Friday, October 31, 2008

HEADING TO OHIO FOR ELECTION DAY POLL WATCHING

My wife and I have downloaded the “Ohio Voter Protection Laws in a Nutshell” and Sections of Title 35 of the Ohio Revised Code and we're headed to Ohio to combine a visit with our kid in college with some "get out the vote" work and "voter protection" poll watching. Based on the training sessions, the on line trainings, the emails from organizers and the word from our network of friends is that there is an army of volunteer lawyers headed to polling places in battleground states to stop republicans from suppressing votes and/or stealing another election. The bottom line is that we are up against people who don’t really believe in universal suffrage and playing by the rules.

Hard to forget the documentary film about Florida 2000 that showed screaming, wall pounding young republican congressional staffers trying to prevent the Board of Election vote recounting (remember the hanging dimpled chads) while the Supreme Court was waiting in the wings to put the final fix in like old time bought and sold street corner pols.

Hard to forget the election day police road blocks to intimidate Afro American voters or in Ohio 2004 when Republicans, led by the then Republican secretary of state, litigated until early morning on election day to allow partisan vote challengers (one from each side) to be inside polling places challenging voter credentials.

Hard not to be terrified about the transparent republican goal of purging voters from registered voter lists because they moved, or because a data entry clerk at social security or the dept of motor vehicles put in a wrong digit.

The republican voter suppression campaign uses the myth of voter fraud as a cover. In the last debate McCain hinted that we can probably expect a post election day fraud spin. A key component of the fraud myth is ignoring the obvious distinction between registration fraud and voting fraud. Lets assume someone is able to register Mickey Mouse [ala the Acorn fake registrations]. The fake person still has to show up at the polls, get past poll workers and into a polling booth. The bogus fear is that a poll worker will say - “Right this way Mr Mouse. Oh and by the way sir - I’ve always loved your work.”

[The other important fact is that although fake registration forms (obviously a bad thing that should never have been allowed to happen) will not generate any fraudulent votes, a machine that flips your vote from who you chose to someone else could, without anyone being able to figure it out, change thousands of votes... ]

They also know that in poor Afro American districts forcing people to come up with photo id is a good way of stopping people from voting. As recently as April the 6–3 decision in April written by John Paul Stevens, Crawford v. Marion County Election Board ,upheld a 2005 Indiana law requiring voters in that state to produce a government document with a photograph at the polls.

The following is from Obama: The Price of Being Black By Andrew Hacker The New York Review of Books Volume 55, Number 14 September 25, 2008


Requiring a driver's license to vote has a disparate racial impact, a finding that once commanded judicial notice. To apply for the state ID card that Indiana offers as an alternative, moreover, nondrivers must travel to a motor vehicles office, which for many would be a lengthy trip. While licenses do not record race, Justice David Souter cited relevant studies of the race of license-holders in his dissent, which was joined by Justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In one survey, made by the Department of Justice in 1994, black residents of Louisiana were found to be four to five times more likely not to have the official photograph needed for an identifying document. (Not to mention access to a car; recall how many couldn't leave as Katrina approached.) A Wisconsin survey published in 2005 was more precise. No fewer than 53 percent of black adults in Milwaukee County were not licensed to drive, compared with 15 percent of white adults in the remainder of the state. According to its author,
similar disparities will be found across the nation.

In contrast Ohio allows voter identification at the polls to include proof of who you are based on knowing the last four digits of your social security number, or producing a current utility bill or pay check or other government document with your name and address.

It would be very interesting to compare the Republican and Democratic budgets for voter registration campaigns.

To be continued tomorrow from Ohio . . . .

Monday, October 27, 2008

McCain/Palin mobs are going gaga about this no last name thing - isnt that what they did in the middle ages, before last names were invented?

Its a new low in the history of dumbing down. The entire Republican campaign platform has been reduced to three words - "Joe the plumber"

McCain and Palin are now jazzing up their dwindling crowds of mean spirited diehards with this weird no last name fetish. McCain cracks himself up with how clever it was to come up with a campaign theme inspired by the middle ages - when all a guy needed on his ox cart license was Nigil the weaver's boy or Cecil the Sundial setter.

Is McCain running for President or Sheriff of Nottingham? I guess its just more nose crinkling small town harkening back to a simpler time when goverment wasn't squandering our hard earned tax money on those gosh darn wasteful earmarks - like sewers and running water.