This is how they will try to steal 2008: Vote caging on steroids.

[EFerrari]

GOP In Kansas Admits To Vote Caging

And Democrats in the state of Kansas are accusing the Republican Party of trying to put together a list of voters to challenge on Election Day. In an e-mail message sent to state Republicans, Kansas Republican Party Chair Kris Kobach admitted the party is engaged in vote caging, a direct form of voter supression. In the email message, Kobach wrote:“To date, the Kansas GOP has identified and caged more voters in the last 11 months than the previous two years.” The Lawrence Journal World and News reports one form of vote caging is when a political party sends registered mail to an address of a registered voter. If the mail is returned as undeliverable, the voter will be challenged by the party as having a fraudulent voter registration. In the past, there have been reported incidents of caging lists targeting predominantly minority districts that tend to vote for Democrats.

http://www.democracynow.org/2007/12/28/headlines#11

They have or will target minority precincts, low income, students, seniors and enlisted military. Count on it -- and get ready for it. We're going to have to put on the best election protection effort ever unless we want to wake up to President Huckabee.

[Joanne98]

1. You know.. all we can do to prevent this is encourage people to get IDs

and make sure their voting registrations are up to date.. thruout the year we should make it a project to remind people they have to do that.

[EFerrari]

2. We can reach out to those communities, too, if we don't live in them.

Be proactive. We can predict where these mofos will try it. We can probably even predict which states will be hardest hit. We have so much more information now than we did even in 2004, including the fact that Pig Boy has been setting up these caging operations himself.

[Sancho]

3. They have started this in Florida...I wish all the primary debaters would wake up

...because it doesn't matter who the candidate is if they steal the election AGAIN! We need to have fair elections, not argue about who the Democratic candidate is!

[EFerrari]

5. Hi, Sancho. Where in Florida, do you know? n/t

[flashl]

13. Maybe, its this ...

FL: Browning to 'regroup' over voter rights issue

By Jim Ash
FLORIDA CAPITAL BUREAU CHIEF

TALLAHASSEE — Nearly 16,000 contested Florida voters will be back on the rolls by the end of today now that Secretary of State Kurt Browning has lost his latest legal round in an Atlanta federal court.

"We're going to have to regroup with our technical and legal staff," Browning spokesman Sterling Ivey said Thursday.

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals late Thursday denied Browning's request to temporarily put on hold a ruling by a Gainesville federal judge.

U.S. District Judge Stephan Mickle Dec. 18 ordered the state to stop turning away would be voters if their applications failed to match driver license or Social Security records. Mickle sided with the NAACP and voting rights advocates who challenged a 2002 federal law designed to crack down on voting fraud.

Browning also asked Mickle to put his ruling on hold pending the appeal, saying that retooling the system would be disruptive, especially if the Atlanta court granted his appeal. Mickle couldn't have disagreed more.

Eliminating the match requirement should make the process easier, allowing local supervisors more time to concentrate on the last minute rush of registrations before the Jan. 29 presidential primary, Mickle wrote in an order issued Wednesday upholding his original injunction.

Tallahassee.com

Or, it could be the mass change of address of Florida voters to one address in Duluth, Ga.

[EFerrari]

15. Thanks, flashl!

:)

[KamaAina]

65. Duluth, GA?! Guess who has an office there? Hint: it starts with 'C' and ends with 'hoicePoint'.

Or, it could be the mass change of address of Florida voters to one address in Duluth, Ga.

http://www.choicepoint.com/office_locations

Financial and Professional Services Duluth GA 30096 770-291-3550
Screening and Authentication Services Duluth GA 30096 800-888-5773

:scared:

edit: quote

[EFerrari]

4. Sourcewatch: Vote Caging.

Vote caging is a voter suppression tactic. The term is derived from a direct mail term. In the direct mail industry, when a third party runs a direct mailing campaign on behalf of a client organization, one of the activities undertaken is to compile all of the responses, handle contributions and to deposit received funds into the client's account, and also update the database of names and addresses that were mailed to with the responses or corrected addresses obtained. Since some of the activities were controlled carefully (donations and deposits) and conducted in a manner similar to the activities within a "teller's cage," the process is called "caging" and the end result of the data entry updates and address corrections is called a "caging list." This led to the term "voter caging" for voter registration analysis and challenges conducted via mass mailings.

Caging, as Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) "helpfully pointed out, 'is a term of art in mailhouses' – it refers to the place where letters go when they have no address, all batched up in a separate room."<1>

As House Committee on the Judiciary chair John Conyers (D-MI) added, caging "in the context of elections 'is not an issue of the mail at all.' Voter caging, in the context of elections, means blocking voters out – choosing whole lists of voters whose vote will be challenged, chosen by whom and the criteria for challenge enunciated by whom, under this administration, still not fully explained."<2>

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Vote_caging

[EFerrari]

6. RNC Voter Suppression in Five States / truthout

Exclusive | Emails Detail RNC Voter Suppression in Five States
By Jason Leopold and Matt Renner
t r u t h o u t | Report

Thursday 26 July 2007

Previously undisclosed documents detail how Republican operatives, with the knowledge of several White House officials, engaged in an illegal, racially-motivated effort to suppress tens of thousands of votes during the 2004 presidential campaign in a state where George W. Bush was trailing his Democratic challenger, Senator John Kerry.

