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| 12/24 |
| 2004/10/15-16 [Politics/Domestic/California, ERROR, uid:34146, category id '18005#25.256' has no name! , ] UID:34146 Activity:moderate |
10/15 Republicans commit registration fraud in numerous states:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/10/13/32821/029#215
\_ Dailykos... yes, the ultimate non-partisan quality news site.
And you people delete links from the nuts at the freerepublic
but think this is perfectly neutral and worth reporting? Get it
from a real news site and we'll discuss this and the number of
dead people voting for the Democrats over the years.
\_ No really, let's discuss it. Do you have a single credible
accusation? Are you aware that as people die, new people replace
them? Are you aware that people move? Are you aware that it
takes time for registration numbers to reflect this (there is
usually at least a 5 year time lag)? There are TONS of legit
reasons for the number of registereds to outnumber the number
of eligibles. As for the Republican operatives destroying
Democratic registrations, there are links to legit news stories
within that link. However, you're simply dismissing it out of
hand because it comes from a partisan site. Here is some
information from a "regular" news outlet about this:
http://csua.org/u/9hu (yahoo news)
Note that despite the headline, the only Republican accusations
contained in the article are the vague notions about registereds
and eligibles, which have a legit explanation. The Democratic
accusations are at times very specific.
\_ Two words: Kennedy/Nixon.
\_ Funny thing is, Kennedy would have won even without
Illinois. And that was 40 years ago.
\_ There are literally a dozen links to "legitimate" news
from that url.
\_ Block the Vote - Paul Krugman http://csua.org/u/9hr (Yahoo!)
... a firm hired by the Republican National Committee to register
voters, told a Nevada TV station that their supervisors
systematically tore up Democratic registrations. The accusations
are backed by physical evidence and appear credible. Officials have
begun a criminal investigation into reports of similar actions by
Sproul in Oregon. Republicans claim ... Democrats do it, too.
But there haven't been any comparably credible accusations
against Democratic voter-registration organizations.
Sproul in Oregon. Republicans claim, of course, that they did
nothing wrong - and that besides, Democrats do it, too. But there
haven't been any comparably credible accusations against Democratic
voter-registration organizations.
\_ Democrats don't have to do it. They just need the votes to
actually be counted. There are a hell of a lot more D than R
in the country.
\_ If they don't register then they aren't anything. How do
you figure that? Anyway, I think you might be in for a big
surprise when 4 million of those hated Xtian fundies show up
this time who skipped the election in 2000.
\_ The count(D) > count(R) is for registered voters, as well
as voting voters, at least in presidential elections. And
if you think the fundie vote wasn't out in force in 2000,
you're smoking something I don't want.
\_ And the story came out on the day of registration deadlines...
\_ The only thing I've ever seen with Democrats are vague accusations
from Republicans about "more voters registered than eligible,"
a classic case of confusing causation with correlation.
Apparently they've never heard of population growth, people dying,
moving, etc. etc.
\_ Oops, I took a quote out of context by ellipsing too much.
Repaired now. Sorry!
\_ Now it's even more out of context. The quote is
"Republicans claim, of course, that they did nothing
wrong - and that besides, Democrats do it, too." Mmm..
tasty tasty hypocrisy
\_ Shit, you're right. I've fixed it completely now.
(BTW, it's not hypocrisy, it's called fucking it up twice
in a row. The original was even more out of context.
The taste you note is from my ass.)
\_ I didn't mean you were hypocritical. I was savoring
Krugman's phrase.
