Misconceptions about Republican tactics in Florida

[krelm]

I see all these articles and posts about how the Republicans are trying to "steal" the vote in Florida by disenfranchising minorities. Check the below article out - I think it gives a different perspective on the matter. They are actually trying to increase minority turnout!

http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4043&n=1

[mixu]

Re: Misconceptions about Republican tactics in Florida

[toasty]

Re: Misconceptions about Republican tactics in Florida

The Onion is a riot -- this would be funnier, though, if it didn't actually happen from time to time. In Louisiana in 2002, flyers were distributed to African American communities telling voters to go to the polls on Tuesday, December 10 -- three days after a Senate runoff election was actually held.

Thanks for the article!

[krelm]

Re: Misconceptions about Republican tactics in Florida

The Onion is a riot -- this would be funnier, though, if it didn't actually happen from time to time. In Louisiana in 2002, flyers were distributed to African American communities telling voters to go to the polls on Tuesday, December 10 -- three days after a Senate runoff election was actually held.

Doh!

This issue of the Onion is great - check out their Election Day Guide here. My favorite:

"If you are black and a resident of Florida, work out two or three alternate routes to your polling place to avoid police checkpoints."

Probably a little bit of truth in that one, eh?

[Balanc3]

Re: Misconceptions about Republican tactics in Florida

Right Krelm... the police are happy to help all they can, they support Kerry. It is truly the Dems who are fighting to steal this election. They are prepairing for the largest voter mobilization in Florida election history, and have already pushed over a million people to the early voting polls. Like I ststed before, the 527's are the only people knocking on your door five times a day trying to steal your vote and push you to the polls. They don't care about your life, your situation, just your vote. Let people get to the polls and vote on their own, its their own responsibility. Its said that the Republicans have the most cash wrapped up in this election... what a joke.

[krelm]

Re: Misconceptions about Republican tactics in Florida

Actually, if you want to take this away from Onion-inspired satire, both sides are sadly working overtime to "steal" votes. The 527s knocking on your doors is just horribly annoying - not illegal or dishonest. One of the nice things about living overseas is that I don't have to deal with any bullshit - just order my absentee ballot and send it at the post office.

But if you want some nice dirt (on both sides), here is a nice Washington Post article showing a lot of dishonest bullshit that is going on in Florida, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Ohio.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12514-2004Oct30.html

(I'm posting the text below since you have to register to read it online)

Now They're Registered, Now They're Not

Election Officials Express Dismay at Extent of Misinformation, Variety of Tricks Targeting Voters

By Jo Becker and David Finkel
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, October 31, 2004; Page A22

As if things weren't complicated enough, here comes the dirt.

Registered voters who have been somehow unregistered. Democrats who suddenly find they've been re-registered as Republicans. A flier announcing that Election Day has been extended through Wednesday.

Dirty tricks are a staple of campaigns, but election officials say this year's could achieve new highs in numbers and new lows in scope, especially in key battleground states such as Florida and Ohio, where special-interest groups have poured in to influence the neck-and-neck race between President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry.

"In my 16 years as an election administrator, I've never seen anything like this," said Ion Sancho, supervisor of elections in Leon County, Fla. "I see it as an expression of a political culture that has evolved in the United States of win at any cost. It's not partisan, but it's just lie, cheat and steal, and ethics be damned."

The problem in Leon County: Students at Florida State and Florida A&M universities, some of whom signed petitions to legalize medical marijuana or impose stiffer penalties for child molesters, unknowingly had their party registration switched to Republican and their addresses changed.

Officials say students at the University of Florida in Alachua County have made similar complaints and that about 4,000 potential voters in all have been affected. Local papers have traced some of the problems to a group hired by the Florida Republican Party, which has denounced the shenanigans. Switching voters' party affiliations does not affect their ability to vote, but changing addresses does, because when voters shows up at their proper polling places, they will not be registered there.

The college scam has also made an appearance in Pennsylvania, along with a separate scam last week in Allegheny County, where election officials received a flurry of phone calls about fliers handed out at a Pittsburgh area mall and mailed to an unknown number of homes. The flier, distributed on bogus but official-looking stationery with a county letterhead, told voters that "due to immense voter turnout expected on Tuesday," the election had been extended. Republicans should vote Tuesday, Nov. 2, it said -- and Democrats on Wednesday. A criminal investigation has been launched.

Authorities in several states also are investigating claims, by former employees of groups paid by both the Republican Party and Democratic-leaning interest groups, that they destroyed or did not turn in new registrations by voters of the opposite party.

Clouding investigations are claims and counterclaims not only about tricks, but double dirty tricks.

In Wisconsin, a flier is circulating in Milwaukee's black neighborhoods that purports to be from the "Milwaukee Black Voters League." "If you've already voted in any election this year, you can't vote in the presidential election," the flier reads. "If you violate any of these laws, you can get ten years in prison and your children will get taken away from you."