The documents also contain details describing how Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign officials, and at least one individual who worked for White House political adviser Karl Rove, planned to stop minorities residing in Cuyahoga County from voting on election day.

The efforts to purge voters from registration rolls was spearheaded by Tim Griffin, a former Republican National Committee opposition researcher. Griffin recently resigned from his post as interim US attorney for Little Rock Arkansas. His predecessor, Bud Cummins, was forced out to make way for Griffin.

Another set of documents, 43 pages of emails, provided to Truthout by the PBS news program "NOW," contains blueprints for a massive effort undertaken by RNC operatives in 2004, to challenge the eligibility of voters expected to support Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in states such as Nevada, New Mexico, Florida and Pennsylvania.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072607A.shtml

[EFerrari]

7. Cage Match: Did Griffin Try to Disenfranchise African-American Voters in 2004?

Cage Match: Did Griffin Try to Disenfranchise African-American Voters in 2004?
By Paul Kiel - June 26, 2007, 11:21AM

For years, Tim Griffin, the former aide to Karl Rove who’s been at the center of the U.S. attorney controversy, has been dogged by allegations that he was a part of a 2004 scheme to block African-Americans in Florida from voting.

As Greg Palast first reported for the BBC, an August, 2004 email sent to a number of Republican National Committee operatives contained a spreadsheet of the names and addresses of more than 1,800 voters in Duval County, Florida, a mostly white county that includes the city of Jacksonville. Palast reported that the addresses were located in mostly black neighborhoods, and his story, followed by others posted this year on his website and the Brad Blog, alleged that the list was compiled in order to challenge African-American voters at the polls. We sought to test that conclusion through our own analysis of the data.

The result? Our comparative analysis of the spreadsheet with Duval County voter rolls shows that most names were of African-Americans. (For more on the analysis, see below.) Such a finding, voting rights experts told me, strengthened allegations that Griffin, working for the Republican National Committee, was involved in an effort to target African-American voters. “It is difficult to explain other than an effort to target Democrats and by extension, minority voters,” Toby Moore, a former political geographer with the Justice Department, said.

Michael McDonald, an Associate Professor at George Mason University and an expert on elections statistics, said that the chance that the list is randomly so different from the population is less than 1 in 10,000. It is illegal to target voters based on their race under the Voting Rights Act. Griffin resigned earlier this month as the U.S. attorney for Little Rock after a six-month stint.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003523.php

[creeksneakers2]

31. A couple of things to add to that

The names and addresses on the Duval County caging list weren't randomly drawn, so of course they didn't reflect a random sample of the population.

A mailing was sent out and the return mail was collected. Research shows that mail was sent to at least 87% of the precincts in the country. The caging list contained names of whites and even Republicans. Discovered GOP voter caging plans recommended sending the mailings to newly registered voters.

If a mailing was sent to everyone, there could be a larger volume of returned mail from blacks if blacks changed residences at a greater frequency than whites. Mail service may have been worse in black areas. (As a former skip tracer, I can attest that an incredible amount of mail returns from valid addresses in minority areas. Some of the problem stems from apartment mail boxes with apartment numbers but no names on them) Its also possible that more new registrations were for blacks. The get-out-the-vote organization ACORN was actively registering large numbers of blacks in 2004. Perhaps they were active in Duval County.

So while race is a probable factor its difficult to prove.

I'm speculating that the intent of the GOP in Duval County was more sinister than Democrats at the time suspected. The GOP at the time said the lists were to be used to catch fraud. I think they were telling the truth and that was the greater purpose. Here's why:

Karl Rove's right hand man Tim Griffin was heavily involved in national caging efforts. He's been accused of being the manager of the whole project. When the US Attorneys scandal broke, it was learned that Griffin was at the center of an effort to intimidate US Attorneys into prosecuting voter fraud cases. According to at least one US Attorney who was fired, the GOP started the process by giving the US Attorney a list of suspected fraudulent voters.

The objective of the GOP was to pass national voter ID laws that would hurt the Democratic vote permanently and nationwide. They intended to use widespread prosecutions of voter fraud to sensationalize the need for voter ID. That required suspect lists.

I can't see Karl Rove's right hand man being involved in clerical election security operations. I don't even see him getting involved with voter suppression unless something bigger was at stake. I can see somebody at that level being involved in a plot to permanently suppress Democratic votes.

That isn't to say that voter intimidation wasn't an objective of the caging lists. I'm just saying it wasn't the biggest objective.

[sniffa]

8. y'know, caging can work both ways

just have to target likely R voters, and play the same shit tactics.

[EFerrari]

10. Yes, election fraud does cut both ways. Although suppressing

minority votes doesn't benefit Democrats, does it?

