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Subscribe to RSSFrom a continuing series of articles, Who Can Vote?, a News21 investigation of voting rights in America.
By Joe Henke and Emily Nohr
News21
Interactive:Click on the image to learn about each of the 36 secretaries of state who also serve as their state's chief election official.
Activist secretaries of state across America are dramatically changing a once nonpartisan job that involves supervising elections.
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Discuss this series of stories on the Facebook page for Open Channel, the NBC News investigative blog. |
Some have supported partisan legislation. Some have endorsed or advised their party’s candidates. In 36 states, the secretary of state also holds the title of chief election official.
The most aggressive of this new group are Republicans Kris Kobach, 46, of Kansas and Scott Gessler, 47, of Colorado.
They have been leaders in efforts to enact strict voter registration requirements in Kansas and to purge voting rolls in Colorado. Both say they want to stop voter fraud while critics, including Democrats and civil rights groups, say the measures would suppress voting.
Kobach and Gessler also have used their offices to endorse statewide and federal candidates. While Gessler endorsed Mitt Romney, Kobach said he’s an informal immigration adviser to the presidential candidate’s campaign.
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Who can vote? A national News21 investigation of voting rights in America. |
However, Romney campaign regional press secretary Alison Hawkins told News21, that Kobach isn’t an adviser to the campaign on any issues, either formally or informally.
Kobach and Gessler aren’t alone.
Secretaries of State Brian Kemp of Georgia and Matt Schultz of Iowa, both Republicans, have supported voter ID legislation. All the states that have passed ID laws have Republican-majority legislatures except Rhode Island, which had a Democratic majority in 2011 when its law passed with bipartisan support.
Arizona’s Republican Secretary of State Ken Bennett added to the birther debate, largely Tea Party-driven, when he threatened to remove President Barack Obama’s name from the general election ballot unless Hawaii sent him the president’s birth certificate.
Bennett has since received it and apologized if he offended anyone.
Kobach and Gessler, more than others, are changing the role of a state’s election officer.
Kobach has been involved in national Republican politics since 2001 when he was chief immigration adviser to then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft.
He went on to write S.B. 1070, Arizona’s contentious anti-immigration law. Three of four parts of that law were rejected in June by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Gessler addressed the Republican $250-a-plate Lincoln Day Dinner in Denver in June about voter fraud, saying, “People on the left say it doesn’t exist … but I’m from Chicago originally, where they used to say, ‘Vote early and vote often.’”
“In Denver, there are lots of unaffiliates," or independent voters, "there are lots of Democrats,” said Gessler. “We call it a target-rich environment. We are going to win this state. We are going to do it in Denver by converting people over to our banner, our point of view.”
Trey Grayson, who was Kentucky’s Republican secretary of state from 2004 to 2011, said he “cringes” today at partisan comments by Republican secretaries of state.
“I was a very proud Republican, but I was very cognizant of the fact that people needed to be able to trust elections,” said Grayson, who now directs the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
“So I tried to remember that in what I said, whether it was on a policy, on politics or on an individual, and always being aware of that appearance,” he added.
News21 is a program of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation that is helping to change the way journalism is taught in the U.S. and train a new generation of journalists capable of reshaping the news industry. It is headquartered at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. Since 2006, nearly 500 top journalism students in the U.S. have participated in the landmark national initiative.
But Gessler says his outspokenness is respectful to voters.
“When I say I’m a Republican and this is what I stand for, I think I’m giving people an honest choice,” Gessler said. “When people hide their party affiliation, or when people pretend there is no policy divide, pretend there is no choice here, what they’re really doing is masking what those choices are.”
Alexander Keyssar, professor of history and social policy at the Kennedy School, said the office should be nonpartisan.
“One of our many problems in the world of elections is that our election administration is generally partisan. They’re elected as members of a party. That’s how Katherine Harris could be secretary of state and state chair of Bush’s campaign simultaneously,” he said.
While serving as Florida’s Secretary of State under then-Gov. Jeb Bush, Harris was accused of partisan bias as she declared George W. Bush the winner of Florida’s electoral votes in the 2000 presidential election, a decision ultimately upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Unlike Kobach or Gessler, Harris didn’t tackle controversial public policy issues such as immigration and voter ID.
Kobach was elected as Kansas secretary of state in 2010 after a two-year stint as Republican Party chairman. He co-wrote the state’s Secure and Fair Elections Act, requiring photo ID to vote and, effective next year, proof of citizenship to register to vote.
Kobach argues he can fairly govern his state’s elections and also take strong partisan stances. While campaigning, Kobach told voters he would work on voter ID and anti-immigration legislation.
“My opponents tried to use that against me,” he said. He beat his Democratic opponent by more than 21 points.
Kobach says “a person can be a strong Republican or a strong Democrat and still approach the administration of elections with a nonpartisan, evenhanded attitude.”
Similarly, when Gessler took office in January 2011, the Denver Post reported his intention to continue practicing law at Hackstaff Gessler LLC. His Denver firm “specializes in campaign and elections law and has represented a number of Republican-aligned clients,” according to the newspaper.
Colorado Common Cause and Colorado Ethics Watch, two groups that aim to hold government accountable, called this a conflict of interest.
Gessler consulted with Colorado’s Republican attorney general and then decided to leave the firm, even though he said he would have only worked on real estate cases.
“At the end of the day, it caused a lot of controversy and it really become untenable,” Gessler said.
He’s since spent significant time in the courtroom, dealing with at least 10 lawsuits. These involve handling of ballots for inactive voters, attempting to reform campaign finance in Colorado, and addressing public access to ballots.
The partisanship of secretaries of state in the role of chief election official “is an obvious conflict of interest between the essential obligation to serve all voters and their attachment to one of the major political parties,” said Daniel Tokaji, an election law professor at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.
Currently, more Republicans than Democrats have made their secretary of state offices partisan, Grayson said. Of the 36 secretaries of state who are chief election officers, 23 are Republican and 13 are Democratic.
One outspoken, partisan Democratic secretary of state is Minnesota’s Mark Ritchie.
He grabbed the national spotlight through election recounts. Conservatives questioned Ritchie for calling Al Franken the winner of a 2008 Senate race, and two years later Mark Dayton the winner of a gubernatorial recount.
Both winning candidates are also Democrats.
Ritchie is outspoken on voting rights issues. Unlike the Republican secretaries of state, he opposes a voter ID requirement in Minnesota, saying it will disenfranchise voters and cost millions in unnecessary expenses.
Minnesota has 4,000 polling places with 30,000 election judges, Ritchie said. He downplays the influence a secretary of state has as chief election officer.
“It’s the towns that run the elections. The counties are the chief election officers and they own and control their voter list completely,” Ritchie said. “We don’t own the elections. This is why a lot of this conversation about secretaries is kind of meaningless in a way.”
Minnesota Republicans say Ritchie is trying to influence voters by renaming two proposed constitutional amendments – one requiring voters to show photo ID and the other banning same-sex marriage – on the November ballot.
The GOP legislature called the voter ID amendment “Photo Identification Required for Voting” and Ritchie retitled it, “Changes to in-person and absentee voting and voter registration; provisional ballots.”
Ritchie changed the language of the same-sex amendment from “Recognition of Marriage Solely Between One Man and One Woman,” to “Limiting the Status of Marriage to Opposite Sex Couples.”
Amendment proponents say Ritchie has changed the titles to confuse voters and help defeat the measures to benefit Minnesota Democrats.
In a country so divided along party lines, secretaries should be wary of partisan politics, said Doug Chapin, a University of Minnesota researcher and director of the Program for Excellence in Election Administration.
Jocelyn Benson, a professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, who was the Michigan Democratic nominee for secretary of state in 2010, said the officeholder should be an advocate for voters.
“So the question is are they making decisions that are in the best interest of the voters or are they simply advancing what their party’s agenda is?” said Benson, who wrote “Secretaries of State: Guardians of the Democratic Process.”
