Vote fraud training called legit

[acmejack]

The Texas attorney general's office this week defended examples given in materials used to train law officers to watch for voter fraud, saying viewers must look at them in the proper context.

Critics took issue this week with two examples in a PowerPoint presentation used by the attorney general's office to train law officers to recognize election fraud. The critics argued the examples give poll monitors huge discretion that could result in voters inappropriately being turned away.

One example pictured apparel with logos of the Dallas Cowboys as a possible violation of a section of the state election code that bars in polling places badges, insignias and emblems that relate to any candidate, measure or political party on the ballot.

The other example gives law officers tips on what to look for when examining documents for fraud, including "unique stamps" on mail-in ballots. Appearing next to those words is a postage stamp of a black woman kissing a black child. The stamp promotes testing for sickle cell disease. The racial undertones of that example riled some critics.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/politics/stories/MYSA031706.03B.ag_training.1c6b62e1.html

with a tip of the hat to Duer Donsu!

[sonias]

1. I am all over this - or at least the ACLU will be

I've worked with Suzy Woodford from Common Cause-TX last legislative session on voting rights, and I asked her to send me a copy of the power point presentation. It is really voter suppression training.

Who is the most likely person to wear a Dallas Cowboys T-shirt to vote - probably not a republican.

Sonia

[WolverineDG]

2. Cowboys apparel not okay

But I just bet Texas Rangers swag is! :grr:

dg

[MagickMuffin]

3. Ah, I see, be sure to pressure the voters and not the machines

they vote on. Way to go Texas! Here's an interesting chart detailing the high security for Las Vegas slot machines, compared to the lax security for our voting machines.

Nothing to worry about here though, no one would use machines as a tool for voter fraud! :shrug:

[sonias]

5. I saved that pic too Magic

I saw it on a voting thread and thought it was really cool.

You can rest assured that you can gamble safely on slot machines in Las Vegas, but voting on e-voting machines -"fuhgeddaboudit". Note however, that Nevada has had verified voter paper audit trail voting on e-machines since the 2004 presidential election. I mean "fuhgeddaboudit" for Texas.

Sonia

[MagickMuffin]

13. Exactly, not the kind of democracy we were promised,

growin' up.

All that learnin' in school about our democracy, and come to find out it can be hijacked by the politicians, and the business partners of the politicians. Sweet.....

[robbzipp]

10. that's awesome!

may I use that image, and if so, who and how should I give credit?

[MagickMuffin]

12. I downloaded it from WaPo, imagine that

I'll see if I can furnish a link! They actually had a good article as well.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2006/03/16/GR2006031600213.html

[robbzipp]

16. thanks!

I will edit my post to give them credit. :-D

[sonias]

4. Here's one of the slides from the AG's presentation

The quality of the picture isn't really good, but you get the gist. Why did they use a sports team t-shirt and cap in the example. That clothing is not illegal to wear to a polling place. Clothing that is banned within the 100 yards of a polling booth, is clothing or campaign material with a candidate's name or a political party name.

Couldn't they have used a fake name in their example - Bob Smith for TX Senate. How hard would that have been?

Sonia

[sonias]

6. Here's another one

Seems to me that "corporate persons" i.e. Hart Intercivic, should be charged with this violation right now. Their software caused an unlawful vote to be counted, and they are guilty of violating this election code section. The recent case of over votes in Tarrant County on eSlate machines caused unlawful votes to be counted.

Sonia

[crispini]

7. It's a stupid example, but we had a referendum on the ballot

up here Grand Prairie where they were voting on whether or not to build a new stadium for the Cowboys. In the context of that election, YES, Cowboys gear was considered "electioneering" and people did get asked to remove their Cowboys caps and so on before entering the polling place. In the context of any other election, it wouldn't be electioneering, of course.

[sonias]

8. Agree that on that one vote, it was a measure election

This slide show and training went all over the state however, and it was just wrong to include that slide with a Cowboys t-shirt in the presentation.

Sonia

[crispini]

9. Well, not if the instruction that went with the slide

explained the specific situation in the complete context. It's actually a pretty good example, if you think about it. Who on earth would ever think that sports gear might be considered "electioneering?" In this context, it would. I think it's a mistake to assume anything about the content of a training based on just a slide. I myself often make powerpoints with two bullets and a weird picture and you couldn't deduce a darn thing about what I MEANT if you were just looking at the slide. I just hate powerpoints that contain absolutely EVERYTHING. that's a poor use of powerpoint, IMO....

[sonias]

11. It wasn't just that single slide. How about this one?

Again the picture quality is not that very good since I got a scan of a print where the picture is dark. I'm supposed to be getting better copies by mail. This is the one described in the story link in the original post above.

The other example gives law officers tips on what to look for when examining documents for fraud, including "unique stamps" on mail-in ballots. Appearing next to those words is a postage stamp of a black woman kissing a black child. The stamp promotes testing for sickle cell disease. The racial undertones of that example riled some critics.

I'm using Hattie McDaniel stamps right now. If I were to buy a whole bunch of these stamps for mail-in ballots for people that we might assist in a mail-in ballot effort, our forms sound like they might be challenged as fraud, simply because we used a stamp other than the US flag.

It may be subtle if you want to think of it that way, but to those of us who are sensitive to that kind of "soft" racism. It's there. Just my opinion.

Sonia

[crispini]

14. I don't even understand that one.

Why on earth would "unique stamps" on mail-in ballots be any kind of indication of voter fraud? I would think that a voter who has simply requested their mail in ballot from the county is MORE likely to use a unique stamp. :shrug:

[sonias]

15. Precisely, you and I don't understand this

And we're pretty informed. So imagine the poll workers or county clerk employees, security guards etc getting this training. And I'm not saying they're not informed either. I'm just saying with the crunch of elections, a lot of people get hired as temps. What are they supposed to think, and how much discretion is given to them. Maybe they get to see these slides as part of their training. If that's all I know as a temp, I'm going to set aside all those mail-in ballots with Hattie McDaniel stamps because they're unique, and I was told to do that in those slides.

I hardly ever use a US flag stamp. I like interesting and unique stamps. I guess that pegs me as a Democrat.


Sonia