[sniffa]

12. no, that's why you cage likely R voters

[EFerrari]

14. I just realized something. All you have to do to find Republic

vote caging operations is to look for "voter fraud detection" operations! I hate these @ssholes.

[harmonicon]

60. who the hell would that help? I personally don't think democracy is a game.

I don't see how further criminalizing the election process helps anyone. My mom always said it, and it's still true: two wrongs don't make one right.

[EFerrari]

9. Project Vote Report Accuses GOP of Decades of Voter Suppression

Project Vote Report Accuses GOP of Decades of Voter Suppression

By Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet. Posted September 27, 2007.

The Republican Party plans to continue a legal tactic that targets the right to vote of likely Democrats -- often minorities.

In 2004, Republicans used a Jim Crow-era tactic to target the voter registrations of a half-million likely Democratic voters -- often minorities -- for Election Day challenges in nine states, a national voting rights group has charged in a new report.

"The intended effect of voter caging operations is to suppress minority votes," Project Vote said in its report, "Caging: A Fifty-Year History of Partisan Challenges to Minority Voters. "Several court decisions and occasional public comment by Republican officials lend support to this conclusion."

But Republicans say Project Vote's report is biased because it excludes Democratic examples of filing fraudulent voter registrations to pad voter rolls and because it ignores Democratic efforts to "knock" opponents off the ballot, such as Ralph Nader in 2004, after identifying fraudulent signatures on his nominating petitions.

"When you send out a letter to people who have registered recently and the letter comes back as an address of an empty lot or is undeliverable, you tell me is that fraud or not?" said Heather Heidelbaugh, Republican National Lawyers Association vice president for Election Education. "When people say to me there is no such thing as evidence to commit voter fraud, it is false. I've seen it. I've witnessed it. I've lived through it."

http://www.alternet.org/story/63574/

[Occulus]

19. Not necessarily, you lying shitbag

THIS lying shitbag:

"When you send out a letter to people who have registered recently and the letter comes back as an address of an empty lot or is undeliverable, you tell me is that fraud or not?" said Heather Heidelbaugh, Republican National Lawyers Association vice president for Election Education. "When people say to me there is no such thing as evidence to commit voter fraud, it is false. I've seen it. I've witnessed it. I've lived through it."


I work for USPS and know for a 100% true fact that our address database does contain errors. I'm willing to lay money on them creating their own errors just to say it's undeliverable.

[EFerrari]

21. Oh, man! I thought you were talking to me!

:dunce:

[Occulus]

36. That's why I put that in

I read it and I was like, "oh no! THAT wasn't how I intended it!!"

You're definitely not a "lying shitbag". Sorry for the confusion!

[EFerrari]

11. Texas GOP voter suppression efforts gearing up for '08

Texas GOP voter suppression efforts gearing up for '08

The Lone Start Project again brings the disgusting news of the Texas Republicans' efforts to thwart the vote (bold emphasis is mine):

Academic studies, media reports and fact based voter analysis consistently demonstrate that systematic, widespread or frequent voter fraud in Texas, or anywhere else in the United States, simply does not exist. Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick, however, has directed a State House committee to conduct an interim study on voter fraud with the clear intention of recommending legislation to limit the ability of thousands of eligible Texans to vote. (See the order here)

At the same time, former Tom DeLay aide and current Tom Craddick ally, John Colyandro, who remains under felony indictment for money laundering and other charges, has formed a "think tank" that is already using faulty data and illogical statistics to justify vote suppression tactics.

These most recent Texas Republican efforts to suppress voter turnout are consistent with Texas AG Greg Abbott's taxpayer-funded phony voter fraud enforcement unit that the Lone Star Project has exposed and reported on extensively here.

Why do Tom Craddick and other Texas Republican leaders want to spend taxpayer resources to examine a problem that doesn't exist? Clearly Craddick, Abbott and others are attempting to justify dramatic changes in Texas law and election practices, including voter photo ID requirements, senior mail ballot restrictions and voter roll purges, that will reduce overall voter turnout as demographic changes take place in Texas that are increasing the influence of minorities in Texas elections.

http://brainsandeggs.blogspot.com/2007/12/texas-gop-voter-suppression-efforts.html

[WillyT]

16. And... Off To The Greatest Page With Thee !!! - K & R !!!

:kick:

[EFerrari]

17. Black Voters in United States Disproportionally Disenfranchised

Black Voters in United States Disproportionally Disenfranchised
by Jesse Jackson and Greg Palast
January 26, 2006


The inaugural confetti has been swept away and with it, the last quarrel over who really won the presidential election.

But there is still unfinished business that can't be swept away. After taking his oath, the president called for a "concerted effort to promote democracy." The president should begin with the United States.

More than 133,000 votes remain uncounted in Ohio, more than George W. Bush's supposed margin of victory. In New Mexico, the uncounted vote totals at least three times the president's plurality -- and so on in other states.

The challenge to the vote count is over, but the matter of how the United States counts votes, or fails to count them, remains.

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0126-28.htm

[midnight]

23. Do you remember what Bill Richardson said about his

reasons for the challeng or lack of challeng of those votes in his state?

