Can Obama's Ground Game Beat GOP Vote-Robbing?

As the race tightens, despite the economy's free-fall, Democrats and progressives are looking to Obama's "ground game" to be the under-the-radar factor that leads to his victory.
As political analyst Ian Fried points out:

The Obama campaign is not merely putting paid staff on the ground in almost every state, they are doing it in numbers and depth that the McCain campaign not only can't match, but wouldn't know how to implement. David Plouffe and David Axelrod of the Obama campaign seem to be convinced that the McCain campaign is far behind when it comes to ground operations, something that does not show up in polling.

In a series of posts, I will outline just what the polls are missing in terms of the political ground game that Obama and other groups are developing to make sure that on November 4th, many more Obama voters get to the polls than have ever voted for any presidential candidate

.

But there's another side to the story: GOP-driven vote suppression that could lead to voters purged from registration rolls, vote-caging schemes to challenge voters at the polls, and malfunctioning voting machines leading to long lines and, potentially, stolen votes. The Obama campaign plans to challenge a vote-caging scheme in Michigan -- which uses unreturned mail to challenge the right to vote of mostly black voters -- but it's not fully prepared to overcome the wide variety of schemes.

All these schemes are being reported on daily by Brad Friedman, whose Brad Blog, has become the one-stop-shopping news site for election integrity advocates. He points out:

Barack Obama and the Democratic Party pushed back against an alleged voter suppression scheme in Michigan, after a GOP chair had discussed plans to challenge voters at the polls based on home foreclosure lists. But the Dems still don't seem to fully appreciate the breadth of the 'Republican War on Democracy' that they are up against.

Last week, he told the radio show I co-host the highlights of the wide-ranging effort to suppress the vote in key swing states that's part of the longstanding "Republican War on Democracy." Some disturbing highlights of the schemes underway, as reported by Brad Friedman, Harvey Wasserman, Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld of Alternet and others:

MASSIVE RESIDUAL ELIMINATION OF REGISTERED VOTERS:

In the run-up to the 2004 elections, GOP-controlled Boards of Elections in Ohio eliminated some 308,000 registered voters from the rolls used at the polls to determine whether or not citizens are eligible to vote. The purges were conducted in heavily Democratic districts in Cuyahoga (Cleveland), Lucas (Toledo) and Hamilton (Cincinnati) Counties. The numbers of voters eliminated represented more than 5% of the 5.4 million Ohioans who voted in 2004. The GOP also challenged the right of some 35,000 registered voters to cast ballots, based largely on letters the Republicans sent to voters which then came back undelivered, thus allowing them to claim the lack of a valid address. Challenges were also issued to prevent thousands of ex-felons from voting, even though there is no state law disenfranchising them.

Overall, the removals far exceeded Bush's official victory margin of less than 119,000 votes. After the 2004 election, another 170,000 voters were eliminated in Franklin (Columbus) County, also now heavily Democratic.

Despite massive grassroots voter registration drives, those voters have never been restored to the registration lists. None were notified when they were eliminated, and no public accounting has been made of exactly who was disenfranchised. Parallel purges were used in Florida 2000, and throughout the US in 2004. There is every reason to believe the GOP will repeat them in 2008 wherever possible.

RENEWED ATTEMPTS TO ELIMINATE ADDITIONAL REGISTERED VOTERS:

Throughout Ohio's 88 counties, GOP-controlled Boards of Elections have continued "caging" registered voters by sending them notices requiring that the post office return those that cannot be delivered. A loophole in Ohio law allows partisan challengers to then demand that the names of those whose forms come back be eliminated from the voter rolls. This practice has been used by the GOP throughout the nation to purge voter rolls in inner city precincts. In many cases those removed are soldiers currently serving in Iraq.

The Advancement Project has notified Brunner that it will challenge any mass purges in Ohio 2008. For her part, Brunner has ruled that returned notices cannot be used as a basis for eliminating voters from the registration rolls. She has further attempted to counter-act the purges by requiring that any registered voter fingered for removal be issued notice and given a pubic hearing by the purging BOE. But the process remains intimidating for prospective voters---especially the heavily-targeted list of those voting for the first time. With sixty days left to election day, the on-going impact remains unclear.
:

Steven Rosenfeld sums up the challenges, leading with the missing registered voters in New Jersey:

The chaos of the 2008 election has begun -- suggesting voting in November will be messy in many ways, in many states.