\_ http://www.alternet.org/election04/20183 |
| 12/24 |
|
| www.dailykos.com/story/2004/10/13/32821/029#215 Bob Johnson Wed Oct 13th, 2004 at 07:28:21 GMT Searching for information on the voter registration fraud stories breakin g tonight in Nevada and Oregon, I kept coming across the same name: Nath an Sproul of Sproul & Associates in Phoenix, Arizona. Nathan Sproul is the former head of the Arizona Republican Party and of t he Arizona Christian Coalition (ah, the irony... But Nathan Sproul may have made one fatal mistake in his efforts... Yes, he failed to pay many workers and he didn't pay his rent . There is a goo d chance that this may be fraud on a MASSIVE scale... newsgroup posting to a forum for librarians warning the m of a possible fraud perpetrated by Sproul. It includes a description of the scam in Pennsylvania, an article from a West Virginia newspaper r eporting the same scam, and a comment from a librarian in Medford, Orego n outlining the same scam in her library... ORG Date: Fri Sep 17, 2004 5:49:58 AM US/Eastern Subject: Re: SCAM ALERT: Voter Registration We had the same thing happen here in PA. Sproul and Associates hires Kelly temp services to do voter registration. At one library site where they were suppose to be only doing voter registration they were also asking people how they were going to vote. I did some research and found out that they were doing the same thing in WV (see the article below) and one temp worker claims that they were trained to ask people how they were going to vote. If the person said "Bush" they were given a voter registration form. If they said "Kerry" they were just told thank you and no form was given. One explanation from Sproul and Associates was that they were doing "market surveys" at some sites. Later they claimed that it was just a problem with a few temp workers. Sproul and Associates is headed by Nathan Sproul the former head of the GOP and Christian Coalition in Arizona. When I finally asked them to give me the contact information for America Votes they told me that "America Votes is a non-partisan voter registration drive project of Sproul & Associates. Clearly they know that when they say they represent America Votes they are misleading people. Holly Here is the article from the WV paper for more info. com For a mother of two teens trying to finish up college, $9 an hour as a temporary customer service representative sounded good. "I wanted to find something that would work around my schedule and be flexible," said St. After spending more than an hour with Charleston personnel agency Kelly Services last week, Bragg was hired. "They wouldn't tell us at first what this job was," the 37-year-old Bragg said Thursday. Then she found out it was registering Republican voters at One Stop convenience stores throughout the Charleston region. But she won't be there today, the first day she was scheduled to be on the job. Bragg feels her employers were misleading the public, even if it's not illegal. Employees were to approach One Stop customers and ask if they favor George Bush or John Kerry for president. If Bush was their answer, they were then to inquire if the person was registered to vote and offer them a voter registration card. If the person supported Democrat Kerry, they were only to say thank you and give them a registration card only if asked. If asked questions, employees were instructed, "Only state you are there to conduct a simple field poll to see what neighborhood support is ... They were told to quietly listen to any person who becomes angry and to remember, "The goal is to register Republicans and to remain positive." Employees were also given the number of a Kelly Services employee to contact if there are problems. Contacted Wednesday, two different employees said they would have someone from Sproul & Associates, the firm paying for the survey, answer any questions. Later, a Kelly Services employee who would identify himself only as "Rob" initially said a message had been left with Ben Decker at Sproul's office. He said he had no contact number for Decker, then agreed to release a Michigan number. said the less you know about the company, the better off you are, especially if the media would come asking questions," said Bragg, an admitted Democrat. "That made me more curious than ever as to who's behind this and what's going on." Sproul & Associates appears to be operated by Nathan Sproul, former head of the Arizona Republican Party and a wealthy GOP activist who has been involved in petition drives. An Internet search shows Sproul has received some financing from national Republican groups, though it was not clear who is paying for the West Virginia work. Bragg, and another person working for the group, said they were told the owners of the One Stop stores had agreed to allow them to conduct the work on the stores' lots. Patrick C Graney III and Michael R Graney are listed as the principal owners of 42 One Stop stores, according to the state Alcohol Beverage Control Administration. Messages left at One Stop's headquarters in Belle were not returned. For Bragg it's an economic loss, but one she carries with pride. "I just don't want to be in my hometown and mislead people," she said. To contact staff writer Tom Searls, use e-mail or call 348-5192. SCAM ALERT: Voter Registration Recently the Jackson County Library has been contacted by persons purporting to represent America Votes. Our director was contacted by a Harry Miller and asked to call an 800 number to give permission for America Votes to conduct a non-partisan voter registration project in our libraries. I received a letter from Sproul and Associates,a consulting firm in Arizona,also saying they represented America Votes, with the same request. I contacted the Kevin Looper, the Oregon State Coordinator for America Votes, to verify the