Tim's Favorite Blogs
Media Matters
Blog Directories
Saturday, April 30. 2011
Voting Fraud?
Thursday, a guy on Hardball, Horace Cooper, said, “Washington Democrats are not the same as Americans …” Really? Okay, there are a few news reporters who are Canadian by birth, or even British, but the politicians should all be Americans, whether by birth or naturalization. But, because they work in Washington they’re not American? Well, what nationality are they?This is the whole basis of the “us versus them” hysteria that was once the fringe of the Republican Party but now IS the GOP. “We (the Republicans) are Americans, everyone else is not.” Remember shortly after Barack Obama won the 2008 election, the video that went viral of the woman crying, “We want our country back!”
Back from who? The people who aren’t Americans, but were elected to manage the nation’s business of course, starting with that Black guy in the White House.
The “We want our country back!” crowd became the birthers and then the Teabaggers, who, when they found out what that really meant changed it to the Tea Party, and then during the debate on health care became the pawns of the health insurance companies and right wing machines like the Koch Brothers and Dick Armey’s Freedom Works.
Then, in 2010, “they” won enough seats in Congress to control the House of Representatives, as well as the legislatures and governorships of several states — including Wisconsin — and then came face-to-face with reality: the Teabagger-controlled Republicans began their true agenda: stripping workers of their rights to collective bargaining and now, with Congressman Paul Ryan’s budget plan, eliminating Medicare and Social Security.
“What? That’s not what we voted for!” Well, you did. “You” just chose to remain ignorant on the issues and, like “you” have now for over 30 years, “you” chose to vote against your best interests — our best interests.
Back to Horace Cooper, who was advocating for the new voting laws many states are trying to enact which require voters to show ID before they can cast their ballot. In the 30-plus years I’ve voted, in two states, no one ever asked me for an ID, picture or otherwise.
Now, this is interesting: in 2008 I went to register to vote in my current locality. While at the voting office filling out the necessary forms, the woman behind the counter asked me if I wanted an absentee ballot. Sure! So, after registering in my district I took the absentee ballot, filled it out and gave it to the woman behind the counter. She put it where it needed to be and off I went. To work, as I recall.
Fast forward to November 2010. The voting station for my district was right on my way to work so I stopped in to cast my ballot. Yes, I was on the rolls, but, because I had used an absentee ballot in 2008, they weren’t sure if I had already voted, so, instead of a regular ballot, I was given a provisional ballot that would then be cross-referenced against the absentee ballots.
On closer review of the mail, the absentee ballot was in the stack. I need to keep a closer eye on my mail.
It’s the state’s way of insuring a scalawag like me doesn’t commit voter fraud by voting twice. But I still got to vote and no one asked for my I.D.
What Republicans now want to do in 17 states is require voters to provide an I.D. — proof of citizenship. Why is that? New voters generally vote Democrat and eliminating them is part of the Karl Rove Republican fantasy of dominating elections.
Okay, their publicly stated reasons have to do with voter fraud — although there hasn’t been any recorded cases of voter fraud anywhere in the United States. There have been cases of voting error, or, in the case of Waukesha County, WI County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus who conveniently found enough votes on her personal computer to have her guy win a judgeship …… Wait a minute! Hold the fuckin’ phone! The Republican County Clerk, who once was an aid to Governor Scott Walker, got to take the election software off of state and county systems and put them on personal computers in her office — and possibly her home computer(s)? But don’t worry, they’re backed up with redundant systems …
Okay, in a nutshell, Wisconsin Governor Walker got legislation passed that will remove unions from the public sector, using chicanery dished up by his Republican cronies in the Wisconsin Legislature. Hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites went on the march (and are still marching) and the unions and others groups took the governor and his legislature to court.
Well, in Wisconsin, like many other states, the State Supreme Court judges are elected and one of those judges, David Prosser, was up for re-election earlier this month. Because of his friendship and allegiance to Governor Walker, Prosser faced a tough challenge from Assistant District Attorney JoAnne Kloppenburg.
At first, the poll results showed the election going to Kloppenburg. But then, the next day, Waukesha County Clerk Nickolaus “found” over 7,000 votes from her county that hadn’t been recorded because she hadn’t “saved” them. On her personal computer … that isn’t online with the county or state computer systems. Those “found” votes gave the election to Prosser, the incumbent.
Is that election fraud? We don’t know because County Clerk Nickolaus has been resisting any and all efforts to have her unconnected computers checked by information technology professionals. Or anyone else for that matter. At the moment, the state is going through a recount of all the precincts in the state, 3,000-plus.
Back to the 17 states that are looking to rescind voting rights for thousands of voters.
So, college students wouldn’t be able to vote in the districts where they live while going to school, people wouldn’t be able to register on election day and when voters show up at the polls, they will have to produce a photo I.D. A government issued photo I.D. Like a drivers License or, in one state (Alabama I think) a gun registration card. Really? A student at Ole Miss couldn’t use his or her university I.D., but if they’re a registered gun owner then can use that document? Boggles the mind.
Ah yes, only in America could voter suppression — election fraud — be institutionalized. Question is, will the U.S. Supreme Court strike down all these new laws before the 2012 election? We almost had a disaster in Arizona when their legislature passed a law requiring presidential candidates to present birth certificates to get on that state’s ballots. Republican Governor Jan Brewer — extremely conservative governor Jan Brewer — vetoed that bill as well as one that would have allowed students, faculty and staff to carry firearms on campus. There go her conservative credentials.
The intention for this blog (at first) was to talk about the president releasing his “long form” birth certificate and the resulting hubbub, especially that of Donald Trump. But that will have to wait a day.
Calendar
Quicksearch
Archives
Categories
AD Links
Referrals
Syndicate This Blog
Blog Administration
Powered by
TheForkesReport