Across the country in recent days, newspapers, broadcasters and blogs have reported a dizzying array of potential problems that likely will complicate voting, if not confound voters, in the upcoming presidential election. The problems contain elements of the three major categories of ills affecting U.S. elections: bad management, bad technology and partisan treachery. Just how or if these issues are resolved remains to be seen.

Consider the following examples:

In New Jersey, state officials told 300,000 people that they were not registered to vote. However, new reports say an unknown number of those contacted were properly registered voters.

The problem is not confined to New Jersey. Under federal election reforms passed in 2002, every state is supposed to create statewide databases of its registered voters. The problem is not just that these new mega-lists contain errors but rather, as is the case in New Jersey and a handful of other states, what election officials do with the data.

In New Jersey, officials apparently compared the voter lists to other state databases, such as motor vehicle records, to see if voters had moved and therefore should be removed from voter rolls. That practice, which also has been done in Louisiana, Michigan and Kansas in 2008, is illegal, according to voting rights lawyers who say it does not follow the federal rules laid out in the National Voter Registration Act for purging voters.

What are the recipients of New Jersey's 300,000 letters to do?

The best solution for activists, regular voters and Obama backers right now is to make sure there's big enough turnout and registration drives to ensure a big enough margin for a fair vote. So the "Ground Game" will be essential to Obama's victory, but not enough to win.

The single best election resource for fair elections is Election Protection, and call: 1-866-OUR-VOTE. That website provides registration and voting information for each state, because without registration and aggressive follow-up to make sure those voters are on the rolls, no election victory is possible. And Project Vote , which manages massive voting registration drives, provides essential information and resources for voting rights activists.

And Obama and his supporters can't count on victory, though, with so many obstacles to fair voting still standing in their way.

 

Follow Tom D'Antoni on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TomD'Antoni

Comments

[claylandg]

Oh Please!! Obama knows all about robbing votes ask anyone in chicago how he got elected!!! It's a different tune now but rules are rules that's what obama said then but i guess now he' flip flopping what a shock it's all about winning for his personel gain not the people open your eyes people.

[eden4barack08]

This is mind boggling ! Are we talking about the USA or Zimbabwe? How can the GOP get away with these un-democratic practices in a country that is the cradle of Democracy?
It's OUTRAGEOUS, that we can just talk about these criminal acts matter of factly! and committed by one of the major parties so overtly? Whoa!
Talk about the "urgency of now", to CHANGE the track this country is heading down! WE MUST do all we can to CHANGE this, we NEED to take this country back from the GOP crooks.
ENOUGH!!!!!

[joeythetrollslayer]

Voter fraud? What? In the US of A? Duh.
We're not a democracy. Our "elections" are just for "show". A dog and pony show to keep the money flowing to media corporations and pundits. Figure this: every election, it comes down to a few "tiny" votes in some little precinct (probably poor), and then bam, strange reports, someone wins. That's like playing every football game against every team, and always going to overtime, every single game, and winning on a technicality. Believeable? Statistically possible? I think not.
How many billions of dollars are spent on the election? HE-LLO. Do you think they are NOT going to rig it with that kind of money at stake? Bananna republic? We are the original Bananna republic.
Put more succinctly: the house always wins. Why isn't this reported? Wouldn't want people to lose faith in our democracy-need to maintain the illusion-national interest not to report it. Clinton was the only one who figured out the system, and "beat them at their own game"-as he has said. That's why they hate him.

[eden4barack08]

How did Clinton figure it out and beat them at their game? Can't it be done again?

[ProgressiveReb]

Oops!

The proper link to the Progressive Future website is:

http://www.progressivefuture.org.

Sorry about that!

[ProgressiveReb]

We must pull together and take action to stop voter suppression.

