Voter Suppression was Goal in Florida

The only thing surprising about Republicans plotting to suppress the vote in Florida is that some of their own are willing to admit the truth. And we know the same thing happened in Ohio where diminished early voting hours caused long lines. Luckily in both Florida and Ohio, the sheer numbers of voters who turned out to vote for Obama defeated their evil schemes. But this should never happen again! As President Obama said, we need to "fix that."



From Palm Beach Post

Former Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer says he attended various meetings, beginning in 2009, at which party staffers and consultants pushed for reductions in early voting days and hours.
“The Republican Party, the strategists, the consultants, they firmly believe that early voting is bad for Republican Party candidates,” Greer told The Post. “It’s done for one reason and one reason only. … ‘We’ve got to cut down on early voting because early voting is not good for us,’ ” Greer said he was told by those staffers and consultants.

“They never came in to see me and tell me we had a (voter) fraud issue,” Greer said. “It’s all a marketing ploy.”

Greer is now under indictment, accused of stealing $200,000 from the party through a phony campaign fundraising operation. He, in turn, has sued the party, saying GOP leaders knew what he was doing and voiced no objection.

. . . Wayne Bertsch, who handles local and legislative races for Republicans, said he knew targeting Democrats was the goal.
“In the races I was involved in in 2008, when we started seeing the increase of turnout and the turnout operations that the Democrats were doing in early voting, it certainly sent a chill down our spines. And in 2008, it didn’t have the impact that we were afraid of. It got close, but it wasn’t the impact that they had this election cycle,” Bertsch said, referring to the fact that Democrats picked up seven legislative seats in Florida in 2012 despite the early voting limitations.

This confirms what ex-Governor Charlie Crist had said earlier:

from Huffington Post

"The only thing that makes any sense as to why this is happening and being done is voter suppression," he said.

Crist added, "People have fought and died for our right to vote, and unfortunately our legislature and this governor have decided they want to make early voting less available to Floridians rather than more available ... It's hard for me as an American to comprehend why you don't make democracy as easy as possible to exercise for the people of our state. It's frankly unconscionable."

Natiional Voter Registration Day

If you aren't registered yet for the November 2012 election, please register today!

National Voter Registration Day ~ Form Here

Or fill out the form at the link below:

GottaRegister.com


Early Voting has started in many states, so what are you waiting for? Don't let a long line on election day keep your vote from counting - vote early if you can!

Eric Holder Strikes Back ~ Voter ID Laws are Poll Taxes

At the NAACP conference in Houston, Texas, Attorney General Eric Holder struck back by calling voter suppression laws "Poll Taxes."

This is great stuff, and I would love to see all these laws get struck down by the courts before the election.

Huffington Post Story

Under the law passed in Texas, Holder said that "many of those without IDs would have to travel great distances to get them – and some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need to obtain them."

"We call those poll taxes," Holder added spontaneously, drawing applause as he moved away from the original text of his speech with a reference to a fee used in some Southern states after slavery's abolition to disenfranchise black people.

The 24th amendment to the constitution made that type of tax illegal.

Holder spoke a day after a trial started in federal court in Washington over the 2011 law passed by Texas' GOP-dominated Legislature that requires voters to show photo identification when they get to the polls.

Under Texas' law, Holder noted, a concealed handgun license would serve as acceptable ID to vote, but a student ID would not. He went on to say that while only 8 percent of white people do not have government-issued photo IDs, about 25 percent of black people lack such identification.

Context: Via Infoplease

In the United States, the poll tax has been connected with voting rights. Poll taxes enacted in Southern states between 1889 and 1910 had the effect of disenfranchising many blacks as well as poor whites, because payment of the tax was a prerequisite for voting. By the 1940s some of these taxes had been abolished, and in 1964 the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution disallowed the poll tax as a prerequisite for voting in federal elections. In 1966 this prohibition was extended to all elections by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that such a tax violated the “equal protection” clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Governor Scott says Florida Will Sue Homeland Security for List of Voters to Purge

This guy is all kinds of crazy. Even with his popularity dropping and all his Election Officials in mutiny, he can't stop the purge. He's the Captain Queeg of Florida looking for his strawberries illegal voters.

From Talking Points Memo

“The Florida’s Secretary of State office wil be filing a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security to give us that database,” Scott said. “We want to have fair, honest elections in our state and so we have been put in a position that we have to sue the federal government to get this information.” The move comes after Scott disregarded a request from the Department of Justice on Wednesday to abandon efforts to purge eligible voters.

Neil Cavuto, who conducted the interview, pressed Scott on why many of those who objected to the purge were Republican election supervisors. Cavuto also noted that other prominent Florida Republicans, notably Sen. Marco Rubio, were notably silent on the purge.

Florida Voter Registration Starting Again

The Wisconsin Recall election is over and Scott Walker won, Unions lost, but Democrats did gain control of the Wisconsin Senate.

