You vs James Crowe, II and Poll Taxes v2.0

You wanna do more than sign an online petition? (Not hating on online petitions. I signed it.) You live near NYC? Here's something you can do:


December 10: Stand For Freedom March in NYC

Stop Corporate Funded Voter Suppression (Updated)

Update (h/t Credo Mobile - That's their Facebook page.) -

Advocates: Companies can’t support black consumers and those pushing restrictive voting laws 

An online advocacy group is urging corporations that market to African-Americans to stop giving money to a conservative organization working for stricter voting laws. The group, ColorofChange, is targeting companies that support the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, a nonprofit that has helped states pass photo ID laws, which are criticized by minority and civil rights groups. Its members include legislators and corporations, who pay higher fees to join.

This is really important.

via Color of Change

For years, the right wing has been trying to stop Black people, other people of color, young people, and the elderly from voting — and now some of America’s biggest companies are helping them do it. These companies have helped pass discriminatory voter ID legislation by funding a right wing policy group called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

ALEC’s voter ID laws are undemocratic, unjust and part of a longstanding right wing agenda to weaken the Black vote. Major companies that rely on business from Black folks shouldn’t be involved in suppressing our vote. Please join us in demanding that these companies stop funding ALEC.

Here's the letter we'll send to the leadership of corporations that support ALEC, on your behalf. You can add a personal comment using the box to the right.*

Dear President/CEO and Board,

I want to alert you to the fact that the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) – which your company funds – is pushing discriminatory voter ID legislation that suppresses the votes of blacks, the elderly, youth and other minorities. Bills based on ALEC’s model legislation have been introduced in 34 states, and have already passed in seven states.

Although proponents of voter ID laws claim the goal is to reduce voter fraud, there is no evidence that such fraud occurs with any regularity in this country. What is clear is that these voter ID laws unreasonably increase barriers to voting access for large numbers of people and could disenfranchise up to 5 million people across the nation. These laws are part of a long history of racist and discriminatory restrictions on voting designed to disenfranchise African Americans and other underrepresented groups.

I presume your company does not want to support voter suppression, nor have your products or services associated with discrimination and large-scale voter disenfranchisement. I urge you to immediately stop funding ALEC and issue a public statement making it clear that your company does not support discriminatory voter ID laws and voter suppression.

Sincerely,

[Your name]

*A comment box is provided on the petition webpage.

Again, This Is Why People of Color Don't Go for "States' Rights"

h/t prometheus6.org

It's freakin deja vu all freaking over again! The South wanted the rest of the country to "mind their business" before the Civil War, and after. "Wah, wah, wah! We shouldn't have to prove we're not being racist before we do something racist!" The NAACP's Legal Defense Fund is filing a motion for a summary judgment to uphold the constitutionality of Section 5 of the 1965 Voters' Rights Act based mostly on the fact that racism is ongoing. And by ongoing, I mean that just recently as 2008, the DoJ disapproved the redistricting because it eliminated the city’s sole majority-minority district. Of course, nonminorities in Shelby complained that the DoJ had annulled the will of majority, "Wah, wah, wah! We don't get to exert political tyranny over our racial minorities!"

You Need to Vote if Only to Protect Your Right to Do So

There's no evidence of voter fraud. Meanwhile, evidence of voter suppression is overwhelming. And all I can think is thank God my life is in His hands are not theirs.


In Hot Political Climate, Election Experts Want 'Voter Fraud' Watchdogs To Be Clear On Rules


Ryan J. Reilly
September 20, 2010, 9:56AM

As Tea Party groups take up the torch of voter fraud ahead of the midterm elections, a new poll shows that campaigns in prior elections to exaggerate the voter fraud issue have had an effect on public opinion. Meanwhile, advocates for low-income and minority voters are voicing concerns that the individuals planning to show up at polling stations to keep an eye out for those they think are illegitimate voters might be unclear on election law.

All I Want for November Is to Vote

Voter Suppression 2010 Style Democratic Strategist

Democrats have plenty to worry about over the next five weeks, but it nonetheless behooves Dems to get up to speed on the latest voter suppression scams. In that regard, Demos and Common Cause have partnered to present a must-read report on the topic, "Voting in 2010: Ten Swing States: Problematic election laws and policies in ten swing states could impact enough voters to determine election outcomes."

(PDF Executive Summary here)

White America Got Nothing to Whine About

If you're not aware of the "Obama doesn't care about white people's voting rights" paranoia, google it. Until then, here's why I get incensed about accusations of anti-white voter intimidation:

h/t Dr. Joe Feagin of racismreview.com
from theRoot (which has become in some respects too conservative for my tastes, btw):

Voting Rights Act at 45: What's to Celebrate?

Despite the defeat of Jim Crow and the key role African-American voters had in electing the first black U.S. president in 2008, many blacks still face barriers to voting.

Protecting the Right to Vote, Updated

Sorry I've been away. I just came across this a few minutes ago. I read the entire thing and will be looking into the whole New Black Panther case. ~ No1KState

Update: The New Black Panther Party is far, far more radical than the actual Black Panther Party, even stoking some indignation from the Black Panthers for using their name. I can't blame them and wonder if they would have a case in court.

Now, as for "voter intimidation," I think I can summarize the whole hoopla fairly quickly. Two members of the New Party stood outside a Philadelphia precinct during the 2008 national election. One of them had a night stick.

That's the extinct of intimidation.

The case, which has has been dropped except for telling the one with the night stick not to ever bring a weapon near a polling place, seems to have been racially motivated in the beginning. The New Party was sued, rather than prosecuted, by BushCo's DoJ on behalf of Republican, white poll watchers just a couple of weeks before inauguration. Under Bush, the DOJ had only brought one other case of voter intimidation, which the won, and it was on behalf of white Americans, too. No one from the precinct in Philly stepped forward to publicly complain of intimidation.

