Conservatives were outraged earlier this year when a year-old video emerged of two new Black Panthers standing outside a polling place in Pennsylvania. Fox News incessantly played the video, and soon the rest of the media was following its lead concerning an alleged Justice Department cover-up of the case. However, now new evidence has emerged of the Tea Party's engaging in more widespread voter suppression efforts, yet the story has not gained the same momentum in the press.
A progressive group called One Wisconsin Now is claiming that the Tea Party and Americans for Prosperity (a corporate-funded group which helps finance the Tea Party) are purposefully engaging in a voter suppression effort called "voter caging." To support their claims, One Wisconsion Now has produced documents from a Tea Party meeting,along with an audio clip of the meeting. In the audio, "Grandsons of Liberty" leader Tim Dake describes the strategy the Tea Party, Republican Party, and Americans for Prosperity plan to implement,
"One of the things we’re going to do is take these addresses that people give and we want to send out a postcard that says, 'You need to call and confirm this. And if you haven’t called, well then it could get tossed out.' We’re also looking for when you send these cards out is they’ll come back if it is an undeliverable address."
That particular practice of sending out direct mailings is very suspect, as it could cause many voters to think they have been disqualified from voting because they did not respond to the postcard sent out by private parties. Many voters may simply discard or ignore the postcard. Then they will be told by others, possibly the Tea Party, that their non-response disqualifies them from voting. In fact, the postcard has no legal significance, but that is not what is stated in the proposed postcard. In addition, there is concern that many voters could be excluded by this practice. In the rest of his presentation, Dake talks about using the postcards as evidence to try and keep people from voting. Dake states that his poll watchers will have Republican Party lawyers available to them at anytime should they want to challenge a voter. An average, a high school-educated voter would stand little chance in debating the technicalities of election law against a high-priced lawyer.
Perhaps scarier is Dake's proposal to have Tea Party members go to the physical address of registered voters. Dake goes as far as telling his members to take pictures of the houses or apartments they consider suspect and report them to the proper authorities.
If this audio tape were of a liberal group's encouraging the same practices, the clip would be rolling on Fox News 24/7, and Glenn Beck would be telling his listeners about a grand conspiracy to stop their votes. Instead, a conservative group is calling for their members to take pictures of other residences and report voters they find suspicious", and the media is largely ignoring the story.
The Wisconsin State Journal has received the only Republican response to the allegations thus far. In the article, Mark Jefferson of the Wisconsin State Republican Party denies the existence of any mailing campaign, and claims the meeting was simply about trying to rid the state of voter fraud. That may or may not be true, but their efforts to rid the state of voter fraud seemed particularly targeted at fraudulent Democratic voters, and not Republicans. In addition, in their efforts to stamp out fraud, the conservative groups may disuade (purposefully or not) many legal voters from going to the polls.
Comments
You were not concerned about ACORN or the NBP when it came to voter issues but now you are?
First, you are going to have to provide some real evidence of said voter suppression efforts from those organizations (as I did above).
Second, ACORN, despite numerous Republican DA's across the country, has never been indicted on any voter fraud allegations.
Never get your facts or news from professional propogansists. By definition propaganda is not factual. In simple terms propgandists are LIARS
Acorn Charged in Voter Registration Fraud Case in Nevada
NY TIMES
By STEVE FRIESS
Published: May 5, 2009
LAS VEGAS — A prominent antipoverty organization that drew criticism from Republicans during last year’s presidential race was charged by Nevada officials Monday with engaging in voter registration fraud. Two former leaders of the group’s Nevada branch were also charged in connection with the submission of thousands of bogus voter registration forms.ACORN Workers Indicted For Alleged Voter Fraud
POSTED: 5:02 pm CST November 1, 2006
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Four people have been indicted on charges of voter fraud in Kansas City, officials said Wednesday.
Investigators said questionable registration forms for new voters were collected by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, a group that works to improve minority and low-income communities.
I said ACORN has never been indicted. Not the people who once volunteered for the organization who were dismissed long before they were indicted. Get YOUR facts straight. If someone who worked for Wal-Mart is found guilty of murder does that mean Wal-Mart was found guilty of murder?
I will say I should have said convicted instead of indicted. Still, ACORN itself has never been indicted on voter fraud, and if you investigate the very story you linked to you will find the organization responded appropriately in disciplining the people involved.
Oh, and still waiting for your evidence that ACORN suppressed ONE vote in 2008 elections. OR even that ONE illegal vote occurred because of ACORN.
Ryan are you stuttering?
ACORN = nonsensical right wing BS. There was not a single vote for the Democrats because of the faux ACORN scandal. Anyone with even the most basic logical thinking skills knows that. ACORN were actually the ones getting scammed by their employees (who were getting paid for registering fake people.) But most of those fake registrations were caught and discarded by ACORN and even those that were not didn't lead to any fake votes. How would they? Think about it. With your brain. Try it seriously. Use your brain.