To some degree, she added, the public should expect secretaries to advance their party’s political agenda. However, balance is needed in Republicans’ desire for integrity in elections and Democrats’ expectations for access to voting, said Benson.
“The challenge is to do both and to essentially make it easier to vote and harder to cheat,” she said.
In Louisiana, state law keeps some partisan politics out of the secretary’s office. Secretary of State Tom Schedler can’t endorse candidates, serve on campaign committees of candidates or make campaign contributions.
In New Mexico, Secretary of State Dianna Duran has not endorsed candidates. Her office says it would conflict with the New Mexico Governmental Conduct Act.
Other states’ secretaries don’t endorse candidates out of personal belief. Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin, a Democrat, hasn’t endorsed a candidate since he took office in 1995.
South Dakota’s two previous secretaries of state, Chris Nelson and Joyce Hazeltine, served for a combined 24 years. Like Galvin, they personally choose to never endorse a candidate.
But in June, South Dakota Secretary of State Jason Gant, a Republican, endorsed then-Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum and South Dakota Republican state senate candidate Val Rausch.
“The operation of elections has a vast amount of laws,” Gant said. “Whether people endorse or not or do different political maneuvers, the laws we have in our state are very strong.”
Other states stay clear of partisan politics by using election boards and commissions. State election boards or commissions administer elections in 11 states and Washington D.C.
The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, for example, consists of six former judges as a nonpartisan staff. Together, they oversee the state’s elections, campaign finance, ethics and lobbying laws.
“The benefit of having a board like ours is that all of our judges are trained decision makers. They know how to weigh the evidence, how to look at the law and how to apply it,” said Reid Magney, the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board public information officer.
With a partisan secretary of state, Magney said, opponents will say, “it’s because you’re a Democrat or it’s because you’re a Republican” that a decision was made.
Kobach and Gessler disagree.
They say a secretary of state who is also the chief election official means greater accountability.
“They’re not as politically accountable as a single elected official,” said Kobach of election boards.
Secretaries of state who also are the chief election officer “subject themselves to the scrutiny of voters … so you have public accountability built in,” Gessler said.
Including Kobach and Gessler, 32 secretaries serving as chief election officials are elected. Florida, Pennsylvania and Texas secretaries of state are appointed by their governors. New Hampshire’s legislature names its secretary of state.
Delaware Election Commissioner Elaine Manlove, who was appointed by a Democratic governor to a four-year term, says elected secretaries, who must campaign, should not alienate other parties.
“I just don’t know how you split yourself down the middle like that,” she said.
Though Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed, a 12-year veteran, has made political endorsements, he’s been praised for running elections fairly, most notably in 2004 when he oversaw the closest gubernatorial election recount in U.S. history.
Reed, a Republican, introduced two popular changes: the nation’s first top-two primary system and an all-vote-by-mail system.
“When you’re there to talk about elections, you’re there just to make the system work better, not with some partisan ax to grind, or get back at someone for something they have done before,” Reed said.
New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner runs his election system similarly. The Democrat first took office in 1976 and has since been re-elected by both Republican and Democratic legislatures.
With Reed and Gardner as possible exceptions, Tokaji calls addressing partisan election administrations the great-unfinished business of election reform.
“The past decade we have seen a lot of changes, many of them positive, but we really haven’t addressed this problem when it comes to how our elections are run,” Tokaji said.
Joe Henke was a Hearst Foundations Fellow this summer for News21.
Discuss this series of stories on the Facebook page for Open Channel, the NBC News investigative blog.
Leave a Comment:
I think it's a great idea. Even if you believe there's only Minor voter fraud in this country, having to identify yourself at the polls will certainly stop it.
For those of you who believe this is racist or is repressing voters BS. Who can go through life in this country today without some form of Legal ID. License, gun permit, welfare ID, Liquor ID, passport, military ID. There are many others. You can't cash a check without an ID. You can't apply for unemployment or SS or Welfare without an ID. You can't open a bank account or get a post office box without an ID.
While I agree that there might be a certain percentage of elderly citizens without some form of ID. Ok, fine. We can set up a bus/van to transport them to the local DMV and get the ID which are free.
My thoughts are that there are much more NON Elderly living under the radar today. Who are hiding from their past. Runaways, hiding from debt or a marriage. Hiding from the courts for lack of child support payments or other charges. These are the people who have changed their names, and living today in areas where their neighbors have no idea who they are. They work for cash, no taxes, no filings.
These are the people that just regulations as Voter ID may bring to the surface.
IT'S ABOUT TIME!! You need an I.D. to get Social Security, Welfare Benefits, Unemployment, Cash a Check, Food Stamps, etc.. Those that are in Treatment Facilities or Welfare have Case Workers or Social Workers who can get them I.D. Cards. Those that complain about fees (if any) should choose between that I.D. or losing their Welfare, Food Stamps, Social Security or the multitude of benefits that require an I.D.. Anyone that complains about needing an I.D. to vote is just downright lazy, regardless of their age. Heck, even Illegals can get I.D. Cards from the Feds. and the Tax Payer pays the cost.
I don't have an issue with voter ID, however, unless you want to take the time and spend the money to get to ALL voters and provide FREE identification, as is happening in most cases, it's voter suppression. Many people cannot afford the state mandated ID, and many that can afford it, don't have transportation or the ability to get off their jobs or get to the places to get that ID issued or because they don't have the documentation to get them. Because the laws were passed and became effective so close to this election, it WILL disenfranchise voters. JoeB- many states deliberately excluded welfare IDs as legal IDs forcing welfare and food stamp recipients to get a state ID - which some can't get because they can't get to the place where the ID is being issued, or they don't have the documentation to get the ID. I don't know if you have recently tried to get your birth certificate, but I did, and it cost me almost $75 to get it from a different state than where I live. If they want to require ID to vote, then start it on the NEXT election, not this one. We need more time to make sure that everyone who is eligible to vote can. (Most current voting laws - not counting the official ID ones recently passed - already disenfranchise some people - namely the homeless because you need an ID or you can use something else that proves your residence.)
Maybe its time for a national voter ID card, PAID FOR by the national parties and issued by the same people who issue drivers licenses and state ID cards.
Of course, there must be time to implement, passing a law in April with a requirement that it be in effect for the election the following November appears to be designed to remove a RIGHT from a person.
If anything, before removing the right from a person, the state should have to give notice and have a hearing. It should not be easy for the state to take such a vital part of our democracy away.
I for one hope that after the elections some unwashed dark skinned democrat can walk up to the Pennsylvania Secretary of State, and mutter in his smug face. "Done!"
Excellent points about finding those that have been hiding out from responsibilities. The voter ID issue should be agreed on by anyone wanting accurate, fraud free elections. You can look at Wisconsin; and the past years voting. It is riddled with voter fraud, unfair practices and a G.A.B. that is extremely partisan (Democrat). Our voter ID law included making sure those who could not afford the cost of ID would be provided the card "free of charge"-and it only costs pennies per card to do. You've heard all the arguments in favor of voter ID-facts of needing ID for even a library card, any type of social services, and to enter a recent Democratic event. Logic and facts point to the need for voter ID. The disenfranchise argument has not been validated with truthful evidence.
Really? Then what do you call this?
"A year ago, Wisconsin Republicans pushed through Assembly Bill 7, which enacted one of the worst forms of voter ID in the nation. Since then, two state judges have blocked voter ID from taking effect because the Wisconsin state Constitution guarantees that “[e]very United States citizen age 18 or older who is a resident of an election district in this state is a qualified elector of that district,” regardless of whether or not they have an ID.
However, a little-noticed provision in AB 7 will likely prevent thousands of college students from voting in today’s recall election.
Section 12 of the new law increases the time period a citizen must live in one location in order to register there from 10 days to 28 days. Though seemingly innocuous, the problem is that the five largest colleges in Wisconsin — University of Wisconsin-Madison (40,000 students), University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (27,500 students), Marquette University (11,500 students), University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh (11,500 students), and University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (11,000 students) — all had their graduations either the weekend of May 12 or the weekend of May 19, 24 days and 17 days ago, respectively.
