ELECTION 08..The cheating has already begun!

[Bennyboy]

by Greg Palast http://www.gregpalast.com/obama-doesn%e2%80%99t-sweat-he-should/

In swing-state Colorado, the Republican Secretary of State conducted the biggest purge of voters in history, dumping a fifth of all registrations. Guess their color.

In swing-state Florida, the state is refusing to accept about 85,000 new registrations from voter drives – overwhelming Black voters.

In swing state New Mexico, HALF of the Democrats of Mora, a dirt poor and overwhelmingly Hispanic county, found their registrations disappeared this year, courtesy of a Republican voting contractor.

In swing states Ohio and Nevada, new federal law is knocking out tens of thousands of voters who lost their homes to foreclosure.


My investigations partner spoke directly to Barack Obama about it. (When your partner is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., candidates take your phone call.) The cool, cool Senator Obama told Kennedy he was “concerned” about the integrity of the vote in the Southwest in particular.

He’s concerned. I’m sweating.

It’s time SOMEBODY raised the alarm about these missing voters; not to save Obama’s candidacy – journalists should stay the heck away from partisan endorsements - but raise the alarm to save our sick democracy.

[hopewell1985]

1. Ya

Look for some big voter intimidation.

[Eric J in MN]

2. We need a federal law stopping voters from being purged less than 10 months...

...before an election, and requiring that voters have ample opportunity to confirm that they're registered and re-register if necessary.

[LaPera]

6. Doesn't matter the Dems don't believe there's a problem!

The republicans fight any change that takes away their cheating advantage....they'll steal it again, what's stopping them.....certainly NOT the Democrats, so why not?

[Doctor_J]

3. I don't understand why the campaign isn't talking about this.

including Obama himself. He should vow to appoint a voting czar his second day in office, and prosecute and imprison the FL SoS and all others in violation

[southern_belle]

4. kick :(

[Coexist]

5. .

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

7. If Obama loses this November, it will only be because of crap like this.

[salguine]

8. I hate to say it, but he will, and it will be.

[yurbud]

9. I hope Obama doesn't pull a Kerry: get all the info about vote suppression then do nothing

[Igel]

10. Dunno.

The Mora thing might be a real concern but the registrations weren't "disappeared" (a word I associate with the Southern Cone, and find stereotypically used in conjunction with "Hispanics"). Might not. Can't find anything definitely showing why a contractor left off the party affiliation for 1k or so voters, which mattered in the primaries. And forced the voters to use provisional ballots. http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/apcaucus02-28-08.htm

The Florida numbers are a mess. I can't get through the clog of links referring to the Palast story to actually pin down a source. But it looks unofficial: "overwhelming" instead of "overwhelmingly", and "Black" instead of "black" looks like either a blog (not necessarily well sourced) or an issue-advocacy group with an interest in big numbers. Approx. 14k voters had their registrations rejected--mostly black--because they didn't check a box. I think a judge struck down that part of the law; if so this is merely out of date, if this is, indeed, what Palast is referring to. 85k (there's the number!) voters were moved off the active rolls (just in Lee county?) as part of routine voter roll maintenance (done pretty much everywher, else I'd still be eligible to vote in Baltimore, Newark, a few places in Eugene, a couple of precincts in Los Angeles, and in Rochester). They were kept as viable voters via provisional ballots, so that affects nobody, at least this year.

The Colorado 20% purge happened in 2004-06 and was also maintenance, for the most part (I suspect--since it's stale, it's not very urgent).

The Ohio and Nevada (etc.) reference is milking the foreclosure nightmare in it's referring to the old--and new--requirement that you vote based upon your address. You amend your voter registration if you've moved. With a time-limit cut-off before the actual election. But it's true for anybody who's moved, for any reason. http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/07/06/vacant.ART_ART_07-06-08_A1_5UAL914.html . However, this also tends to affect the young and the minority member more than middle/upper-class and whites, primarily because of home-ownership being (traditionally) more long-term stable, while apt. tenancy is usually shorter-term.