information and received this reply from him: "Here is what I know: We do not have a Harry Miller in our employ. This organization is absolutely not representing America Votes, and my National leadership is initiating action to get them to cease and desist representations that infringe upon our rights and mislead voters. Further, Sproul and Associates is a partisan political consulting firm Based in Arizona that works for very conservative causes and has worked t o oppose campaign finance reform. Their use of our name to cover their political leanings makes me question the overall intregrity of the voter registation that they seek to conduct. I will be forwarding this info rmation to the Secretary of State's office for further investigation." Meghan O'Flaherty Headquarters Library Manager Jackson County Library Services 205 South Central Ave. org So here we have Sproul involved in three (swing) states, using a bogus GO TV name to disguise his organization's own name, and using fictitious na mes (Harry Miller) as "contacts" for those with questions. But that's just the tip of the iceberg with Mr Sproul and the RNC. com in targeted states (including Missouri and Arizona), the bottom of the ads included this statement: Paid for by the Republican National Committee. Not authorize d by any candidate or candidate's committee. Folks, this was an organized effort in swing states by the Republican Par ty using Nathan Sproul as their hatchet man. noted Mr Sproul's efforts in Oregon on Septemb er 22, 2004 with this piece: GOP Caught Trying to Use Public Libraries as Fronts 22-Sep-04 Bush Campaign 2004 Mail Tribune: "A local librarian checking on a company's request to set u p a voter registration booth in the library discovered the company was n ot affiliated with a non-partisan national group as it claimed. America Votes is a non-partisan political organization formed in July 2003 to increase voter registration, education and parti cipation in electoral politics. Libraries in Oregon and other states hav e been contacted by Sproul." A little digging by librarian Megan O'Flahe rty revealed that Sproul & Associates, Inc. is a political consulting fi rm headed up by former Arizona state Republican Party executive director Nathan Sproul. Sproul is operating this bo gus scam in numerous states. In Arizona, Sproul set up an organization to battle a proposed Clean Elec tions initiative that was to be p... |
| csua.org/u/9hu -> story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=5&u=/usatoday/20041015/pl_usatoday/electionprotestsalreadystarted Politics - USATODAYc om By Jim Drinkard and Kathy Kiely, USA TODAY More than two weeks before the presidential election, Democrats and Repub licans in key states are trading accusations of fraud and voter intimida tion, foreshadowing an Election Day on which lawyers may be almost as im portant as voters. More USA TODAY Snapshots Complaints from both parties, routine in election years, have reached a f ever pitch earlier and in more places than usual. From Oregon to Florida , shenanigans with voter registration forms are being alleged, and autho rities are looking into the charges. "The closer we get to the election, the more we're going to hear about this." For e xample: In Nevada, a company hired by the Republican Party to register voters w as accused by a former employee of throwing Democrats' registration form s into the trash. The company, Sproul & Associates, denied that it was r egistering only Republicans, as the employee charged in a report on KLAS -TV in Las Vegas. The company also has been registering voters in Oregon , West Virginia, Minnesota and other battleground states. In Florida, scene of the 36-day recount in 2000, the state's Southern C hristian Leadership Conference asked the US Civil Rights Commission to investigate activities "designed to cause confusion and suppress the Af rican-American vote" in the Tallahassee area. Labor and voting-rights gr oups also sued this week to prevent the disqualification of more than 10 ,000 incomplete registration forms. They said such disqualifications wou ld disadvantage minority voters. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, a local co-chairman of Sen. web sites)'s re-election campaign, is giving the c ity 679,000 ballots - 10,000 more than were printed for the last preside ntial election. He says having a large number of excess ballots would be an opportunity for fraud. Local District Attorney Mike McCann plans to deploy more than 30 lawyers on Nov. He says "malevolent challenges" by partisans could interfere with votin g Republicans circulated excerpts of a national Democratic Party election manual urging recruitment of local minority leaders to launch pre-empti ve strikes against voter intimidation, even if there's no evidence it's going on. Democratic spokesman Jano Cabrera said the material was taken out of context. He released a fuller excerpt that stated, "The best way to combat minority intimidation tactics is to prevent them." In Denver, an estimated 165,000 new voter sign-ups brought warnings of potential vote fraud. State officials have sent several hundred registra tions to the attorney general for review, and the Denver district attorn ey is investigating 200 more. Both parties have enlisted hundreds of law yers for Election Day challenges and for post-election fights over dispu ted ballots. Pat Tiberi, an Ohio Republican, noted that four counties in his stat e have voter registration numbers that exceed the number of voting-age r esidents in the counties in the last Census. "When you have an election so close, and every vote makes a difference, these things get argued abo ut, and probably lawsuits will decide them," Tiberi said. |