In my opinion, case was rightly dropped. It should have never been brought. If whites were intimidated, it's because whites are irrationally afraid of black men anyway. The precinct itself is heavily black, and Obama probably would've won the precinct by the same margin without members of the New Party standing guard. I should inform you the the national committee of the New Party disavowed the two and doesn't condone having weapons at polling places. They had poll watchers at precincts all over the nation without incident. And poll watching isn't new or "black." So the issue speaks more about the racism of BushCo and the current whining conservatives (The link goes to a google search page. You know, or should be able to deduce, how I feel about linking to conservative sights.) than anything else. The US Commission on Civil Rights, which is dominated by conservatives, intervened and now there's an internal review about why the case was dropped. There should be one on why it was ever brought to begin with.
Now, to be sure, the New Party isn't a group of cub scouts, pun intended. In fact, the Southern Poverty and Law Center has them listed as a hate group. Their ideas aren't all that bad as just ideas for improving the lives of African Americans, and really aren't so different from the platform of the Black Panthers. They practically copied and pasted if you ask me. The problem is that they throw in all too many references to "the white man." And apparently, the rhetoric of the national spokesmen, as distinct from members of local chapters, include references to whites, Jews, and violence, not all in that order. I gotta give the credit for standing up against the KKK, but apparently, even black residents didn't want the New Party of Dallas to come in. For what it's worth, the New Party needs to stick to nonviolent community activism and leave hate towards whites and Jews for others. It's their anti-white and antisemitic rhetoric that turns me off. I'm just too tired right now to round up any strong indignation. For me, it says enough that the SPLC has them listed.

Now, as for my absence . . . I can't blame it entirely on my health. A great, great deal, just not entirely. What energy I could've used here went to a drawn out argument over at racismreview. I should apologize to any regular readers and myself for my lack of judgement. I've grown from the incident, though. I know why I visit that site so often and owe it to myself not to waste energy defending my integrity against people who don't acknowledge the reality of racism in this country. I'm not promising a post tomorrow, but hey . . .

The Battle for Voting Rights

Could reassignment of the Bush-era head of the Justice Department section charged with protection of voting rights mean real change?

Adam Serwer

Sometime during Christmas week, Christopher Coates, the chief of the Voting Rights Section of the Justice Department, was quietly reassigned to an 18-month detail in the U.S. attorney's office in Charleston, South Carolina. Coates, a longtime career attorney in the Civil Rights Division, became head of the Voting Section in 2007. The previous head, John Tanner, left in 2007 in the midst of an uproar over racially inflammatory remarks.
Outraged conservatives quickly accused the Obama administration of reassigning Coates in order to cover up its dismissal of a voter-intimidation case involving the New Black Panther Party that Coates supervised. Hans von Spakovsky, former counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights under the Bush administration with a history of pushing for voting restrictions that disproportionately harm minority voters, said it was another sign of the Obama administration enforcing civil-rights laws on an "ideologically and politically biased basis." The conservative Washington Times headline blared "Justice Dept. Moves Panthers Pursuer to S.C."

This was not the first time the Civil Rights Division, of which Voting Rights is a part, has hit the headlines -- the division was widely criticized under the Bush administration. A joint report filed by the Office of the Inspector General and the Office of Professional Responsibility found that Brad Schlozman, who had been appointed to run the division, along with von Spakovsky and Tanner, regularly considered political affiliation when hiring career attorneys. According to the report, Tanner in particular complained that prior to the Bush appointees removing safeguards against politicized hiring, you had to be a "civil rights person" to work in the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department. In 2007, then-Sen. Barack Obama blocked von Spakovsky's nomination to the Federal Election Commission saying von Spakovsky was "directly involved" in efforts to "disenfranchise voters" and "politicize" the Voting Rights Section.

A Government Accountability Office report released in December confirmed what veteran civil-rights lawyers who left the division over the past eight years had feared -- during the Bush administration, enforcement of civil-rights laws in employment discrimination, voting, and hate crimes fell across the board. It wasn't just about the cases: The racial atmosphere in the division was so hostile toward African Americans that by 2007, almost all the black lawyers in the division had left.

The New Black Panther voter intimidation case became an opportunity for conservatives to turn the tables on accusations of politicization. The battle for the soul of the Voting Rights Section didn't end with the new administration -- it continued, with conservatives in Congress and in the media waving the dismissal of the New Black Panther case as prima facie evidence that Democrats were politicizing the Justice Department.

Coates wanted to pursue the Black Panther Case, which became a rallying cry among conservatives. The Washington Times printed one-sided articles alleging politicization within the Voting Rights Section. Republican Reps. Lamar Smith of Texas and Frank Wolf of Virginia accused the administration of engaging in a "cover-up." In the Senate, Republicans used the New Black Panther case as an excuse to hold up Obama's nominee to head the Civil Rights Division, Thomas Perez. The now right-leaning U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR), dominated by Bush appointees who are ideologically opposed to the division's traditional role of protecting minority rights, began investigating the dismissal of the Black Panther case and subpoenaing Justice Department lawyers. At a December American Constitution Society event, Thomas Perez, now confirmed as head of the Civil Rights Division, seemed to fire back at conservative critics, saying, "Those who had been entrusted with the keys to the division treated it like a buffet line at the cafeteria, cherry-picking which laws to enforce."

At first glance, Coates' extensive experience with voting rights -- he first worked for the American Civil Liberties Union and later the Justice Department -- made him look like just another career attorney. But Coates' current and former colleagues at the Justice Department say Coates underwent an ideological conversion shortly after a black lawyer in the Voting Rights Section, Gilda Daniels, was promoted to deputy section chief over him in July of 2000. Outraged, Coates filed a complaint alleging he was passed up for the job because he is white. The matter was settled internally.

"He thought he should have been hired instead of her," said one former official in the Voting Section. "That had an impact on his views … he became more conservative over time."