The "NBP" story is another bunch of nonsense that only had legs because it involved "scary black people." There is no evidence of even a single vote not being cast because of that story.
This on the other hand is systemic voter suppression. It leads to many people not being able to vote. It's a real subversion of democracy.
Comparing the fake right wing stories with something with real merit makes no sense. Use your god damn brain.
More importantly, certain ACORN employees have been implicated in voter REGISTRATION fraud - but to date no one has shown that a single one of those fraudulent registrations was actually used to cast a vote.
When people are being paid for each registration the bring in, there is incentive to cheat the employer and "pad" the registration rolls.
But that is vastly different from actual vote fraud.
Witt, look across the river at the stories on East St. Louis vote fraud the last couple decades - THAT is real fraud, mostly through absentee ballots. And not an ACORN in sight.
The media couldn't wait to expose Eric Holder giving a pass to the Black Panthers, official thugs of the DRats.
This proves how the media is bias and controlled by those disgusting patriots. Thank God for Jon Stewart and the Great Twitt!
The Witt is TOTALLY BLIND to the facts and could really care less about them anyway.
Many CONVICTIONS and MORE charged and he still asks fro facts?
If there are so many convictions, can you provide evidence?
And look how defensive he gets right off the bat!
It must be weighing on his conscience that he has ignored it.
Classic playbook. Shift subjects. Make it personal. Call names. Do anything to avoid the story itself which is a concerted effort by the Tea Party to suppress the vote.
And just what name did I call you?
Well seeing how you all have the courage to post anonymous I don't know which are yours and which are not. But "defensive" is certainly one. I am very defensive about being called defensive you see.
Sorry, I was not aware 'defensive' was name calling!
I pray you don't bleed out through that ultra thin skin!
I take offense to the thin-skinned comment.
Aw trufie, just sign your lying rants. We all recognize you right away anyway.
Then why bother ID myself as 'trufie' whoever that is if you seem to know who it is commenting?
And you ALWAYS comment on the poster but not the post! Hmmm.
The NBP issue is alive and well and there is good evidence that Thomas Perez has lied under oath. This will all be exposed for the corrupt Holder JustUs Department that it is.
More horsepucky. Maryland is in compliance:
http://www.elections.state.md.us/press_room/8%2026%2010%20SBE_MOVE%20Act...
ANNAPOLIS, MD (August 26, 2010) – State Administrator of Elections Linda H. Lamone
announced today that the U.S. Department of Defense found Maryland to be in compliance with the
requirement of the federal Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act to mail absentee
ballots to military and overseas voters at least 45 days before the general election. This Act was
designed to increase enfranchisement of overseas and military voters.
****
But more importantly, you clearly are clueless as to the issue.
The MOVE Act has NOTHING to do with voting in Maryland by military personnel stationed at Fort Meade or any other military base in the state - it's about ABSENTEE voting by personnel stationed overseas.
Military personnel who live in Maryland and are there for election day are expected to vote the same way everyone else does.
And BTW, although some of the people who work there certainly reside in maryland, the Pentagon is in Virginia.
I used to be really excited waiting for November. I'm still energized, but what I am REALLY looking forward to are the House Sub Committee INVESTIGATIONS they are going to have...........
So while 9.5% of Americans are unemployed what you want Republicans to do is engage in investigations. Hmmmm....ok we will see how that works out in 2012.
Witt opines "So while 9.5% of Americans are unemployed what you want Republicans to do is engage in investigations. Hmmmm.."
And he has had how many posts about what a Delaware Senate candidate did in high school?
When these twitts get called out they sure get their panties in a knot!
Still not heard hardly anything about the actual article. So I take it you all are OK with voter suppression as long as it is done by a conservative group.
So while 9.5% of Americans are unemployed what you want DRATS to do is engage in:
Borrowing more money from China, triple the deficit, socialize and UNCONSTITUTIONALLY MANDATE against the WILL OF THE PEOPLE healthcare......
Oh and todays GOODIE HEADLINE: "House Democrats Pass Bill to Grill School Children about Sexual Preference"
(D) means DELETE on ELECTION DAY
One hardly takes this column seriously enough to accuse anyone of ANYTHING of such magnitude.
Someone who uses Colbert and Stewart as their sole source of what is news cannot be taken too seriously.
and so it goes on...anyone care to comment on the article itself.
Maybe the INVESTIGATATION of Eric Holder giving a "pass" to States on DENYING our FIGHTING SONS AND DAUGHTERS their RIGHT to VOTE in 2010 will prevent them from DENYING our FIGHTING SONS AND DAUGHTERS their RIGHT to VOTE in 2012.