[EFerrari]

24. No, I don't. Maybe someone does. There is a lot of fishy stuff

in New Mexico on both sides. I guess I always assumed the state Dems didn't want anyone poking around. :shrug:

[HCE SuiGeneris]

18. K & R

[EFerrari]

20. Purge of voter rolls could swing 2008 election

Using statistics and methodology that some voting experts are calling "flawed," the Justice Department's Voting Section is telling 10 US states to purge voter rolls which allegedly show more registered voters than are eligible--a house-cleaning effort AlterNet's Steven Rosenfeld says could swing the 2008 election.

"Voting Section Chief John Tanner called for the purges in letters sent this spring under an arcane provision in the National Voter Registration Act, better known as the Motor Voter law, " says Rosenfeld, adding that the letters "notify states that 10 percent or more of their election jurisdictions have problematic voter rolls. It tells states to report 'the subsequent removal from rolls of persons no longer eligible to vote."

According to experts interviewed by Rosenfeld, however, the Justice Department is misrepresenting the information they are using to make their recommendations.

"That data does not say what they purport it says," David Becker, senior voting rights counsel for People for the American Way, said. "They are saying the data shows the 10 worst voter rolls. They have a lot of explaining to do." Rosenfeld also quotes U.S. Election Assistance Commission consultant Kim Brace, who said "You are basically seeing them grasping at whatever straws are possible to make their point."

http://rawstory.com//news/2007/Purged_voter_rolls_could_swing_2008_0912.html

[mod mom]

57. Purging in 1 Dem stronghold county in Ohio in 2004:

Lucas County, home of bush pioneer/convicted felon Tom Noe and his Chair of the Lucas County BOE wife Bernadette, who btw is reported to have FREQUENTLY SPOKE TO KKKARL ROVE**)


-October 4, 2004 was filing deadline for new voter registrations. At that point there were approximately 20,000 unprocessed voter registration applications with less than a month before the election. One mail tray containing 4,500-7,000 (estimates vary) unprocessed “Project Voter” registrations were discovered on or about October 18,2004.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation pg 10

***Of interest here is information obtained from the SOS website entitled ElectionsVoter/results 2003 and 2004 which show the # of registered voters number change from ‘03-’04 was 11,947 in Lucas County: reg voters 2003 in Lucas=288,190 ; registered voter in 2004=300,137.

*SOS Investigation removed from SOS site, but a big thanks to DUer Garybeck for preserving it up at his site:
http://www.solarbus.org/election/docs/lucas.pdf

OK DID YOU GET THAT? AS OF OCT 4 LESS THAN 1 MONTH BEFORE THE ELECTION THERE WAS A TRAY OF ~20,000 UNPROCESSED VOTER REGISTRATIONS. WHAT ABOUT ALL THE REGISTRATIONS MADE BEFORE THIS DATE-SUMMER FESTIVALS WERE BIG REAPERS OF REGISTRATIONS, AND YET THE COUNTY ONLY HAD AN INCREASE OF 11,947. EITHER MANY REGISTRATIONS WERE DUMPED OR THERE WAS A BIG MOTHER PURGE!


**(Noe was Regional Chairman of Bush-Cheney Campaign and Frequently Spoke with Rove. As a regional chairman of the campaign, Mr. Noe had frequent contact with Karl Rove, the architect of the President's re-election. And Ohio, it turned out, was the pivotal state in the election, narrowly pushing President Bush to victory.

[EFerrari]

22. Related: The Swing State Project (from 2003)

Methodology & List of Swing States
Posted by DavidNYC

This site is devoted to analyzing the battleground states which will ultimately decide the 2004 US Presidential election.

Methodology: Any state where the margin between (Gore + Nader) - (Bush + Buchanan) was ±10% in 2000 is considered a swing state for the purposes of this project.

The one exception is North Carolina, which has moved into the swing state category by virute of John Edwards' presence on the Democratic ticket. Historically, the home state of a party's vice-presidential candidate is one of the few (if only) factors that can materially affect the vote in that state.

List (with margin in parentheses):

Arizona (-4.12%)
Arkansas (-4.79%)
Colorado (-3.71%)
Florida (1.33%)
Iowa (2.11%)
Louisiana (-7.32%)
Maine, 2nd CD (5.74%)
Michigan (7.08%)
Minnesota (6.70%)
Missouri (-2.13%)
Nevada (-1.86%)
New Mexico (3.38%)
New Hampshire (2.17%)
North Carolina (-13.13%)
Ohio (-1.58%)
Oregon (5.02%)
Pennsylvania (5.94%)
Tennessee (-3.12%)
Virginia (-6.06%)
Washington (9.43%)
West Virginia (-5.17%)
Wisconsin (3.40%)

http://www.swingstateproject.com/2003/10/methodology_map.html

[EFerrari]

25. dkosopedia: State-by-State Breakdown of stories (2004 Irregularities)