Coates' star rose during the Bush administration, during which he was promoted to principal deputy section chief. While not mentioned by name, Coates has been identified by several current and former Justice Department officials as the anonymous Voting Section lawyer, referred to in the joint Inspector General/Office of Professional Responsibility report, that Schlozman recommended for an immigration judge position. Immigration judges have jurisdiction over whether or not foreign nationals are deported. In his letter to Monica Goodling, a former senior counsel to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales who was implicated in the scandal involving politicized hiring, Schlozman wrote of Coates:

Don't be dissuaded by his ACLU work on voting matters from years ago. This is a very different man, and particularly on immigration issues, he is a true member of the team.
At the heart of the New Black Panther case was Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act, which offers legal protections against voter intimidation. It had only been used once prior to the Bush administration -- in 1992 to prevent a statewide voter-suppression effort initiated in South Carolina by then-Sen. Jesse Helms. In this case, the Bush administration wanted to use Section 11(b) against several New Black Panthers who had stood in front of a polling place in a black neighborhood, one of whom wielded a baton.

"There was no pattern and practice, no concerted effort to cage thousands of voters like in the [1992] Jesse Helms case," said Gerry Hebert, a former senior Voting Rights Section attorney who has served under multiple administrations. "That strikes me as the kind of large-scale voter-suppression case that would be more appropriate for Justice Department resources to be spent on."

The Bush administration filed two Section 11(b) cases, both on behalf of white voters, both supervised by Coates: the Black Panther case and a separate case in Noxubee, Mississippi. The Voting Rights Section had gone from ensuring voting rights for all Americans to focusing on the conservative bugaboo of "reverse racism."

A December report from Ryan J. Reilly of the legal publication Main Justice revealed that the now conservative-dominated USCCR had subpoenaed Coates and another Voting Section attorney, J. Christian Adams, to testify before the commission regarding the New Black Panther case. Adams is a straightforward ideologue, hired during the Bush era of politicized hiring. Having previously worked as a volunteer for the Republican National Lawyers Association, Adams has written pieces praising "tea party" activists and compared President Obama to Nazi appeasers. He was one of the lawyers assigned to the New Black Panther case.

Shortly after the report in Main Justice, von Spakovsky, who was at the center of the politicized hiring scandal at the Bush Justice Department, took to the pages of National Review to defend Coates and Adams and attack Thomas Perez, for not honoring the USCCR's subpoena. Two members of the USCC, Peter Kirsanow and Abigail Thernstrom, have also written for National Review, where the New Black Panther case has become a frequent topic of conversation.

According to Voting Section employees, the racially hostile atmosphere -- and for the most part, the politicization of the section -- that had existed during the Bush administration dissipated with John Tanner's departure. For some in the section, the New Black Panther Case symbolizes a chapter in the section's history they would rather put behind them. Thomas Perez has declared the Civil Rights Division "open for business," slamming the Bush administration for its lax enforcement of civil-rights laws. Department veterans who left, like Deputy Assistant Attorney General Julie Fernandez, are now trickling back. The atmosphere of "fear and retaliation" that once permeated the Voting Rights Section is gone. Last year saw the highest number of hate-crimes prosecutions since the last time a Democrat was in office. In many respects, the promises of change made by Obama as a candidate have fallen by the wayside. But not in the Civil Rights Division. Not in the Voting Rights Section.

On Tuesday, employees in the Voting Rights Section a held goodbye lunch for Coates. At the end of the lunch, employees went around the conference table expressing their appreciation to Coates. At the end, the attendees were startled when Coates pulled out a binder and began reciting a written defense of his decision to file the New Black Panther and Noxubee cases. Voting Section employees exchanged glances in disbelief.

"It felt like he was summing up to a jury," one attendee said.

Coates' replacement, Chris Herren, is a longtime career attorney with an encyclopedic knowledge of voting rights issues whom one Justice Department employee described as being "like Yoda with voting rights." Laughlin McDonald, head of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project, and someone who has worked with Herron on voting rights issues for years, said "I can't really think of a better [choice] in that division."

As one Justice Department official put it, "It just feels like things are finally being righted."

Update on Section 5

h/t P6

Yep. Just as I suspected. The conservative judges seem to want to overturn "the political judgment of lawmakers." It appears that they're on the brink of . . . judicial activism!

From the Washington Post:

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. appeared extremely skeptical about Congress's conclusion that such an extension was needed. "Obviously no one doubts the history here and that the history was different," he said, referring to the history of discrimination in the states covered by Section 5. "But at what point does that history . . . stop justifying action with respect to some jurisdictions?" The chief justice apparently gave little credence to the information gathered by Congress over 10 months and 21 hearings that contemporary -- not just historical -- discrimination exists and justifies the extension.

Read the article and comment below.

Here's a Thought: Section 5 Should Apply to All States Equally

Here's an article on slate.com summarizing the arguments, from both the principle parties and the justicies, in the most recent challenge to protecting minority voting rights. Here's a NY Times op-ed explaining things.

When Congress passed the Voting Rights Act in 1965, they wrote Section 5 of the act which singled out Southern states for special federal oversight. Now, conservatives, including the conservative justices, are arguing that it should maybe overturned for unfairly attacking states' rights. Even though Congress just recently reauthorized Section 5 in 2006, and according to conservatives it's not the job of judges to "legislate from the bench," if proponents of voting rights can't sway Justice Kennedy to their perspective, Section 5 just might be overturned. What makes Section 5 particularly insulting to Dixie is that there're are northern states who track much worse than they do. (I have to add here that that's an odd, historical argument - that Dixie should not be judged because there are places in the north that are much more virulently racist.) At least, that's how I understand it.

I have a suggestion. Why not place all 50 states under Section 5?

Courtesy of Institute for SouthernStudies

SPECIAL REPORT: Virginia "Ground Zero" for Election Day Voting Controversies

Below is a report we sent out at 4 pm this afternoon, summarizing some of our key coverage of voting rights and election issues in the South. Visit Facing South for more updates and analysis!
http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth

VOTING RIGHTS WATCH - Election Day Special Report

Virginia, Florida and Georgia lead states with voting rights controversies on historic Election Day
NOVEMBER 4, 2008, 4 P.M. -- Florida, Georgia, and especially Virginia have been "ground zero" for voting controversies today in a historic election marked by record turnout across the South.

