Limbaugh's Lying Voters Under Investigation

"Operation Chaos," Rush Limbaugh's campaign urging Republicans to vote for Hillary Clinton in Democratic primaries, has been very effective. It doubled Republican turnout in Ohio and Texas, boosting Clinton and prolonging the Democratic race. But in Ohio, it was also almost certainly illegal.

Ohio law requires that citizens genuinely support a political party in order to vote in its primary. To change parties for a primary, a citizen must pledge, under the penalty of election falsification, that she is affiliated with the party and "supports" its principles. Lying on the pledge is a felony, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine. The law also stipulates that poll workers have a "duty" to challenge voters who are "not a member of the political party whose ballot the person desires to vote."

In Cuyahoga, Ohio's largest county, 16,000 Republicans switched parties for the primary last month. Several did so in bad faith, without truly changing parties, according to newspaper interviews and Internet postings. The Cuyahoga Board of Elections recently voted to investigate the matter; a report is expected on March 31. Despite the massive crossover voting, however, prosecutions are considered unlikely. A spokesperson for Ohio's Attorney General told Alternet that it is "very hard to prosecute" crossover voting cases, since the crime depends on proving a voter's motive on Election Day.

Limbaugh's motives, however, have been perfectly clear from the start. "I'm asking people to cross over, and if they can stomach it and I know it's a difficult thing to do, vote for Clinton," Limbaugh said before the Ohio primary. The goal, he explained, was to ensure Barack Obama was "bloodied up politically" and to extend the Democratic primary "soap opera."

Since the Ohio investigation began, Limbaugh has revved up his special brand of self-promotional damage control. He ran several segments defending "Operation Chaos" with the disingenuous argument that politicians also ask for crossover voters. Of course, intent makes all the difference: Reagan Democrats actually supported Reagan. Limbaugh's campaign is under legal scrutiny because he asked people to crossover in bad faith -- to tamper with elections. But for $19.95, Limbaugh is still hawking shirts and caps emblazoned with "Operation Chaos," so listeners can join the program's "street team." Wear one of those shirts to the polls, though, and you just might provide enough evidence of the motive needed for prosecution. The shirts list "mission objectives" like "enjoy liberals tearing each other apart," "prolong" the Democratic primary, "drain the DNC of campaign cash," and "win in November."

Finally, Limbaugh is lashing out at anyone who notes that he urged thousands of listeners, whether maliciously or ignorantly, to break Ohio law. He recently complained that NBC's Norah O'Donnell and the New Republic's Michael Crowley dared to discuss the issue. Then he was outraged that Fox's Julie Banderas said election law violations must be "taken seriously" and "Republican shock jocks" were possibly "anti-American" for urging people to break the law. And Limbaugh didn't like my recent criticism, either. When asked about crossover voting during an appearance on C-SPAN last week, I said that people should vote on principle -- not to undermine primary races. I also explained that "Operation Chaos" effectively urged people to break Ohio law, if they voted in bad faith, citing a Wired article. Apparently this observation upset Limbaugh, who recently played the clip while calling out "Stuff it, pal, stuff it!" Now it doesn't take much courage to talk back to a recording, and Limbaugh loves playing up partisan fights for his audience. But this is not only about politics. Limbaugh abused his listeners' trust and encouraged potentially illegal conduct. And after a Republican Justice Department spent years hyping voter fraud charges, now some of the most blatant election law violations are being stoked, repeatedly and unrepentantly, by one of the most prominent figures in Republican politics.

Ari Melber writes for The Nation, where this post first appeared.

Comments

[SifSkade]

And if you already have, my apologies, but I'm having trouble finding it.

[SifSkade]

When, if ever, is anyone at HuffPo going to address Bill Clinton's appearance on Rush Limbaugh's show?

[nknj]

Why people think Republicans needed to wait for Rush Limbaugh's advice to figure all this out and vote strategically is a mystery to me.

I'm in New Jersey. I'm a Republican. I DO NOT want Hillary Clinton to be president. I didn't vote Republican -- I voted Obama.

Voting AGAINST someone is not unpatriotic. Just ask all the people who voted AGAINST Kerry or AGAINST Bush in the last election without any true enthusiasm for the candidate they did vote for.

[GH]

Why are folks so upset over this - this is only in a primary? What about when the Democrats (led by the Greeens) organized to circumvent the national presidential election process?

It was organized national web based schemes to swap votes from one state for antother in order to boost the total votes cast for Nader, without endangering the electorial votes Gore needed to obtain.

Here's a good read, Sounds like the Washington Post supported the scam. "Group Pushes Kerry-Nader Vote Swap, from the Washington Post", http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48634-2004Sep24.html

"If 600 voters who cast ballots for Nader in Florida had instead voted for Gore and 600 voters who cast ballots for Gore in Texas had instead voted for Nader, George W. Bush would have lost the entire election."

I'm surprised the Washington Post was not listed as a founder of the group.

