Doonesbury takes on GOP voter suppression

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Think that Gary Trudeau was joking in today's excellent Doonesbury strip?  Think again. 

The Republican National Committee has set up a "vote fraud" page at its web site http://www.gop.com/ycmtu.htm, and the GOP's media arm at Fox News has been promoting a "voter fraud" hotline ([email protected]) for several weeks now.  The Raw Story | Dead voters: Fox continues to push 'voter fraud' claims

I'm pretty sure that it is a violation of federal law for a political party to coordinate its unlawful "voter suppression" efforts (The RNC is still subject to a court order for past violations of law) with a federally licensed broadcast network, but someone with far greater knowledge of the arcane FEC and FCC rules and regulations will have to examine this.

This blog's friend Brad Friedman at BradBlog has taken a particular interest in Fox's "voter fraud" investigations. He enthusiastically endorses that readers feel free to email Fox News this link: http://www.bradblog.com/CoulterFraud documenting the one actual case of voter fraud by Ann Coulter in Palm Beach County, Florida.

Doonesbury, Sunday July 6, 2008

Comments

[GOP Spartan]

So Mr. Blue Meanie, when you talk about voter fraud are you saying that you endorse Chicago style politics where dead people vote by absentee ballot for 20 years after they're six feet under?

You support people that are not American citizens voting in our elections that will chose the direction OUR country goes in?

You support people voting three to four times because they're registered in four different states like snowbirds for example that own several homes or people that move frequently that don't transfer their voter registration?

So you're saying that the North Carolina case that prosecuted a woman that voted in North Carolina and Michigan in the 2004 election was an example of "voter suppression?”

I guess you must be a friend of John Kromko and was the guy that helped him get all of those dead people to sign his petition.

Sorry buddy, your dog don’t hunt.

What about the disenfranchisement of us legitimate, legal voters that have our votes diluted or canceled out by those here illegally or the fraud contained in mail in ballots by people filling them out for dead, ill, or out of state relatives?

We need to get back to the old way and make everyone get off their butts on Election Day and go to the polls. Show proof of eligibility to vote and have a data base to ensure you’re only registered to vote in one precinct nation wide.

You might call that voter suppression; I call that enfranchisement of legitimate voters.

[AzBlueMeanie]

I have worked as a poll observer for more than 30 years with various voting rights and attorney organizations in several states. I have witnessed first hand almost every voter suppression tactic that the minions of Lee Atwater and Karl Rove have in the GOP voter suppression playbook. Don't tell me these unlawful practices do not occur. I was witness to when they did.

You clearly do not understand the meaning of the term "voter fraud." It means a voter impersonating an actual voter at the polls. It happens so infrequently that there are very few recorded prosecutions nationwide, certainly not enough to effect the outcome of any election. In the recent Supreme Court decision in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board and Indiana Democratic Party v. Rokita, the Supreme Court and the state of Indiana had to acknowledge that the state of Indiana could not present any evidence of a single prosecution for voter fraud in the history of the state.

Numerous university research studies conducted over the years confirm that "voter fraud" simply does not occur beyond a few isolated and rare examples.

If you believe that large numbers of non-citizens are going to the polls on election day to vote, your mind has been poisoned by the ill-informed company of fools with whom you associate. If this was actually occuring, you can be certain that Sheriff Joe Arpaio and County Attorney Andrew Thomas would be conducting show trials in Maricopa County. I'm still waiting... it is your dog that don't hunt. And no, smartass, I do not support non-citizens voting. Voting is a privilege reserved for citizens of the United States.

It is when a citizen of the United States who is properly registered to vote and is denied or deprived of their lawful right to cast a ballot and to have their vote counted, and counted accurately, that I get pissed off.

The expansion of the use of absentee balloting into early mail-in balloting was actually an idea promoted by the Republican Party and conservative think tanks. The GOP has for decades promoted early voting by absentee ballot, and more recently by early mail-in ballot. The Arizona legislature recently enacted a permanent early mail-in voting list that will be in use for the first time this year with the September primary and November general election.

If I had my way, there would be no early mail-in voting, and we would still require a voter to submit a sworn affidavit that they will be absent from their county on election day in order to obtain an absentee ballot.

I lobbied the Arizona legislature against the expansion of absentee balloting into early mail-in balloting, and I was opposed to the permanent early mail-in voting list bill. Why?

Because fraudulent voting is most easily accomplished by use of absentee or early mail-in ballots. This is why the Republican Party loves this idea, and has always encouraged its voters to vote early by absentee or early mail-in ballots.

People move and do not correct their voter registration (especially rental properties and apartments). People die and their survivor does not notify the county voter registrar. Over time, there is a substantial number of voters who remain on the active or inactive voter registration rolls (who are not eligible to vote because they no longer reside at that address). Sophisticated political organizations can monitor this activity and request an absentee or early mail-in ballot and cast that ballot (for an ineligible voter). All the political organization requires is a reasonable fascimile of the voter's signature to accomplish this fraud. (This cannot be accomplished by large numbers of individuals acting alone).

Ask yourself why the Arizona legislature and Secretary of State Jan Brewer required voter ID for people who want to vote at the polls (again "voter fraud" at the polls is nonexistent), but provided a gigantic loophole in the law by not requiring anything more than a signature from people who want to vote by absentee or early mail-in ballots?

I cannot recount how many elections in Arizona have been decided over the years with the next-day announcement that "based upon the counting of absentee ballots in Maricopa County, Republican [name]has been elected to...", after the Democrat was leading at the 10 o'clock news the previous evening. Hmmm... nothing suspicious here, move along.

If you believe that fraudulent voting is limited to one political party, you are just a partisan hack. I have investigated unlawful conduct by both political parties in several states over the years. I firmly believe in "election integrity."

Noticeably absent from your critique is any mention of our computerized counting of the ballots in this country. The corruption of the electronic voting machine vendors and their fraudulent products which are easily manipulated by malicious programming are the single greatest threat to not only "diluting" your vote, but "flipping" your vote to the other candidate, or ensuring that your vote is never counted at all.

While you are blinded by your delusion that a non-citizen may be
casting a lone vote somewhere in the United States, electronic voting machine vendors are making certain that millions of votes are not counted or counted accurately nationally in our elections. It should subject these vendors to criminal prosecution. In 2004, an estimated 3,600,380 ballots were cast by voters but never counted according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. And these were American citizens registered to vote. Where is your outrage over this very real problem?