What the Republicans are doing in Florida and Ohio is a disgrace. This is a straight up attempt to steal the election. That’s all it is. It’s not going to work, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t document all this crap and take it to the next Congress with a huge demand for a federal voter’s Bill of Rights.
What are you experiencing at your polling places? Did they at least have some ballots for you to fill out?
Boo:
And what about your own backyard? You heard about that one right?
Too vague.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/06/1157164/-City-Paper-Many-Philadelphians-must-vote-provision
ally-after-names-don-t-appear-on-voter-rolls?showAll=yes
I think he’s talking about this. It’s on Thom Hartmann’s show too. Also Nevada and Virginia.
They’re stealing it right before our eyes. I don’t think they would be this bold if Ken Blackwell was sitting in the Federal slammer.
This shit enrages me. I will strongly support, with money and time, a federal voter’s Bill of Rights or other efforts to stuff this bullshit right back down the Republican’s throats.
I too am enraged. I’m spitting mad.
I’m a poll watcher in Florida in a racially diverse neighborhood that tends towards middle class. Huge line when poll opened at 7 am but line was gone by 9 am. Everything going very well; the election staff is a good one.
My only takeaway on this is looking at how many people in the roster voted in advance. I reckon 30% to 50%. That’s important because if they hadn’t, the staff and physical capacity of the polling place couldn’t handle higher peak volume. (As of about noon, I reckon 25% of the precincts voters had voted in person today,and reckon it’ll be 50% by evening, giving about 90% turnout. Very rough guess.)
At my polling place I saw some black peoplez playing hippity-hop and brandishing copies of Mao’s Little Red Book. It was soooo skeery that I started to cry and couldn’t read my ballot through the tears… one of millions intimidated by Chicago-style tactics!
Actually, I voted absentee. As far as I can tell that’s the best way to combat this voter ID BS. Everyone gets mailed a ballot automatically, but those who prefer to vote in person can do so instead, if they choose.
I keep coming back to the simple question as to why it seems to be beyond the capacity of this country to plan for something which you know about four years in advance. It is an event for which you can fairly well estimate the number of people who will be showing up and you know exactly what kind of physical and manpower resources are required to do it efficiently and effectively.
This ain’t rocket science, people. It is way beyond time that we try and create some kind of consistent model which can be applied to national elections. Before this is over, more than $ 4,000,000,000 will have been spent on this election. FOUR BILLION DOLLARS!!!! And we can’t get the necessary number of ballots to some places. And some places get no ballots at all!!
This should be a national disgrace. Hell, it IS A NATIONAL DISGRACE.
Remember that all these failures are deliberate. The GOP is actively trying to create voting problems. And since our voting system is so ad hoc, from state to state and county to county, much depends on the will of the elected voting officials in each area.
It’s happening because the GOP wants it to happen.
Yeah, I know. I just hope at some point before I leave this mortal coil, I finally see a majority of the citizenry step up and say, “ENOUGH ALREADY!!!”
This is just absolute fucking bullshit. The media should be all over this. And those of us in states where this shit goes on all the time, like my own state, should be beating down the doors in our state capitols to demand this damn thing be fixed, once and for all.
HUSTED….YOU’RE DOIN’ A HECKUVA JOB!!
Far from being “all over it”, our national corporate media refuses even to consider that Repub vote suppression exists, even when it is being conducted openly on a nationwide stage. It’s presented as simply another fantasy of the Dirty Fucking Hippies, which no reasonable person acknowledges.
Exactly how many elected Repubs have spoken out against Repub Hustad’s obvious attempts to make voting more difficult for Dems? Against his consistent efforts to come up with every possible machination that will adversely affect (largely) Dem ballots? None. Zero. Nada.
Ditto the efforts of criminal guv’nor Scott in FL–although I believe ex-guv Crist spoke out against the recent (intentional) early voting debacle.
Nice, ordinary rank and file (white) Repubs also keep mum. They absolutely know what is going on and why it is going on. Like “Good Germans”, they quietly condone the suppression, and silently agree with it. It’s what they want to see done.
The reality is that today’s “conservative” movement is deeply, deeply anti-democratic. They hate democracy and legislatures, and they hate the various demographics that make up the Dem party. They do not see them as “worthy” of voting. That’s what this 47% stuff is all about, Rmoney’s shit about how many “pay no income tax!”, as though that’s the only federal tax in existence.
So we will continue to see Repub vote suppression, and studious ignoring of it by the worthless corporate news media. Indeed, it will likely get even more insidious as time goes on. Where’s the backlash? Like Germany’s Hitler movement of the late 20s and early 30s, today’s “conservatives” will either be defeated or they will transform the nation into the authoritarian plutocrat shithole they yearn for it to be. But they will never admit defeat.
