There have been many stories on the issue of voter suppression and the like. I haven't had time to read and write on them all, but I've been collecting links to them so that I can in the future. I've decided to go ahead and post them here for anyone who comes along. I'll probably be writing on them in the future.
It's 1-day til ELECTION DAY!! I've already voted, and I hope everyone has either done the same, or is prepared to vote tomorrow! I'm going to be up at 4:30am tomorrow to head out to the polling places to hand out fliers to remind people to vote No on Prop 8. Then it's to work for a few hours, and off to the local Democratic party election night. Let's all have a blast as we usher in a new era of change and government!
Go Obama!! And Go No on Prop 8!!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/us/politics/09voting.html?_r=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-k-wilson/john-mccains-terrorist-co_b_133326.html
http://www.miamiherald.com/692/story/727604.html
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9116465&source=NLT_AM&nlid=1
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/10/mccain_campaign_calls_for_inve.html
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/13/obama.bradley.effect/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/GOP_voter_purge_declared_illegal_in_1013.html
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6503
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D93R8IE00&show_article=1
http://wvgazette.com/News/200810180380
http://www.utne.com/2008-10-28/Politics/Mounting-Evidence-of-Voter-Suppression-for-Election-Day-2008.aspx?blogid=30
Monday, November 3, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Company hired to mail absentee ballots in CO, fails to mail them
Sequoia Voting Systems admitted it never mailed over 11,000 absentee ballots to voters in Denver, and lied to elections officials about mailing them.
Read the full story at www.afterdowningstreet.org. Their story also includes many links to other great articles dealing with Republican voter fraud and attempts to steal this election.
Read the full story at www.afterdowningstreet.org. Their story also includes many links to other great articles dealing with Republican voter fraud and attempts to steal this election.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
CNN Report on ACORN
CNN had a good report on ACORN. They state very clearly that ACORN doesn't register voters, they only help voters fill out their registration forms. The government registers the voters. They also include a good breakdown of how many of the 1.3 million registrations were new, change of addresses, and invalid or fraudulent.
It's clear that the whole ACORN fluff blown up by McCain and the Republicans was clearly much ado about nothing. One still begs to wonder, why they blew it up so big.
Also check out TPM's report on ACORN.
Link to CNN Video
It's clear that the whole ACORN fluff blown up by McCain and the Republicans was clearly much ado about nothing. One still begs to wonder, why they blew it up so big.
Also check out TPM's report on ACORN.
Link to CNN Video
Crown Point Indiana GOP Dirty Tricks
The GOP in Lake County is trying to not just stop people from voting, but insisting that those who already voted at early voting centers have their votes "discarded." The GOP lawyers are claiming that these early voting centers are unfair, illegal, and could lead to voter fraud. The problem? The early voting centers are located in heavily Democratic districts.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Newly registered Ohio voter? You have a 1 in 3 chance of being stricken from the voter rolls!
According to an AP article I found on Breitbart, 1 in 3 newly registered Ohio voters are having the registrations reviewed and possibly revoked due to inconsistencies between registration information and DMV or social security information. 666,000 people have registered since January. That means potentially 222,000 people could find out on election day that they can't vote.
Aside from the obvious issue of disenfranchising 222,000 people, there's more than just a number here. That 222,000 people most likely has a large slant towards newly registered Democrats--a product of Obama's aggressive voter registration strategy. I couldn't find a break-down of the number of Democratic registrations versus Republicans, but it's safe to say that since this action is being brought forth by the Republican party, they wouldn't be looking to disenfranchise 222,000 of their own voters.
So let's do the math. Ohio has around 11 million residents. Let's estimate about 60% of those are registered and going to vote. That's 6.8 million people. The latest poll has Obama at 48.8%, and McCain at 46%. That puts 3,324,199 votes in Obama's column and 3,133,466 votes for McCain. If you subtract 222,000 votes from Obama, he ends up with 3,102,199. A loss to McCain by 30,000 votes, and a contested election by either campaign.
Even if only 60% of those 222,000 people were going to vote for Obama, that still takes Obama's victory margin down to around 140,000. Still an incredibly close race, and in the range of recounts and contesting of results.
This is where ACORN comes in to play. The Republican's will pull in the whispers of voter fraud by ACORN, and claim any victory by Obama is illegitimate. The Republican's will look to polarize the nation against Obama, much like what Bush faced before 9/11.
