Running, With Scissors

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• Reader Comments (4)

  Page 1 of 1 pages

  Nice job on the article.  I’m glad to see that voter purging by the Republicans is being exposed.  Check out this link to read about the Republicans have been doing this for over 50 years

  http://projectvote.org/newsroom/project-vote-news/press-release.html?tx_ttnew ws[tt_news]=1206&tx;_ttnews[backPid]=75&cHash=79393fae39

  Posted by Jean on Sep 27, 2007 at 6:31 PM

  Masterfully articulated, HJ. It’s stimulating to see you tackle an important issue lost in the shuffle. It’s far too often we see ourselves lost in unwavering battles with no evidence and support. Great job!

  Posted by vince on Sep 28, 2007 at 4:05 AM

  The purging of Voter List’s is somewhat troubling.
  Somewhat because by law, certain felons cannot vote.  Some voter’s will have died. And the ones who don’t vote…well, what difference does that make.
  I’d be concerned when folks complain of showing up to vote and being fully qualified to vote and being turned down because their name had been purged.
  What really concerns me was that in 2000 Florida calmly announced that it usually had around 1500 votes that were unreadable for whatever reason.
  And, by inference, other states had similar situations.
  It would seem that there are too many different types of voting methods, some better than others.
  Any system that regularly produces more than 10 unreadable votes needs to be changed.
  And no system should be allowed that does not print out a paper copy showing which candidate or issue was voted for (or against for issues), allowing the voter to see that the selections are what the voter intended. That paper copy would be deposited with Election Judge and be the basis of any recount.
  Plus,and equally important, is the abolishing of the Electoral College.
  One Man. One Vote. Regardless of where you live.

  Posted by farmer on Oct 5, 2007 at 1:22 AM

  As we approach this year’s election day next Tuesday, November 6, it’s a good time to recall that even now, almost 7 years after the debacle of the 2000 election, there are still major problems with stealth voter suppression efforts. 

  * A nominee for a permanent spot on the Federal Elections Commission, Hans van Spakovsky, is still being considered for that post despite extensive evidence that he manipulated oversight and implementation of the Help American Vote Act while a manager at the Department of Justice in order to suppress votes in the 2004 election.

  * The city of San Francisco’s ethics commission rejected the effort by “Chicken John” Rinaldi, a candidate for mayor, to get public funding despite more than enough signatures and contributions, based on a bogus rule that requires voter registrations and drivers licenses to match (a classic voter suppression technique used, among others, by Republicans in Michigan, leading to the narrow election of Rep. Mike Rogers to Congress in 2000).  San Francisco, one of the most liberal cities in the country, nonetheless has politicians who want to protect their position—in this case, the mayor, Gavin Newsom.  Rules that may have no overt connection to voter suppression still function in that way.

  * Republican operatives have revived the effort to put on California’s ballot next year a proposal to split the state’s presidential vote in the Electoral College rather than the traditional winner-take-all.  The effort to force this through in California, which is likely to vote Democratic in 2008, but not in Republican-leaning states, is another effort to dilute voter power for partisan reasons.  Since most other states will retain winner-take-all, this would suppress the vote of all Californians in terms of affecting the presidential outcome.

  Woody Guthrie probably didn’t have voter fraud in mind when he wrote “The Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd,” but the sentiment applies:

  Yes, as through this world I’ve wandered
  I’ve seen lots of funny men;
  Some will rob you with a six-gun,
  And some with a fountain pen.

  Posted by Fred Heutte on Oct 29, 2007 at 9:26 AM

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