Several voting rights and election issues have cropped up in the major battleground state of Virginia, where Barack Obama holds a narrow lead in the presidential race:

BLOCK THE VOTE: College-aged voters are 40% of new voters in Virginia, but students have faced big hurdles. The polling site for Virginia Tech has twice as many voters as it's legally authorized to accommodate, and a hacker at George Mason University sent bogus emails to students telling them to vote on Wednesday, Nov. 5. The Republican Party has also threatened to challenge several hundred student votes.

OVERWHELMED PRECINCTS: As voting rights advocates had feared, Virginia has been overwhelmed by high turnout; as of this morning, the national Election Protection hotline had received 200 calls from VA voters about polling site problems and 120 about machine malfunctions. Election Protection has called for extending voting hours to ensure everyone still gets a chance to vote.

DIRTY TRICKS: Not just students have been targeted with deceptive tactics. VA voters have reported receiving anonymous robo-calls that give the wrong precinct for voting and fliers distributed in the Hampton Roads area informed Democrats they should vote on Nov. 5. The state decided against prosecuting those responsible,calling it an "office joke."

Voting Rights Watch has helped bring national attention to several other critical election issues across the South:

FLORIDA HURRICANE: A surge in voting -- especially in South Florida -- helped push Florida to the top of states with calls to the Election Protection hotline before Election Day. Key issues have been ex-felon voting and confusion over Florida's "no match" list -- now numbering over 10,000 voters -- which has been inconsistently applied and possibly disenfranchised legitimate voters.

GEORGIA PURGES: Election Protection has received over 1,000 calls from Georgia, mostly about registration problems. Secretary of State Karen Handel recently drew a rebuke from the Department of Justice and federal judges for her state's aggressive efforts to purge voters.

GULF COAST CONFUSION: Voters in Louisiana and the Gulf Coast -- many displaced by Hurricanes Katrina, Gustav and Ike -- have faced major barriers to confirming registrations and polling locations -- especially worrisome after 21,000 Louisiana voters were purged.

MORE DECEPTIVE TACTICS: CNN reports that voters in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri and Texas have received text-messages telling them to vote on Nov. 5; fliers with the same bogus information cropped up in North Carolina.

-- Chris Kromm, Sue Sturgis and Desiree Evans for Facing South/Voting Rights Watch

Courtesy of MoveOn.org: Don't Forget To Vote

Election 2008 Voting Information

Today, November 4th, is Election Day! Remember to vote--not just for Barack Obama, but for Congressional, state and local candidates as well.

Where and when do I vote?

Find your polling place, voting times, and other important information by checking out these sites and the hotline below. These resources are good, but not perfect. To be doubly sure, you can also contact your local elections office.

Obama's VoteForChange site: voteforchange.com
League of Women Voters site: vote411.org/pollfinder.php
Obama's voter hotline: (877) US4-OBAMA (or 877-874-6226)

What should I do before I go?

• After you've entered your address on either Vote For Change or Vote411, read the voting instructions and special rules for your state.


• Voting ID laws vary from state to state, but if you have ID, bring it.


• Check out all the voting myths and misinformation to look out for: http://truth.voteforchange.com/
  

What if something goes wrong?

• Not on the voter list? Make sure you're at the right polling place, then demand a provisional ballot.


• If you're voting on an electronic machine with a paper record, verify that the record is accurate.


• Need legal help? Call 1-866-OUR-VOTE


• Try to get video of the problem and submit it to VideoTheVote.org
  

Want to do more?

• Text all of your friends: "Vote Obama today! Pass it on!"


• Volunteer at your local Obama office. Find an office here or here.


• Make calls from home for Obama.

Now everybody go vote!!!

Surprising Voter Fraud - And a Proud Perpetrator to Boot!

I had planned to write a post about the importance of voting later Monday. And add some John Legend to the post. I may still do the John Legend thing, but for now, this will have to suffice. And it doesn't matter what party it's coming from, it's not right. It's not legal. - No1KState

Voters Across Nation Hit by Dirty Tricks
By Deborah Hastings, AP

(Nov. 2) - In the hours before Election Day, as inevitable as winter, comes an onslaught of dirty tricks — confusing emails, disturbing phone calls and insinuating fliers left on doorsteps during the night.

The intent, almost always, is to keep folks from voting or to confuse them, usually through intimidation or misinformation. But in this presidential race, in which a black man leads most polls, some of the deceit has a decidedly racist bent.

Complaints have surfaced in predominantly African-American neighborhoods of Philadelphia where fliers have circulated, warning voters they could be arrested at the polls if they had unpaid parking tickets or if they had criminal convictions.

Over the weekend in Virginia, bogus fliers with an authentic-looking commonwealth seal said fears of high voter turnout had prompted election officials to hold two elections — one on Tuesday for Republicans and another on Wednesday for Democrats.

In New Mexico, two Hispanic women filed a lawsuit last week claiming they were harassed by a private investigator working for a Republican lawyer who came to their homes and threatened to call immigration authorities, even though they are U.S. citizens.

“He was questioning her status, saying that he needed to see her papers and documents to show that she was a U.S. citizen and was a legitimate voter,” said Guadalupe Bojorquez, speaking on behalf of her mother, Dora Escobedo, a 67-yearold Albuquerque resident who speaks only Spanish. “He totally, totally scared the heck out of her.”

In Pennsylvania, e-mails appeared linking Democrat Barack Obama to the Holocaust. “Jewish Americans cannot afford to make the wrong decision on Tuesday, Nov. 4,” said the electronic message, paid for by an entity calling itself the Republican Federal Committee. “Many of our ancestors ignored the warning signs in the 1930s and 1940s and made a tragic mistake.”

Laughlin McDonald, who leads the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, said he has never seen “an election where there was more interest and more voter turnout, and more efforts to suppress registration and turnout. And that has a real impact on minorities.”

The Obama campaign and civil rights advocacy groups have signed up millions of new voters for this presidential race. In Ohio alone, some 600,000 have submitted new voter registration cards.