Chris Lato, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Republican Party, called the fliers "appalling" but wondered whether Democratic interest groups might be to blame. He said circulators falsely claiming to represent the Republican Party might be trying to gin up turnout among black voters.

"First of all, the claim was false, and it seems a little obvious," he said. "We have a lot of these shadowy Democratic groups here in Wisconsin, and I wouldn't put it past 'em to do something like this to muck up the works."

Meanwhile, in Lake County, Ohio, some voters received a memo on bogus Board of Elections letterhead informing voters who registered through Democratic and NACCP drives that they could not vote. Election officials referred the matter to the sheriff.

Lawyers for the Ohio GOP, who have charged Democratic groups with registering fictitious characters such as Mary Poppins, said Friday that they condemned election fraud and misinformation campaigns of any kind. But some local Lake County Republicans have adopted the double-dirty-trick explanation, saying the Democrats are out to make the GOP look bad.

Whatever the motive, election officials say that voters are genuinely confused by the misinformation. In the Cleveland area, election officials said they received a spate of complaints after voters began receiving phone calls incorrectly informing them that their polling place had changed. In addition, unknown volunteers began showing up at voters' doors illegally offering to collect and deliver completed absentee ballots to the election office.

Jane Platten, a spokeswoman for the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, said officials have not identified who is behind the tricks. "We've never seen anything like this before, where there seems to be a concerted effort to to give voters misinformation," she said.

In South Carolina, Charleston County election officials warned voters Friday to ignore a fake letter that purports to be from the NAACP. The letter threatens voters who have outstanding parking tickets or have failed to pay child support with arrest.

"Thankfully, we got this in time to do something about it," said the Rev. Joe Darby, first vice president of the South Carolina state conference of the NAACP, who learned about the letter his organization supposedly had written when it showed up in his own mailbox. "This isn't new -- it's the South Carolina politics of ignorance. And it's not surprising, because this is one of those every-vote-counts elections. But I don't think people will be fooled."

[Balanc3]

Re: Misconceptions about Republican tactics in Florida

One of the nice things about living overseas is that I don't have to deal with any bullshit - just order my absentee ballot and send it at the post office.

Wish I could be in your shoes. After four Hurricanes, and now this election... everyone in my state is feeling tired, overworked, and extremely stressed. I'm afraid everyone in this state are feeling the heat. I can't wait for my vacation.

[toasty]

Re: Misconceptions about Republican tactics in Florida

It is truly the Dems who are fighting to steal this election. They are prepairing for the largest voter mobilization in Florida election history, and have already pushed over a million people to the early voting polls. Like I ststed before, the 527's are the only people knocking on your door five times a day trying to steal your vote and push you to the polls.

How is trying to persuade someone to vote a particular way and mobilizing voters to get to the polls "stealing" the election? That strikes me as a completely legitimate way to win an election...

As an aside, I have been a volunteer for the Kerry campaign, and I have indeed been placing calls, knocking on doors, etc. 527's aren't the only folks doing this -- but if they were, I'm not sure I would have a problem with that, either. Freedom of speech includes the right to advance your interests in this fashion, in my mind -- if I think I can make the country or even my own personal situation better by convincing my friends and neighbors that Kerry is the better choice and getting their asses to the polls, don't I have the right to try?

[Balanc3]

Re: Misconceptions about Republican tactics in Florida

The Dem 527's have been out since May, the Rebublicans have only been at it for a month. But I have witnessed illigitimate tactics used by ACT. Not only the persuasion of the uneducated, and voter intimidation, but tossing away voter registrations and absentee ballot apps that were Republican. But your right at this point of the eleciton both sides are guilty. Lack of sleep... yeah im a little Dilirius. Maybe after the election I can have peace.

[Yao]

What I've just read is fucking shocking...If all this is true, then politically the Dems and Reps are behaving themselves just like freakin' 3rd-world-country politicians, who see winning the elections as winning the state, as if it were theirs to own, use and misuse.

The president, and any politician should be there for the people, not the people for them! I'm living in fuckin' Utopia I guess...

[Balanc3]

your finally seeing straight chief. I once stated that America is either way to the left or way to the right, a nation divided. There is no in-between, therefor no party that truly represents the people. :?

[FM]

win at all costs indeed...and it extends wayyyy far out on both sides now, as many people donating or supporting these campaigns also have stuff to win or lose pending the overall outcome...especially in corporate America.

It's getting ugly.

[Balanc3]

George Soros =

[LobsterClan]

George Soros =

Yet you continue to take his paychecks, and do his dirty work.

[Balanc3]

Thats where you are wrong my friend. But my work is definately dirty.. dirty like sanchez.