A Sign of Things to Come?

Sorry for the off-topic post, but I can't resist these stupid Palin quotes: "If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations," Palin told host Chris Plante, "then I don't know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media." http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/10/palin-fears-med.html
--
Because obviously the First Amendment was never intended to protect journalists' right to criticize politicians.

I've fallen into moderation oblivion again...

This caused an incident today in my town of Spartanburg, SC. The local head of the GOP challenged a 74 yr old black lady trying to vote absentee because her signature didn't look right. He is kind of a notorious thug (even a lot of GOPers don't like him because of him being a bully) and the poll worker ended up bursting into tears because of the situation.
They've even reported it to the Justice Dept.

http://www.goupstate.com/article/20081031/NEWS/810312973/1083?Title=Long_line_snaps_in_spat_over_vote

A co-worker of mine signed a petition several months ago that was supposed to be to support a California ballot proposition. He just found out (upon checking his registration) that he has had his registration switched to Republican without his knowledge or consent. When he complained about this to his local registrar of voters, they removed his registration to vote entirely and then told him they were too busy to do anything about it until after the election. He lives in an area where the congressional race is tight.

[...] Posted by John Hummel on October 31, 2008 Seriously - this is how desperate people are to deny others the vote? One Mr. Kinsley of Seattle almost didnt’ get to vote because his signature didn’t match what was on the voter rolls. Of course, the fact that Mr. Kinsley has Parkinson’s disease that causes muscles shakes has *nothing* to .... [...]

Whether you're a Democrat, Republican, or other. Whether you support ACORN or hate it. Whether you trust electronic or paper ballots:

This nation MUST fix its voting system. Period. Fraud is unacceptable, and the disenfranchisement of eligible voters is unacceptable. This stuff MUST be fixed. I'm tired of talking about it every two years. Let's fix it.

@teresakopec: Thanks - I hadn't heard that story yet. That's just sick and wrong. What is wrong with these people? I can understand not wanting to lose - but would they want to be treated this way?

@rose83

Don't be sorry. I showed up with that very quote in my clipboard as well.

As I said at ABC:

Leave it to Professor Palin, civics instructor extraordinaire to utterly fail to undderstand the actual words of the Constitution!

I can't begin to stress how frightening that is. The Republican candidate for Vice President of the United States doesn't know enough about the Constitution to be aware that point of the bill of rights is to limit the actions of the GOVERNMENT!

Time to put the maintenance of the electoral roll in the hands of non-partisan professionals. Thanks. GOP, for your attacks on ACORN: it's made the case for federalizing voter registration.

rose, it was the a$$ociation in your quote that put you in moderation.

I really hope the sheriffs can work that out soon.

pseudonymous in NC: "it's made the case for federalizing voter registration."

Not a bad idea. The feds don't have any magic answers, but at least we'd have consistency.

That said....

Ok, so we don't want signature checks. And we don't want an ID requirement. We just assume that anyone who wanders in (or mails in a ballot) is a legitimate voter? I agree that voter fraud is not a major problem at present, but if you want it to become a major problem, that sounds like a good way to go about it. I recall stories from old Chicago of voters being bussed from polling place to polling place. Want to see that again?

The tight governor's race is precisely why ballots are being scrutinized out here. The race is, after all, a rematch of the 2004 Washington (the state!) governor's match in which something like 133 votes decided the election -- and that was after numerous recounts, by both hand and machine, as well as a multi-week court case that ultimately resolved the matter. And amid speculation of Democratic rigging of the vote in King County (Seattle being a shimmering liberal palatial city and all) in 2004, there is trepidation coming from those who are in charge of tabulating this year's race.

Robert Sullivan wrote:
'I recall stories from old Chicago of voters being bussed from polling place to polling place. Want to see that again?'

No, I don't. But we have a huge problem right now. Legitimate voters are being routinely and systematically denied their rights on a breath-taking scale. Compared to what's going on now, actual instances of fraudulent voting are small (and often merely unsubstantiated anecdotes).

I'd rather not have to choose between voter fraud or voter suppression, but if I had to pick I'd favor people being guaranteed their right to vote.

Once again, make sure that you can vote; not much time left...

http://www.canivote.org/

I checked my registration on g_crush's link. What I saw when I checked the registration base I had access to when entering Obama data turns out to be accurate. When I changed my registration before the primary, the person at the election board who entered it made a three decade error in my age. Kind of funny -- at least I'm not going to be checked on that! Will fix after election day.

People have become so obsessed with the fear of making a mistake that they have over reacted. But the emotional leaps of logic used in this campaign only stoke the flames of fear. . ...........

http://thefiresidepost.com/2008/10/31/tragic-leaps-of-emotional-logic/

The basic cost-benefit analysis gives voter suppression more bang for the buck.

You can't simply dismiss the prospect of fraud, but the cases where it arises tend to be tied to local influence-peddling: small-town mayoral races, county sheriff elections, situations where there's room to lean on people.

I can't remember any stories like this coming out of Canada in the run-up to their general election.

Maybe a little off topic but ..How did the party office know his ballot wasn't going to count? Do they publish a list of ballots cast that are going to be counted?

HMMjlk pwsmyhjbogkx, [url=http://wpkubjusutwy.com/]wpkubjusutwy[/url], [link=http://kfqrsmjzzojx.com/]kfqrsmjzzojx[/link], http://vrjcyxluzzsc.com/