GOP Endgame: Vote Suppression
Facing the political failure of the McCain-Palin ticket, official GOP strategy has shifted from futile attempts to win the popular vote by demonizing Barack Obama to a reversion to American voting standards of the 18th and 19th centuries. The GOP campaign is a blatant attempt to effect a surgical manipulation of the Electoral College that will overturn the popular vote.
The shrill Repubican witch-hunt to demonize ACORN signaled the launch of their insidious endgame strategy. The current charges against ACORN are frivolous distractions from what is a massive and threatening GOP campaign to distort the popular vote in key battleground states to provide camouflage for claiming some sort of 'victory' over Barack Obama and Joe Biden on the 5th of November in the Electoral College.
Today, the GOP endgame consists almost entirely of voter suppression operations now mushrooming in battleground states where eligible voters will face challenges by burly and brusque Republican operatives who are charged with the task of targeting, scrutinizing and nit-picking votes by: African-Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, Middle Eastern Americans, Native Americans, women, young voters and the poor.
Robert Francis Kennedy, Jr. and Greg Palast detail GOP voter suppression tactics in their paper, "Block the Vote," published in the current edition of Rolling Stone. Rachel Maddow interviewed RFK, Jr. about Republican attempts to restrict voting.
Perhaps, the most insidious of all the GOP vote suppression operations was revealed in court documents in Michigan where Republican officials admitted to the use of foreclosure lists as their primary instruments for challenging voters.
That wily Republican operatives would systematically target voters whose homes have been foreclosed is a blatant return to the voting rights of the 18th century when male land-owners were the only eligible voters.
Universal white male suffrage did not arrive in the United States until the election of 1828.
Some token black males were permitted to vote after the Civil War, and some token Native American males were permitted to vote from 1906.
After a campaign lasting 72 years, the issue of women's suffrage finally reached the US Congress in 1919 when President Wilson advocated it as a "war measure."
Suffrage for women passed by a large majority in the House of Representatives, but it was defeated in the Senate even after Wilson's announcement of the act's importance for national security.
In 1920, women's suffrage became law when Tennessee became the final state required for the NIneteenth Amendment that granted women the right to vote.
In 1924, universal suffrage was finally extended to adult Native Americans.
Even though African-Americans were granted the right to vote, their votes were suppressed by discriminatory voting practices that did not become illegal until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The voting age was lowered to 18 by the 26th Amendment that was sponsored by Senator Birch Bayh who was a prominent leader of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party in the 1960s and 1970s.
In the late sixties Bayh proposed an amendment to abolish the Electoral College as elitist, anachronistic and undemocratic. Bayh's bill passed the House by a vote of 339 to 70. Then President Richard Nixon endorsed Bayh's historic bill, and it was poised to pass handily in the Senate.
But in the autumn of 1969, Southern segregationists teamed with states' rights advocates to filibuster the Bayh bill to abolish the Electoral College that precipitated its demise in the Senate.
Even though there have been scandalous elections in 2000 and 2004 involving the overt manipulation of the Electoral College by local and state election officials and the Supreme Court, there has been virtually no serious discussion of amending the constitution to abolish the archaic and elitist institution underscoring the regression of the progressive movement in the USA since the 1960s.
Current Republican attempts to suppress the votes of US citizens in the presidential election of 2008 seem like a deja vu to the days of Jim Crow, Segregation, Slavery and the 19th century when white males suppressed the votes of all racial minorities and women. But the GOP plan to invoke foreclosure lists at the polls to drive away voters whose homes have been foreclosed is actually a return to the standards of the 18th century when the nascent USA was little more than a landed aristocracy adorned with the ideological trappings of a constitution and its wistful promise of democracy that is unfulfilled to this very day.
Two years ago, the USA was ranked below 16 more advanced democracies mostly located in Western Europe, but the Republican-engineered deterioration of voting standards this year could presage a further decline in America's international status as a role model worthy of global emulation.
While there has been virtually no discussion of the dilapidated status of American voting rights in the current presidential campaign, voting rights and electoral procedures remain huge obstacles to American credibility as a legitimate democracy.