State-by-State Breakdown of stories

* Alaska Fraud (Lt. Governor involved in ballot manipulation )
* Arizona Fraud (Sproul shows up as a top donor to Congressman Trent Franks )
* Arkansas Fraud (Allegation that Governor's wife obstructed black votes)
* California Fraud (Observers shut out)
* Colorado Fraud (Republican Secretary of State limits provisional ballots )
* Florida Fraud (Early voting problems, Jeb's gonna deliver )
* Kentucky Fraud (Possible money laundering)
* Illinois Fraud (Ballot errors)
* Iowa Fraud (Limited registration problems )
* Maine Fraud Alleged inappropriate conduct by Rockland's registrar of voters.
* Massachusetts Fraud (GOP encouraging illegal absentee ballots)
* Maryland Fraud (More problems with felon purges)
* Michigan Fraud (Student voters targeted, etc)
* Missouri Fraud (Diminishing ballot access)
* Minnesota Fraud (Canvassers to only turn in GOP registrations)
* Nevada Fraud ( Dem. registrations shredded )
* New Hampshire Fraud (College students targeted)
* New Mexico Fraud (Pro-GOP voting machine behavior)
* North Carolina Fraud Slowdowns due to Challenges
* Ohio Fraud (Blackwell's shenanigans, GOP voter fraud ops moving in, Challenges galore)
* Oregon Fraud (Dem. registrations shredded )
* Pennsylvania Fraud (Moving polling places at last minute)
* South Carolina Fraud (Play hide-the-polling-station)
* South Dakota Fraud (GOP members resign over absentee stink)
* Tennessee Fraud (Planted special Olympics fliers)
* Texas Fraud (Austin electronic vote problems, Gerrymander case not over)
* Virginia Fraud Nader Chief - recent Republican activist/campaign worker
* Washinton Fraud Missing Absentee Ballots
* Washington Fraud Missing Absentee Ballots
* West Virginia Fraud (Absentee phone scams/registrations destroyed?)
* Wisconsin Fraud (Milwaukee urban ballot shortages)

Regional, National, International Breakdown

* Military Fraud (Rumsfield, Pentagon head up ballot counting)
* New England Fraud (Phone jamming scandal)
* Overseas Fraud (Absentee votes printed late, overloaded Pentagon server blocked IPs)

http://dkosopedia.com/wiki/Voter_Registration_Fraud_Clearinghouse#State-by-State_Breakdown_of_stories

[AzDar]

26. K & R...

:kick:

[EFerrari]

27. Thank you for the recs!

:kick:

[PoiBoy]

28. The only thing that will stop this practice is prosecution...

Kris Kobach should be prosecuted for this violation, disbarred from practicing law ever again. Add a huge irrevocable fine and we might have the beginnings of a real prevention effort in this country. Too bad so many of our politicians are totally clueless about caging and "too busy with other more important matters facing our Country" to effectively deal with this disgusting, anti-democratic strategy.


What to do about this caging crap? Here's a suggestion...

http://www.everydaycitizen.com/2007/12/voter_caging_reprehensible_une.html

<snip>
If you've made it this far down this post, you are probably wondering how we can combat this effort. No matter what party you belong to - I do hope that the whole idea of vote caging is offensive to you - and that you want to do something to combat it.

How can we keep authentic voters from being caged and prevented from voting?

Quite simply, we can get out and register voters.

Regardless of your party affiliation, you should make sure that your registration is up-to-date.

We can all take action by encouraging "already registered" voters to register again, whether they need to re-register or not. There is no harm whatsoever in having people register more than once, it only verifies their registration. If anybody has moved since the last time they voted, they need to re-register anyway. If they've changed their name, they need to re-register. If they've not voted in a few elections, they should re-register just to make sure they haven't been caged or kicked off the rolls.

There is no harm in re-registering. Everybody should get everybody else to register to vote!
<end>

[Elspeth]

30. Exactly

But how can we get them prosecuted when no one in Congress seems to want to tackle it?

[EFerrari]

35. Politicians won't touch it. That's why we need to support election reform

activists and groups. No one else will do it for us, they've shown us that over and over.

[Elspeth]

70. Ultimately it is going to need a policing function

...

[EFerrari]

78. The law seems to get slushy around our elections.

:freak:

[annabanana]

29. Shouldn't Kris Kobach be in jail?

I mean, really?

[proud2BlibKansan]

33. Yes and not just for this

We call him KKKris. He is a frequent speaker at minutemen rallies.

And he is as evil as the day is long.

[proud2BlibKansan]

32. We're on it

At least some of us are.

The day I saw this story last week, I called the state Dem party. They said oh keep posting it on blogs and ask the newspaper to cover it.

That's it.

No mention of investigations.

The KS GOP claims it is legal. And the Dems are just rolling over and letting that explanation stand.

It's a VERY hot topic on local blogs. And you guessed it, the repukes are posting that voter fraud is a problem, we need voter ID, etc etc, etc.

My response is this: "Which affects MORE voters? Voter fraud or election fraud?" They have ignored that question. On about a dozen blogs.

