BRAD BLOG: BAKER/CARTER REPORT LANDS WITH A MIGHTY THUD!

[BradBlog]

BUSH CRONY JAMES BAKER AND GOP OPERATIVES ATTEMPT TO DISENFRANCHISE MILLIONS OF AMERICAN VOTERS WITH RECOMMENDATIONS FOR NEW VOTING RESTRICTIONS
New Report from Discredited Baker/Carter 'Election Reform' Commission Dead-on-Arrival
Recommended Jim Crow-Style Photo ID Restrictions Seen as 'New Poll Tax', Roundly Criticized by Pols, Voting Rights Activists and Even Members of the Commission!

Landing with a mighty thud today in the Nation's Capitol, the so-called Baker-Carter "National Commission on Election Reform" delivered precisely what true voting rights advocates in America had been warning about for months...

URL: http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001846.htm

...ALSO...

My blog item at Huffington Post discussing my story about DIEB-THROAT, the 'Diebold Insider', seems to have touched a nerve or two, or at least woken some folks up!...

URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brad-friedman/a-diebold-insider-speaks-_b_7539.html

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[knowbody0]

1. thanks for all that you do

recommended

[cry baby]

2. Thanks Brad, will go read up on it.

[Ilsa]

3. Help me understand:

Why is it considered a "poll tax" if there is no expense in getting the national ID card? I heard Carter and Baker on NPR discuss this, and I don't see the "tax" part of it.

BTW, thanks for all your hard work. Excellent site.

[Merlot]

5. There was talk of making people pay $20 for the ID card

Hence the "poll tax."

[RoyGBiv]

6. Read this ...

http://www.carterbakerdissent.com/dissent.php

The poll tax had nothing to do with money. It required money, yes, but that was not and is not the point. The point was to define a test that reduced the number of voters overall, but specifically those most likely to dissent from the dominant power structure. The poll tax, in other words, was put in place because those who devised it knew that minorities and "poor white trash" who were threatening a populist revolt could not afford it. The RealID is being put in place because those most likely to vote against the current powers are the least likely to be able to acquire such an ID.

OnEdit: Sorry. I intended this to be a response to Ilsa, not Merlot.

[KoKo]

4. I didn't expect much from the Baker/Carter Thing except reinforcement

of BushBot voting restrictions. They held one meeting in public...they promised another and never delivered.

I don't like the I.D's because it disenfranshises many Americans. Not all folks drive a car believe it or not...or have a credit card and it seems to me it's a disenfranchisment of our elderly who DO VOTE and disabled and those who really are privacy freaks.

[autorank]

7. It's just the people now...C-B screwed us, but you didn't. It will come!

It will. This stuff has to germinate, knock around, get pulled off the spike. * is at 35% in Rasmussen and ARG. He's headed toward those numbers even in Fox.

The election fraud story must be compelled upon CM (corporate media). When it is, this story is "bookmarked" by CM and they'll go back and "Scoop" it up.

It's a great story, it's got legs, it will show up somewhere in the next 30-60 days.

Thanks! for your great work!

RECOMMENDED

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. Well-meaning people are being duped into sabotage Voter Verified Ballots!

Conyers and other well meaning people are focusing on fees (that nobody has proposed) for voter IDs. Zero fee voter IDs is winnable. The most important battle to be won is Voter Verified Ballots, sometimes called paper trail ballots. That is much more important and harder to win. Don't let it get sidetracked and sabotaged!

[wildeyed]

12. Sorry, but I think that requiring picture ID's is just another front

in the GOPs war on democracy. Paper backs ups are so important. Essential to having elections that people trust. But disenfranchising the most vulnerable (and typically strongly democratic) constituencies is just as wrong and just as likely to undermine voter confidence in the process.

We should not get sidetracked by fighting among ourselves about which battle is more important. They are both essential to a sound democracy, IMO.

[Helga Scow Stern]

9. Conyers was on NPR tonight, talking about how ID's would disenfranchise

the very voters Carter was trying to help: the poor, elderly, disabled, students, and people of color.

[stevietheman]

10. I saw an interview of Baker and Carter, and they said that the ID cards...

should be FREE. But they recognized that states would have to work hard to do outreach to make sure everyone was able to get their ID.

[wildeyed]

11. I read a little about this report a few days ago,

and I gotta say, I was less than impressed.

I did tons of outreach last election cycle to voters who lacked traditional ID; The homeless, people in residential programs, etc. And they would be disenfranchised by this type of law. And that makes me mad. These people are citizens, they deserve a voice in their government. And there is no credible evidence that requiring picture ID reduces fraud. Most voter fraud happens by absentee, anyway. So fuck that.

In exchange for the ID component, apparently we get "easier voter registration". But I couldn't tell from my admittedly short perusal of the document exactly what that entailed. Do we get Same Day Registration? I doubt it. And even if we did. Same Day Registration would only balance out the Voter ID component of the bill. Instead of registering new voters a month before the election, I would be signing them up for ID's.