Therefore, any student at these schools who registered to vote at school but is now home for the summer will not be permitted to update their registration at their parents’ house because they will have been home for less than 28 days."
And that's just one example. If you are deliberately creating laws for one purpose and one purpose only, and that is to make it MUCH harder to vote for AMERICAN citizens based on the FALSE PREMISE of "voter fraud" that is wrong. As for "logic and facts point to the need for a voter ID"? What "logic and facts" might that be. Because your comment contains very little logic and literally NO FACTS.
I signed up for social security on line without any id. I also signed up for unemployment about 4 years ago on line without id.
To..Progessive""""
I don't know why it is but I don't trust Wisconsin election officials
Wis. corrects vote count, gives incumbent big lead
April 07, 2011
WAUKESHA, Wis. — A conservative incumbent surged to a commanding lead in Wisconsin's hotly contested Supreme Court election Thursday, after a predominantly GOP county's clerk announced she had incorrectly entered vote totals in the race seen as a referendum on Republican Gov. Scott Walker's divisive union rights law.
Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus said more than 14,000 votes weren't reported to The Associated Press on Tuesday due to "human error." Nickolaus previously worked for a GOP caucus that was under the control of Justice David Prosser, who was speaker of the Assembly at the time and who now stands to benefit from the clerk's error.
"This is not a case of extra votes or extra ballots being found," Nickolaus said. "This is human error, which I apologize for."
Nickolaus said the most significant error occurred when she entered totals from the city of Brookfield, a suburb of Milwaukee, but they were not saved.
Rep. Peter Barca, Democratic Assembly minority leader, said the mistake raises significant suspicion that could warrant an investigation.
"It doesn't instill confidence in her competence or integrity," Barca said.
Nickolaus was given immunity from prosecution in a 2002 criminal investigation into illegal activity by members of the Republican Assembly caucus where she worked as a data analyst and computer specialist. Prosser, who as speaker of the Assembly in 1995 and 1996 controlled the same caucus, was not part of the investigation. Nickolaus resigned from her state job in 2002 just before launching her county clerk campaign.
The corruption probe took down five legislative leaders, all of whom reached plea deals.
An audit of Nickolaus' handling of the 2010 election found that she needed to take steps to improve security and backup procedures, like stop sharing passwords. The audit was requested after the county's director of administration said Nickolaus had been uncooperative with attempts to have county experts review her systems and confirm backups were in place.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-04-07-wisconsin-vote-correction_N.htm
As long as the Republicans are passing laws requiring IDs to prevent voter impersonation, they should also pass some laws to prohibit the transport of unicorns across state lines. In the past decade, there have only been about ten fewer instances of unicorn kidnapping than voter impersonation.
Houston!,
And how would you know how much voter fraud is going on if anything that would shine a light on it or show the extent of the problem is prevented? How do you know if I have been voting for my dead father for the last 10 years? You can't. How do the police or election officials know? They can't.
Could you imagine if we stopped having immigration officers for the line where US citizens came into the country and just let them walk straight through without presenting any ID, or talking to anyone. How many people that are not US citizens would come through that line so that they did not have to wait for immigration? Afterall, no one would check their passport, no one would question them. And you would be saying that there are NO non-citizens coming through that line because there are not any proven cases where a non-citizen has come through that line. Of course there would not be any proven cases, because no one checks, so we would have no idea. Maybe if you spot checked some of the people coming through to see if they were indeed citizens, then maybe you would see fraud. But you would be against that. You would be against anything that might show that there is fraud and keep saying that there is no fraud, because you are not checking to see if there is fraud.
It is the same way for elections. How do you see if there is fraud? How do you tell if dead people are voting? How do you tell if people are voting in multiple places? How do you tell if non-citizens are voting? How can you tell if you do not require ID, if you do not require proof of citizenship to register? How do you tell if you refuse to do anyting that might show how much fraud and just continue to say that there have been very few cases of fraud?
What we really need is a national ID card. Citizens get a national ID card, greencards for resident aliens, passports for visa holders and visitors and nothing for illegals.
Then any business with the government, you show your form of ID. If you are illegally here, then you cannot deal with them because you do not have appropriate ID. Require ID to get a job, to open a bank account, to register a car, to get utilities turned on.... And many other things.
The Republicans know they cannot win a fair fight, so they must cheat.
I'm not against voter photo ID, but to be fair, there should be years (4-5) between the signing of such a law and the enforcement of that law. This would give everyone fair warning, and the time to get their ID in order.
There have been only 10 incidents of persons trying to vote impersonating another, in the whole country over the last 12 years. This proves that this is not a problem, so the only reason to rush the legislation through, is to disenfranchise mostly poorer, Democrat voters.
States with voter photo Id requirements, should offer a low cost state photo ID card, for those who do not have drivers liscences
How did they catch those 10 people? Did they do something terrible like asking them for their ID?
4-5 years to get an ID? Why could it possilby take 4-5 years to get an ID? One year at most. And they have been pushing for this in some states for a long time.
There is no reason that most people even now would not be able to have an ID before this year's election. Sure there will be a few cases where people could not get it, but definately by next year they should have been able to straighten out whatever issues they had with getting an ID.
Most states offer a low cost ID card already. Many offer FREE id cards or have a stipulation in the voter ID laws that allow people that cannot afford it to get a free one.
this is a fix in search of a problem.
it's bunk. it's bull___— and it's stupid. there are less than a dozen actual proven cases of voter impersonation fraud in the last 10 years. This is a hysterical reaction at best, and an attempt to block voters who tend to vote democrat at worst.
Even though many of you think that you cannot live your life without ID, many of the poor actually do manage to live without it.
And if you want to live in a country where 'let me see your papers' is legal, I suggest we stop this charade right here before we get to that level.
progressiveforamerica, As far as I know, there is already a way for those poor college children to vote. It just takes a little planning and a desire to vote in the first place. It's called absentee voting. Here in Hawaii, there is a permanent absentee ballot option for us and I took advantage of that. My ballot comes in the mail way early enough for me to place my vote no matter where I may be. What is it about you liberals that makes you think that the electorate cannot handle responsibility. Or is that the plan? Progressively stunt our population, by relieving us from having to take any responsibilty to do anything for ourselves? Then the ruling elite can just lord over us as if we were children.
All the things that require ID in a working person's world do not necessarily apply to senior retirees.
There are many persons who showed ID in order to start receiving Social Security. They no longer need ID to continue getting SS. Some of these same persons no longer drive, and have no driver's license. They also do not hunt or drink, do not cash checks or open bank accounts. Most do not have current passports.
A VA (Veterans Admin) ID is usually not acceptable because it has no expiration date.
Is there any reason why voter ID laws must take effect in 4 months after 250 years of there being no such laws. Could not time be permitted to get ID before the laws take effect?
How about LEGAL voters who are "DISENFRANCHISED" by all the con jobs being pulled to keep the illegals voting?? Illegal voters and minorities that are too lazy, dumb, and stupid to get a proper photo ID are not the only ones who can play the "disenfranchised" card. Legal voters with proper ID are being disenfranchised by those that vote illegally and who are protected by crooked dems like Obama... who can only be re-elected by getting the illegal vote.
Here's the problem with voter ID. In cases like Pennyslvania, it has to be a government approved government ID. Not a utility bill, not a "welfare" ID, not a student ID. So it's not about ID'ing people, it's about control. Much like in Texas, where you can use your NRA id but not your student ID. I can't swear by it, but I'm pretty sure you don't have to show your birth certificate to get an NRA id card, do you? So Texas is clearly targeting citizens by what ID's are legal to use and what aren't. The truth is, with voter ID being pressed, it is simply the republican party's way of trying to ensure the elections go to them since they cannot win outright in most of these states that are instituting voter ID laws.
Maybe we should just tatoo everyone when they're born so that we can identify them anytime we want.