Across the country, many of these firsttime voters are young and strong Obama supporters. Many are also black and Hispanic.

Activist groups say it is this fresh crop of ballot-minded citizens that makes some Republicans very nervous. And they say they expect the dirty tricks to get dirtier in final hours before Tuesday.

“Oh, there’s plenty of time for things to get ugly,” said Zachary Stalberg, president of The Committee of Seventy, a Philadelphia-based government watchdog group that is nonpartisan.

Other reports of intimidation efforts in the hotly contested state of Pennsylvania include leaflets taped to picnic benches at Drexel University, warning students that police would be at the polls on Tuesday to arrest would-be voters with prior criminal offenses.

In his Jewish neighborhood, Stalberg said, fliers were recently left claiming Obama was more sympathetic to Palestinians than to Israel, and showed a photograph of him speaking in Germany.

“It shows up between the screen door and the front door in the middle of the night,” Stalberg said. “Why couldn’t someone knock on the door and hand that to me in the middle of the day? In a sense, it’s very smartly done. The message gets through. It’s done carefully enough that people might read it.”

Such tactics are common, and are often impossible to trace. Robo-calls, in which automated, bogus phone messages are sent over and over, are very hard to trace to their source, say voting advocates. Emails fall into the same category.

In Nevada, for example, Latino voters said they had received calls from people describing themselves as Obama volunteers, urging them to cast their ballot over the phone.

The calls were reported to Election Protection, a nonprofit advocacy group that runs a hot line for election troubles. The organization does not know who orchestrated them.

“The Voting Rights Act makes it a crime to misled and intimidate voters,” said McDonald. “If you can find out who’s doing it, those people should be prosecuted. But sometimes it’s just difficult to know who’s doing what. Some of it’s just anonymous.”

Trying to mislead voters is nothing new.

“We see this every year,” said Jonah Goldman of the advocacy group Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “It all happens around this time when there’s too much other stuff going on in the campaigns, and it doesn’t get investigated.”

In 2006, automated phone calls in the final days leading to the federal election wrongly warned voters they would not be allowed to vote without a photo ID. In Colorado and Virginia, people reported receiving calls that told them their registrations had expired and they would be arrested if they showed up to vote.

The White House contest of 2004 was marked by similar deceptions. In Milwaukee, fliers went up advising people “if you’ve already voted in any election this year, you can’t vote in the presidential election.” In Pennsylvania, a letter bearing what appeared to be the McCandless Township seal falsely proclaimed that in order to cut long voting lines, Republicans would cast ballots on Nov. 2 and Democrats would vote on Nov. 3.

E-mail assaults have become increasingly popular this year, keeping pace with the proliferation of blogging and Obama’s massive online campaign efforts, according to voting activists.

“It is newer and more furious than it ever has been before,” Goldman said.

And Republicans are not exempt. “Part of it is that election campaigns are more online than ever before,” said Goldman. “During the primaries, a lot of Web sites went up that seemed to be for (GOP candidate Rudy) Giuliani, but actually were attack sites.”

New York City’s former mayor and his high-profile colleagues Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney were also targeted in fake Internet sites that featured “quotes” from the candidates espousing support for extreme positions they never endorsed.

Then, I was looking for a post easier to edit and I found this on the Brooklynian.com Brooklyn Blog Message Boards:


I also made a video of it. While I was doing so , the lady responsible for posting that warning came in to the building. - That's from the woman who actually found the note.

Voting Rights Watch: Red Alert in Georgia!!

Via Facing South: A Voice for a Changing South


Voting Rights Watch: Georgia tells 4,770 voters their votes 'challenged,' allows voters to contest citizenship of other voters on Election Day

In a bold move this week, Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel (R) announced she was sending letters to 4,770 registered voters that they may have to cast "challenge" ballots that won't be counted on election day.

In a striking announcement, she also declared that regular citizens could respond to the problem of non-citizen voting by contesting the citizenship of fellow voters at the polls -- forcing them to also cast challenged ballots that won't be included in election day tallies.

The surprising announcement is the latest in a winding saga between Handel, voters, the Department of Justice and a panel of federal judges over a new and aggressive Georgia policy to flag voters whose citizenship is in question.

Earlier this month, the ACLU sued the state of Georgia on behalf of Jose Morales, a Cherokee County voter who was wrongfully targeted to be purged from the roles despite having become a citizen in November 2007. Earlier, the Department of Justice had argued that Georgia's citizenship purge violated the Voting Rights Act because it had not be pre-cleared with the DOJ, something Georgia must do because it falls under the Act.

After the DOJ questioned the purges, many counties stopped mailing letters to flagged voters. A three-judge panel of federal judges said on Monday of this week that the state must notify those who have been flagged and find a way to allow them to vote.

But it's not at all clear that Handel's decision to do an end-run around the counties and directly mail letters to 4,770 flagged voters will in reality allow them to vote. As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:

Those whose citizenship is in question can go to a county elections office before Election Day and produce documents proving their citizenship and resolve the issue, Carrothers said.
But if the letters were only mailed Wednesday, that means that many flagged voters will only be receiving the letters today -- giving them only 1-2 business days at crowded election offices to resolve the problem. If they're not able to, Handel has made it clear the votes might not count:

The letter from Handel’s office tells the voters that if they appear at their polling place with the issue still unresolved, they will be given a “challenge” ballot —- a paper version of the ballot that appears on electronic voting machines. The ballot will not be included in the precinct’s vote totals, Handel said.
Even more worrisome is that Handel made a point of stating that any voter's citizenship can be contested by any other voter, a policy which could be used to target the state's rapidly-growing Latino population and other racial groups. As the AJC reports:

Any voter can challenge another’s qualifications to cast a ballot by notifying a precinct poll manager, Handel said. That voter then would be given a challenge ballot and would have to go before the election board.
And as Handel has made clear, "challenge ballots" will not be counted, forcing those who are challenged to prove their citizenship later.

Handel seems to admit the approach opens the door for vigilante racially-targeted voter intimidation at the polls, but dismissed the threat:

If large numbers of challenges are made on Election Day, Handel said, her office will investigate whether they are part of an orchestrated effort to influence the election’s outcome.