| csua.org/u/9hr -> www.nytimes.com/2004/10/15/opinion/15krugman.html?ex=1098504000&en=afe1dbe5dc6218df&ei=5006&partner=ALTAVISTA1 E arlier this week former employees of Sproul & Associates (operating und er the name Voters Outreach of America), a firm hired by the Republican National Committee to register voters, told a Nevada TV station that the ir supervisors systematically tore up Democratic registrations. The accusations are backed by physical evidence and appear credible. Offi cials have begun a criminal investigation into reports of similar action s by Sproul in Oregon. Republicans claim, of course, that they did nothing wrong - and that besi des, Democrats do it, too. But there haven't been any comparably credibl e accusations against Democratic voter-registration organizations. And t here is a pattern of Republican efforts to disenfranchise Democrats, by any means possible. Some of these, like the actions reported in Nevada, involve dirty tricks. For example, in 2002 the Republican Party in New Hampshire hired an Ida ho company to paralyze Democratic get-out-the-vote efforts by jamming th e party's phone banks. For example, Ohio's secretar y of state, a Republican, tried to use an archaic rule about paper quali ty to invalidate thousands of new, heavily Democratic registrations. But in Wisconsin, a Republican county executive insi sts that this year, when everyone expects a record turnout, Milwaukee wi ll receive fewer ballots than it got in 2000 or 2002 - a recipe for chao s at polling places serving urban, mainly Democratic voters. And Florida is the site of naked efforts to suppress Democratic votes, an d the votes of blacks in particular. Florida's secretary of state recently ruled that voter registrations woul d be deemed incomplete if those registering failed to check a box affirm ing their citizenship, even if they had signed an oath saying the same t hing elsewhere on the form. Many counties are, sensibly, ignoring this r uling, but it's apparent that some officials have both used this rule an d other technicalities to reject applications as incomplete, and delayed notifying would-be voters of problems with their applications until it was too late. A Washington Post examination of rejecte d applications in Duval County found three times as many were from Democ rats, compared with Republicans. It also found a strong tilt toward reje ction of blacks' registrations. The case of Florida's felon list - used by state officials, as in 2000, t o try to wrongly disenfranchise thousands of blacks - has been widely re ported. Less widely reported has been overwhelming evidence that the err ors were deliberate. In an article coming next week in Harper's, Greg Palast, who originally r eported the story of the 2000 felon list, reveals that few of those wron gly purged from the voting rolls in 2000 are back on the voter lists. St ate officials have imposed Kafkaesque hurdles for voters trying to get b ack on the rolls. Depending on the county, those attempting to get their votes back have been required to seek clemency for crimes committed by others, or to go through quasi-judicial proceedings to prove that they a re not felons with similar names. And officials appear to be doing their best to make voting difficult for those blacks who do manage to register. Florida law requires local elect ion officials to provide polling places where voters can cast early ball ots. Duval County is providing only one such location, when other counti es with similar voting populations are providing multiple sites. And in Duval and other counties the early voting sites are miles away from prec incts with black majorities. Next week, I'll address the question of whether the votes of Floridians w ith the wrong color skin will be fully counted if they are cast. Mr Pal ast notes that in the 2000 election, almost 180,000 Florida votes were r ejected because they were either blank or contained overvotes. Demograph ers from the US Civil Rights Commission estimate that 54 percent of th e spoiled ballots were cast by blacks. And there's strong evidence that this spoilage didn't reflect voters' incompetence: it was caused mainly by defective voting machines and may also reflect deliberate vote-tamper ing. The important point to realize is that these abuses aren't aberrations. T hey're the inevitable result of a Republican Party culture in which dirt y tricks that distort the vote are rewarded, not punished. It's a cultur e that will persist until voters - whose will still does count, if expre ssed strongly enough - hold that party accountable. |
| www.alternet.org/election04/20183 activism is patriotism About Many feel that the 2004 election will be the most important one of their lifetime. AlterNet' s goal is to provide special coverage of efforts to bring more people in to the democratic process, as well as hold the media accountable for the ir coverage of the campaign and the election. The Guardian The Guardian's special report on Elections 2004 provides up-to-date cover age of the candidates, the issues and the latest news, plus blogs, links and interactive graphics. Electoral Collage Who's got the best voting record on environmental issues? Check out Grist's Magazine's intervie ws on the environmental politics of the Democratic candidates. National Voice Voter Projects A list of groups engaged in voter education and registration, compiled by National Voice, a coalition of progressive organizations working to inc rease public participation in the democratic process. American Voice 2004 Lots of websites compile information; American Voice presents both the li beral and conservative points of view, so voters can make up their own m inds on the issues. Open Secrets It's no secret that there's money in politics and politics in money. Find out all the campaign finance information: who's giving, who's getting a nd how much. A voter registration outfit largely funded by the Republican National Com mittee is being accused