/sarcasm off
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of
state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
Congratulations gentlemen! Its always tough to deal with when you are doing the right thing!
The documented voter fraud cases have always voted DEMOCRAT. Interesting fact huh??? It's the Democrats who are the crooked party and trying to stop voter I.D. Eric Holder (Muslim) is always suing states who try to pass laws to enforce this. I have to show drivers license when I use my credit card. WHY SHOULDN'T VOTERS HAVE TO PROVE THEIR I.D. when they vote for the most important person in free world? Educate yourself dope.
Your so f***king brain dead that you actually believe the crap your spewing along with you cohorts.
You idiots don't even hear what your saying, and you wonder why people are so hostile towards you!!
Do you honestly believe these types of people are going to rush out to vote?
Jesus christ! I'm running from the law, or the god-dam courts who want me to pay my child support but god-dam me if I don't vote.
You f**king moron.
What an asinine statement.
God-dam republicans will throw as much crap at the wall as the can. Too bad there are PLENTY of stooges for it to stick to!!!
To..Georgie""""
No....
To..Caz"""
Free...? do you know how much this voter ID thing is costing the tax payer
Jim in Auburn: Houston said voter impersonation, which is the only aspect of the larger area of voter fraud that Voter ID's would address. The larger problem of voter fraud--like, for example, the way Florida routinely miscounts ballots--is unaffected by voter ID. If there is a problem, it is in the area of absentee ballots. And, by the way, check-cashing and driving a car and all the rest of that moronic laundry list are NOT constitutionally-guaranteed rights: voting is. Check it with the Koch-a-cola brothers, since they seem to be doing your thinking for you.
What are you really afraid of? It certainly can't be voter fraud, as you already stated that it might actually be quite low. Yours is just typical political spin to achieve a Republican win at all costs, by trying to spread some sort of ridiculous unbased fear. There is no way that any program can guarantee ways to provide easy access to voting for all who might be affected by such overzealous regulations. For one you would never be willing to pay for it, and if forced to do so, would scream that the cost was not worth the rights of those disenfranchised, and tough luck for them.
You're living in a dream world, far removed from everyday reality, to think otherwise. Until it can be proven that voter fraud actually amounts to anything remotely substantial, only very basic forms of ID should be required, especially for national elections. If you want to screw around with the voting procedures in your own ignorant state, then that can be left up to you, and your fellow fools.
This is why it's not just Romney that needs to be defeated. The entire GOP are an American version of the Nazis looking to enslave the American people by forcing them to work for whatever the multi-national corporations and the 1% want to pay. They are UnAmerican and Anti-American, and every last Republican needs to be voted out of office. They are traitors to the American people. They should be fired from their jobs and driven from their neighborhoods. Their only loyalties are to their own greed, the multi-national corporations that fill their pockets and their fellow 1%ers. I will not hire a Republican for any job. I only hire loyal Americans.
A new conservative lie - in person voter fraud is equivalent to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. The cons will scream/yell/vomit about how insidious this is - and yet it was a total lie perpetrated by the cons. How many died because of your lies - how many will lose their constitutional right to vote because of your lies?
This is more than racism - this is anti-Americanism and treasonous.
Hatred, intolerance and fear are the tools used by the cons. Just listen to conservative talk radio and you will feel the toxicity.
You cons just created an updated version of Jim Crow.
I wonder if "Mitt" has the correct ID?
Pennsylvania has 3/4 million people not ID'd. The highway department could not possibly photo and process that number of applicants before 2016. To get my required photo taken for driver license, took me 3 trips to two different offices (21miles ONE Way for the closest, 24 miles for the next closest) and after one hour, 20 minutes waiting in line to have photo taken, an additional 15 minutes waiting for the license. It does only take a few minutes for the actual work, but not when there is a long line of people waiting. I had walked out of the first 2 tries becase there were so many people there.
I'm a Registered Republican, but I cannot stand for a party that has admittedly CHEATED as a means to win an election. I now think that the reason they are concerned about voter fraud is because they know how much they have been able to perpetrate in past elections.
Completely unhonorable in THIS country. Right up there with the right to bear arms. ANY american that thinks crap like this will not lead to branding something in your flesh is an idiot. Seems all this country produces anymore, are idiots.
To many men and women have fought and died, just so an american can "SIMPLY" vote. You unhonorable new extremist so called republicans can go to hell. You have cost this country more than is fathomable already. You have lost all your credibility and are desperate. THAT is what makes you phony bastards dangerous. You all had better get your ignorant unhonorable leaders in line because someday, at the extreme rate your all going, there is going to be a day of political reckoning, REAL soon.
I'm not against requiring an ID to vote but if it's mandatory it should be paid by the States that require them simple, NO ONE is against it if it does not become a hardship or burden.
Republicans wants a fetus at the moment of conception to be fully recognized as a citizen.
18 years later it has to prove it is a citizen in order to vote.
Wrong and wrong. Buses and vans? This is happening only to the extent that democratic mayors and advocacy groups are sponsoring it. The Republican you're-on-your-own party that are pushing and passing these voter ID laws are not doing anything to ensure that citizens have the means to obtain these ID's. In some states, you may need to travel 100+ miles to the nearest office to get an ID. Many offices are not open every day, and very few are open after hours. And where are they free? I think it is $15 here in Texas, which is a lot of money for some people. And lets not forget that to get an ID, you may need a birth certificate. Many elderly, particularly minorities, were not born in hospitals, and may not have a birth certificate. This whole plan is exactly what it appears to be. I don't have a problem with voter ID, but it should not be done in a half-assed way and nobody should ever have to pay a dime to exercise their right to vote. Voter ID is exactly what it appears to be...voter suppression.
So state election officers believe we need to make laws on the average voter as they believe the average voter is a criminal but on the other hand they have immunity and from what I read, it's the state election officers that need federal laws made for them to keep them honest and federal prison time when they get caught playing with the ballots... I mean making clerical errors like forgetting to press the save buttons when entering votes for certain parties.
I knew this article wasn't written by the usual DNC Arm/MSNBC. Straight facts without a significant slant to the story.
"Straight facts without a significant slant to the story."??!! What a crock of S**T!
This News21 organization that NBC is promoting claims to be "...helping to change the way journalism is taught in the U.S. and train a new generation of journalists capable of reshaping the news industry."
That's true up to a point. What they don't tell you is that it is an effort to make the Liberal media even more biased and dishonest than it already is. It is funded by the Marxist, convicted felon George Soros, and most of the so-called "journalism students" are hand-picked and also funded by Soros.
Today's propaganda makes use of the philosophy of another Marxist, Saul Alinsky. That being to accuse your opponent of doing what you, yourself, are doing.
All of the Republican Secretarys of State mentioned in this work of fiction were elected over candidates hand-picked by ANOTHER Leftist initiative, The Secretary of State Project. This one was funded by Soros and other radical, left-wing billionaires and corporations through a group (mis)named the Democracy Alliance to seize control of the voting process in as many states as possible. As Investor's Business Daily wrote, “SOS was founded on the belief that the hand that runs the election machinery controls our democracy.”
This nefarious Project was mostly shuttered after the Democrats got their butts kicked in 2010. One of the few survivors of the Secretary of State Project's stable of candidates is Minnesota's Mark Ritchie, who is quoted in this propaganda piece.
Ritchie, who refused to prosecute around 1,500 fraudulent voters in the 2008 election and who decide which votes would and wouldn't count when SEVERAL recounts took Democrat Al Franken to the Senate after he LOST the elction but, miraculously, WON after new votes were "discovered" (some in the trunk of a car) is also a close associate of ACORN's Project Vote, which has been tied to voter fraud schemes all over the country. (The Leftists will try to claim that ACORN is defunct but it's not - it's only been rebranded.) You may remember that ACORN's Project Vote was also the EMPLOYER of Barrack Obama in his "community organizer" days
Other organizations cited in support this News21 screed include the Institute of Politics at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, Colorado Common Cause, and Colorado Ethics Watch.
