Five "Dirty Tricks" To Watch Out For When You Go Vote

In political parlance, they're called "dirty tricks" - ways some people try to get others to not vote. These voter-suppression tricks usually involve misinformation or intimidation tactics and play on voter ignorance of voting laws.

With the help of Allen Raymond, author of "How to Rig an Election" we've compiled a list of five ways people may try to get you not to vote on Election Day. Raymond should know - he was a dirty trickster. As a Republican campaign adviser he helped stop a Democratic get-out-the-vote operation, a trick that landed him in jail when he plead guilty to one count of conspiring to make harassing phone calls.

As voter suppression horror stories are being reported, here's a list of sneaky tricks and hurdles to avoid on Tuesday:

1. A notice that says, "Only one political party votes on Tuesday. The other party votes on Wednesday."
There have already been reports of this one happening during early voting in Virginia. This version of the flyer said an "emergency regulation" was adopted by the Virginia General Assembly saying all Democratic supporters vote on Wednesday. Don't believe this flyer or anything like it. It's not true.

2. A notice that says, "Due to the rain, the election is postponed until next week."
This is an easy one to believe, because who wants to stand in the rain to do anything? But don't fall for it. Even if it's snowing where you are at, the election is happening on Tuesday, November 4th.

3. An official-looking guy stands outside the polling place saying, "You have to pay overdue parking tickets or you can't vote."
Not true. The Constitution is on your side here. Raymond points out that paying parking tickets in exchange for a ballot amounts to a poll tax - and that violates your rights as spelled out in the 24th amendment to the Constitution.

4. Election officials tell college students they can't vote.
It doesn't matter where you grew up or if your parents claim you as a dependent. If you have established residency at your college and are registered to vote in that location, you have a right to vote there. (You can't vote at both home and school. That's illegal.) This type of voter misinformation has been documented twice already. In one case, the officials say they interpreted the law wrong. In the other, voter guidelines were clarified. At any rate, in 1979 the Supreme Court affirmed students have a right to vote where they live. If that's at college, go vote.

5. You hear a rumor: "If your house was foreclosed on, you can't vote."
This also is not true - with a caveat. You needed to reregister to vote showing your new address. If you didn't reregister and you are still in the same neighborhood, you may be OK. At least, ask to cast a provisional ballot so election officials can verify you are still eligible in that precinct. However, if you moved from one state to the other and didn't reregister, Raymond says you are probably out of luck.

Comments

[hypnus]

If you voted for Bush in the last election you can not vote in this election. Due to the critical condition of the country, the mentally challenged are not longer permitted to vote.

[omahkohkiaayo]

The fake notices that give the voting day for Repubs on Nov 4 and Dems on Nov 5 say it all in terms of who did it. This is outright Criminal Conspiracy as defined in Title 18 of the USC and until the perps are discovered and thoroughly prosecuted nothing will change. In the 2004 election, while the results were coming in Bush identified the specific districts in Ohio that would give him the election and was dead on way before the results were formally announced.

Imagine the amounts of money spent covering by the networks covering an election process grossly underfunded and conducted with disparate state standards that encourage and allow all sorts of anti-democratic forms of election rigging (voter suppression, changed and destroyed ballots, election fraud, ballot stuffing, etc) that have gone on since the founding of the Republic.

But the bigger issue is who really determines--and on what basis--the final menus of "choice" from which we "choose".

[BSERIUS]

or having supremicists , Black Panthers with night sticks in Phillie

[euro kitty]

Another one that I saw here in Florida was that if you didn't vote in the primary, then you can't vote in the general election. We got flyers saying that in our neighborhood, and someone was handing them out in the parking lot near the polling precinct.

And of course, a lot of Democrats didn't vote in the primary because the DNC said that the primary wouldn't count because it was moved up -- this was not the case with Republicans.

[tkj]

The dirtiest trick is the one they play on you AFTER 'allowing' you to vote.
The totals are transmitted electronically between the county level and the state level, then the state tallies all the counties together. (or something like that)
In Ohio 2004, the results were allegedly intercepted and altered when sent from the county to the state. (Google: Stephen Spoonamore Paper Ballots Please [Republican Whistleblower])
How can we insist, before 7pm tonight, that OH, PA, NC and VA county officials be required to 'call' in their results to the state, or at least be required to verbally confirm the results that they have transmitted?
Tomorrow is too late to have this discussion...