September 27, 2008
Anatomy of Voter Caging — 2008 McCain Style
Because the Republican party has a long inglorious history of voter suppression (the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Rehnquist got his start politically as a GOP operative working to keep Democrats from voting in Arizona!) it should come as no surprise that they have gotten ever more sophisticated at it. Admittedly their attempts in 2000 and 2004 were effective to some extent but very transparent. Now they pretend to help you vote while ensuring that your vote will be thrown away.
Here’s how it works, step by step. And if you should happen to be the recipient of one of these McCain mailings, call your local elections office ASAP and verify that you are still registered to vote — and if tell the local officials about the mailing — you will be ensuring that your voter registration is current and performing a public service by letting the elections officials know what is going on. Read the rest of this entry »
September 14, 2008
Massive voter caging by McCain campaign?
From state after state come reports of massive mailings by the McCain campaign of absentee ballot requests that contain confusing, misleading or simply wrong information. Is the McCain campaign merely incompetent? Or is it engaged in a massive effort to create a database of voters to challenge at the polls? Is the McCain campaign orchestrating a voter caging campaign on a grand scale?
Given the track record of the GOP in Florida in 2000 there is no reason to give McCain and the Republicans the benefit of the doubt this time around. Greg Palast has provided extensive documentation of their success in denying the right to vote to thousands of legitimate voters. Go to http://www.gregpalast.com and read all about it if you have any doubts. So let’s assume that the mailings of absentee ballot requests to voters in swing states who did not request them is simply a new weapon in the Republican voter suppression arsenal.
How widespread is this? So far reports have come in from VA, OH, CO, NC, PA, FL, NM, WI, OR, CA and MN. Here’s a sampling of the info available so far. Read the rest of this entry »
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