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Our Most Precious Right
Author: BobR    Date: 10/17/2008 12:31:00

The U.S. Constitution in all it's simplicity lays out groundwork for the operation of our government. It enumerates our rights too precious to be taken for granted. Over the years certain other rights (such as the right to privacy) have been derived and assumed from those explicitly stated. One right that is not specifically enumerated, perhaps because it seemed so obvious as to be assumed, is the right to vote. Some call voting a duty, but it is most certainly not a privilege.

The last two elections showed just how much disdain the Republican power brokers have for the idea that every vote is sacred. In 2000, they claimed expediency was more important than the will of the people. In 2000 (and 2004), they purged voters from the rolls, and put up obstacles to voting (such as limiting the number of voting machines in districts that leaned Democratic). They've embraced voting machines that can be easily hacked. After the disaster that was Ohio in 2004, the group Black Box Voting formed to ensure accuracy and accountability was returned to the voting process. Sadly, it has been a slow-moving ongoing effort.

There seems to be a four-layer approach to maintaining Republican power:

Step 1 - Purge voters from the rolls so they can't vote: Once again, the Republicans are trying to purge voters from the rolls, close enough to the election that voters won't know until they get to the polls and find out they can't vote. Once again, Ohio is ground zero:
We heard a lot last night about Joe the Plumber, but did you know that a recent court ruling last night threatens the ability of thousands like Joe to have their votes counted? According to today's Toledo Blade, he is Joe Wurzelbacher of Shrewsbury Street in Springfield Township in Lucas County, Ohio.
As the Blade notes, many thought Joe was not a registered voter. Turns out there was likely a misspelling in the Lucas County Board of Elections database. From the Blade: "Linda Howe, executive director of the Lucas County Board of Elections, said a Samuel Joseph Worzelbacher, whose address and age match Joe the Plumber's, registered in Lucas County on Sept. 10, 1992. He voted in his first primary on March 4, 2008, registering as a Republican. Ms. Howe said that the name may be misspelled in the database."

Politico's Ben Smith makes the connection that if Joe registered this year, he could be purged from the rolls under a 6th Circuit Court ruling on Tuesday.

That's because on Tuesday, following a lawsuit by the Ohio republican party, the court ordered Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to disclose to local election officials the names of 200,000 new registrants whose names didn't match with state motor vehicle or federal Social Security databases. This list could be used by local election officials and party operatives to prevent these voters from casting ballots that will count. As Secretary Brunner knows and the Brennan Center demonstrated in the brief, almost all mis-matches are the result of typos and administrative errors—like in Joe's case.

Why would the Republican party target newly registered voters? Because they know that people who are registering for the first time are doing so because they want a change from the status quo. That translates as "Obama voters". They also know that college students tend to vote Dem, so they are being targeted as well:
Imagine you're a college student and you'll be voting for the first time in November. You hear from some that you're able to register to vote at your university address. You are warned by others that if you do, you could lose a scholarship, or health or car insurance, and you'll have to get a new driver's license, too. You consider voting absentee, only to be told by get-out-the-vote volunteers that your absentee ballot really counts only if the election is close.

Confused yet?

Virginia Tech students certainly were when they were delivered these conflicting messages over the past few weeks. With voter registration drives in full swing on campus, students got word from the local registrar of elections that they could face consequences if they registered to vote in Blacksburg--they could lose residency-based scholarships, or their tax status could change--even though, according to the Supreme Court, students have the right to vote where they go to college...

They've also been trying to purge voters who have recently lost their homes due to foreclosure, since they may no longer live in the districts where they are registered. How disgusting is that?

Step 2 - Make it harder to vote once they get there: This can be done in two ways - question their identity and provide minimal and crappy voting machines so that people become so frustrated with long lines that they leave before casting their ballot. The latter was attempted in Ohio in 2004, and - to their surprise - people actually cared enough to be willing to stand in line for 8 hours so they could vote. This has led many states to review their readiness for this year. Here's a report card on how well they are doing...

