“The King St Patriots” sounds like the name of some British intra war blackshirt org. actually i guess its kind of the same thing

Good morning, Glenn. I’m sure that people have always cheated and lied but it seems that these days they are just blatant and in-your-face because they know they will never be punished for their deceit. It’s getting worse and very scary.

Voter suppression and intimidation campaigns have become an accepted part of election institutions. Everyone just shrugs it off. We only have to look at voting percentages among their targets (the poor, minorities) to see they are very effective.

They take their name from a street related to the Boston Tea Party. But you’re right, it does sound vaguely faux royal.

Great post Glenn and yes Voter Suppression is way under reported and almost never investigated. The Dems needs to grow a pair and fight back in the courts against such tactics. I mean there are laws against voter suppression …right?

Why do they hate democracy? I guess it conflicts with their actual belief system.

Thanks for this. This issue is really a can of worms and one has to pause to wonder just how extensive it may be and is it reaching alarming levels as during the days of poll taxes and literacy tests. (I took one when I first registered in Georgia, but that’s another story). We have to accept the vote the most precious of our rights will always be under assault.

This may be slightly tangential but I continue to be very skeptical about electronic voting and have come close to losing a friend who is an elections board chairman. But I feel alarm to hear of hacking and putting Pac Man on some without leaving a trail or read things like this::

But the vote was 97% electronic with absolutely no audit mechanisms used. Where votes were counted by hand, the Democrat Coakley defeated Brown by a margin of 2.8%; where votes were counted secretly by machine, Brown defeated Coakley by a margin of 5.2%.

Link to the original and source which I have to admit I am not certain is reliable or at leasts aids those who call us paranoid conspiracy theorists.

Yes, for too long Democrats have laid back and let this stuff happen. There used to be conventional wisdom that said we shouldn’t fight back because it would only spread the fear and discourage voters. That’s so wrong-headed it’s hard to believe it was taken as effective.

It’s a little better now, but still people don’t get outraged enough about what is essentially an attack on democracy’s most important institution: the vote.

It is a bit ironic that the repuke guy in Ohio who “Rigged the Vote” in 04 conveniently died in a small plane crash…

It’s got to be a concern that electronic voting contained no way to audit or recount. Paper receipts would be so easy to do, I mean, they manage easily enough to do it at, say, ATMS. Also, code could easily be written to toss every other vote for Candidate X and then erase itself at poll closing time. Given the history of rigged and manipulated elections, one doesn’t have to wear a tin hat to see that the possibility was built into the systems.

These fools are going to half to get more creative as he predominant skin tone of America is changing.

Ironic and frightening.

Yes, and that’s why the campaigns are more organized and better funded. It’s a pull up the ladder plan to head off the political changes that will follow the demographic changes.

For great reporting on Voter Fraud you have to visit: http://www.bradblog.com/
They cover the all elections and voter suppression and actual fraud. ve

a simple coincidence

Occam’s Razor, people!! Occam’s Razor.

/s

Here’s a toast to the simplest explanation and the truth!

“Paper receipts would be so easy to do, I mean, they manage easily enough to do it at, say, ATMS”

No.

Absolute no-go.

If you have access to a receipt showing how you voted after you’ve left the polling place then you can sell your vote… or be forced to sell it whether you want to or not.

Bradblog does a great job. Thanks for the link.

Remember how black voters were stopped from going to the polls in Florida? Remember how a company in Texas helped Florida delete many black voters from the rolls?

Remember how the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Rehnquist got his start politically as a GOP operative working to keep Democrats from voting in Arizona?

Remember poll taxes?

Remember how trying to cast a vote could cost you your life?

Remember how many minorities have been jailed for pot and lost their right to vote?

Remember how women didn’t get the vote until 1920?

I wonder how close the election will be allowed to be by the MOTU. I bet it is a landslide for the repugs with overt voter suppression. This is just one of the many ways we are being taught the lesson that we are disposable.

That’s an interesting point, but we still need a verification system.

Yes, we pride ourselves on our democracy but the truth is the people have had to fight for decades even centuries to get to a place that even resembles democracy.

Great link. thanks.

I forgot to include the ethnic cleansing of New Orleans that turned LA red.