It’s up to us, man. Plain and simple. It’s time for people to mobilize and start the ball rolling. Fuck the compliant media. Fuck the criminal GOP. It’s up to those who give a shit.
Your state keeps electing republican governors, and secretaries of state. It’s not the media who is responsible. It’s the citizens of Ohio who vote in the very people who seek to disenfranchise them. Ohio and Florida are repeat offenders, why? Because those states don’t punish those who try to prevent dark skinned people from voting.
nalbar
Well both Ohio and Florida, like Wisconsin and South Carolina, hold elections in midterm years when turnout is lower, especially for Democrats. Get this sort of turnout in those states and you dramatically change their politics. Change the politics and you have the ability to punish them.
Yes, you are correct. It is not the media’s fault. But perhaps if people were made a bit more aware of exactly what is being foisted on them, they might consider making some different choices. But ultimately, the buck stops at the feet of Ohio voters. We need to be much more vocal and press this issue consistently and firmly. It is probably the single biggest danger to our democratic process. And no one in the mainstream wants to highlight this on a consistent basis. How someone could have a valid voter registration card, issued by the Board of Elections, yet not be on the voter roll on election day is nothing short of a travesty of justice.
Here in the Colorado Springs precinct where I am poll watching the voting has been exemplary. The election staff is mostly GOP but everyone is both consistently following the rules to the letter AND proactively helping people as needed. I quickly went beyond my official limits and began helping wherever needed, with the supervisory judge’s approval. Writing this during some down time – in fact after the morning wave it’s been steady but no lines. The district is 60% GOP but 20% black and latino, and lots of black and latino voters today. I have been watching closely but not a whiff of bias from the poll workers.
Trying to steal it in Philly, too.
I am trying not to freak out but this is a nightmare. I have a friend from 2008 who is now a voter protection lawyer in Philly. I won’t bother him now but maybe tomorrow I’ll ask him about it.
Before any attempt at passing new laws I ready for the
Assit. US atty in Ohio to put the Ohio Sect of State in jail.
Sort of OT but,
Chrysler gives workers day off to vote – POLITICO.com
Sweet, sweet blowback.
A concession given to unionized autoworkers by the “Big Three” some time ago. So, not quite the big FU to Mitt from Chrysler that reporting on this seemed to be.
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Cross-posted from my diary – Democracy Shows Its Ugly Face in America.
According NBC, the offending machine has been taken offline—which stops the flipping but lengthens the lines.
Win-win for voter suppression.
And how many bogus votes did it register? And ho many others are there?
Myself, my wife and son all voted at our regular voting place in Palm Beach County, Florida, with minimal wait time shortly after lunch. I saw lots of cars at a church polling place on the way to work this morning but not so many while I passed by at noon.
I think a lot of people thought getting there early meant beating the crowds, but everyone got the same idea and met the crowds instead. It’s just like many thought early voting meant they could beat waiting in lines even though the number of polling places is greatly reduced.
Frankly, most of what I’m hearing is that people are unhappy with the wait times. Seriously, if that is the worst you can say about it, if you can’t plan accordingly to do your civic duty, then that says something more about you than about our voting system.
That comment is downright offensive. Many people have busier, and more precariously balanced, lives than you can probably imagine. And there is simply NO EXCUSE at all for not making it quick and easy for everyone to vote in a supposed democracy and an election on which, all told, BILLIONS of dollars have been spent.
So your busy life is more busy than my busy life? Who’s offensive now?
I voted by mail weeks ago, jerkoff. But thanks for playing.
“I voted by mail weeks ago, jerkoff. But thanks for playing.”
Then I’m not talking about you and you have no cause to be offended. How much easier can you get voting than to have it mailed to you? What the hell are you talking about, making it easier?
Troll much?
Did I say I was complaining on my own behalf? Voting should be easy for EVERYONE. And nobody elected you to decide who “deserves” to vote or how much time and effort it “should” cost them.
A simple reply is:
Voting shouldn’t be time consuming in the first place.
Give citizens a week to vote, and all of the lines virtually disappear.
Having the vote on ONE day in NOVEMBER for 300 MILLION people is fucking idiotic.
The fine state of Florida’s ballot is a whopping 8 pages long! It seems quite obvious that voting on such a ballot often takes longer than voting on, say, a 2 page ballot. Are you suggesting that most citizens should be able to figure out that voting could take up to three hours? Four hours? By now, you must understand that your voting experience in Florida is not the norm. Florida voting officials ought to be held accountable! They knew the ballot was going to be long and that it would take a significant amount of time to complete. Gosh, think it might be an appropriate time to discuss the state level leadership in Florida? Care to review that with me now? Smells rotten!
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In polled countries, Obama does even better than in 2008, except in Kenya where Romney gathers 18% of the vote.