But, she said, “I’m not anticipating any kind of huge issue there.”
Handel has been roundly criticized for her partisan approach to running Georgia's elections. In a scathing editorial today, the AJC editorial board looks at other controversies surrounding Handel and finds her reputation damaged:

No matter the outcome of Tuesday’s election, a loser has emerged —- Secretary of State Karen Handel.

Her relentless crusade to bounce Democratic Public Service Commission candidate Jim Powell from the ballot, her posturing over yet-to-be-seen voter fraud and her flippant dismissal of voter delays this week have tarnished her and her office.


UPDATE: Several other states have laws on the books like Georgia's that allow voters to challenge other voters. For example, Republicans recently pushed through a similar law in Florida which provoked widespread controversy:

Challengers [in Florida] need not prove their accusations. Instead, the challenged voter has two days to justify his right to cast a ballot.

State Republican lawmakers who pushed the law say it will help combat fraud. Democrats call it a vote-suppression measure

What seems especially pernicious about what's happening in Georgia is that Secretary of State Handel appears to be encouraging Georgians to use the law as a way to deal with the "problem" she and Republicans see of non-citizens voting on election day. In a tight election with these controversies making big headlines in Georgia, that seems very dangerous.

UPDATE 2: Karen Handel takes great pride in being a zealous leader of the Republican "anti-voter fraud" movement. On her own website Handel boasts of supporting controversial laws beyond her own state:

Secretary Handel filed a brief of amicus curiae in December 2007 in support of Indiana’s photo ID voting requirement. Handel’s amicus brief noted that since the Murphy ruling "there has not been one single demonstrated deprivation of any right to vote or any other violation of a constitutional or statutory right resulting from the photo ID requirement."

Back to Politics!:5 Ways to Protect Your Vote

Why would anyone want to stop you from voting? It's simple -- because when you can control who votes, you can control who wins. Check out this compelling new video put together by the folks at VideoTheVote. It's fun, dynamic, and does a great job of telling the story of what's at stake and the power of our vote.

http://colorofchange.org/yourvote/?id=1756-227036

This year, with so many Black voters, young voters, and folks from all backgrounds who want change participating in huge numbers, those who want to hold onto power by suppressing the vote are in full force. But they can't stop us.



Here are a few things to keep in mind to make sure you successfully cast your vote, and to help others do the same.

If there's one thing we see every election, it's that Republicans will try to manipulate the rules any way they can to prevent some people from voting. Don't be discouraged--be prepared. If we're armed with the right information, we can beat most of these dirty tricks.

1 - Be Prepared, and Conquer the Lines. We can't let long lines stop anyone from voting. There are several ways you can reduce lines and make sure they don't prevent you or anyone else from voting:

*Vote early if you can. You can find early voting times and locations at govote.org.
*Double-check your polling location before you go to vote. You can look it up at govote.org.

*Have a Plan & Have Fun. Have a plan in case there are lines. Bring some food, drinks, friends, books, games, a chair -- anything that will prevent you and other voters from walking away. Have fun while you wait and encourage your friends and neighbors to stay in line so their vote is counted.
*Don't give up--don't walk away without voting.

2 - Two numbers you should have in your phone. Put these numbers in your phone so you're prepared to report problems and help other voters find their polling place:

*866-OUR-VOTE is a hotline that's been set up to collect information about problems on election day--lawyers and election protection advocates are ready to respond. It's the best way to make sure someone addresses any problems you see.
*The number for your local election board--in case you need to tell someone where they can vote. Enter you zip code at govote.org, then look for "Contact [your county] election officials" on the right.

3 - Beware of lies, misinformation and dirty tricks; spread the truth.
Republican operatives are spreading plain lies to frighten new voters. In Philadelphia, anonymous flyers in Black neighborhoods have falsely claimed that voters with unpaid traffic tickets or outstanding warrants will be arrested at the polls. If you hear a scary rumor, it's probably a lie. Call your local election officials to check it out--and make sure your friends and neighbors know the truth.

4 - Leave the Obama gear at home.
In some places, you won't be allowed into the polling place if you're wearing clothes and pins that support a given candidate. This isn't true everywhere, but it's best to play it safe. You can contact your local board of elections to find out if it's a problem in your area. If it is, bring some extra plain T-shirts or sweaters to loan neighbors who show up unaware of the rule.

5 - Read the ballot carefully, and ask questions!
Some ballots can be confusing even for smart and informed voters. Read instructions on the ballot carefully, and if you're not sure you understand something, ask a poll worker to explain. Remember what happened in 2000 in Florida--a confusing ballot caused thousands of people to mistakenly vote for the wrong Presidential candidate. Don't let that happen to you!

A Few Things, Namely Making Sure Your Vote Counts

First, if you're a small business owner who profits less than $250K, quit worrying about being taxed. Er . . . duh. Obama has been saying the same thing about taxes since he began campaigning.

And this whole thing about "spreading the wealth" and "eating pie?" Listen, taxes spread wealth. Period. Regressive, flat, or progressive, taxes spread the wealth. Now, if you're worried about someone else getting your piece of the pie, again, if you make less than $250K, you got nothing to worry about. Also, there's historically been more pie to go around under Democratic administrations and progressive taxes. And the pass 8 years under Bush's tax cuts, the wealth has been spread upwards. So, yes, someone has been getting your share of the pie, but it wasn't that no-good welfare "queen," it was the "famous for being famous" welfare "queen." I mean really America, please, take a moment to think. I know it hurts, but get yourself some pain medicine, I recommend vicodine, and THINK!

Like your broke-self got any wealth for someone to "spread."

You want universal and more affordable health care, you better vote for Obama. You want better education for kids, you better for Obama. Even if your kid's education is just fine, we are only as strong as our weakest link. In order to have a strong economy, we need a well educated work force. For that matter, to have a strong democracy, we need a well educated electorate.