The willingness of people to stand in line for hours to vote has led to a surfeit of voter ID laws. The righteous indignation preceding the introduction in chamber for these bills has been the notion that voter fraud is rampant (projection much?) and must be prevented by ensuring voters prove who they are. They know very well of course that poor people and people who live in the city likely don't have a driver's license and vote Dem, so this puts an additional burden on them to get some other form of picture ID.

The Dems in GA have filed a lawsuit to overturn GA's voterID law:
On May 23rd 2008 the Democratic Party filed a lawsuit against the State of Georgia in Superior Court of Fulton County for requiring a photo ID in order to vote. In a parallel case, the party is suing in State court as well, based on the Georgia Constitution.
[...]
The complaint includes three main claims. First, it argues the act of showing a photographic identification from the State was not included in the Constitution of Georgia as a condition of voting.

Second, it argues such a requirement discriminates against Black voters, who as a whole tend to own fewer cars and have fewer pieces of photo identification than other Georgians.

Finally, it argues the law is retroactive and places an undue burden on the rights of Georgians to vote....

Hopefully they win, and this becomes a precedent for similar cases in other states...

Step 3 - Hack the voting machines: From 2002 to 2006, the use of electronic voting machines has risen and fallen. The infamous Diebold machines with no paper trail (from a company that makes ATM machines), were shown to be easily hacked. The senatorial race in GA in 2002 was definitely hacked. As a result, the touchscreen machines have either fallen out of favor, or have been forced to add a receipt printer. What is not as well known is that the optical scanner machines (utilizing the "fill in the dots with a number 2 pencil"-type ballot) can also be hacked (I used to have a video showing this, but seem to have lost it). This interactive map shows which states use what for voting.

Step 4 - If all else fails, try to get votes disqualified after the fact and throw the entire election in doubt: It's no coincidence that the ACORN story is being splashed all over. If the Republicans can cast enough doubt on the legitimacy of an Obama presidency, they can severely hamstring his ability to get things done. McCain is already doing that in campaign ads, as noted by Laura Flanders:
The McCain ad goes on to accuse ACORN of "massive voter fraud," saying the group is under investigation in 11 states "for thousands of potentially fraudulent ACORN (voter registration) forms."

To clarify again: ACORN has registered a stunning 1.3 million voters so far this year. (Not an insignificant fact in this story.) Most states require all voter applications, even ones with obvious mistakes, to be turned in to election officials. It is that record, flagged and submitted by ACORN, that the GOP attack ads are using. Flawed forms are flagged so they'll be thrown out. No matter what the GOP ads say, "massive voter fraud" has not been perpetrated - because "voter fraud" requires voting.

That last line is emphasized in an article titled "Will Mickey Mouse Vote?":
Hasen is the William H. Hannon Distinguished Professor of Law at Loyola Law School. He said today: "So even if Mickey Mouse is registering, he is not showing up on election day to cast ballots, and so far as I am aware, there have been no cases of phony voter registrations leading to the casting of votes in any election that have been on any large scale -- much less affected the outcome of elections. So we should all agree that those who submit fraudulent voter registration forms should be punished criminally, but that such activity is not going to affect the outcome of the presidential election. ... But cries of voter fraud allow for harsh purging of voters from the rolls. Because of decentralization of election authority and a lack of administrative competence or will, the rolls are inaccurate in many states. Careless purging -- driven by unsubstantiated fears about voter fraud -- can lead to many eligible voters being incorrectly removed from the polls."

... which leads us back to Step 1.

Even though it's highly unlikely that they'll be able to steal the election this year, the reality that some eligible voters will have their right to vote denied this year is reprehensible. Like healthcare, Wall Street, and the banking industry, this is a national disaster that needs serious repair.

Bonus Click: If you haven't already, check out Steal Back Your Vote. Early voting (where available) is highly recommended.

 

161 comments (Latest Comment: 10/18/2008 03:06:06 by clintster)
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