You would think that since KC is a bi-state area, there would be thousands of voters going back and forth across the state line every election to vote in two states. (This is an issue for welfare and food stamp programs.) But I have researched it. There were 4 cases in 2004 and I haven't found ANY in 2006.

So now I am wondering if we need to start planning now for a presence at polling places in November to counter their challenges of registered voters.

It is pretty frustrating. I feel like I am the only one in KS who is concerned about this.

[EFerrari]

34. Saying that it's voter fraud prevention allows them to do it openly.

But, that can be used against them. They are in effect outing themselves and showing us where we need to watch for their stealing.

Someone should contact the local ACLU. If they are targeting a minority group, it's not legal. it's a civil rights violation. And you bet, an election protection rapid response effort has to be mounted.

[Laelth]

44. One person caring is better than none.

Thanks for fighting the good fight!

:patriot:

-Laelth

[emlev]

51. I'm gonna PM you about this. n/t (K&R!)

[EFerrari]

52. Yay!

Happy New Year, emlev!

[emlev]

53. Same to you, thanks for the thread. Just got here.

[CorpGovActivist]

37. Very Informative...K&R +

Happy New Year!

:hug:

- Dave

[EFerrari]

38. Happy New Year!

Thanks for the kick! :hi:

[CorpGovActivist]

46. But of Course! n/t

[caligirl]

39. Watch Kenya, the GOP does this at their peril. Whats happening in Kenya today is

a sample of what could result if the American public believes in overwhelming numbers that the GOP has corrupted and stolen the 08 election and the election process. American's are much more aware of DRE issues, they don't trust repugs after 7 years of corruption and war.Many are aware of Ohio and Florida election fraud by repugs. They want the war to end and the corruption to end. Stealing an election on the heals of 7 BAD years of Bush and war could make Kenya look like small potato's.

[TexasLawyer]

40. kick

[NashVegas]

41. Nashville's ENTIRE Voter Database Was Stolen

Including full SS numbers. 317,000 people are ripe for caging and more.

[EFerrari]

42. That's horrible. I hadn't heard that.

The HAVA mandated databases make it so easy, don't they?

[NashVegas]

47. Crazy

Two laptops stolen from the county Elections Commission.

[Laelth]

43. This is significant and needs more attention.

k&r

:dem:

-Laelth

[msedano]

45. anyone doing protective training?

when challenged at the poll, what does the voter do to ensure her his ballot isn't denied? Does a challenged's ballots go into the provisional pile, to be discarded later during the count? not that i have a lot of confidence in the u.s. voter that they'd be able to use such training, but still, in areas where suppression appears to be known and widespread, is there a manner to educate the likely-to-be-challenged voters on how to respond?

my first response upon being challenged in a polling place would be to request the identification of the person doing the challenge. seems to me a voting observer with the nerve to challenge other people's rights must be able to establish their own legitimacy to issue the challenge. make 'em prove who they are, make 'em prove they're a citizen and have legal standing to issue challenges.

Here's from a document on how California trains election workers to handle challenges:

SECTION 2: ELECTION CHALLENGE PROCEDURES

Poll workers must be informed how to properly handle challenges that come before them. They should also be aware that voters may contest an election based on misconduct by a poll worker, thus reinforcing the importance of properly performing their duties on Election Day. Such misconduct includes discriminating against voters based on race, ethnicity, party affiliation, literacy, or disability; denying eligible voters the right to cast a ballot; intentionally misinforming voters of their status; and coercing or intimidating voters.

Poll workers must immediately report all disruptive behavior to their county elections office, contact law enforcement if there is any disruption of polling place operations, and try to separate the disruptive behavior from the operation of the polling place should a disruption occur. If the disruption continues, poll workers should contact their county elections office and local law enforcement and allow them to handle the situation. Poll workers are not expected to put themselves in physical jeopardy.

A member of the precinct board may orally challenge a voter within the polling place on any of the following grounds:

(1) That the voter is not the person whose name appears on the index.
(2) That the voter is not a resident of the precinct.
(3) That the voter is not a citizen of the United States.
(4) That the voter has voted that day.
(5) That the voter is presently on parole for the conviction of a felony. (EC § 14240.)

• If a member of the precinct board challenges the voter on the ground that he or she is not the person whose name appears on the index, that member shall then tender the following oath to the voter: "You do swear (or affirm) that you are the person whose name is entered on the index." (EC §14243.) If the challenge is made on the ground that the voter has already cast a ballot for this election, a member of the precinct board shall tender this oath: "You do swear (or affirm) that you have not previously voted in this election, either by absentee ballot or at a polling place." (EC §14245.) If the challenge is on either of these two grounds, the challenge shall be determined in favor of the person challenged if that person takes the oath as set forth above. (EC §14246.)

• If the voter is challenged on the ground that he or she is not a resident of the precinct, the voter shall be sworn and a member of the precinct board shall ask that voter: "Are you a resident of this precinct?" If the answer to the question is "Yes," without significant qualification, no other questions shall be asked. (EC §14244.) Challenges of voters that they are not residents of the precinct or citizens of the United States are tried and determined by the precinct board at the time of the challenge. The precinct board also may request any other person present in the polling place be sworn and answer questions, if the board believes that person may have knowledge or information concerning the facts of the challenge. (EC §14247.)