Former President Jimmy Carter is America's leading champion of voting rights. In 2000 and 2004, Carter participated with the late President Gerald Ford and James Baker in attempts to correct some of the most egregious shortcomings in America's archaic voting practices that still include secret tabulation of ballots, a fundamental ritual of democracy that is frequently outsourced to independent contractors in private enterprise.
To date, neither of America's other former presidents, George H. W. Bush nor Bill Clinton, have expressed any official interest in the shambolic and declining status of American democracy.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Greg Palast have published a guide in the form of a comic book to target younger voters titled, Steal back your vote. From the latest reports, it is now clear that the Congressional leadership of the 'Democratic' Party has not been capable of thwarting GOP vote suppression in the current election cycle eight years after the trauma of Florida and four years after the trauma of Ohio.
One of the brightest hopes for the Obama-Biden ticket is that many people will read and act on the advice in RFK, Jr and Palast in their guide to protect their legitimate voting rights. Failing that America is headed toward another election that will see millions of ballots discarded on pseudo-technicalities.
Follow Michael Carmichael on Twitter: www.twitter.com/alchemistoxford
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
See Diane Tucker's Profile
Two weeks ago, the GOP filed suit against 200,000 new Ohio voter registrations. They won in the lower court, but were overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court days later. However, two days ago President Bush asked the Justice Dept. to look into whether those 200,000 new voters must "reconfirm" their registrations before Election Day.
The Obama camp is mobilizing to protect every Ohio vote. Here's the link:
http://www
Oct 26: Bush asks DOJ / Attorney General to bypass Supreme Court
Once again Bush tries to use DOJ to suppress OH voters... an end-run around SCOTUS.
DOJ is already under investigation for the same BS, but GOP doesn't care-- with 10 days left, they could pull off 2008 interference & deal with the consequences later...
~~~~~~
White House Asks for Scrutiny http://www
The White House has asked the Department of Justice to look into whether 200,000 new Ohio voters must reconfirm their registration information before Nov. 4...
snip
The action comes a week after the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a case brought by the Ohio Republican Party over the same issue...
(sorry-- should be Oct 25)
If DOJ goes along with it, I doubt that GOP will limit itself to Ohio alone
If you are a registered voter, don't let anyone or anything stop you from voting! Call the hotline # 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683) for advice before you go to vote or for help if you are turned away at your election location. When you go to vote, take good ID, your cell phone, note paper & pencil. And carry the hotline # with you. For more information on protecting your vote, check out this story: http://www
Has Mulkasey responded to the request for an investigation into all of this? Why aren't the networks - especially CNN talking about this issue?
I am surprised that the author of this post fails to mention an important development concerning voter suppression plots currently afoot and preliminary legal action undertaken by Obama campaign lawyer Bob Baer. Essentially, Baer has requested that the Department of Justice head authorize (a formality really) special investigator Dehaney to expand her current investigation to include incriminating statements leaked by two DOJ employees to the Associated Press last week.
Both Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann have reported on this development. More information can be found at the MSNBC Web site.
Obama has taken to other red states to keep the need to win Ohio or Florida out of the equation. It is a great strategy which will keep the voter suppression problems of the previous elections from infecting this election. I do think that any action that effects voter registrations within 90 days of an election is a deliberate act to suppress voters.
Thanks for putting this election in its historical perspective with respect to the growing pains of true democracy in America. Hopefully, your article will keep the pro-democracy Americans aware of the devious aspects at play, and as well, advise the forces attempting to steal the election that more and more people are watching.
Wow, that was a real fair balanced piece.
You people go ahead and vote obama, hes already said he wont defend the cont. by takeing away your second amendment right. Acorn has been pros. and fined for froud just this year. Dig for your self and see, every wonder where his money came from
First, the Second Amendment prevents the federal government from taking away arms related to militias. There is nothing in the amendment, its language or spirit, that prevents the regulation of firearms by state or federal governments. An individual may keep and bear arms. Even if we concede that militias are outdated and the right o bear arms passed on to individuals, the state can still regulate the keeping and the bearing. That's Obama's stance: regulation not total banning. If you can convince me why it's necessary for people to be able to own submachine guns, I might be more sympathetic to the extremists in the pro-gun wing.
