Sunday, September 14, 2008

By Hook Or By Crook

Wisconsin Attorney General is hoping that McCain gets elected in November. After all, isn't that why he is the co-chair of McCain's campaign committee. He is also apparently counting on McCain staying the course and echoing Bush in awarding U.S. Attorney positions to the party faithful, rather than to the competent.

Why else would he file a blatantly partisan lawsuit to disenfranchise anyone who has registered or moved since January 1, 2006? The right side keeps falling over themselves trying to state that he is simply "enforcing the law." The problem with their argument is that Van Hollen apparently doesn't know what the law is exactly:
Aides to Van Hollen have said his suit will not disenfranchise voters, because in a worst-case scenario a voter can cast a provisional ballot that would be counted later when the voter provides proof of residence. But a Government Accountability Board spokesman said Friday that only a limited number of voters have that option.

Department of Justice officials "sound a little foggy on who is entitled to cast a provisional ballot," said board spokesman Kyle Richmond.

People can cast provisional ballots in only two scenarios, he said. Those who register to vote for the first time by mail without providing proof of residence can cast provisional ballots if they don't have proof of residence with them when they show up to vote. Also allowed to cast provisional ballots are voters who have Wisconsin driver's licenses but cannot provide the license number when they register at the polls.

Others - such as those who want to register at the polls but do not have proof of residence or someone with them who can vouch for their address - cannot cast provisional ballots, according to the board.

Van Hollen aide Kevin St. John said he stood by comments that he and Deputy Attorney General Ray Taffora made earlier that voters who failed the database checks were adequately protected by provisional ballots.

Richmond also questioned claims earlier this week by Department of Justice officials who said the suit was intended to make sure truly ineligible voters - such as dead people and felons serving their sentences - don't cast ballots.
It is clear to anyone but the most partisan right wing hack that Van Hollen is trying to disenfranchise the poor, who are often transient, and young college students that have registered for their first election. Both of these demographics traditionally vote Democratic more often that Republican. MAL Contends and Michael Mathias have more on Van Hollen's crass handling of the issue.

Van Hollen's ham-fisted attempt at tampering with the election isn't the only way Team McPalin is trying to steal Wisconsin's election. We also have the McPalin camp sending out absentee ballots with incorrect information, which would, of course, eliminate the votes of anyone who uses them. The ever-talented Emily Mills points out that this isn't isolated to Wisconsin, but appears to be a national wide attempt by McCain and his handlers to steal the election.

Wisconsin residents are not alone with have their elections integrity threatened either.

Ohio has a problem with voting machines that have programming errors that "drop" votes. There also appears to be a problem with elections officials leaving the machines in a secure place. They would rather take them home with them.

California has voting machines that are infected with a virus that can cause votes to change votes, even when a paper trail is available.

Michigan has a Republican-backing foreclosure specialist, which is not only allowing the Republicans to use their office as their headquarters, but are supplying the Repubs with a list of people who have had their houses foreclosed on, in an effort to eliminate people that might be more than a little upset about the Republican economic policies.

Virginia is also threatening college students. If the kids dare to vote at school, they risk losing their scholarships and their tax dependency status.

The most ironic part of all of these stories of voter suppression would be funny, if the subject matter weren't so awfully serious and outrageous. It comes from Mark Jefferson, executive director of the Republican Party. As they are threatening to eliminate up to one million votes in Wisconsin alone, if lists don't match up exactly, he defends their defrauding the absentee ballot system with this line:
Mark Jefferson, executive director of the state Republican Party, denied there was any intent to prevent people from voting. The wrong absentee ballot applications were the result of incorrect information in databases used for the mailing, he said.

"You do the best with the lists you have, and no list is perfect," Jefferson said.

I would call that the height of hypocrisy, but I guess we're not supposed to use that word anymore.

3 comments:

  1. Your tinfoil hat is also glowing in the dark.

    ReplyDelete
  2. dad29 - I'd argue that anything that messes with people's right to vote is bad, and therefor worth our close attention. Regardless of location, party affiliation or anything else, shouldn't we be concerned that there are so many problems with the voting process in this country? And that any candidate would send out such a massively defective and potentially disastrously misleading flier? I think so.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dad,

    It's a crown. Get it straight, woodja?

    ReplyDelete