• Any doubt in the interpretation of the law is to be resolved in favor of the challenged voter. (EC § 14251.)


http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/pollworker.htm


at any rate, recommended.

[EFerrari]

48. I have to ask someone who is in touch with potential trainers

like emlev.

When I find out, I will post another thread with a link to this basic information.

They can't win it, they have to steal it. We know that going in.

[Swamp Rat]

49. k&r

[Kurovski]

50. K&R. (nt)

[OneBlueSky]

54. hey, they stole it in 2000, and they stole it in 2004 . . .

what makes anyone think that they're incapabable or unwilling of stealing it in 2008? . ..

[eridani]

55. Pester the DNC about this ASAP!

http://www.democrats.org/page/s/contactissues

voter protection is listed on the above form as one of their key issues. The 50 state strategy ought to include pestering state parties who are fucking up.

[EFerrari]

59. Precinct walkers have to including registration somehow

in their presentation. And WE have to get people to register and make sure they know what to do if they get challenged.

[mod mom]

56. Here's more: (just sent off to the media this am to cover ;) )

Legal voters thrown off rolls
Database woes could be 'sleeper issue of 2008'

By Richard Wolf
USA TODAY

Five years after passage of a federal law to create electronic registration databases to deter voter fraud, the new technology is posing hurdles that could disenfranchise thousands of legal voters, a USA TODAY examination finds.

From Florida to Washington, voters have been challenged because names or numbers on their registration forms did not exactly match other government databases, such as Social Security and motor vehicle agencies. "We know that eligible people have been thrown off the rolls," says Justin Levitt, a lawyer with the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.

The databases are only as good as the information fed into them by applicants and election officials. That can lead to human errors as well as variations from state to state. Colorado, for instance, knocked nearly 20% of its voters off the rolls between the 2004 and 2006 elections. Arkansas purged 3%, according to Election Assistance Commission data.

Voters who have problems at the polls can cast "provisional" ballots. Election officials rule later whether those votes were properly cast and should be counted. But even that backup system varies greatly from state to state.

More than nine in 10 provisional ballots cast in New Jersey, Oregon, Maine, Montana and Alaska were approved in 2006. Michigan, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Delaware and Hawaii counted fewer than 25%, the Election Assistance Commission says.

-snip
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20080102/1a_lede02.art.htm

Kansas GOP Chair Sends Email Boasting of Voter Caging
By: billw on Wednesday, December 26th, 2007 at 6:38 AM - PST


Kris Kobach, a former counsel to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft who is currently the chairman of the Kansas GOP, sent out an email on Thur entitled “Kansas Republican Party Year in Review” in which he brags of voter caging. Blue Tide Rising has the goods:

… Kris Kobach, chairman of the Kansas GOP, sent out a self-congratulatory litany of accomplishments. Among them was one particularly eye-catching item:

“To date, the Kansas GOP has identified and caged more voters in the last 11 months than the previous two years!” <…>

Slate.comhas the best comprehensive write-up on how the Republican Party employs caging techniques to suppress the votes of the poor, the deployed, and college students. (You know, likely Democratic voters.)

Did we mention it’s illegal? And that Kris Kobach is proud to be doing it?

Since Kris Kobach can’t expand his own party or force his own Party’s members to support his candidates he’s shamelessly trying to keep Democrats from voting instead. This is the stratagem of a desperate and shrinking party.

Someone needs to ask Kris Kobach which voters he’s caging and how he’s doing it. Someone like a newspaper editor or perhaps a Grand Jury.… (more)

More on Kris Kobach here and here (He apparently suffers from an advanced case of Lou Dobbs disease). Depending on what methods are being used in Kobach’s admitted voter caging scheme, it may very well be illegal, but hardly surprising. Voter suppression through caging lists has become a standard part of the Republican playbook to steal elections for some time now. In Sept McClatchy detailed current Republican voter caging efforts underway in Florida and Ohio to “impede Democratic-leaning minorities from voting in 2008,” and back in July PBS NOW took a look at the Republican Party’s voter caging plan “designed to keep Democrats from voting, allegedly by targeting people based on their race and ethnicity.”

video at link:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/26/kansas-gop-chair-sends-email-boasting-of-voter-caging/

[EFerrari]

58. You beat me! Lol

:hi:

[mod mom]

61. Don't let me stop you-send in bulk!

The more folks who put pressure on them to cover this subject, the more likely they will!

:hi:

[EFerrari]

67. Keith, Mike M. and Mike M., Thom, this HAS to go out.

:kick:

[ooglymoogly]

62. Seems to me that if enough people complained to

an honest DA (if one could be found) a class action law suit could be brought against the US post and the party responsible for such mailings with the complaint that the US post was being criminally used to effect election results.

[suffragette]

63. Between caging and onerous ID requirements

they'll keep many people from voting. I think one of the less discussed aspects of this is how the voter ID restrictions will impact students in particular. I would like to see someone do a study on this.