And, Christians, correct me if I'm wrong, but does not God teach us that to who much is give, much is required? Now, doesn't that sound like progressive taxation to you? Don't call yourself and follower of Christ is you're not willing to give to the poor and you're so worried that you're busy holding on to your little piece of pie instead of seeking first the Kingdom of God and Her Righteousness. Call yourself what you are - a nonbeliever.

Now. That I've gotten all that off my chest, here are a couple of ways to make sure your vote counts from someone who has been a precinct chief judge. These are not necessarily in order of importance. Just as they come to mind.

1 - Vote early. That's the easiest way to make sure your vote counts. Find out where in your county they're holding early voting and go. There, they'll take your address and give you the proper ballot. You won't have to worry about driving from one polling place to another.

2 - Don't wait until election day to make sure you know where to vote. Call your Board of Elections, make sure you're still on the voter rolls cause there's no telling what your local Republicans have done.

3 - If for some reason you miss 1 and 2, then sorry, you may have some heavy lifting to do. Here's what's important to realize - YOU DON'T WANT TO VOTE BY A PROVISIONAL BALLOT UNLESS YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST!!

"Huh?" you ask. "I thought after 2000, they passed the laws to make sure people could vote by provisional ballot."

Yes, but here's the think. You're provisional ballot may or may not be counted. That's why it's called pro-vi-sion-al. As in lets provide the vision that they're voting when they're not. Get to the polls early. If someone tells you you're at the wrong poll, they should give you a slip that states what polled you first went to, and the poll you should be at. Now, if you have to go through that a few times, you can still go to your county's board of election's polling place just like you would had you voted early.

4 - If your local polling place has run out of ballots, DO NOT LEAVE!! Stay and wait for more ballots to arrive. This election is too important for you not to vote because you got tired of waiting for a ballot. Wait to get a ballot, vote, then go home and whether it's on Obama's site or McCain's site, log the election day problems.

5 - I think that's it, but if I remember anything else, I'll post it.

Can't Say I Didn't Think It'd Get Worse

Cause I never really gave any thought to whether or not the Republicans could get any worse, go any lower. Especially after the way they kicked Rep. Michele Bachmann to the curb. But then again, she was gonna cost them the election, and someone else is already taking her place, granted as a write-in.

But. Now. After all the fuss about ACORN; and. the news that the McCain/Palin campaign has people doing worse things on purpose; and the already incoincidental pattern of voter fraud complaints from the same folks who had those US attorneys illegally fired; John Boenher, house minor-oh, I mean, can't call white people minority for some reason (?)-House Republican leader has asked the president to cut funds from ACORN.

WASHINGTON – House Republican leader John Boehner on Wednesday urged President Bush to block all federal funds to a grass-roots community group that has been accused of voter registration fraud.

"It is evident that ACORN is incapable of using federal funds in a manner that is consistent with the law," Boehner, R-Ohio, wrote Bush, saying that funds should be blocked until all federal investigations into the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now are completed.

No, ACORN hasn't been found guilt of anything. The number of legitimate registrations outnumber the false ones, that ACORN flag, by a 200%+ margin if not greater. But, the Republicans, who hate the government, really got to have it under their control. Otherwise, Obama might "spread the wealth" and they might have to order off the special menu at Spagos!

This is why I can't see why anyone, black or white, Christian or non Christian, pro-American or anti-America, could vote for the Republican party. I'm not just angry, I'm repulsed.

Rolling Stone Post Made Simple

Keith Olbermann on the issue.




Rachel Maddow on the issue.




Bonus Rachel Maddow on voter fraud and suppression.

The GOP Just Got Hit by an ACORN

GOP Busted for Voter Suppression
posted by Ari Berman on 10/16/2008 @ 4:46pm

While the GOP continues to accuse Democrats of voter fraud, top Republican operatives are getting busted for voter suppression.

The executive director of the Montana Republican Party, Jake Eaton, resigned Tuesday "after a failed attempt to challenge registration of voters in some Democratic strongholds," the Helena Independent Record reported.

According to the paper:


Republicans raised concerns with registered voters who live at addresses that differed from the addresses listed on their voter registration information. The party asked that county election officials ask voters to prove their current addresses.


Montana Democrats, charging it was an attempt to suppress voter turnout, went to federal court to block the effort.


U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula didn't rule in the case, but issued a strongly worded order blasting the Republicans.


"The timing of these challenges is so transparent that it defies common sense to believe the purpose is anything but political chicanery," Molloy wrote.

As a result, Eaton was shown the door. However, the state Democratic Party cautioned that the scandal wasn't limited to one rogue operative.


"After the efforts of the Republican Party to suppress the rights of 6,000 Montana voters, I think it was clear that a change in management was needed," state Democratic Party spokesman Kevin O'Brien said.


"However, this should not lead anyone to believe that Mr. Eaton was acting independent of his party's leadership. And it doesn't change the fact that that the Montana Republican Party owes voters an explanation for why they attempted to undermine the democratic process and cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars in the process."

Adds Montana blogger Jay Stevens of the great blog Left in the West:


There's no way Eaton, a recent college grad, challenges the voting eligibility of 6,000 Montanans on his own. The methods too closely resemble voter suppression efforts elsewhere to be coincidence. Take, for example, the voter suppression effort in Michigan, which was smaller in scale ("only" 1,500 voters), but had a similar outcome. There, the federal judge ruled that the Michigan Secretary of State's office--run by a Republican--violated federal law in its efforts to purge the rolls of voters because voter cards were returned as "undeliverable" or because voters applied for a driver's license in another state. And, as if on cue, John McCain, using ACORN as a causus belli, is calling for an "immediate investigation" of "voter fraud" in battleground states.

In case you were wondering, the latest poll in Montana has McCain leading Obama by five points, 50-45. In a state with 660,000 registered voters, 6,000 votes can make a whole lotta difference. Democrat Jon Tester won an upset bid for the Senate in 2006 by less than 3,000 votes.