The claim about military voting is totally false.
Alaska and Maryland withdrew their requests for wiavers of the MOVE Act because they could be in complicance.
Colorado, D.C., and the Virgin Islands entered agreements with DoD to bring themselves into compliance.
Delaware, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island and Washington (state) all were granted waivers by DoD because of extended periods for absentee ballot return.
Wisconsin is under a consent decree to bring it into compliance.
All the documents are on http://www.fvap.gov/
All other states already were in compliance with MOVE Act; NO military voters are being denied their right to vote this year.
So stop spreading this lie.
Ryan, actually Martyland is still having issues with compliance. But since there is a close contest between the incumbent Marty O'Malley and the past Gov Rep Ehrlich, the absentee votes of the Maryland based military is of no interest to the democrat controlled legislature and democrat gov.
You know the vast majority of military are conservative. Maryland has what military related bases?
How many military members do you suppose are stationed at Fort Meade? The NSA? The Pentagon? Aberdeen Proving ground? The addittion of military and their contractors under the BRAC plan? WE expect tens of thousand of new resident here. MOST employees of the military complex.
This is why Maryland ORIGINALLY said they could not comply. Then the blowback was too great in an election year so they FAKED it. We WILL read about it in December or January. I will pas sit along.
If you remember I was the one who said ACORN would never win the lawsuit they filed in Baltimore against Breitbart. It was THROWN OUT.
Did Sherrod EVER sue Breitbart?
Getting really tired of this screwed up system that puts replies in the wrong place...
More horsepucky. Maryland is in compliance:
http://www.elections.state.md.us/press_room/8%2026%2010%20SBE_MOVE%20Act...
ANNAPOLIS, MD (August 26, 2010) – State Administrator of Elections Linda H. Lamone
announced today that the U.S. Department of Defense found Maryland to be in compliance with the
requirement of the federal Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act to mail absentee
ballots to military and overseas voters at least 45 days before the general election. This Act was
designed to increase enfranchisement of overseas and military voters.
****
But more importantly, you clearly are clueless as to the issue.
The MOVE Act has NOTHING to do with voting in Maryland by military personnel stationed at Fort Meade or any other military base in the state - it's about ABSENTEE voting by personnel stationed overseas.
Military personnel who live in Maryland and are there for election day are expected to vote the same way everyone else does.
And BTW, although some of the people who work there certainly reside in maryland, the Pentagon is in Virginia.
I'll comment on this article when you do one on the NBP and the latest news about the purgery of Thomas Perez
Oh gosh. Now it has turned into a childish game of "YOU FIRST!" Ok if we are going to play that game these comments are all under my article about the Tea Party suppression effort. So considering that huge fact, I do believe we should stay focused on the story at hand. Now if you're arguing that two wrongs make a right with the NBP thing, well you can make that argument but I think that is lousy avenue to go down. Would Obama be justified in spying on the Republicans because Nixon did so?
I believe there should be an organized effort done by the Democrats, Liberals, the minorities, the ones who have been stepped on by the massive media behemoth controlled by cooperate interests and side stepping the important issues.
My first thought when Obama was in office, what should have first been done was to do a bold move and crack down on all of these suppression and caging tactics.
As people, we should all have the duty to keep an eye on politics, our own 'side' as well and call out against them - speak against them. They are capable of doing wrong, they are capable of mistakes and is our job as the people to tell them what they are doing wrong. Not just "Lower Taxes" or "Give us jobs" but social issues, legal issues, and more.
Liberals, Conservatives, Democrats, Republicans, Independents! Study up, discover, make your own conclusions!
http://www.truthaboutfraud.org/case_studies_by_state/wisconsin_2004.html...
Does this not sound familiar? There is no way around it with an ID. And not only that, it is against federal law too.
The | http://www.justice.gov/crt/voting/42usc/subch_ih.php#anchor_1973gg
This is racial and age profiling no matter which way you look at it. Yes, we realize the faults with ACORN, yes we know about so many things that democrats did wrong due to their incompetence - but the question is can Republicans and Tea Party members take a stand against it's own corruption and speak against it?
"Blacks make up 12% of the US population and have kept that number down due to the liberal use of abortion yet they have an incredibly disproportionate amount of advocacy. "
Poppycock. Don't your racist sources also whine about all the black mommas on welfare with bunches of kids?
Y'all really need to pick a "message" and stay with it.
As for the article, I find it disturbing but hopefully limited to one small group. If this is indeed an attempt to disrupt anyone's right to vote, those doing so should be delt with according to the law.
As much as i detest ACORN and the NBP, I can't do anything about that right now except to do what I can to see that as many non-democrats get elected in the fall.