Truly sad.

and blackshirt

hey Glenn, hey Firedogs -

Glenn and others help me out – am not in Houston so easily could be talking out my ass – but I thought burning those voting machines was abjectly stupid in that Harris County is White’s home, that means he has his own ‘machine’ that will easily ferret out the Who, What, Why – yes, I know that it is also home to the Baker/Fertitta cabal – but White has a much more direct line to arson investigators – doncha think ?

we have to stop them. we have to spend less time on the web and more time in field. blogging chatting and networking have thier use, and have replaced pamphleting but nothing can replace coming together as a class, in solidarity and putting your ass(and your skull) on the line.

My county remains 95% red by issuing no multifamily dwelling permits and telling little old ladies they can’t vote in the Democratic primary.

The fire is very suspicious, and arson investigators have yet to say anything publicly. White will play this straight, he’s not going to use any undo influence or anything. The fire may have been accidental, though no one’s figured out how the fire could have spread so quickly (nothing there but metal and plastic machines) without an accelerant.

Sounds like a good place to start with poll watchers. Can be very effective.

Yes, we have to stop them.

It’s a safe bet that the Right will have more poll watchers/intimidators etc. this time. Many more. We at least have to be there to protect our voters.

Yes, if the intimidators see people writing things down and keeping a close eye, they might get a little antsy.

It works. They especially don’t like to be photographed.

That’s an interesting point, but we still need a verification system.

There is none possible… and that’s the whole point of e-voting: you can not verify it to begin with.

After literally hundreds thousands of man-hours devoted to hundreds of attempts at a “secure system” the e-voting scheme that cannot be gamed is still as elusive as Dick Cheney’s conscience…

So any “paper trail” that is printed out instead of an actual physical ballot is only as trustworthy as the machine that did the printing… which is to say it’s unverifiable.

And they rammed e-voting down everyone’s throat via an act of congress as a supposed response to the Bush v. Gore travesty… neat trick, eh?

“Paper receipts would be so easy to do”…………

That’s the tip off. The ONLY reason we don’t have paper receipts is it would make it more difficult to steal elections.

Our national elections are a fraud for several reasons. First, the corporate media is the dominant player in general elections and presidential primaries. Second, gerrymandering is an incumbent protection racket. Third, voting machines make ballot stuffing easy and risk free. And of course voter suppression which takes many forms including felony convictions and the mis-allocation of machines to poor neighborhoods. The central problem? Our primary political institutions (Democrat and Republican Parties) would have to WANT clean elections for there to be reform.

The irony is that in my county the chair of the election board is a Blue Dog Democrat who along with my GOP chair friend from another county vigorously defended the actions saying the poll workers were just making certain little old ladies understood they could not vote for Republican primary candidates on a Democratic ballot. Duh!

Oh yeah. And now that corps are peeps and money is speech……………….

I knew I left something out.

I just sent their name,address and telephone and fax numbers to my local gay newspaper! By the end of the week they’ll be flooded with gay-mail telephone calls and the wires on their fax machine ought to be sizzling!

You are apparently unaware of the grand old American pastime known as “Want to keep your job? Vote for who the boss likes.”

Don’t worry… if voting receipts are mandated in any form then everyone will become reacquainted with that old pastime very, very quickly.

telling little old ladies they can’t vote in the Democratic primary.

How exactly do they do that?

We have no registration by parties. But we have separate ballots for Democrats and Republicans for primaries. When one goes to vote he/she asks for ballot either a Democratic or a Republican ballot. (you can’t vote both). At that juncture the poll workers at my poll (and similarly at other polls ) picks up the Republican ballot hands it forward and says “but if you take the Democratic ballot you won’t be able to vote for any of these people.” In my case I said that I wanted to vote the Democratic ballot. The worker sighed and said “are you sure?” then finally picked up the Democratic ballot.

Some of us who had the experience complained and sent notes to the SOS office as well as the Board. We never heard officially again. But as I said the two chairs I call friend heatedly defended it on the grounds of providing necessary information..

Are you suggesting that there is no way to insure an honest election? Don’t the Canadians have some sort of paper ballot. Does that mean their employers are dictating the vote? I’m not arguing, just asking.

Excellent testimony Stick. Were there onlookers? I find it interesting that you were required to declare your party affiliation prior to voting.

It is absolutely essential to call out these groups for what they are and to put these events in the context of a larger anti-democratic project.