Naturally, News21 neglects to mention that, like themselves, ALL of those organizations are also funded by George Soros.
Also unmentioned is the fact that most of the "students" at the Kennedy School of Government are funded by Soros endowments and that, when Soros needed a new President for his Open Society Institute, he chose a guy named Christopher Stone, a professor at the Kennedy School.
So, once again we have NBC News (some of whose employees are members of Soros-funded organizations) touting the so-called "journalism" of the Soros-funded News21 which cites as "sources" other Soros-funded organizations.
In reality, this is propaganda of the most despicable kind. NBC News is not a "news" organization, at all. It is a group partisan political operatives working for Obama and the Democrats and NOTHING they say should be accepted as TRUTH.
...as opposed to the pure, crystalline, virgin verbosity that gushes forth from that great fountain of Conservative truth, an organization that sets the highest example of journalistic impartiality and independence from agenda or ideology, and whose employees actions, both private and public, set the example for honesty, civility and respect for the truth, FOX News...
AC
To..Foolish"""
BS....
You forgot about the part where they say the governor wrote anti-immigrant legislation, missing the important "illegal" part of anti- illegal immigration. Not as big a slant, but still quite a slant to this story.
To AnotherCurmudgeon:
You leftists should try actually watching Fox sometime. I watch Fox and CNN and MSNBC. I read the Wall Street Journal and the NYT and the Washington Post. Then I do MY OWN fact-checking.
Unlike NBC, MSNBC, CBS, NYT, etc, Fox gives Liberal voices EQUAL time to be heard.
To Amunaka:
Yes, BS is exactly what YOU are full of. Every word I wrote is the TRUTH. Get off your fat a** and do a little research. It's all out there. The funding and objectives of all of these groups is public info.
To foolish""""
Right ...I'm not the one that has to do the research ...fox disinformation bot
Well THAT's unusual -- crude, boorish insults and lots of LOUD CAPITAL LETTERS. The weird thing, Fool, is that you're right about one thing -- in today's freak show any old-time conservative of any ilk qualifies as a leftist. And it's also in your favor, Fool, that in the area of fact-checking you so willingly admit what the rest of us only assumed -- that YOU have the final say as to what's true and what's not. It must be a wonderful life you live, unfettered by uncertainty and undaunted by anything you don't want to believe. It does remind me a lot of my 7-year-old niece when she sticks her fingers in her ears and shouts LA-LA-LA-LA as loud as she can when she's afraid of what she's about to hear, though.
But I've taken up enough of your time -- your day must be full, what with all those papers to read before Rush and Jerry Springer start --
i take dr. house's view that "everyone lies the only thing that changes is the reasons."
I'm addicted to AnotherCurmudgeon's posts. Keep it coming!
Let's face it, States where the Governors appoint the Election Official is purely politics, the idea that one must get out and go to a pre-registration and have a card to vote is purely designed and targeted at a segmented populous which is the old and the poor. It doesn't effect me in that my voter registration card comes on a regular basis. That is not a concern for these officials...there real concern is shaping the vote so that primarily there own patrician candidate will have a real advantage, while hiding behind the law. If not, then why can an election official be able to endorse candidates. Care to guess who started this type of patrician maneuvering? Kobach and Gessler should be fired along with any state election official that takes it upon his or her self to endorse candidates.
News21's fifth article, in one week, attacking the GOP, with their biased liberal agenda infotainment, scaring people to thinking voting with an ID is HORRIBLE.
Crappy article once again. News21 = the joke news and THE NEW TABLOID NEWS
just look at NBC's "recommended" to see all 4-5 NEWS21 propaganda infotainment.
I say they have a serious political agenda and do not report ANY news AT ALL.
To..Shosyn""""
Silly....
Amunaka...
Wow. So insightful. You have added so much wisdom to the debate.
To..darcie"""
Thank you ... now where am I wrong
Why weren't these inacted long ago 1992,2000.2004 etc;? If these laws stop people from voting they have no voice! My state make it easier register to vote. Here you can register to vote online. If all of these new laws stop you from voting; you weren't going to vote anyway. I've voted since 1964.When I think of all of the people who died in these streets trying to vote . I feel that I must vote!!!
If the shoe fits...wear it. Agenda or not, this has been going on for some time. It defiantly needs to stop. I D sure I can go with that, or at least be on the residence rolls, but having the main Election Official endorsing a candidate they favor, well, my friend, that's just wrong.
Again with the forms of ID versus government ID thing. A person can show citizenship with forms of ID. Requiring a particular type of ID has agenda written all over it.
Any citizen stopped from voting should respond with Michael Bay-summer blockbuster styled violence.
Talk about a problem that a 2nd Ammendment solution could solve...
If states are going to require official ID's, the State should have to provide them free to qualified citizens and provide an office in each town for qualified citizens to obtain them.
Most states give you free or low charge state photo ID's at the DMV. If you can make it to the welfare office you should be able to make it to the DMV...
Normally, I applaud any real effort to curb a problem. In this case, there IS no problem!
There has NEVER in the history of EVER been ONE proven case of voter fraud! Not in a federal election.
OK, let's say there IS a problem and we MUST have NEW ID to go vote..ok, fine - NOW (since it's mandated) the state must over the costs. At a time when states haven never been hurting more than before for funds, THIS is when this needs to be put in place? Most laws that could affect such a large number of people have a longer waiting period. They are pushing these laws thru as fast as possible for no other reason than knowing it could change the outcome of the pending election!
If they gave lets say a year at least for everyone to get their ID, make it accessible to everyone and pay for it themselves, then I'm ALL FOR IT. If ANY of the above can't be fulfilled they MUST put this on hold!
People compare voting IDs to drivers licenses, buying airline tickets, receiving social security, etc... NONE of those are CONSTITUTIONALLY Protected! You don't have a Constitutional right to any of those things!
It's funny though, the 2nd Amendment nuts go CRAZY if someone was to instill a separate mandated ID to purchase or own a gun but see NOTHING wrong with requesting one for an election. This all WREAKS of partisan BS!!
Davebny -
Oh so if there isn't a problem, we shouldn't have the law. Oh let's not be proactive! And really what is the problem? You are concerned that people will not vote if they have to get an ID? Does that sound like a committed citizen to you? You want a the state to cover the costs! Really? Okay, I want a refund for my ID, the one I would use if I wanted vote. Waiting period of a year or more - C'mon - And what do you do with the people who just WON'T go get the ID card and then complain when they can't vote? Blame the law? Or say they are just plain lazy, no money, etc. etc. You're right no one should be stopped from voting but the Constitution covers citizens of the US not anyone else. I do like your clarification in your second sentence - "There has NEVER in the history of EVER been ONE proven case of voter fraud! Not in a federal election." So your complaint covers only federal elections, hmmm. Why? Regarding your observation regarding the 2 amendment and purchase a gun - let's skip the voter ID card, make anyone who wants to vote wait 3 days to vote AFTER filling out a form and having it sent to the authorities for verification/permission. How's that work for you?
wreaks? proof of your idiocy and idiots should not be allowed to vote
To show your ID is not racist! People who say that is extremely ignorant. These people who agree with this mode of thought are totally blind to deficit spending, wasteful goverment programs that need to be down sized or completely done away with. I can't live telling my bank to keep paying my bills when the money is not there,duh. Wake up people you cannot spend more than you take in and that goes for everyone. Keep this up we will look like the idiots accross the pond, that's Europe for the ignorant. Help right this ship for the children that will suffer from our lack of judgement of elected officals. Look in the mirror if we want to really put the blame on someone!
To cooper"""
Wall Street Journal - "Obama spending binge never happened"
May 22, 2012,
Obama spending binge never happened
Commentary: Government outlays rising at slowest pace since 1950s
By Rex Nutting,MarketWatch
May 22, 2012
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Of all the falsehoods told about President Barack Obama, the biggest whopper is the one about his reckless spending spree.
As would-be president Mitt Romney tells it: “I will lead us out of this debt and spending inferno.”