Also, though I disagree with a lot of what Ryan writes, this is his news blog and I would hope that we could all respect that. I know that we live in very heated times and I myself may have said some off color things but we should appreciate what is here.
Agree to disagree and have a civil discussion but if you have take so personal, maybe you should walk away for a minute or two. If you find his articles so offensive don't read them.
Thank MicKNY. While we often disagree I always appreciate your tone, and I think it lends much more credibility to the counter-points you make against me (as much as I hate to admit that).
What's this massive media behemoth stepping on the liberals crap? From the so called "non-partisan" media corporations over 1100 reporters donated the the Democratic party while only 193 donated to the Republican party. Let's you know exactly where the majority of their views align with. If this was an actual story they would have been all over it.
I'm not sure how it's even Voter Supression...I believe their original intention was to verify the people counted as votes were from actual legal voters. More like voter verification. Considering the evidence of dead people, illegal alien, double voting from the motor voter campaign and felon votes that were counted. I guess no one saw all the students in Ohio bragging that they traveled in to vote a second time? The wording on the card is suspect,..but come on. This is clearly a smear piece of those horrible horribly Tea Partiers. At least you didn't call them Tea Baggers like the rest of the immature liberal media.
I'm so tired of the Democrat/ Republican gang war for power with little care for what the people actually want.
Wow.....all this hub-bub over something that is little more than an allegation without evidence.
But of course you're quick to report it. The NBP issue was proven. This is little more than hearsay right now. Apples and oranges my friend.
the real issue here is that people so stupid that they'd fall for a scheme like this are usually Democrat voters. So sad that your party is populated by illiterates and half-wits
Actually there is plenty of evidence, and it is not hearsay when the words come directly from the mouth of the person you are accusing. So sad that your party is populated with people who can read but don't, and quarter-wits.
This started out as an article pointing out media suppression of news that on the surface, appears to benefit Democrats. I have no doubt that suppression of certain facts occur, because I noticed that nowhere in the media reporting of the eight Bell, CA politicians that were raiding the city treasury, was mention made that they were all Democrats. Back & forth on this subject can go on indefinitely.
"1/24/2005 MILWAUKEE (AP) — The sons of a first-term congresswoman and Milwaukee's former acting mayor were among five Democratic activists charged Monday with slashing the tires of vans rented by Republicans to drive voters and monitors to the polls on Election Day."
Not widely reported at the time. Now I am not excusing one for the other, it is all wrong but some perspective is needed.
Actually, it WAS widely reported at the time. AP and all the networks.
That's how you knew about it in the first place.
"voter suppression" is unnecessary now, at least in the classic sense that repubs and dems have done it to date.
most states have electronic voting machines now, which send polling place numbers to a centralized, privately run location, usually staffed by employees of the company providing and maintaining the machines. It's there that the raw numbers from precincts get tallied and sent into state election HQ's.
Diebold famously brought attention to this when the CEO promised, in a public shareholders' meeting in January of 2004, to "make sure we get the votes in for GW bush". This sparked an investigation by some intrepid souls, who found that not only was most of the programming for the e-voting machines rife with security holes you could drive a truck thru, there were OPEN ftp sites that posted the source code for e-voting software AND passwords-- available for download by anyone who found the site!!
All ANYONE has to do, to steal an election in this country, is place a couple people in the centralized location that receives precinct data, and simply change the numbers as you please before sending it into the state HQ.
The Machiavellian beauty of it is, THERE'S NO PAPER TRAIL!! no way to prove fraud or even do a RECOUNT!
Did Bush REALLY win in 04? did Obama REALLY win in 08? there's no way to really tell. (although in 04, Bush 'won' by 2%.....and every election's percentage tally has a 2% margin of error, which SHOULD have triggered another recount)
The crap in this article, and the ACORN stupidity is irrelevant, because voter fraud is 1000 times easier NOW. but hey! keep arguing useless trivia, that way you'll keep yourself distracted from the REAL fraud.....it's what your Masters want.
It is about time SOMEBODY is looking into fraudulent voter registrations. I guess you could call it voter suppression...IF YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO VOTE. I do not want ANYONE diluting my legal vote by their illegal votes. Maybe they can get away with stuffing a ballot box in a banana republic, but last time I checked, we were not a banana republic...yet. Simple solution...the board of elections and the legislatures need to do their jobs. The time to say Mea Culpa is before the election has been certified, not before.
And how many cases of fraudulent REGISTRATION can you cite that resulted in fraudulent VOTES?
I spent several years investigating multiple elections and found a handful of fraudulent votes - and in none of those case were there enough fraudulent votes to change the outcome of the election.
This kind of crap does nothing to prevent the fraud; it's simply voter intimidation to keep "those people" from voting.
...after!
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