Perhaps a governorship for Mitt or Mormon missionary work after the election?
Let’s see if Dem voters remember this in 2014 and throw Kasich and Scott and every other Republican office holder out of office.
A challenger at my polling place looking at everyone’s info, when I said I knew where I was going she got nasty, told me she could prevent me from voting. called the OFA hotline
Did you get her name and report her for voter intimidation?
I got her name (she wouldn’t give it to me, threatened me more when I asked her after I voted, but I did get it. I called OFA and reported her to their hotline because I couldn’t find any other number to call to report and I was in the middle of an all day work related session. OFA said I could have talked with election officials but I didn’t know that and didn’t know which election official to talk with. it was very very crowded too, midmorning, never seen that before.
Boo,
I just crunched the numbers using the awesome NYT website (both Nate Silver and the awesome “512 Paths to Victory” page) even with OH AND FL Mitt only has a 11% chance of taking the election in only 8 possible paths… and each of those paths go through Virginia where Silver only gives Romney a 21% chance of winning.
According to my back of the envelope calculations the largest chance of winning comes from Romney taking: FL, NC, VA, OH, and CO… and there is only a 4.2% chance of that happening if I consider those a “stolen” lock for the GOP.
**(Note that my calculations are locking in NC for Romney and NV/WI for Obama which seems very likely at this point).
This GOP-led voter suppression effort should produce in investigation on the order of those conducted for the JFK and MLK assassinations, Watergate, the Challenger disaster and the 9-11 cockup. This geezer has voted for 50-plus years and I know about LBJ and Box 13. No contest. This is criminal perversion of our democracy. Chances are we would invade another country that pulled this crap.
I really think the Federal Courts should start using the US Marshall Service to enforce their court orders and to detain Ohio’s Secretary of State for defying their court order.
My leans-Dem precinct (49%/42%) was pretty heavy this morning, but lines were minimal and I was in and out in about 10 minutes.
I had no problems, but friends of mine in Richmond stated:
“I would just like you to know that [purging voter rolls] has been happening in Richmond all day. They attempted to keep Natalie from voting and they sent me to two different precincts.”
When I voted this morning I was asked for a photo ID. I was NOT happy about it, and immediately asked the head registrar when the law in Calif. changed. He stepped right up as I told the worker it was a form of vote suppression, and he said it had not changed, and started lecturing the worker on the rules….’ask name and address only’. The lecture lasted the whole time I voted (I was ten feet away) and as I left he apologized and explained it was a mistake.
Issa’s district.
nalbar
One cool thing here – all public transit is free on election day.
Oh, and voting – whether absentee, early or on election day is easy, quick and accessible to all. Lines are short and everyone involved is helpful. The process couldn’t be much better, really.
Why the people of any community would tolerate poorly run elections is beyond me. If your city, county or state made voting difficult in any way, you need to raise hell. This is the most fundamental of services that must be conducted by local government. Hold them accountable.
Many of these reports suggest that OFA is not really on it. They should be; they have the organization and manpower. But on this, they are too conventional liberals who have read too much Hofstadter and therefore don’t take a conspiracy to steal or suppress votes as seriously as they should. Today, watching the polls should have been a higher priority than getting out the vote. They are at diminishing returns on the latter. They should have tried to ascertain in advance that all polling places had enough ballots.
Meanwhile, a Green candidate in Ohio has sued over unverifiable voting machines. Why he waited to the last moment, I don’t understand, and I don’t expect the Courts to take him seriously, but it is good that someone at least set down that marker.
Wouldn’t a Voter’s Bill of Rights be blatantly unconstitutional? States are explicitly given the power to organize voting, however disastrous that is.
What we need is a Voting Amendment.
“states explicitly given the power…”
what is the constitutional provision you are relying on? Have you read Art I, sec. 4?
And Article 1 section 4 says:
“The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing [sic] Senators.”
That’s explicitly giving states power over elections right there. Of course it also gives Congress powers to make or alter those rules. So I’m only half-right.
Yes. Someone really ought to write one and get the ball rolling. Maybe someone like Sherrod Brown. Constitutional Ammendments can be difficult to get passed but if the people of each state organize and lobbies to force it through their legislature, it can happen.
But whether any of that happens or not, it doesn’t excuse all of the law breaking going on today by local elections officials and their organizations. I really hope the Justice Department sits down with all of the voter protection groups after the election, reviews all of the complaints and builds cases against those who actively suppressed the vote. Then round ’em all up, give them proper trials and issue the orange jumpsuits.
I am no expert on elections laws and how easy or difficult it is to get a conviction, but there are more general civil rights violations occurring in lots of places today, being committed by public officials. Those should be enforceable.
In our county (not sure if statewide), we vote by mail–everyone.