Also, I doubt they have given up on shifting California. I think the effort to change the electoral count was just the 1st skirmish in that.

[EFerrari]

68. Do you remember that students in swing states were targeted, 2004?

I wrote this 11/06/04:

Editor,

For the last two years, our young people have registered to vote, they've registered their friends and neighbors. They've phone banked and fund raised. They've listened to debates, invited candidates to speak to them and helped maintain the broad progressive coalition that swept over this country. They got out the vote last Tuesday. They helped mind the polls, often traveling to other states to go where they were needed.

They did an amazing job. So, when the pundits say, they were unnoticed, someone is looking in the wrong direction. And missing the as yet untold story of this election and the youth vote.

Because our young people were also targeted for voter intimidation and suppression. They got robocalls threatening their student financial aid. As a group, somehow their absentee ballots went missing at a higher rate. Their registration forms where shredded in Oregon and Washington. Precincts closest to their colleges were understaffed and under equipped. In Ohio, they were made to stand in alternate lines and to wait for hours as they watched other voters come, cast their vote and go. And as the reports come in, this list will get longer.

But, in other words, on Tuesday, the youth vote was Black in America, had their rights violated in the same old ways that the black community has been fighting for decades. So, if we don't see the difference our young people made on Nov 2, it may be because we may be too ashamed to look and see what really happened to them, after they worked their hearts out for our election.

They were there. Where were we? Where is the leadership that should be helping our youth understand the lessons learned last Tuesday? To point out to them that they just went through a trial by fire, and that we're all proud of them and grateful. Most of all, to promise them that together we will continue fighting for fair elections. And to mean that.

* * *

We won't be fooled again. :grr:

[suffragette]

69. "They were there"

Yes, they were. Which made me all the more angry when the manufactured stories saying they weren't appeared in the press. :mad:

Damn great letter, Beth.

Happy New Year to you!! :hug:

[EFerrari]

72. Happy New Year, suffragette!

:hug:

I'm in a fightin' mood. :)

[suffragette]

74. Right there with ya

Feelin' scrappy myself

Time for a reprise of this video:
http://current.com/watch/684

[Le Taz Hot]

64. Too late to R but

K :kick:

[EFerrari]

66. Thanks and HNY, neighbor!

:hi:

[Raksha]

71. Why is this tactic still legal?

Re The Lawrence Journal World and News reports one form of vote caging is when a political party sends registered mail to an address of a registered voter. If the mail is returned as undeliverable, the voter will be challenged by the party as having a fraudulent voter registration. In the past, there have been reported incidents of caging lists targeting predominantly minority districts that tend to vote for Democrats.

This "registered mail" vote caging tactic has been known since 2004. It should be illegal in all states.

[EFerrari]

73. Republicans have a way of not bothering about the law

and the people they target tend to be vulnerable in the first place -- like students. If you were 19 and got a robocall telling you your scholarship would be voided if you voted in the wrong place or if you were made to stand in an "alternate" line or if you were challenged at the poll, you don't have the same experience or resources that a crusty old lady like me has to redirect the challenge to the accusing thug.

We need to get the word out and help people learn how to respond effectively. I don't want to wake up and find out Huckabee is my new leader because we weren't diligent.

[countryjake]

75. Kick!

[countryjake]

79. Again!

[Stuart G]

76. Kick again..

..Perhaps we can do something to prevent this. Begging people who have moved, to check their registration, and re-register again. It is January, and perhaps somehow, we can get something done.

[EFerrari]

77. We need to tell everyone we know and we need to access networks --

campaigns already have an infrastructure. Election reform groups. Our bowling leagues.

We have to do this or give up whining rights when Rudy is sworn in.

[fascisthunter]

80. This Should Be Front Page (nt)

[Kurovski]

81. Kick. (nt)

[EFerrari]

82. OW! OW OW OW!

LOL

[Kurovski]

83. Yeah, you like that, doncha?

Just remember our "safe" word. :rofl:

Great thread you got going here.

[wiggs]

84. Caging will happen and there will be digital election irregularities because NOTHING

HAS BEEN DONE IN THE LAST FOUR YEARS TO COMBAT IT on the federal level! This has been a known issue. This is a key issue fundamental to democracy. There have been letters sent to congress and to media outlets. There have been hearings and studies. These studies, including those from GAO and those done in counties and states, have stated that electronic voting machines we use are not secure.

THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN TOP PRIORITY!! Election integrity is an issue that could have been tackled by the left with near certainty of public and judicial support. It is not only right to address election fraud, it is easily defensible and simple to frame.

I'm tired of seeing dems pass on issues where we have the obvious advantage...but to not fix this is dereliction of duty exceeding the irresponsible and disgusting resistance to impeachment.

I understand that many dems are corporatists and belong to the same corporatist government that almost all republicans do...that explains the bankfuptcy bill, the patriot act, etc.. I don't understand allowing and facilitating an election system that will fail.

[Kurovski]

85. Kick. (nt)

[Kurovski]

86. Kick. (nt)