Aside from the obvious issue of disenfranchising 222,000 people, there's more than just a number here. That 222,000 people most likely has a large slant towards newly registered Democrats--a product of Obama's aggressive voter registration strategy. I couldn't find a break-down of the number of Democratic registrations versus Republicans, but it's safe to say that since this action is being brought forth by the Republican party, they wouldn't be looking to disenfranchise 222,000 of their own voters.
So let's do the math. Ohio has around 11 million residents. Let's estimate about 60% of those are registered and going to vote. That's 6.8 million people. The latest poll has Obama at 48.8%, and McCain at 46%. That puts 3,324,199 votes in Obama's column and 3,133,466 votes for McCain. If you subtract 222,000 votes from Obama, he ends up with 3,102,199. A loss to McCain by 30,000 votes, and a contested election by either campaign.
Even if only 60% of those 222,000 people were going to vote for Obama, that still takes Obama's victory margin down to around 140,000. Still an incredibly close race, and in the range of recounts and contesting of results.
This is where ACORN comes in to play. The Republican's will pull in the whispers of voter fraud by ACORN, and claim any victory by Obama is illegitimate. The Republican's will look to polarize the nation against Obama, much like what Bush faced before 9/11.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Vote flipping in West Virginia
Never too soon to start, early voters have begun complaining that the electronic voting machines being used in West Virginia are flipping votes from Obama to McCain, from Democrat to Republican. This has been reported in two counties so far. Jeff Waybright, Jackson County Clerk stated, "people make mistakes more than machines." Brian Wood, the Putnam county clerk, when asked about the voting irregularities said, "voting machines are very reliable. I hate the fact that stories like this are printed. It makes everybody get scared."
Well, yes Jeff and Brian. People do make mistakes, and we don't want people to be scared to vote. But really? We shouldn't print stories on voting machines not working correctly? Not even if just to warn people to make sure their votes are correct?
Remember, voting machines are supposed to have a maximum error rate of 0.0002% to be certified. The article from the Charleston Gazette noted 6 individuals who had issues out of about 1000 early voters. That's a 0.006% error rate. "The reaction time [on the machines] may be different. And when you hit the screen a second time, it cancels your vote," Wood said. Yet shouldn't mistakes made by people using the voting machines still count towards the overall error rate? Isn't poor usability a factor in errors?
Says Wood: "The best way to solve this whole problem is that before you leave the voting booth, make sure on the review screen that everybody you want to vote for is checked."
Great advice. Always check the review screen of your e-voting machine before submitting your vote.
The potential problem here though is when 30,000 people show up to vote in Putnam county on election day, and half the people have to call over a clueless poll worker to help them because their vote for Obama keeps going to McCain. Won't that lead to A) long lines, B) needing to extend voting hours or turn away people, C) people complaining of vote fraud, or D) people just submitting their incorrect votes out of confusion or not realizing what was going on? AKA, voter fraud and suppression?
UPDATE:
MSNBC reports on this today. West Virginia's Secretary of State to hold press conference on this tonight.
Well, yes Jeff and Brian. People do make mistakes, and we don't want people to be scared to vote. But really? We shouldn't print stories on voting machines not working correctly? Not even if just to warn people to make sure their votes are correct?
Remember, voting machines are supposed to have a maximum error rate of 0.0002% to be certified. The article from the Charleston Gazette noted 6 individuals who had issues out of about 1000 early voters. That's a 0.006% error rate. "The reaction time [on the machines] may be different. And when you hit the screen a second time, it cancels your vote," Wood said. Yet shouldn't mistakes made by people using the voting machines still count towards the overall error rate? Isn't poor usability a factor in errors?
Says Wood: "The best way to solve this whole problem is that before you leave the voting booth, make sure on the review screen that everybody you want to vote for is checked."
Great advice. Always check the review screen of your e-voting machine before submitting your vote.
The potential problem here though is when 30,000 people show up to vote in Putnam county on election day, and half the people have to call over a clueless poll worker to help them because their vote for Obama keeps going to McCain. Won't that lead to A) long lines, B) needing to extend voting hours or turn away people, C) people complaining of vote fraud, or D) people just submitting their incorrect votes out of confusion or not realizing what was going on? AKA, voter fraud and suppression?
UPDATE:
MSNBC reports on this today. West Virginia's Secretary of State to hold press conference on this tonight.
Friday, October 10, 2008
The mask of ACORN! Hiding the real Republican agenda...
If you don't know what ACORN is yet, you haven't been paying attention to the MSM. ACORN is a group that works to register lower-income people to vote. They are coming under flak from right-wing groups who are scared that they could soon lose their red state strongholds. ACORN is being investigated in states including Nevada, Wisconsin, North Carolina, New Mexico, Michigan, Ohio and Missouri, for fraudulent registrations. Read that: SWING STATES.