Second, voter registration fraud and voter fraud are two very different things. Mickey Mouse isn't going to show up to vote on election day. Furthermore, Republican cries of voter fraud are largely unfounded. The NYU School of Law's Brennan Center for Justice has conducted a study that shows just how rare actual voter fraud is. Not nearly enough to tip an election. Ever.
Third, ACORN registered 1.3 million people this year. 95% of their registrations were good. The remaining problems were largely flagged by ACORN members to alert county boards of election. Regardless, I refer you to the above paragraph. Voter registration fraud and voter fraud are two different things.
Fourth, Obama's money has come from regular Americans.
Just so you know, every time I read a statement like yours, Senator Obama gets another ten dollars from me. Happy now?
The United States of America ceased to exist in the year 2000. We now live in Bush's Banana Republic. I fear the worst if McCain and the RNC are able to steal another election. I pray everyday that Obama's victory will be undeniable and he will use this mandate to clean out the bile and puss that has infected this once great nation.
This is going to sound extremely naive - a part of me is well aware that this occurs. However, the other part of me is unbelieving. Is getting away from these disgusting practices NOT one of the reasons why people like my parents leave oppressive regimes to come to the US for? How is this allowed to happen in this country?
Sorry, but I'm STILL pissed off about 2000 - how is it that in the United States of America, the greatest, most advanced and most powerful country in the world, we have questionable election results in a state where the declared winner is the brother of that state's governor? Is that not something that's supposed to happen in 3rd world countries?
This simply does not fit in my brain - that this can happen in this country!
Sometimes the truth hurts my Cuban friend. Many Americans still "cant believe" the truth about stolen elections, oil wars and hopelessly corrupt political and financial institutions.
It is EXACTLY because of "The Greatest at Everything" rhetoric. Americans just do not want to see how low all ideals have fallen. It is simple: if citizens are not able to vote or have to fight to vote, you do not live in a free democratic society even if you have CNN telling you otherwise 24hours a day.
But please do watch Maddox's interview with Kennedy jr or read the piece on voters suppression in the New Republic (and I think Rolling Stone Mag have one too). If millions of voters cannot registered to vote BEFORE the election and if millions of votes are not counted AFTER the election, that makes for a very small margin of error for Obama and it makes the 10 point+ lead in polls just vanish....
Like a dream. We'll wake up and McPalin will be on the throne calling it a legitimate win given to them by G-O-D Himself. Then Palin will go shopping for our economic well-being
Massive voter fraud is just a frivolous distraction. When our side does it.
See Echojulia's sagacious comment above. ACORN has not been charged with voter fraud. Some of ACORN's Voter Registration applications were faulty, but that is not vote fraud. In the USA, we have fewer than 100 cases of actual vote fraud in any given year. Don't believe the Republican hype! The GOP are desperate to camouflage their usual vote rigging and election rigging operations -- their classic modus operandi.
I am hoping that there is at least one information ad from the DNC on watching the Deibold systems when people vote and then prescribe action they can take to make it as public as possible. After watching "Hacking Democracy" I am still not convinced that McCain will be prevented from stealing this election like Bush before him.
I have no question that they will try to steal the election as before...
Then they'll call it the 'Bradley Effect' and shrug their shoulders in a 'Who Knew?' fashion.
The NeoCons are currently attempting a three pronged attack.
1) Shore up the base. Which is largely comprised of hate-filled and intolerant elements of the country that treat the USA like a 4 year old thinks of mommy... (Mommy can do no wrong, and they'll beat up anyone who says otherwise, blithely unaware and unwilling to BE aware that mommy may have done some nasty criminal things). This helps ensure a smaller, but fired up base will turn out to vote.
2) If you can't beat 'am at the polls, beat 'em AWAY from the polls via intimidation, other scare tactics, or voter suppression methodologies. This will have the effect of reducing turnout for minorities and the poor; in effect, a large swath of the Democratic base, thereby reducing the much larger army of Democrats to a more manageable size.
3) Steal Votes: Many states and voting sites are already reporting this in action, such as vote flipping that has been recorded in the Virginias. This results in a further eroding of votes for their opponent. While potentially of smaller impact in terms of volume, cumulative effect with the above steps, may be enough to 'level the playing field'.
In short, their only shot at winning is to cheat.
Everything I've come to expect from the NeoCons.
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