Almost everyone believes that Obama has presided over a massive increase in federal spending, an “inferno” of spending that threatens our jobs, our businesses and our children’s future. Even Democrats seem to think it’s true.
But it didn’t happen. Although there was a big stimulus bill under Obama, federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since Dwight Eisenhower brought the Korean War to an end in the 1950s.
Even hapless Herbert Hoover managed to increase spending more than Obama has.
Here are the facts, according to the official government statistics:
• In the 2009 fiscal year — the last of George W. Bush’s presidency — federal spending rose by 17.9% from $2.98 trillion to $3.52 trillion. Check the official numbers at the Office of Management and Budget.
• In fiscal 2010 — the first budget under Obama — spending fell 1.8% to $3.46 trillion.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/obama-spending-binge-never-happened-2012-05-22?pagenumber=1
Well that's where the fraud is ..election officials if you click on any of the links on the " Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA) fraud website ....It's mostly election officials and poll watchers flipping the machines not in person fraud or Mary Poppins voting ...An ID ain't gonna stop that ..
Federal Trial Witness: Kentucky Election Officials Used E-Voting Machines to Flip Votes
Republican official says she was asked to change party affiliation to serve as 'Democratic' precinct official...
By Brad Friedman on 3/2/2010
Meanwhile, back in Clay County, Kentucky, where election officials (including the county clerk, a district court judge, and the school superintendent) were arrested last year, and are now on trial, accused of having "fix[ed] elections for decades," a "precinct worker testified...that top election officers in the county taught her how to change people's choices on voting machines to steal votes in the May 2006 primary." The vote stealing was accomplished on ES&S touch-screen electronic voting machines, without the knowledge of legitimate voters, after they'd left the booth thinking they had cast their votes.
The scheme also included Republicans changing their party registration to Democratic in order to serve as Democratic poll judges and officers on Election Day, as has been alleged elsewhere (for example, in Ohio in 2004)...
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7723
Voter ID is fine.We use ID all the time. It's a BS arguement. If it stops one person from fraud then it done the job. If you can get to the poll to vote you can get your @#* to the DMV for a valid ID that the states are giving to you FREE most states are offering a ride to even do that! Stop acting like the goverment is your mommy and take responsiblity for your own actions. And while I'm on my soap box, If your want to blame the elected officals wonder who put them there? Perhaps you voted for this administration or sat on your @#* and did not vote, whatever. I wonder is this THE BEST America has to offer leadership wise, GOD I hope not! You see what this administration has done (practically bankrupting us) to keep spending the way it does. We will have to pay this bill that is coming due, got 16 trillion lying around? Wake up people choose your destiny or be led down the road of DODGE AND BLAME or I'm sorry hope and change.
The Administration doesn't do the spending, Congress does (remember Civics class back in Jr. High School?). And Congress has blocked every bill the Administration has submitted (Fox News, those liberal bums, made a big deal about this not so long ago).
Hope: that misplaced faith that a Republican-owned government will make all of the little people rich and comfortable
Change: what wil happen to Hope if the GOP pulls off this coup and runs off with the money.
Life sucks when you live in a skid shack and shop at the company store -- you can't feed your kids on hope and change.
AC
"cooper24"-
What a crock. And that literally sums up your comment. But for the record, please be my guest and see just how much of the deficit was run up by REPUBLICANS and REPUBLICAN presidents. Starting with Ronald Reagan who turned America from the worlds largest creditor nation to the world's largest debtor nation in less than 8 years. Or check out the stellar record of the REPUBLICAN controlled Congress from 1994 until 2008. Or the REMARKABLE fiscal austerity of George W. Bush and his combination of enormous tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, combined with two TOTALLY off-the-deficit-books unfunded wars. Then after all that light research, ponder the following which just came out today.
"As middle-class households -- which the report defines as those making between two-thirds and twice the national median income -- feel they're struggling to make ends meet, their wealthier neighbors are making gains. Over the past four decades, upper-income Americans have increased their share of overall U.S. household income, from 29 percent in 1971 to 46 percent in 2010, according to the report. During the same period, the middle-class share of income dropped from 62 percent to 45 percent." Yep. Gotta love those conservative Supply Side/NeoLiberal economic policies. Which by the way, Mr. Romney not only advocates, but has stated in his platform that we need MORE of the SAME only on steroids.
Don't like Voter ID just move to Kanada....Oh wait you need photo ID to vote in Kanada.
You need ID to vote in most countries, either that or they paint your thumb blue. Maybe we could just go to that.
Anyone who doesn't think that some of these laws that have passed in some of states designed to supress the vote is a fool! If some let some of these new laws stop them from voting; shut the hell up if your people don't win!!! You din't paricipace
We have serious vote fraud in our country. We don't hear too much about it because our leaders and liberal press does not want to undermine voter confidence in our system.
The Republicans don't seem to be as good at it as the Democrats. Think of all the great political machines America has ever had. They were all Democrat, they were all in cities, and they were all crooked.
Bill, truly you don't believe the words that you write.
Republicans striking 90,000 people (mostly black), off of the voting list just before the 2000 election in Florida is serious voter fraud.
Most voter fraud committed by Republicans by the election officials. Voter ID won't fix that.
Thats not what the article says. Unbelievable how dems just twist the truth to suit them. From what the article said the only voter manipulation that occured was in Minnisota by the democrate secretary of state not any republicans.
To Bill ''''
Now that's funny...
...need a photo ID for everything else, why not need one to vote?
Fraud is easier without it; who wants that?
...this is a no brainer.
To..Comrade """"
While you're checking for ID's
United States House of Representatives, Committee on House Administration
Hearing on
Electronic Voting Machines: Verification, Security, and Paper Trails
September 28, 2006
The main findings of our study were as follows:
1. Malicious software running on a single voting machine can steal votes with
little if any risk of detection. The malicious software can modify all of the
records, audit logs, and counters kept by the voting machine, so that even
careful forensic examination of these records will find nothing amiss. We
have constructed demonstration software that carries out this vote-stealing
attack.
2. Anyone who has physical access to a voting machine, or to a memory card
that will later be inserted into a machine, can install said malicious software
using a simple method that takes as little as one minute. In practice, poll
workers and others often have unsupervised access to the machines.
3. AccuVote-TS machines are susceptible to voting-machine viruses -
computer viruses that can spread malicious software automatically and
invisibly from machine to machine during normal pre- and post-election
activity. We have constructed a demonstration virus that spreads in this way,
installing our demonstration vote-stealing program on every machine it
infects.
4. While some of these problems can be eliminated by improving Diebold's
software, others cannot be remedied without replacing the machines'
hardware. Changes to election procedures would also be required to ensure
security.
http://usacm.acm.org/evoting/details.cfm?type=Testimony&id=105&cat=14&E-Voting
If the problems you mention have not been addressed in the 6 years since the report, that right there is the problem.
Go back to paper ballots, locked ballot boxes and secure transportation of the ballot boxes from polling place to courthouse/government admin building.
Well said. And that is exactly what should be done. However the key here as usual is to follow the money trail. See who manufactures the machines. See how much those companies have spent on campaign contributions and lobbying. Find out how many of those companies are controlled by clearly defined conservatives or liberals. Diebold is the number one maker of voter machines. Start with them please.
To..Comrade""""
You would think....
Machine Casts Phantom Votes in the Bronx, Invalidating Real Ones: Report
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
By Colby Hamilton
Tests on an electronic voting machine that recorded shockingly high numbers of extra votes in the 2010 election show that overheating may have caused upwards of 30 percent of the votes in a South Bronx voting precinct to go uncounted.
http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/empire/2012/may/09/reports-find-machine-errors-led-uncounted-votes-2010/
And with the republicans pushing for Voter ID to stop fraud....why would they come up with this....
The GOP's War on Voting Comes to Washington
House Republicans want to kill the federal agency charged with making sure voting machines work.
