Onslaught of dirty tricks as election day nears

[BridgeTheGap]

In the hours before Election Day, as inevitable as winter, comes an onslaught of dirty tricks — confusing e-mails, disturbing phone calls and insinuating fliers left on doorsteps during the night.

The intent, almost always, is to keep folks from voting or to confuse them, usually through intimidation or misinformation. But in this presidential race, in which a black man leads most polls, some of the deceit has a decidedly racist bent.

Complaints have surfaced in predominantly African-American neighborhoods of Philadelphia where fliers have circulated, warning voters they could be arrested at the polls if they had unpaid parking tickets or if they had criminal convictions.

Over the weekend in Virginia, bogus fliers with an authentic-looking commonwealth seal said fears of high voter turnout had prompted election officials to hold two elections — one on Tuesday for Republicans and another on Wednesday for Democrats.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27508967?GT1=43001

[Dinger]

1. Wisconsin's AG Is Nuts (Links, Info:

VanHollen met with Republican officials one week before lawsuit:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/32506639.html

Lawsuit could frustrate (supress) Wisconsin voters:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/09/12/lawsuit_could_frustrate_nov_4_voters_in_wisconsin/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+National+news

VanHollen retaliates whistleblower:
http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/breaking_news/307000

Votes purged:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/26/voter.suppression/index.html

Another related article:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WI_VOTER_CHECKS_WIOL-?SITE=WIMAD&SECTION=HOME

VanHollen’s goons sent out:
http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20081101/APC0101/811010590/1003/APC01

VenHollen sending prosecutors (goons) to the polls on election day:
http://www.madison.com/tct/news/stories/311891

VanHollen’s Lawsuit Against GAB dismissed:
http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=139704

U.S. Supreme Court order in Ohio voting case cited in Wisconsin lawsuit:
http://www2.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=807446

VanHollen says conflict-of-interest laws don’t apply to him:
http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/305696

VanHollen lawsuit could affect 1,000,000 voters many more than originally thought:
http://www2.jsonline.com/watch/?watch=1&date=9/11/2008&id=46027

October 31, 2008

The Honorable J.B. Van Hollen
Attorney General
State of Wisconsin
Wisconsin Department of Justice
P.O. Box 7857
Madison, WI 53707-7857

Dear Mr. Attorney General:

I am writing to express my strong concern about your October 28 announcement that 'as part of election integrity efforts the Wisconsin Department of Justice will be sending assistant attorneys general and special agents from the Division of Criminal Investigation to various locations around the state on Election Day ... to ensure compliance with state laws governing elections.' I am unaware of any specific criminal investigation to which these efforts pertain.

I appreciate that your office must be prepared to respond to incidents, if any, that may arise on Election Day. But the announcement and execution of your plans may have the effect of discouraging legitimate voters from attempting to cast their votes, and I urge you to reconsider your decision. If, however, you decide to proceed with these plans, I ask that you provide detailed information about how Department of Justice employees will be deployed, including the locations to which they will be deployed, how those locations were chosen, and a detailed description or copies of the instructions these employees will be given.

In order to try to ensure that legitimate voters are not discouraged or intimidated by your actions, I also encourage you to ensure that criminal law enforcement personnel are not deployed at polling stations. It is widely acknowledged that the presence of criminal law enforcement personnel at polling stations may discourage and intimidate legitimate voters -- even where the intent may be to facilitate voter access. Wan J. Kim, who served as assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division from 2005 to 2007, has observed that '(federal) prosecutors being involved in voter access issues would lead to intimidation at the polls.' As a precaution against any possibility or appearance of intimidation, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on September 23 that the federal government employees deployed to polling stations this Election Day will not include criminal prosecutors.

I appreciate your immediate attention to this request and look forward to your prompt response.

Sincerely,

Russell D. Feingold
United States Senator

[DeeDeeNY]

2. You should email this info to Keith

This AG is definitely a candidate for Worst Person In The World

[Dinger]

3. I Have:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7693013

[DeeDeeNY]

6. That's great. I didn't see your earlier post.

Hope Keith uses it!

[groovedaddy]

5. Russ Feingold, ON THE JOB! A real Senator for the people! n.t

[Maeve]

4. And the Klan is rearing its ugly head in parts of Ohio

The recent circulation of a handful of Ku Klux Klan recruitment fliers in Marion didn't surprise state agents who monitor such activity.

Barack Obama could soon be the country's first black president. The timing of the fliers was no coincidence, said Michelle Gatchell, a spokeswoman for the Ohio attorney general's office, which monitors the KKK and other white supremacy and fringe organizations in the state.

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/11/03/MARION18.ART_ART_11-03-08_B1_POBPCDQ.html?sid=101

[Ganja Ninja]

7. I haven't seen hardly any yard signs for Obama in the Tampa area.

And in places where I have seen them, they seem to disappear after only a few days. It seems the GOP has made a coordinated effort to steal all of them nationwide. What a pathetic bunch of losers.

[BridgeTheGap]

8. Here in Lexington, KY, we got reports of entire neighborhoods

having their Obama signs stolen last Friday night. The win tomorrow is going to feel really good, particularly knowing how much it will unhinge these dirty tricksters. They'll know their dirty tricks didn't amount to a hill of beans!

[Ganja Ninja]

9. I would just like to know how high up this goes.

I can't believe this could be so widespread without some coordination from the top down. It's going on everywhere.

[BridgeTheGap]

10. I think it was in Kansas City where a repub candidate for local office

was caught on camera stealing his Dem opponents signs.
I don't know how coordianted the effort for this stuff is. It seems that the "top" of the g.o.p. is more focused on voter suppresion and rigging voting machines. But as low down as they get, I don't put anything past them.