 2004 at 23:21:55 GMT

 

Here's a sampling of what we face nationwide.

 

In West Virginia -- it was bad enough the first time.

In a letter, Berkeley County clerk John Smalls cites calls from a cell

phone were made to Eastern Panhandle democrats telling them that they

were not registered to vote. The letter also said the calls informed

democrats in some cases they wouldn`t be able to vote on Election Day

[...]

 

It`s considered an improper act because when upset citizens called the

voter registration office to make sure they were registered to vote,

indeed they were. So, who made these misleading calls? The Berkeley

County Clerk`s Office traced the number voters gave as the source back

to the Eastern Panhandle Republican Headquarters.

Bad enough the first time, as I said. Problem is, despite their " slap

on the wrist " (or because of it), local Republicans are still up to

the same dirty tricks. From an email statement today:

Democratic leaders in one of the nation's most hotly-contested

battleground states are receiving reports of voter suppression

activities that can be traced back to the Republican Party. The

suppression activities have continued despite warnings from officials

in Berkeley and Jefferson Counties.

Hopefully these WV Republicans face the same fate as those in Ohio who

tried to challenge 35,000 new voters for no reason other than

disenfranchisement. After hundreds of hearings found zero illegal

registrations, the entire lot of challenges was thrown out and the

Republican masterminds now face criminal charges.

 

Speaking of Ohio, I got this from a Toledo volunteer:

I worked all day yesterday at the largest Toledo area Kerry GOTV phone

bank at Gallon and Takacs law offices, 3516 Granite, Sylvania. Out of

the 8 phone banks that we had here in the Toledo area yesterday, ours

produced one third of all of the contacts made.

 

Both the local phone company and our phone systems provider have

confirmed to us that phone relay point into the building was purposely

severed. Many volunteers were rerouted to other locations and several

also had to rely on cell phones when we found our lines down this

morning. We thought it was a coincidence until the phone company

verified to us that the lines were intentionally cut.

 

More Republican dirty tactics.

And more Ohio, check out this letter supposedly sent from the Lake

County (Painesville) Board of Election to newly registered Democrats:

 

Of course, the letter is not from the Board of Election, and it's

obviously all bullshit. (From Law Geek.)

 

In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the GOP wants to take a page from the Ohio

playbook.

Citing a new list of more than 37,000 questionable addresses, the

state Republican Party demanded Saturday that Milwaukee city officials

require identification from all of those voters Tuesday.

 

If the city doesn't, the party says it is prepared to have volunteers

challenge each individual - including thousands who might be missing

an apartment number on their registration - at the polls.

In Ohio, the " questionable addresses " were those were GOP-sent

registered mail wasn't accepted. Wherever the WI GOP's list comes

from, it's definitely not reality.

City Attorney Grant Langley labeled the GOP request " outrageous. "

 

" We have already uncovered hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of

addresses on their (original list) that do exist, " said Langley, who

holds a non-partisan office. " Why should I take their word for the

fact this new list is good? I'm out of the politics on this, but this

is purely political. "

Still in Wisconsin, let's head to the ultra-liberal University of

Wisconsin -- Madison, which should be a huge source of Kerry votes on

Tuesday.

UW-Madison students in six residence halls received misleading

information this week about how to vote, triggering allegations of

dirty tricks.

 

The Dave Magnum for Congress campaign and the College Republicans took

responsibility and apologized for the mailing Friday evening,

insisting it was an honest error.

 

But a progressive group called it a deliberate attempt to confuse

student voters. And University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor John

Wiley, saying he was concerned that students might not know where to

vote, had e-mails sent to all students Friday afternoon containing

correct information.

The Campus Republican flyer told students they could vote at the

polling location of their choice. Obviously, voters must vote in their

assigned polling location.

 

The College Republicans, of course, are mired in a scandal of their

own -- bilking innocent seniors of more than $6 million.

 

The College Republican National Committee has raised $6.3 million this

year through an aggressive and misleading fund-raising campaign that

collected money from senior citizens who thought they were giving to

the election efforts of President Bush and other top Republicans.

 

Many of the top donors were in their 80s and 90s. The donors wrote

checks -- sometimes hundreds and, in at least one case, totaling more

than $100,000 -- to groups with official sounding-names such as

" Republican Headquarters 2004, " " Republican Elections Committee " and

the " National Republican Campaign Fund. " [...]

 

Some of the elderly donors, meanwhile, wound up bouncing checks and

emptying their bank accounts.

 

" I don't have any more money, " said Cecilia Barbier, a 90-year-old

retired church council worker in New York City. " I'm stopping giving

to everybody. That was all my savings that they got. "

 

Barbier said she " wised up. " But not before she made more than 300

donations totaling nearly $100,000 this year, the group's fund-raising

records show.

Makes you glad to be a Democrat, huh? We all knew College Republicans

were slime. Now we have hard evidence. I hope to see some of those

scum carted off to jail. But I digress, since cheating the elderly of

their life savings isn't really voter fraud or supression.

 

Let's wrap up in Alabama, where Democratic areas have been infested

with this flyer:

 

Update: Here's another one -- a fake letter, supposedly from the

NAACP, threatening South Carolina blacks with arrest if they vote with

outstanding parking tickets, or if they haven't submitted a credit

check, provide two forms of photo identification, a Social Security

card, a voter registration card and a handwriting sample.

 

General 2004 ::