By Siddhartha Mahanta
Thu Dec. 1, 2011
Republicans in state legislatures across the country have spent the past year mounting an all-out assault on voting rights, pushing a slew of voter ID and redistricting measures that are widely expected to dilute the power of minority and low-income voters in next November's elections. Now that effort has come to Capitol Hill, where the House* will vote Thursday on a GOP-backed bill to eviscerate the Election Assistance Commission (EAC)—the last line of defense against fraud and tampering in electronic voting systems around the country.
[UPDATE: The bill passed 235-190 on a mostly party-line vote.]
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/12/war-voting-comes-washington
If you do not audit voting machines, then there are no votes being lost, no votes being stolen. Afterall, if you do not verify, then there is not a problem because there is no proof that there is a problem. At least that is the reasoning that people against voter ID seem to use.
If voter ID laws had been in effect in Minnesota with the last Senatorial election, Al Franken might not have won. The Senatorial supermajority would not have been able to pass Omamacare. Interesting thought. Makes one wonder why the Dems are so opposed to the issue. The actual voters of Minnesota were disenfranchised by the convicted felons who were able to illegally to vote. See recent article in the Washinton Examiner about this very issue.
What a crock. The convicted felons BS is just that. BS.
"There is no basis in fact, whatsoever, in these inaccuracies propagated by the Minnesota Majority here, none,” Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said Wednesday. “After the most closely scrutinized election in Minnesota history in 2008, there were zero cases of fraud. Even the Republicans lawyers acknowledged that there was no systematic effort to defraud the election, none.” “In Hennepin County, 650,000 people voted,” he continued. “The Minnesota Majority presented us with 1,500 cases that they felt there were problems with voting. Our own election bureau gave us 100. At the end of the day, we charged 38 cases. And all but one of them are felons voting who were still under the penalty [of not legally applying to regain individual voting rights]. There was no fraud.” In many cases, former felons are not aware that they have to go through a legal process to regain their voting rights, unlike getting a driver’s license.
“How many of the former felons were registered to vote but never voted,” said Kathy Bonnifield, executive director of Citizens for Election Integrity Minnesota, which issued its report on scapegoating felons in November 2010—five months after the rightwingers first raised the spectre of illegal felon voting. “There is a lot of devil in those details.”
And the above is the REAL problem with America and to be even more specific, with conservatives. Rather than finding ALL the facts, they cherry pick a few, take them totally out of context, and suddenly a lie becomes the "truth". Faux Lying News, Rush The Liar Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Dinesh D'Souza, Jerome Corsi, Karl Rove, Andrew Breitbart, James O'Keefe, and on and on and on. The list is so long and the lies flow with such frequency, it would take a novel to document them all. And yet conservatives not only believe them, they literally REFUSE to change their minds when confronted with the real facts. That is ignorance and stupidity at its finest.
I must disagree with you ProgressiveforAmerica. the republicans exhibit ignorance and stupidity at its worst.
The hatefulness and utter stupidity of the liberals makes me sick to my stomach. Has ever since Viet Nam.
To..America"""
Yet here you be....
For the people conservative or liberal who support this highly partisan Voter ID requirement BS. Why? Why are expensive laws (and yes they are expensive) paid for by our hard earned taxpayer dollars, needed for what is almost a nonexistent problem? According to numerous studies actual voter fraud is so rare it almost does not exist. And no matter how often conservatives bring up this issue, the REALITY doesn't change. We are created laws for a problem that almost does not exist.
The GOP is making voter ID a big issue to distract from the true election fraud - vote manipulation by electronic voting machines. A few voters using their dead relative's identity to vote twice has almost no effect, but voting machines programmed to shift a certain percentage of votes from one candidate to another can change an election outcome.
In countries with newly formed democratic governments, election monitors use exit polling as the main way to detect ballot fraud by election officials. Officials control the ballots, whether paper or electronic, but they cannot tamper with the exit polling. Voters leaving the poll are selected randomly and asked by election monitors how they voted. The results are tallied and compared to official ballot counts. Discrepancy in the two counts is very strong evidence of official election fraud.
Elections in the US suddenly showed such discrepancies at the same time as electronic voting machines came into wide usage. There were many startling errors in predicting election outcomes based on exit polling, that had never occurred previously. Even more suspicious, most of the discrepancies of official votes versus exit polls were in favor of GOP candidates, indicating that random machine errors were not the issue. By pure coincidence, the voting machine manufacturers have close financial and political ties to the Republican party.
In any 3rd-world country, election outcomes like that would be cause to declare the election a fraud but in the US the solution is to pass laws requiring voter ID and to put them into effect just a few months before the next election.
I want to be sure only citizens of the US, live ones, get to vote and vote only once. I know that hurts the Damocrats chances to have a fair election, but you can't steal them all. Chicago mobster politics has no place in America. You can't bully your way all the time
YOUR
'REALITY" MUST COME FROM AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE. Did you make it through third grade your first try? Probably then were "qualified " to extort your employer through your union thuggery.
Voter impersonation fraud requires someone to physically show up at a polling place knowing fully well the person they are impersonating is registered at that precinct and that person is not going to show up as themselves.
Jack Jones shows up to vote and finds out that he has already voted. A signature match will show someone impersonated Jack Jones. If that person is found, 10 years in prison.
Unless, Jack Jones recently died and someone who knows this shows up and votes for Jack Jones. This is more plausible but does not happen.
To believe that thousands of people shows up at polling places impersonating others is so weird. I wonder if Republicans believe that Democrats can organize such a massive network of people to do this.
Here is another simple reality that Republicans who push voter Id laws for the one and only purpose of "controlling voter fraud" and the idiot Americans who support them literally refuse to acknowledge.
Voter Fraud is a FEDERAL AND STATE FELONY OFFENSE. It carries major fines and significant jail time if an individual is convicted of perpetrating or participting in voter fraud. The current laws on the books are very strong and there is no doubt they act as a very real deterrent to voter fraud. Which makes Voter ID laws a moot point.
And yet Republicans keep spouting the same line. "There is MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD in America and Voter ID laws are needed to stop it". What a crock.
IF the DOJ does not investigate incidents none happen as in Philadelphia with the black panthers... a joke.
To..Prof""""
Jeeeeze....
Black Panther Voter Intimidation in Philly?
Some local voters are calling a foul
, Nov 4, 2008
There is no connection between these men and the Black Panther party, according to the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office.
Philly DA spokesperson Cathie Abookire told CNN that this was a "non-incident."
The Philly DA also said as of 2:30 p.m. that overall voting problems in Philadelphia were down from 2004 when there were 49 incidents reported.
FOX News reported this incident to actually be Black Panthers intimidating voters by blocking the door.
No voter has been denied the vote...this is the United States of America and unless [the men standing outside] break the law or do anything, they have the right to stand out there. We don't need anybody trying to trump up anything or generate any kind of excitement," said Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter.
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/politics/Black_Panther_Voter_Intimidation.html
There Is No New Black Panther Party:
An Open Letter From the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation
In response from numerous requests from individual's seeking information on the "New Black Panthers," the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation issues this public statement to correct the distorted record being made in the media by a small band of African Americans calling themselves the New Black Panthers. As guardian of the true history of the Black Panther Party, the Foundation, which includes former leading members of the Party, denounces this group's exploitation of the Party's name and history. Failing to find its own legitimacy in the black community, this band would graft the Party's name upon itself, which we condemn.
http://www.blackpanther.org/newsalert.htm
Bush DOJ Decided New Black Panthers No Major Case
By Jeff Mays on Jul 26th 2010
A Bush appointee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is calling charges that the Justice Department ignores the civil rights of whites ridiculous.
Abigail Thernstrom, Vice Chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, said allegations that the Obama Administration failed to prosecute a voter intimidation case, involving the New Black Panther Party, have no merit:
http://www.bvblackspin.com/2010/07/26/bush-doj-decided-new-black-panthers-no-major-case/
Ahhhhh yes the "Black Panthers were intimidating voters Fox News BS". Now for the REAL FACTS.
