Fake voting rights activists and groups linked to White House

[rman]

(copy from GD)

Bob Fitrakis
December 30, 2005

Top level Republican operatives with ties to the White House, Senate Majority Leader William Frist and the Republican National Committee (RNC) not only engaged in the suppression of poor and minority voters in the 2004 Ohio presidential election' but they spun the election irregularities into a story linking blacks to cocaine and voter fraud. Bush allies in Ohio are now using this myth of voter fraud to pass a repressive "election reform" bill.

In the month prior to and immediately after the 2004 presidential election' the Republican Party engaged in an orchestrated campaign to divert the mainstream media focus away from election fraud and irregularities in Ohio and manufactured the myth of "voter fraud."

According to a former Columbus Dispatch reporter' Ohio Senator Mike Dewine sent his spokesperson' Mike Dawson' to meet with the editorial board of the Dispatch and other Ohio newspapers. The primary talking point for the GOP was that there was no evidence of irregularities in Ohio.

The Republican state legislature used the "voter fraud" spin to introduce the draconian Ohio House Bill 3. The "election reform" bill has passed both Republican-dominated houses and is awaiting a conference committee at the start of the new year.

HB 3's most publicized provision will require voters to show their ID before casting a ballot. But it also opens voter registration activists to criminal prosecution' exempts electronic voting machines from public scrutiny' quintuples the cost of citizen-requested statewide recounts and makes it illegal to challenge a presidential vote count or' indeed' any federal election result in Ohio. HB 3 will also reduce voter rolls by ordering county boards of elections to send cards to registered voters every two years. If a card comes back as undelivered' the voter must rely on a provisional ballot.

Fake voting rights groups tied to the White House
http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2005/1289

[merh]

1. no surprise here

Thanks for posting

[ClintonTyree]

2. What the hell happened to Ohio?

Ohio was never a hot-bed of neo-conservative politics but now it seems as if Ohio is ground zero for the Cons future plans of world domination. What the hell happened there?

[kster]

3. kick.nt

[Kurovski]

4. K&R. Maybe we should try to vote this up to greatest?

kliljedahl had a popular post on this that just expired on the greatest page.

Maybe we can vote this info back to greatest for the Monday back-to-work crowd? :shrug:

Just a thought...

[robbedvoter]

5. Voter fraud = RW talking code for vote suppression. DON"T USE IT!

It's why I am so angry when kerry&al use "fraud" instead of stolen election. Not only they obfuscate the truth, but unwittingly serve THEIR tricks by reinforcing their memes (such as "race card" and class warfare")

[drm604]

6. There's another thread on this with some more good info.

See here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=13895