Progressive Future www.progressivefuture.orgg) has a great petition you can sign that they will send to the chairs of both parties in every state calling on them to refrain from all efforts designed to keep qualified citizens from voting. You can find the petition here:

http://www.progressivefuture.org/ready-for-change/voter-suppression/petition2?id4=ES

[S1m0n]

That's the million dollar question. Unfortunately, this election has too many unprecedented factors:

A voter registration drive that shows promise of being much more effective than usual, Obama's world-beating GOTV operation which has combined net 2.0, Howard Dean's pioneering move to the net and Obama's background as a community organizer to create something new and powerful.

vs.

the unknown factor R (race) which is likely to underreport the voting intentions of many who won't vote for a black man and also won't say that to a pollster or exit-poller; the known-to-be-faulty audit-trailless voting machines still in use, and concerted republican vote suppression efferts.

Once this election is over, we'll have a better idea what the appropriate fudge is for interpreting surveypoll data, but until then no one knows what's likely to be the result.

[lovethesinner]

If you can vote by mail, do so. It not only ensures your vote will be counted, but it makes it easier for Obama's get-out-the-vote team to know where to target drives. (If you vote early, your name will be taken off a list, making it unnecessary for someone from the campaign to deal with you--it saves resources.)

But, the only way Republicans can win IS BY STEALING this election. We need to have legal teams in place in all the battleground states.

(bradblog is so on it.)

[GiggidyGeshmoygen]

Announcing The Launch Of The Voter Suppression Wiki -- Learn, Report, Act

votersuppressionwiki.wetpaint.com

[GiggidyGeshmoygen]

remember when jimmy carter was the patron saint of fair elections, traveling all over the world to monitor elections in new and/or troubled democracies to make sure that the elections were free and fair ?

i never could figure out why he couldn't be bothered to stand up for free and fair elections in his own country --- such incredible hypocrisy !!!

why is our election process so broken and corrupted ? --- because politicians ON BOTH SIDES have been gaming the system and trying to outcheat each other for so long that it has now become a sophisticated artform --- the republican party has, meanwhile, taken full advantage of their six year stranglehold on government to take voter disenfranchisement to previously unimaginable levels of sophistication and corruption through computerization of the process

and in that process, "we the people" have been left behind, our right to vote and have it fairly counted becoming a futile and meaningless charade

2008 is the last chance that "we the people" are going to have to stop this rot before it reaches its' inevitable conclusion

VOTE FOR CHANGE
VOTE TO RESTORE DEMOCRACY
VOTE OBAMA

[jhNY]

Don't blame Carter. He's no hypocrite. I'm sure he's plenty interested in fair elections here, but who would listen to him or allow him to be the arbiter? Republicans? They're the guys who convinced too many Americans Carter was weak, by paying off the Iranians to wait till Reagan was elected to release the hostages. You can look it up.

Save you outrage for the present election and the myriad impediments that have been put between the people and their right to vote- by Republicans. Let ol' Jimmy alone.

[RAStewart]

Amen. Jimmy Carter is one of the few political figures over the past eight years who shows the rest of the world the face of a decent, civilized America.

[biotechwoman]

As an American living abroad, I can only hope my vote will be counted (but I am not hopeful).

Since the United States is a developing country (as evidenced by the election fraud in 2001, 2004) I do hope the United Nations will supervise the election---like they did in Nigeria, Cambodia.

[oceanbreeze]

As you are alluding to, typically, countries invite outside observers so that some impartial party can attest to the validity of the election process. The Carter Center is one such agency -- they have done elections monitoring throughout the world.

According to them, the US does not meet the standards they require of a country before they accept to monitor an election. Many other countries, most supposedly really backwards in their development and institutions, meet the standards every single time.

I am almost certain that wherever you are, their elections happen on a day when most people are not working (Sunday), they don't have this electoral college thing, and a host of other really bizarre schemes that are only justified in the USA (and everywhere else they are considered just stupid, or incomprehensible).

But, any time I try to explain to people how other countries bypass certain problems with their elections, no-one cares, repub. or dem. There is complete denial from every American I have spoken with about this. Their standard reaction is to tell me how proud they are to be American.

