GOP ELECTION FRAUD CENTRAL
A Pipeline directly from Eschaton

I finally got my Louisiana voter registration card in the mail earlier today. I was a bit worried because I had heard a rumor that the Louisiana registrar's office was purposely slowing down the processing of Democratic registrations--given everything I've been reading lately about widespread Republican sponsored attempts to either bog down the election process or simply subvert it to their advantage, it was not easy to dismiss such a rumor as paranoid. Fortunately, I'll be able to vote here in what could turn out to be the most important presidental election of my lifetime.

But I'm still worried: GOP election fraud is, indeed, widespread, and who the hell knows what's going on here? Louisiana will probably go to Bush, but it's not nearly as solid as Texas is; Kerry may very well have a slim chance here, which is why I'm glad I'm not voting absentee in my home state--maybe my vote can actually make a difference here. But I sure would hate to be robbed of that opportunity: perhaps the Republican men in black are here, too.

With that in mind, I'm presenting yet another post on Republican election chicanery, and, as usual, the giant among left-wing bloggers, Atrios over at Eschaton, has provided a wealth of material. So here goes.

First, a pretty startling, but happily ending, anatomy of an Ohio vote scam gone terribly wrong for the Republicans. From the Akron Beacon Journal:

Summit board rejects 976 voter challenges

When Catherine Herold received mail from the Ohio Republican Party earlier this year, she refused it.

The longtime Barberton Democrat wanted no part of the mailing and figured that by refusing it, the GOP would have to pay the return postage.

What she didn't count on was the returned mail being used to challenge the validity of her voter registration.

Herold,who is assistant to the senior vice president and provost at the University of Akron, was one of 976 Summit County voters whose registrations were challenged last week by local Republicans on behalf of the state party.

She went to the Board of Elections on Thursday morning to defend her right to vote and found herself among an angry mob -- people who had to take time off work to defend their right to vote.

After hearing some of the protests, the board voted unanimously to dismiss all 976 challenges.

Click here for the rest.

This one appears to be very similar to a scam (among several others) going on down in the original land of election fraud, Florida. Alas, the rednecks have much more control over things down there, and one can only hope that justice will prevail there.

You know, out of the numerous outrages perpetrated by the Republicans over the last four years, it's stuff like this that pisses me off the most. As I keep saying, this isn't about politics: the Republicans are fucking with the very heart and soul of who we are as a people, democracy itself.

Bastards.

Next, a transcript from and a link to a report from the addictive Public Radio International show This American Life that attempts to put together a comprehensive overview of this year's widespread Republican election scams:

This American Life Special Report: Vote Fraud

Nevada: Dan Burdish, former director of the state's Republican Party, filed a complaint to remove 17,000 voters from the rolls because they had failed to file a change of address card. State law doesn't require it and, in fact, allows you to vote after moving. When asked why he did it Burdish told the press, "I am looking to take Democrats off the voter rolls."

Florida: Senior citizens in Democratic precincts are calling their election boards by the hundreds reporting that strangers claiming to be from the elections office are offering to "hand deliver" their absentee ballots for them, even though there is no such program.

Wyoming: Secretary of State Joseph Meyer interpreted the statutes there to outlaw voter registration drives, like the kind where a group sets up a card table at a mall or library. One of Meyer's oldest friends, a classmate in both high school and college, is Dick Cheney.

Philadelphia: Three weeks before the election, a white Republican alderman named Matt Robb requested that 63 polling stations in African American neighborhoods be relocated, thereby making it more confusing for 37,000 Democrat leaning voters.

Florida: Once again, as in the 2000 election, the state compiled a list of felons to be barred from voting. Throughout this election year, Governor Jeb Bush's administration struggled to keep this list secret. After a lawsuit forced it into the open, people quickly saw that, while some 23,000 Democrat leaning black felons were barred from voting, almost the same number of hispanic felons in Florida, who tend to vote Republican, were somehow not on the list.

Ohio: Secretary of State Ken Blackwell has ruled that anyone showing up in the wrong precinct will not be able to vote there, even by provisional ballot. Immediately afterward, people begain to report odd phone calls telling voters that their voting place had changed, sending them to the wrong precinct.

Arizona: Students at Arizona State University were told by a reporter at Fox News and the Republican county vote registrar that registering students was a federal crime unless students planned to stay in Arizona "indefinitely" after graduation. The Supreme Court of the United States long ago ruled otherwise.

Click here for the rest of the transcript and a link to streaming audio of the show.

You really ought to check this one out if only because it does a good job of presenting the scale of what's going on. It also does a good job of putting the Republican countercharges of Democrat fraud into perspective; that is, compared to what the GOP is doing, the accusations against the Democrats look like jaywalking.

Finally, a pdf file "Election Protection Card" provided by the MoveOn Pac, suitable for printing and distribution to all your friends on election day. Here's an excerpt:

ELECTION PROTECTION CARD

If someone interferes with your right to vote:

1. DOCUMENT IT

Write down exactly what happened and the names of the people involved.

2. THEN, REPORT IT

Call 1-866-MYVOTE1 to leave a message about your problem.

• Fill out the problem form at www.moveonpac.org.

• Call 1-866-MYVOTE1 to leave a message about your problem.

• If you need immediate legal assistance, call 1-866-OUR-VOTE. This is the 911 of voter hotlines – only use it if there’s a serious problem.

Click here for the rest.

I don't really think this sort of thing is going overboard at all. I mean, there's some serious shit going down, and the fate of our nation, indeed, the world, hangs in the balance. This election is really important. Who knows what's going to happen?

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