But we also need to fight back. Absent an organizational response, on the ground, these tactics will succeed. Only grassroots organizations can provide people to tools to respond. If elite Democrats were sufficiently motivated by the self-interest of reelection, the party would be taking care of this. But clearly, that is not the case. Local parties might respond, if activists demand it. What I wonder is, what groups are out there on the ground, mobilizing voters? Because those are the ones best positioned to help people see this for what it is.

During good unionization campaigns, unions will tell workers what to expect, show them the literature that has been used in prior campaigns, tell them the lies they should expect to hear. That is precisely what we need to happen for voters who are most likely to be subject to suppression efforts.

As to the longer term problem – I think it is simple. A universal right to vote for all citizens over the age of 18 (if not younger). A national voter list and a single set of rules. The right of a person to vote must be fundamental, and trump the imaginary concern that someone who should not vote might. Paper ballots, which are uniform at the federal, state and local levels. And for the Democratic Party, never again allow big media driven politics targeting a sliver of the electorate to replace boots to the ground, person to person contact that seeks to mobilize as many people as possible, because the latter simply invites dirty tricks.

I really am among an oppressed minority in the area I live. There are all kinds of discouragement even subtle threats to life and limb just out in the public arena.

Several of us have complained about the way they handle the declaration of party through request for ballot. The workers nearly always repeat the request loud enough to be heard some distance away. And the sample ballots that the workers use to “help” voters understand how to vote are different colors. Blue GOP white Dem.

It will take outside Federal actions to change much as almost the whole state is Tea Party or Blue Dog.

In these southern red states it is not just calling out partisan groups or even finding activists to pressure a competent at least marginally fair state and local government. Our very governments top to bottom are ideological far right wingers.

I do not think responses need to be limited to pressuring government. In the example provided by Glenn, fliers are being sent out to people to scare them away from the polls. While a government response to that might be a good thing, I am talking about helping individuals see those fliers for what they are and giving them the knowledge and confidence not to be intimidated. That said, I am not sure there are any states that are *top to bottom are ideological far right wingers*. Certainly that is not the case in TX (although the pockets where it is not true are often few and far between). The key is to find the cracks and work them.

Still, as you said above, a federal response is necessary. My list of suggestions ought to be advocated as a voting rights amendment (also part of that – clean elections), and much of it could be accomplished through ordinary congressional legislation. If you do it right, you can advance the ball at multiple levels at once.

Ah, you have confused “ballot” with “receipt.” A ballot is not a receipt, as the ballot stays at the polling place.

An actual, physical ballot… not an ephemeral collection of electrons that can be untraceably altered at the whim of the machine.

An actual, physical ballot… not an ersatz substitute printed out to say whatever the machine wants you to think while it invisibly totes up lists of those ephemeral collections of electrons to come out with whatever whatever answer it’s been preprogrammed to give.

Yes. I like to believe I am among a number of nodes of liberals and actually we do communicate, demonstrate and do some of the things you suggest.

I was probably limiting my focus too narrowly on the remedies for voting fraud.

I do think what you are talking about is a serious problem that those of us in deep blue territory are often ignorant of. Of course, the best defense is a good offense. When they talk about phony voter fraud, this is a good example of what we ought to respond with. There are so many opportunities for problems, both intended and not. We can fix those and secure the rights of everyone or we can cede this issue to those who oppose democracy. Democratic officials ought to be forced to chose the former.

Texas Republicans are scared to death right now. Bill White was a very popular mayor of Houston, and all of Houston will probably vote for him for Governor. Austin will vote for White. And the Dallas business community has endorsed White. They believe Rick Perry is just too unmanageable. Even the Bushes won’t back Perry.
I would not be the least bit surprised to learn that the fire that destroyed all of Harris County’s voting machines was an arson. After all, what better way to suppress the opposition vote than to limit their ability to vote?

Election integrity advocates have long since learned to use “electoral fraud” to describe the subject at hand.

Words matter, and you want readers and listeners to be easily able to tell the difference between the very real election tampering and the imaginary (and wholly corporate-sponsored) specter of “rampant voter fraud.”

And yes, using the bogeyman of “rampant voter fraud” in order to deprive people of their right to vote is electoral fraud.

And to David @52. Thanks. Very insightful commentary and helpful.

I’ve been waiting on the fire assessment. When the hell are these guys going to issue something?

“When the hell are these guys going to issue something?”

The day after the election. Not sure who is responsible for the investigation but the Harris County Sheriff is a democrat.