"After two years of right-wing obsession and conspiracy theories surrounding the Department of Justice decision to drop civil charges against three New Black Panther Party defendants who allegedly intimidated white voters at a Philadelphia polling place, a full report on the investigation into the matter is now posted on the House Judiciary Committee's website."
Oh, and before anyone gives the old, "Oh, really? So a DOJ office investigated the DOJ? We're supposed to believe that? Yeah, whatever" response, consider this: The OPR is "responsible for investigating allegations of misconduct involving Department attorneys that relate to the exercise of their authority to investigate, litigate or provide legal advice, as well as allegations of misconduct by law enforcement personnel when related to allegations of attorney misconduct within the jurisdiction of OPR." In other words, it exists entirely to look into things the DOJ may have done wrong."
The report is out there. Read it. And if you STILL think the BP's were "intimidating voters" there really is no hope for you.
You are so blind and stupid!! Yes the black panthers were intimidating voters, that is why they were there. They say onTV they want to kill all whites. God , you are DUMB!!!!
Democrats believe that everyone has a right to vote, even dead people and illegal aliens. And you should get to vote twice if your ancestors didn't get the chance. But U.S. soldiers overseas? Democrats will throw their absentee ballots in the garbage if they aren't stamped properly...
What a crock. Read the following, which is just one of the many lies Romney, Fox News and the idiots who believe them are perpetrating. Oh and for the record, please name one law that Democrats are trying to pass that would " throw their absentee ballots in the garbage if they aren't stamped properly..." JUST ONE!!!
"The lawsuit, filed by the Obama campaign, Democratic National Committee and Ohio Democratic Party in July against Ohio’s secretary of state and attorney general, asks for an injunction to block implementation of state laws that modified in-person early voting regulations. In the last presidential election, all Ohio residents — military and otherwise — could cast their votes in-person early up through the Monday before Election Day. But contentious legislation passed by Ohio’s GOP-controlled Legislature in 2011 limited early voting for nonmilitary residents, giving them a deadline of 6 p.m. Friday before the election. Military members and overseas civilians could still vote through Monday. Both parties have squabbled, with Democrats saying the law is a suppression of nonmilitary votes and Republicans arguing that they are just easing a burden on polling places and guarding against fraud. (Mail-in absentee ballots are not affected; the new regulations affect in-person early voting.)
Contrary to conservative claims, the Democratic lawsuit seeks to restore early voting “for all Ohio voters.”
Why don't you just move to Russia? We really do not need you and your socialist buddies, the left wing media (check out where Obummer's "stimulus" money went), your commie professors, and all they other trash you associate with. Kindly shut up and leave.
When I registered to vote in 1972, I had to present my Fla Driver's License and my birth certificate and every year since when I go to the polls, I have had to present my Picture ID or Driver's License. Sorry but I think anyone going to vote should have to prove they are have the right to vote. Florida has had a voter ID law on the books for years. What's the big deal now?
Let's reverse that please. Considering the fact that voter fraud is literally almost non-existent, what's the big deal now that SUDDENLY we need photo voter ID's, for EVERYBODY?
Also, you are either deliberately lying, or trying to mislead this forum. The following is taken directly from the State of Florida Division of Elections. You do need a photo ID to vote, but you do not have to present a Florida Drivers License or Birth Certificate to either register to vote, or actually vote.
Who Can Register to Vote
In order to register to vote in Florida, you must:
How to Apply to Register to VoteBack
If the information on the application is not true, the applicant can be convicted of a felony of the third degree and fined up to $5,000 and/or imprisoned for up to 5 years.
"7 If your application is complete and you qualify as a voter, the Supervisor of Elections will mail you a voter information card as official notification that you are registered to vote."
http ://youtu.be /EuOT1bRYdK8 (take out spaces)
enough said
the big deal is what they are accepting as valid id is skewed. College student who don't have money have to go buy a new id cause their school id that is valid for almost anything else isn't. But yet we made sure the gun licences are valid, just a coincidence that most college student will vote democrat, and gun owners will vote republican. If you want to make it law fine make it fair though no matter what side you vote for you have just as much right to vote, its not something you manipulate to suit your side
College students should vote with an absentee ballot in their home jurisdiction. If they want to vote in their college town, they should get a drivers license for that area.
Pete: During the '08 elections when I was still a student the Dems were trying to register as many students as they could to vote in Indiana because most out of state students at the school come from Illinois and they knew they had that state in the bag. I think what the Dems did is much more crooked than simply asking for an ID to vote.
If you reside in that state for 2 months you are officially a resident of that state. Get it? No, it's too complicated for you.
In order to get rid of "Voter Fraud", we are going to have "Election Fraud"; the only way Republicans have left to win elections.
Right, that is how, as I have read, that one jurisdiction in MN had more votes cast than there were live voters on the roles. By the way, the dem (a real bad comedian) won the election by 300 or so votes.
Republicans are trying to take away even our democracy. Vote them out and return America to a true republic elected democratically.
Vote for the dems and you are voting away your constitutional rights. The masses are asses, that is why we are a republic rather than a democracy. Mob rule does not work.
It is ashame that obama and his fellow democrats feel that poor people and old people are too stupid to be able to get free photo ID. Since you need photo ID to do about anything, from getting a library card, getting social security, cashing a check, getting welfare, getting unemployment, getting a job, how can there be an argument that "it is too hard to get a photo ID". They will even pick you up and take you to their offices for a free one. These people that are against voter fraud need to get another life. Although with all the gaffes that Biden is coming out with, maybe he hasn't figured it out.
I would be against voter fraud if it actually existed. This issue was created by the republican party in order to rig the election. This is un American and will surely backfire as many of us take a legitimate democracy very seriously.
The whole phoney outrage was created by the Democrat Party . The Masters of voter fraud hate the Idea of having to get so many Fake IDs for thier loyal dead/multi voters....
To tangeant"""
Ahh no...
To tangeant2, get help, really.
@Tangent2
You're lieing.
.
@pete
you're lieing to
.
Tangent2.....hit the nail on the head!! Now if someone could knock these liberals in the head before they start a civil war.....that would be good.
I'll be brief. And anyone who dissagrees with this statement is not comliant with logic. And logic is not partisan.
IF YOU ARE ADVOCATING FOR A VOTER ID, FINE- THEN I ASSUME YOU HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH A STATE ISSUED OR (BETTER YET) FEDERALLY ISSUED GUN ID CARD. ONE THAT CARRIES A PHOTO, REQUIRES AN IN PERSON VISIT TO A GOVERNMENT OFFICE, AND REQUIRES UPDATING EVERY 3 TO 5 YEARS. QUESTIONS? REFUTATIONS?
I hope all the hyprocites have left the room.
To..PG80"""
Gun Id's don't have your photo on them ...I didn't know that .. that puts things in a whole different perspective
can you tell I don't have one ...
@amunaka
CCW permits all have your picture. Michigans does and so does all the states it has reciprocity with. Which is over 25 states. I suspect thusly, they all do. PG80, most seniors dont have a current picture ID. Most poor cant afford one. Granny has been voting in the same place for 40 years. Now she isnt allowed to? I dont think this is right. Especially since there is NO proven voter fraud. Accept with absentees. Which the elephant peiople dont wnt to change!
.
I would bet most seniors , like myself, DO have photo IDs. Typical damocrat, just pull sh*t out of your Arse and scream the same lies over and over, loudly, and think that makes you right. The big lie is the favorite game of the liberals. I have NEVER found a liberal who could even listen to reason or any other point of view and that in itself is enough to NEVER, EVER vote for one. The liberal agenda is not really concern for your fellow man, it is power...so you can control your fellow man. I tell you, you and yours will NEVER control me.
PG 80 there are gun id cards. They are called gun licenses which you have to have in most states. You get fingerprinted, you have to take a written test and a shooting test. The only thing you have to do to vote is get an id. Give me a break with your stupid comment.
To..America""""
Too funny ..