More on ACORN

October 17, 2008

Editorial

The Acorn Story

In Wednesday night’s debate, John McCain warned that a group called Acorn is “on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history” and “may be destroying the fabric of democracy.” Viewers may have been wondering what Mr. McCain was talking about. So were we.

Acorn is a nonprofit group that advocates for low- and moderate-income people and has mounted a major voter-registration drive this year. Acorn says that it has paid more than 8,000 canvassers who have registered about 1.3 million new voters, many of them poor people and members of racial minorities.

In recent weeks, the McCain campaign has accused the group of perpetrating voter fraud by intentionally submitting invalid registration forms, including some with fictional names like Mickey Mouse and others for voters who are already registered.

Based on the information that has come to light so far, the charges appear to be wildly overblown — and intended to hobble Acorn’s efforts.

The group concedes that some of its hired canvassers have turned in tainted forms, although they say the ones with phony names constitute no more than 1 percent of the total turned in. The group also says it reviews all of the registration forms that come in. Before delivering the forms to elections offices, its supervisors flag any that appear to have problems.

According to Acorn, most of the forms that are now causing controversy are ones that it flagged and that unsympathetic election officials then publicized.

Acorn’s critics charge that it is creating phony registrations that ineligible voters could use to cast ballots or that a single voter could use to vote multiple times.

Acorn needs to provide more precise figures about problem forms and needs to do a better job of choosing its canvassers.

But for all of the McCain campaign’s manufactured fury about vote theft (and similar claims from the Republican Party over the years) there is virtually no evidence — anywhere in the country, going back many elections — of people showing up at the polls and voting when they are not entitled to.

Meanwhile, Republicans aren’t saying anything about another more serious voter-registration scandal: the fact that about one-third of eligible voters are not registered. The racial gaps are significant and particularly disturbing. According to a study by Project Vote, a voting-rights group, in 2006, 71 percent of eligible whites were registered, compared with 61 percent of blacks, 54 percent of Latinos and 49 percent of Asian-Americans.

Much of the blame for this lies with overly restrictive registration rules. Earlier this year, the League of Women Voters halted its registration drive in Florida after the state imposed onerous new requirements.

The answer is for government to do a better job of registering people to vote. That way there would be less need to rely on private registration drives, largely being conducted by well-meaning private organizations that use low-paid workers. Federal and state governments should do their own large-scale registration drives staffed by experienced election officials. Even better, Congress and the states should adopt election-day registration, which would make such drives unnecessary.

The real threats to the fabric of democracy are the unreasonable barriers that stand in the way of eligible voters casting ballots.



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I Think I'm in Love!!

No, dear, not with you.

But in my recent meeting and chatting with new people, I discovered what I thought was an odd mix: skateboarding and Christ.

No! Nothing's wrong with that. It's just that I'm from a small, Black, rural town in the South. Not much skateboarding around here. And with the media portrayal of "skateboarding," I just never considered Jesus on a half-pipe.

So anyway, I am in love. I'm in love with the idea what Jesus on a half-pipe, doing a 460.

What my new chat friend told me about church he was familiar with is that they outreach to everybody. Drug addicts. Pimps. Hos (whores).

* political break*
3 announcements
1 - Most small business will not see a tax increase under Barack Obama's plan. And if you're a small business owner making over $250K, it's only American, or, rather, fair, that you "spread the wealth," and give someone the opportunity someone else gave you. And think heard about it, someone gave you the opportunity. You didn't get where you are on your own blood, sweat, or tears.
2 - The Supreme Court has decided with Ohio against the Republicans to maintain voter fairness.
3 - The Republican National Committee is taking responsibility for the anti-Obama robo-calls that spread lies on Obama.

Okay, but to my love. Oh, and take a moment to thank my aunt for talking me into watching politics so I can keep her informed while she works. See, she's a nurse. And at first, all the nurse were allowed to watch CNN, MSNBC, you know politics. But I think an actual fist fight broke out between Obama supporters and McCain supporters or at the very least, there was a loud argument and patients weren't receiving the care they're supposed to. So, my aunt's supervisor has now forbidden any conversation concerning politics.

Thanks, Auntie!

Okay, back to my love of Jesus and skateboarding, which is not to say I don't love my aunt. True, I'm watching MSNBC cause I'm a little afraid of her, but I love her, too. She's always looked out for me.

Now, for real, back to Jesus and skateboarding. What I love so much of the description my new chat friend shared with me. Like I said, the church group he's involved in and his friends, whose website Steelroots I just added to my side bar, reach out to everyone. The so-called, "real sinners." People who're coming off drug addictions and just recently getting out of jail. I love it because those are the people Jesus would've reached out to.

Jesus wouldn't shun the gay. He'd show them the same love he shows everyone else. He wouldn't shun women who are considering or who have already had abortions. He'd reach out to them. The decision to have an abortion is never easy, and it's not one women take lightly, contrary to conservative opinion. Either Jesus would be there for the woman to help care for the child or there assure her her sins are completely forgiven, and that he still longs for her and wants the best for her.

That's what the Gospel is about. The Gospel is supposed to be Good News. It's not supposed to be about deciding whose in and whose out. We, as Christians, are to be like the farmer in one of Jesus parables, we're supposed to spread the word everywhere, regardless of what we think may happen. I haven't gotten my MDiv yet, but I would even suggest it's up to Christians to help turn bad soil into good soil. You never know what's happened in someone's life that may have hardened their heart to the Gospel. But, as you show people the love of God, his unconditional, no strings attached love, maybe you can help turn some bad soil into some good soil.

And for those of you who just ain't trying to hear the Gospel. First, let me inform you the God is asexual. You could call God Mother just as much as most folks normally call God Father. Sometimes, I even pray to Mother God. So, there that. Elohim, one of the names for God, is plural female Hebrew.

And, God loves you regardless of how you feel about God. I know most of my posts aren't that "loving," but that's because justice is also what God's about. But have no doubt, there is a God, and no matter who you are or what you've done or are doing, S/He loves you. God thinks the world of you, that's why God came down to earth to die for all our mess ups and mishaps and worse, so that we could enjoy the relationship with God that we were created to have.