of destroying the registration forms of hundreds of newly registered Democratic voters in Nevada. Bill Berkowitz These days, schemes to suppress the vote are coming down the pike at a NA SCAR-like clip: In July, Michigan State Rep. John Pappageorge told a gat hering of party officials at an election strategy meeting of the Oakland County Republican Party that "If we do not suppress the Detroit vote, w e're going to have a tough time in this election cycle." Jesse Jackson recently charged Republican Ohio Secretary of State J Kenneth Blackwell with "trying to reverse gains made by the civil right s movement by limiting where some Ohioans can cast their ballots," the P alm Beach Post recently reported. Now, a new voter suppression scheme has been uncovered: One that thwarts the democratic process before voters even exercise their franchise. A vo ter registration outfit largely funded by the Republican National Commit tee is being accused of destroying the registration forms of hundreds of newly registered Democratic voters in Nevada. Even though they filled out the ir registration forms properly and they did it way ahead of the deadline , there will be no record of their being registered to vote. That's beca use, according to an investigation by Las Vegas television station KLAS, a private voter registration company called Voters Outreach of America an outfit largely funded by the Republican National Committee has tr ashed hundreds of registration forms of registered Democrats. "Anyone who has recently registered or re-registered to vote outside a ma ll or grocery store or even government building may be affected," George Knapp, an investigative reporter for the television station's Eyewitnes s News I-Team, reported. Knapp was able to obtain information about an " alleged widespread pattern of potential registration fraud aimed at Demo crats," from former employees of the company. Over the past few months, Voters Outreach of America has been working the Las Vegas area, sending more than 300 part-time workers to shopping mal ls, grocery stores, government buildings and busy street corners through out the city to register voters. The kicker, according to the former wor kers: Apparently, the company was only interested in Republican registra tions. Knapp reported that two former employees claimed that they had "personall y witnessed company supervisors rip up and trash registration forms sign ed by Democrats." "We caught her taking Democrats out of my pile, handed them to her assist ant and he ripped them up right in front of us. I grabbed some of them o ut of the garbage and she tells her assistant to get those from me," sai d Eric Russell, a former Voters Outreach employee. According to Knapp, Russell said he was able "to retrieve a pile of shred ded paperwork including signed voter registration forms, all from Democr ats" and he "took them to the Clark County Election Department and confi rmed that they had not, in fact, been filed with the county as required by law." When the I-Team went to talk with Voters Outreach, the company had abando ned its offices and they were rented by someone else. According to the V oters Outreach landlord, the outfit was "evicted for non-payment of rent ." Recently, the Reno Gazette Journal ran the following ad for "Canvassing N eighborhoods in Support of the GOP": "Voter's Outreach of America is hir ing door-to-door canvassers asking people to register to vote. Must be a t least 18 yrs of age, no felonies, registered to vote and have own tran sportation. Need good communication skills and professional appearance. was too,' said Derek Lee, who, as own er of Lee Petitions, was part of the traveling petition carnival that de scended on Arizona this spring." that a group he hired to register Republicans in Nevada deliberately tore up Democratic voter registration forms." Sproul blamed the controv ersy on a disgruntled former employee. A recent report issued by the People for the American Way Foundation and the NAACP documented numerous incidents of voter intimidation and suppre ssion over the past 39 years. The report notes that, as we might expect, the tactics have become "more subtle and subterranean" over time. But i t also demonstrates that attempts to suppress the vote persist to this d ay. According to the report, "Robbing voters of their right to vote and to ha ve their vote counted undermines the very foundations of our democratic society. Politicians, political strategists and party officials who may consider voter intimidation and suppression efforts as part of their tac tical arsenal should prepare to be exposed and prosecuted." The report concludes by saying: "State and federal officials, including J ustice Department and national political party officials, should publicl y repudiate such tactics and make clear that those who engage in them wi ll face severe punishment." a coalition of liberal, nonpartisan groups incl uding People for the American Way, the NAACP, the American Civil Liberti es Union and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law will be sending lawyers and law students to key precincts in unprecedented numbe rs 2,000 in Florida alone. Their T-shirts and signs will bear the mess age "Having trouble voting? They will carry disposable cameras to record infractions. And, according to the Newhouse News Service, The Kerry campaign and the D emocratic National Committee are going to "dispatch as many as 10,000 la wyers across America on Election Day and have established five post-elec tion 'SWAT teams' to hit the ground running wherever they might be neede d" Bill Berkowitz is a freelance writer covering right wing groups and movem ents. EnviroHealth: A sweetheart deal between the Bush administration and t he factory farm sector allows the industry to delay regulation of potent ially toxic air emissions. |