Thousands of Voters Are Being Purged Illegally
Eligible voters are being removed from the voting rolls in many swing states. This is very troubling, and the problem will not be fixed before the coming Presidential election.
From The New York Times…
Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law, according to a review of state records and Social Security data by The New York Times.
The actions do not seem to be coordinated by one party or the other, nor do they appear to be the result of election officials intentionally breaking rules, but are apparently the result of mistakes in the handling of the registrations and voter files as the states tried to comply with a 2002 federal law, intended to overhaul the way elections are run.
Still, because Democrats have been more aggressive at registering new voters this year, according to state election officials, any heightened screening of new applications may affect their party’s supporters disproportionately. The screening or trimming of voter registration lists in the six states — Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina — could also result in problems at the polls on Election Day: people who have been removed from the rolls are likely to show up only to be challenged by political party officials or election workers, resulting in confusion, long lines and heated tempers.
Some states allow such voters to cast provisional ballots. But they are often not counted because they require added verification.
From TPM…
It looks like the effort by the McCain campaign and the Republican party to make an issue out of ACORN’s voter registration activities has gone national.
We’ve seen reports from several states in recent days that the group, which works to register low-income and minority voters, has submitted flawed or fraudulent voter registration forms — though it’s by no means clear how widespread the problem is.
But that’s not stopping the McCain team. At a town-hall meeting in Wisconsin today, when supporters began to chant the group’s name in derision, the Arizona senator seized the moment to go on the attack.
“You’ve seen the allegations, the multiple registrations under the same name, the more registered voters than the population, these are serious allegations, my friends, and they must be investigated, and they must be investigated immediately and they must be stopped before November the fourth, so Americans will not — will not — be deprived of a fair process in this election.
. . .
ACORN may have been lax, at best, in its procedures for gathering registration forms. But aside from the GOP’s continuing inability to pinpoint the scale of the problem, it’s also worth noting that, as the Wall Street Journal puts it, “a fake registration doesn’t necessarily mean an ineligible vote is tallied. Officials say canvassers sometimes make up registered names to impress bosses or earn bonuses, but that doesn’t result in anyone ineligible casting a vote.”
But by shrieking about voter fraud, the McCain camp hopes to make voting officials more willing to place restrictions in the path of voters on election day, potentially causing delays and confusion at the polls, and reducing overall turnout. And it seeks to discredit any Obama victory by raising the suggestion that it was aided by the votes of ineligible voters.
From The Huffington Post…
This morning my husband and I proudly mailed in our absentee ballots for our Congresswoman, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, various state and local initiatives, and of course President Barack Obama.
Unfortunately too many Americans still have to fight for the opportunity to vote – and GOP voter suppression efforts are mischief designed to make matters worse.
From Social Security News Blog…
I had earlier commented that Michael Astrue’s letter to state election officials about possible excessive use of Social Security’s databases to confirm new voter registrations seemed to be a possible sign of voter suppression. It appears that voter suppression is going on, probably unintentional, but those letters were not part of it, but an indirect result of it. A New York Times article shows that the letters from Social Security were brought about by inquiries to Social Security from the New York Times, concerning state efforts to purge voting rolls. The Times article is confusing, but it is clear that we should all hope that this election is not close because there have been some dramatic and probably illegal purges of voting rolls. There may be some would-be voters getting a nasty surprise on election day.
Montana GOP’s Voter Suppression…
The Montana GOP has proven once again that they’re a bunch of dirty, cheating douchebags. This time they’ve gone through the Postal Service’s list of people who have had their mail forwarded in the last 18 months for several Democratic strongholds in the state and, a mere 30 days before the election, challenged all voter registrations on the list on the grounds that they may be registered in the wrong location.
Apparently, many people whose registrations will be challenged will have to jump through hoops in order to get their right to vote back. According to the Helena Independent Record, “Voters who are challenged likely will receive a letter from the county, asking them to verify their current address with a notarized statement.” (Emphasis added)
So in other words, you have less than 30 days to receive your letter, go get a notarized statement, and get it back to the department of elections or risk not getting to vote. When the Montana GOP accuses you of being incorrectly registered to vote, apparently you’re guilty until proven innocent! The party says it just wants to make sure everyone is registered in the right district and that there’s no “monkey business”, but I call bullshit.
The fact that they’ve waited until the eve of the elections to drop this on us, and that they’ve targeted traditionally Democratic-leaning counties, makes me a little suspicious. It’s not inconceivable that for a lot of people it would be highly inconvenient, perhaps restrictively so so, to wait to see if they get a letter in the mail, go find a notary public to notarize their statement, and return it to the department of elections in time for the election. I think that the Montana GOP wants to take some of the thunder out of the Democratic Party’s drive to mobilize first-time voters — which the GOP is apparently failing to do — by throwing one more hurdle between them in the ballot box. Even if they manage to scare off a thousand or just a few hundred people, that’s a fairly significant chunk of voters in a state like Montana where the total population is less than 1 million.
The Election Protection Wiki is a non-partisan, non-profit collaboration of citizens, activists and researchers to build a one-stop-shop for reports of voter suppression and the systemic threats to election integrity. We collect just the straight facts that are fully referenced to external, verifiable sources, and we need your help.
The GOP is now trying to paint voter registration fraud on the part of the Dems/left, which is ludicrous, if also clever. They have made it sound like ACORN is corrupting the process when ACORN itself was the one to question some of the registrations that came through them; there’s suspicion that the illicit or duplicate registrations actually came from Republicans. Whatever the case, either way, diligence and reportage, that’s what it will take to make sure we have fair elections.
Voter Purging. Are you registered to vote? Have you been purged?
What do you think about this? Are you concerned? Let me know what you think in comments.
