Brad Blog on those Absentee Voter Request Forms

[chknltl]

Brad has looked into this matter, if I could headline this I would headline it with "THE SKY DID NOT FALL!!!". There was quite the frenzy here in the DU over this matter which strongly suggested that the McCain campaign was in the process of performing an act of targeted Voter Caging. Many here had first become aware of this last Thursday while listening to Lee Rayburn guest hosting the Thom Hartmann Show. (My first exposure to it as well) I believe that Brad's words are best here:


http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6378

Quote:

"I've been getting panicked email and phone calls, and everything else, since a caller to the Thom Hartmann Program yesterday mentioned receiving an Absentee Ballot Request form in the mail from the McCain campaign. Apparently, the caller from Wisconsin was a Democrat, suspected foul play (and not without reason!) and was followed by several other callers and emailers reporting the same in that state and others around the country.

Lee Rayburn, who was guest hosting for Thom, called me just after he got off the air yesterday to let me know what was going on, and to forward some of the emails he had been receiving so I could check them out to figure out what was going on. In fact, I had already received some of those McCain Absentee Ballot Request forms from others in the days preceding yesterday's show.

Well, with panic among Dems (understandably) reaching a fevered pitch by last night, claims of "massive Republican vote caging" going on, as based on these mailings, he asked me to come on today and explain what I was able to learn about the situation. (Audio of interview posted below.)

As discussed during my appearance with Lee on Thom's show this morning, in this case at least, those mailers seem to be generally on the up and up. While it appears to be a massive and very aggressive GOTV effort from the McCain campaign --- even targeting Democrats in places they consider "swing states," like Wisconsin --- there doesn't seem to be anything nefarious going on with these particular mailings. At least so far as I've been able to tell...


The addresses on the postcards to Election Clerks --- included in the mailings so the receiver can send in their absentee ballot request --- all seem to be correct addresses for those officials, and the postcards seem to be legit (even if the mailings in Ohio seem to have had an extra, unneeded check box on them, and the ones in NC, targeting Republicans, fail to let folks know they also need to include both birth date and phone number in order to properly receive their absentee ballots. Both of those cases seem to be administrative failures, and seem likely to affect Republicans more than Dems from what I can tell.)

Don't get me wrong. There are many despicable, anti-democracy GOP dirty tricks in the works (Steve Heller wrote about some of them here yesterday.) But this does not appear, yet anyway, to be one of them. And, oh, by the way, unless you really have to do so, voting by mail is a terrible idea.

BTW, as I note during the interview, I think it's great that folks are paying attention this time, raising hell when they see something suspicious, and taking action on it --- by contacting the media, their local and state election officials, etc. So good job, folks! Stay vigilant! But remember to stay level-headed at the same time, when possible, to make sure we know what we're working with when this stuff comes up. And it's gonna come up a lot between here and there. I promise.

UPDATE: There are still some concerns, with some of these mailers, that while the address for the Election office may be correct, it may for an office in a county other than where the voter actually lives. I'm trying to look into these instances, seen in both Wisconsin and Missouri, to determine what would happen if a voter sent their absentee request form to a county other than the one where they are registered. Will update with any info I can glean from officials over the weekend..."

:endquote

Well that is that in my book. One good thing I can take away from this: folks within the electorate ARE AWARE as to what VOTER CAGING is these days and are on the alert for it. This most recent discussion fueled by the McCain Absentee Ballot Requests has served to further spread discussion about ELECTION FRAUD throughout the electorate. As you know, Democracy REQUIRES an informed electorate and it appears at this time that the voters are keeping up!

I would like to add my profound thanks to Lee Rayburn for starting this ...um..frenzy. He did the right thing by bringing it to nationwide attention. We need to keep our powder dry this time but it is folks like him on the radio who are keeping us voters informed on matters that we need to be informed on WHEN we need to be informed on those matters! He is on our front lines and IMO deserves our gratitude. That goes for all of you progressive talk radio folks too-THANK YOU, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

On a very related topic: Fellow DUer napi21 posted this link yesterday: http://www.votersunite.org/info/RegInfo.asp
It is an online method to check your voter registration-to see what your current status is.
Napi21's thread did not get the attention it deserved so I felt it important to repost the link here. I advise everyone to check into their own voter status-it only takes a few minutes and who knows, you might, like I did, find out early enough that you need to update your own registration if you intend to vote this November!