In Bridgeport Connecticut, they are looking at voter registrations submitted by ACORN because they have found invalid or fraudulent information on 10 out of 8000 registrations submitted. Now I'm not a mathematician, but I believe that's about a 0.1% error rate. Compare that to the maximum error rate allowed by voting machines (0.0002%), and it's pretty high. But I know out of the 10 or so times I've had to re-register after moving, I've messed up once or twice. So that means my personal error rate is at a 0.1% - 0.2%.
In Nevada, ACORNs offices were raided by agents for the Republican led Secretary of State and Attorney General, alleging ACORN was using convicted felons in their voter registration drive, and citing 300 apparently fraudulent registrations out of 80,000. Again, this is a 0.3% error rate.
Why is this issue important? Because it's being used as a smoke screen by the Republican party to legitimize their efforts to disenfranchise voters. They now have a flag to wave when contesting election results. They now have an excuse to hide their true actions behind.
ACORN is being mentioned at Republican rallies, where people are informed about ACORNs actions of "fraudulent" voter registration. Why bring this up at a rally? Well, if you're an underhanded Republican who is actively seeking to disenfranchise voters, even average Republicans will disavow your actions. Average Republican voters are still decent American's, and they won't go for underhanded voter fraud.
But if you give them some reason to support what you're doing, like pretending that the actions of ACORN will "steal" this election from Republicans, and so you MUST support their actions to ensure a "fair" election, you have a better chance of getting away with it. So now they are trying to tie ACORN to Obama so they can more ably protest election results, and put the true outcome of this election in question.
This isn't to say that ACORN is free from blame. They need to reevaluate their techniques for gathering registrations. Some former employees have revealed that they had fraudulently filled out apps in order to meet their quota and not be put on probation or let go. But in response to the Nevada raid, "ACORN officials said they were stunned by the search because they had unilaterally identified and flagged suspicious voter registration cards to the county elections board starting in July and had been cooperating with authorities to cull bad information and fire workers who collected that information, said Brian Mellor, senior counsel for Project Vote."
In Bridgeport Connecticut, they are looking at voter registrations submitted by ACORN because they have found invalid or fraudulent information on 10 out of 8000 registrations submitted. Now I'm not a mathematician, but I believe that's about a 0.1% error rate. Compare that to the maximum error rate allowed by voting machines (0.0002%), and it's pretty high. But I know out of the 10 or so times I've had to re-register after moving, I've messed up once or twice. So that means my personal error rate is at a 0.1% - 0.2%.
In Nevada, ACORNs offices were raided by agents for the Republican led Secretary of State and Attorney General, alleging ACORN was using convicted felons in their voter registration drive, and citing 300 apparently fraudulent registrations out of 80,000. Again, this is a 0.3% error rate.
Why is this issue important? Because it's being used as a smoke screen by the Republican party to legitimize their efforts to disenfranchise voters. They now have a flag to wave when contesting election results. They now have an excuse to hide their true actions behind.
ACORN is being mentioned at Republican rallies, where people are informed about ACORNs actions of "fraudulent" voter registration. Why bring this up at a rally? Well, if you're an underhanded Republican who is actively seeking to disenfranchise voters, even average Republicans will disavow your actions. Average Republican voters are still decent American's, and they won't go for underhanded voter fraud.
But if you give them some reason to support what you're doing, like pretending that the actions of ACORN will "steal" this election from Republicans, and so you MUST support their actions to ensure a "fair" election, you have a better chance of getting away with it. So now they are trying to tie ACORN to Obama so they can more ably protest election results, and put the true outcome of this election in question.
This isn't to say that ACORN is free from blame. They need to reevaluate their techniques for gathering registrations. Some former employees have revealed that they had fraudulently filled out apps in order to meet their quota and not be put on probation or let go. But in response to the Nevada raid, "ACORN officials said they were stunned by the search because they had unilaterally identified and flagged suspicious voter registration cards to the county elections board starting in July and had been cooperating with authorities to cull bad information and fire workers who collected that information, said Brian Mellor, senior counsel for Project Vote."
Source:
- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rick-hasen/the-purge-surgewhy-the-go_b_133786.html
- http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/10/mccain_campaign_calls_for_inve.html
- http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/07/acorn_nevada_offices_raided.html
- http://www.courant.com/news/local/statewire/hc-09180536.apds.m0342.bc-ct--voteoct09,0,6354551.story
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