[Liberoservative]

Go to Votesmart.org
they have all you need to know.... to get your vote counted... just do it quickly!

[PATina]

I forget what show I was watching yesterday (Maybe Countdown) and a man was on there who was a republican operative who had been convicted for illegally intimidating voters (or otherwise preventing people to vote). Anyway... he mentioned but so many ways the Repubs use to 'fix' elections... it's a shame that in this so called land of 'democracy'... that we will soon need UN observers liek a third world country to make sure our elections are 'fair'.

[Incredulous]

You talk about voter suppression so matter of factly, like it was as commonplace as the weather. The bizarre thing is, you're not talking about some backwater banana republic, or some tribal area of Africa, or Communist Russia, or a petty dictatorship, or any place in the Third World. You're talking about the United States of America. Land of the Free. Home of the Brave. Vote rigging and voter suppression is THAT commonplace in American elections? Maybe you should have some international delegation come to your country to oversee the elections, like in emerging democracies. If the corruption is THAT pervasive, and your whole voting system is THAT broken, how can the voting results EVER be trusted, And how can you hold yourselves up as some beacon of democracy, if your country can't even hold a legitimate election? Your country is already an international laughing stock. And now you can't even trust your own election results. That's a pretty sad state of affairs.

[PATina]

There was a guy on tv yesterday that was a Republican operative who has been convicted for rigging elections. You're right... we do need the UN or some other international body to supervise elections in this country.

[biotechwoman]

Excellent comment---welcome to my world. I've been trying to defend "my country" --the United States--since moving abroad in 2001. That IS the point. The US THINKS it is some sort of high level democracy. But it is a complete joke. Consider this: the turn out for the French presidential election was 80%. Do you think we will EVER see 80% of the people in America vote?

A sad state of affairs indeed. And insight as to why the rest of the world hates America. It's called HYPOCRACY. If you can't subscribe to democracy in your own country...why the hell are you trying to impose it on someone else???

[oceanbreeze]

It is going to be very hard to defend the US way of doing things anywhere else. And not just for how elections are done, although, that's a pretty big part. The winner-take-all thing, the Tuesday voting thing, the two-party duopoly, the lack of uniform election procedures, etc. You cannot possibly tell a French, a German, a Greek, a Canadian, an Indian that in some districts/counties/states the law allows you to vote without having to show an ID, and that there are politicians who want to maintain this.

Having lived in many countries around the world, some so called "arguments" only stand in the US. Anywhere else they are considered outright lunatic, frivolous, stupid, etc.

The 80% turnout is explained by something that you will not find in the US. You see, citizens in other countries have this amazing sense of obligation and responsibility towards their country to vote, and based on reasonably sound thinking. No German would vote for Angela Merkel if she ever made any allusion about her religion, let alone discuss it extensively. They know they are not voting to elect a pope.

In the US, everyone, I mean, EVERYONE, is so quick to tell you that they are so proud of being American. I have seen this with democrats and republicans. They want to make sure you understand how proud they are. But, when you ask them say about the education policy advocated by their candidate, they have no clue.

[TexasDem0]

When there is no penalty for unconcealed and unashamed voter fraud, there is no incentive for the culpable to stop doing it. Under the guidance and protection of the most openly criminal administration in the history of the U.S., the problem has only gotten worse.

Loser Take All: Election Fraud and The Subversion of Democracy, 2000 - 2008 by Mark Crispin Miller
http://www.amazon.com/Loser-Take-All-Subversion-Democracy/dp/0978843142/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221766742&sr=1-1

[ProudLiberalDan]

Early voting and absentee voting starts in a few short weeks. Mobilizing early and absenttee votes is as important as mobilizing election day votes.

Vote early and absentee if you can.

This not only makes the intentionally long lines, especially in minority dominated precincts located in Republican dominated states and counties, shorter, but it frees those of us who have already voted to help other people get to the polls on election day and ensures that we have still voted even if we have a personal emergency that day.

[marignymitch]

And do like we do in Louisiana: vote often.