Here's the referenced site: Uniting Progressives through Strategic Voting: http://www.votepair.org/

[castlerider]

There are thousands of lawyers out there. I wonder who will have the cojones to file a lawsuit on this vermin, rush.
Inciting and instigating people to break the law on a public resource is against the law. I don't know if it is felony or misdemeanour, but it violates the law surreptisiously.
At the very least he should be made to pay his attorneys the hundreds of thousands it will cost to defend his scumbag self. He makes 80 MILLION a year, so it wont hurt his wallet at all.
People should know him as the lawbreaker he is for elbowing his way to cram his politics down our throats and supporting crooks like Bush and Cheney. Every 4 dollar gallon of gas we pay we have the likes of this idiot Rush to thank for.
He's a lousy American that is propped up by the rich elite to sway the masses and keep them stupid.

A case like this would allow the majority of Americans to see him for the loudmouth slime that he is.

[BOfever]

So you blame a radio talk show host for expensive gas . . . that is quite the stretch there.

[truesoccermom]

I wonder if Rush is still on probation from his drug arrest a few years back. It's much easier to prove a violation of probation (you only need a preponderance of the evidence). Someone in Florida should look into this. You usually have as a condition of probation "to obey all laws."

[bailey2006]

Would this felony fall under the jurisprudence of the State or Federal? If Federal, why the heck isn't the Attorney General taking action?

[truesoccermom]

Republican.

[UltraClassic]

Hillary '08

Oh quit whining. I've never seen such a group of cry babies. It's OK for KOS to attempt this (he was not effective because he sucks).

But when Rush tries this, it's "Katy Bar the Door!"

Honestly, get behind your man Mr. Obama and his preacher and tell us why we should vote for him.

Hillary '08

[bailey2006]

And so you back the voter fraud "initiative"? Are you aware that, even if you did not participate in the voter fraud, you are culpable of conspiracy? Obama supporters no longer owe anyone an explanation for Rev. Wright. It has been gone over endless times. But you and your gang of fraudians will need to answer to the Feds.

[Danielth]

I am a conservative, and voted in Ohio for Hillary. Did I break the law? No, as I didn't have to sign anything. It looks like I got away with the perfect crime.

[bailey2006]

Depends on what party you were registered under.

[truesoccermom]

If you voted for Hillary because you support her then you are a person of honor. If you voted for her because you want to mess with the democratic party then you are playing games with our beloved democracy and have no integrity. You judge yourself.

[sherbug]

Rush claims freedom of speech in his unpatriotic rant to fix the election. George Bush says the Constitution is just a piece of paper. Pastor Hagee says Katrina was condemnation from God. Everyone here exercising their freedom of speech rights. But Jerimiah Wright is the only one that gets labeled a militant troublemaker and now his church is monitored Sunday after Sunday to see what is being said.

Does anyone see a double standard here?

[TLV]

One thing that really pisses me off about this is that I heard on NPR that Ohio's election system is under national scrutiny because of all the fraud that took place when the Republican stole for Bush in 2004! Why is Ohio under scrutiny? Why not just the Republicans? They are the ones who did this!

[indypete]

I'm afraid we don't actually need limbaugh to get operation chaos going. Unfortunately, the Dems couldn't organise a fart after 6 beers and a curry. The Repubs are the party of Al Capone and the Dems are the party of Curly Howard!

[TLV]

What part of fraud do you not understand? Limbaugh an actually be charged with directing this childish activity while the people who switched for one day can also be a charged with a felony. As registered voters, they won't be hard to find!

[indypete]

Sure, but nobody will go after them. Fraud has nothing to do with my comment. What's the point of having a law if you're not going to use it?

[blico]

Absolutely delicious!!!
Soon hundreds of thousands of us and our sisters will temporarily move to California in time to register for the general and swing that state republican....
Just doesn't get any better!!!!

Jack

[bailey2006]

NO thanks, we don't want you. Stay put and vote in your own damn state.

[blico]

We'll be voting in the states that don't require ID and in Ca. Then we'll leave and you'll have your liberal utopia to youselves.

Jack

[ClevelandTom]

No one, including Limbaugh, will be indicted or tried in Ohio for fraudulent cross-over voting by Republicans. Certainly it did occur and it probably moved a delegate or two into Clinton's column. But even with Clarence Darrow proscecuting against a first-year law student, intent to defraud on the voters' part can't be proven nor can Limbaugh's Constitutional right to free speech be gotten around.

But the whole episode does say a lot about Limbaugh and his Republican pals' view of our system of democracy. To them, the principles of honesty, fair play and the will of the people mean nothing when they get in the way of attaining power.

And what happens when people with that attitude gain power? Well, is it any wonder that so many corners of our Bill of Rights have been snipped off in the last seven years?

[BigRube]

Amen to that.

[mounthoodliberal]

"Despite the massive crossover voting, however, prosecutions are considered unlikely. A spokesperson for Ohio's Attorney General told Alternet that it is "very hard to prosecute" crossover voting cases, since the crime depends on proving a voter's motive on Election Day. "

So in other words, in Ohio, its fine to break the law as there are no consequences...