Vote Watch 2004

don't you think they have more to worry about than illegal voting

Keeping track of GOP antics.

Vote Watch 2004

UPDATES as of 10/31/04

69. Wisconsin GOP intensifies vote suppression efforts using more than 37000 last-minute vote challenges based on supposedly invalid voter addresses - even though their first batch of alleged "incorrect" addresses had numerous ones that were correct [via reader HR, a report in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel]: Details in the Wisconsin page under Voting in Swing States.

68. Charges and counter-charges between Republicans and Democrats on campaign related violence, vandalism, and theft [via various sources]: There are some sites/articles which are documenting this and I provide links to those - there is too much content to reproduce and I don't have time to sift through the large number of alleged incidents and sort out what is a valid claim and what is an invalid claim. Clearly, some of the charges are nonsensical - e.g., Republicans blaming non-violent but confrontational protestors. Incidents of theft (which should be prosecuted) may or may not be campaign related unless campaign specific materials were stolen. Other incidents such as vandalism of campaign offices or violence against campaign offices/staff are egregious and unacceptable. Anyway, links are in the Other Voting Irregularities/Fraud page.

67. Karl-Rove style Dirty Trick from Tennessee makes its move to Georgia [via JamesB3 at Dailykos]: Remember the dirty trick in Tennessee surrounding the egregious flyer "Voting for Bush is Like Running in the Special Olympics -- Even if You Win, You're Still Retarded"? As I highlighted in that case, there is no evidence that the Democrats put out this flier and the evidence suggests it was a dirty trick that was played ON the Democrats. Now this garbage has spread to Georgia. Details in the Georgia page under Voting in Red States.

66. Florida GOP and the Bush-Cheney campaign continue attempts to suppress Democratic votes in Florida using evolving methods [via Dailykos - a report by Greg Palast in the BBC, Blogwood, Dailykos]: A GOP "caging List" of voters in a minority rich district was discovered and suspected to be a vote challenge list. Its use for vote challenges exposed as possibly illegal, the GOP claimed they will challenge lots of voters but not specifically the ones on the list. Their vote challenge plan in Florida (using a 109-year old pre-civil-rights-era state law) mirrors GOP plans in Ohio and is expected to cause massive voting delays or shutdowns on voting day (and attendant discouragement/suppression of voters). Governor Jeb Bush encouraged the vote challenges and downplayed the significance of the GOP plan. The GOP vote challengers/poll watchers are disproportionately in minority rich districts - says something doesn't it?

Additionally, the GOP challenged the votes already cast by numerous people claiming that they are felons (using the repeatedly discredited Florida "felon list") - and not unexpectedly, shortly after they propagated this new list it was shown to have names of people who had already had their voting rights restored.

The latest news is that the Florida Elections Director issued a detailed ruling stating that challenges cannot be allowed to delay the polls, that those challenged should be given the option of casting a provisional ballot and that a voter's being in the discredited felon list is not sufficient reason to allow a challenge to his or her vote. Details in the Florida page under Voting in Swing States.

65. GOP voter registration challenges in Ohio morph into another growing scandal [via various sources, including a personal incident report by reader EN]: The GOP originally challenged about 35,000 registrations in Ohio - only to withdraw thousands of the claims because of self-described "errors" in their filings. Moreover, some of those challenged were homeless. The GOP also claimed over-registration fraud but the Election Board pointed out there is no evidence of fraud and that "inactive" voters have to be kept on the rolls for 4 years per the National Voter Registration Act. After mass protests, Ohio's GOP Sec. of State partially caved in with a "compromise" ruling that allows the challenged voters to cast provisional ballots.
In the meantime, one of the GOP members who challenged the voters faces a possible indictment on felony charges for swearing she had personal knowledge about the voters being challenged when she had no knowledge whatsoever - by her own admission. The election board threw out another 976 challenges due to the latter incident. Another challenger turns out to be Megan Harrington, President of the College Republicans at the University of Toledo. She has been discovered to have challenged a voter based on a claim that he does not live where he claims he does, even though the voter actually does live at that address. Many others including some faculty at the University of Toledo were falsely challenged as well even though they were actually living at the very address the GOP claimed was not valid. There is a possibility that some of those who were challenged may have been on the list since they were contributors to the Democratic party - but this needs further investigation.
It is quite clear these challengers have no morals whatsoever and need to be indicted or investigated, as appropriate. Details in the Ohio page under Voting in Swing States.

64. Illegal Handling of Absentee Ballot Requests by GOP in South Dakota mushrooms into a scandal, amid resignations; many ballot requests were not even submitted; six Republican notaries charged with a Class 2 misdemeanor and three plead guilty [via Sdindc at Dailykos, Dailykos, Josh Marshall and Buzzflash]: Jeff Thune, nephew of Republican candidate for Senate John Thune (running a very close race against Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle) is under investigation for falsely pretending to be a Notary when collecting absentee ballot requests from prospective student voters. Additionally, even though he claimed 75 applications were notarized - the applications were never notarized or submitted to the county auditor. A number of GOP operatives/consultants have resigned. Six Republican notaries have been charged with a Class 2 misdemeanor and three of them pled guilty. KELO-TV reported that the former governor and GOP congressman in South Dakota says the national GOP is encouraging campaign workers to cheat. An executive board member of the state GOP resigns in disgust at the party's dirty tricks. These and other details are covered in the South Dakota page under Voting in Red States.

63. Jim Crow Dirty Tricks in South Carolina: Bogus letter claiming to be from NAACP threatens arrest of voters who have failed to pay parking tickets or child support, among other things [via reader PJK, an AP report]: Letter also claims falsely that "voters must have a credit check, provide two forms of photo identification, a Social Security card, a voter registration card and a handwriting sample". Details in the South Carolina page under Voting in Red States.

Oh yeah, if the GOP claims massive false registration, make them prove it. Sure people make up registrations to get cash, and I've seen it. Most times they get caught and fired. So if one or two slip through, it happens. It's not the same as purposeful fraud to get illegals to vote. Let them prove illegals are wrongly registered and vote in massive numbers. They can't because it doesn't happen. Why would an illegal risk being checked and caught over voting? Especially when most plan to go home. If there is any spate of illegal voting, it's among white immigrants from Europe, Australia and South Africa, not Mexicans.

posted by Steve @ 11:31:00 AM