 Billionaires buy Wisconsin recall election for Scott Walker

It's heartbreaking, but we need to suck it up and move forward. We have larger fish to fry with the fall Presidential election, so here's some good news: Groups are beginning to register voters in Florida again after the intervention of the Department of Justice and a Federal Judge struck down Rick Scott's draconian rules that were trying to disenfranchise voters. Rachel Maddow had one of the County Election Supervisors on her show. What a brave lady! Rachel called the Supervisors the "firewall" in Florida because Governor Scott cannot force them to purge voter rolls

Miami Herald: League of Women Voters and Rock the Vote to Restart Registration

“We’re going to dust off our clip boards and pick up the forms and get into the business of registering people to vote,” declared St. Petersburg League of Women Voters President Darden Rice. “Registering citizens to vote is part of our core mission, and we’re excited to get back to work.”
At a similar news conference in Orlando, organizers were joined by officials from the nonpartisan group Rock the Vote, which also is resuming Florida voter registration efforts in the wake of last week’s court ruling.

Rock the Vote president Heather Smith said her group registered 100,000 young voters in Florida in 2008 and still should be able to surpass that total this year. Deirdre Macnab, president of the Florida League of Women Voters, estimated her organization, which also emphasizes educating voters about issues and candidates, registers tens of thousands of people each cycle.The voter registration groups still will face more restrictions than they’ve been accustomed to, including registering with elections offices and submitting the names of every volunteer collecting voter registration forms.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Florida ~ Purging Towards Oblivion

More on the Florida Voter List Purge situation:

Sign the ThinkProgress Petition to Stop Rick Scott's Voter Purge

Palm Beach Post: All 67 Florida County Election Supervisors Stop Purging

The Justice Department letter and mistakes that the 67 county elections supervisors have found in the state list make the scrub undoable, said Martin County Elections Supervisor Vicki Davis, president of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections.
"There are just too many variables with this entire process at this time for supervisors to continue," Davis said.
Ron Labasky, the association's general counsel, sent a memo to the 67 supervisors Friday telling them to stop processing the list.
"I recommend that Supervisors of Elections cease any further action until the issues raised by the Department of Justice are resolved between the parties or by a Court," Labasky wrote.
Davis said the effect on supervisors will be "if they've started the process and they do find out that someone is ineligible to vote and they have credible and reliable information to back it up, then they will remove that person from the database. But if they have not had contact with someone on the list, they're stopping at that point."

Old Northeast Patch: Pinellas Halts Voter Verification

Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark announced Friday that she halted processing the list of potential non-citizen voters distributed to all Florida Supervisors of Elections by the Division of Elections.
..."We’ve been told not to proceed with the verification process, and we don’t want to take anyone off the list who could be an eligible voter," Whitlock told Patch. "At this point we are just stopping the process. Not doing anything else with it further."

CBS: Florida Dems Push Back

...a handful of Democratic Florida lawmakers are pushing back, arguing in a letter to Gov. Rick Scott that the process "fails to meet the basic standards of accountability" and that proceeding with it would be "irresponsible."
...In Tuesday's letter, Florida Democratic lawmakers Ted Deutch, Alcee Hastings, Corinne Brown, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Frederica Wilson and Kathy Castor contend that "providing a list of names with questionable validity - created with absolutely no oversight - to county supervisors and asking that they purge their rolls will create chaotic results and further undermine Floridians' confidence in the integrity of our elections."
"Given that this process fails to meet basic standards of accountability, and that the legal authority for automatic removal of registered voters is currently being challenged in both state and federal court, it is irresponsible to proceed so quickly and with so little room for oversight," the letter reads.

Miami Herald: Minorities and Democrats Targets of Purge

The election-year effort, led by a Republican-appointed secretary of state, has increasingly become a focus of concern among Democrats, liberals and civil-liberties groups. They worry that the state could wind up removing lawful voters from the rolls.
...When they register to vote, Hispanics are flocking to the Democratic Party or to the no-party-affiliation label — nicknamed “NPA” — a sign the Republican Party’s hard-line immigration stances are turning off Latinos.
Those potential noncitizens who register as NPAs have been disproportionately flagged in the state’s computer sweep. ... Democrats are the most-likely to be flagged, in large part because their party has the biggest ranks in Florida. They make up 40 percent of the voter rolls and 40 percent of the potential noncitizens.

Vanderbilt Poll - Tennessee Could Be a Toss-Up

 Be still my heart ~ a new Vanderbilt University Poll has Obama tied with Romney in a virtual dead heat within my home state of Tennessee!

Nashville Tennessean: Vandy Poll says Gap Closing

“Tennessee is clearly a red state,” said John Geer, a professor of political science at Vanderbilt. “But these data show that the public is much more moderate than our state legislature.”

The poll of 1,002 Tennessee residents who are 18 and older found 42 percent would vote for Romney and 41 percent for Obama if the election were held now. The survey, conducted May 2-9 by Princeton Survey Research Associates International for Vanderbilt, had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
. . .
Bill Freeman, a top fundraiser for Obama in Tennessee, said the overall poll result reflects a “tightening” the president’s campaign had already noticed.
“We’ve been tracking it for some time,” Freeman said Thursday. “We’ve watched it go from a solid-Republican (state) to a leaning-Republican to, we believe, a toss-up state now. We think we’re just a point or two behind and that winning Tennessee is in our grasp.
“And we’re especially excited about what that’ll mean to the down-ticket races across the state.”

And here's a part I love - proof that folks are fed up with our stupid Legislature:

Some of the General Assembly’s forays into issues such as “gateway sexual activity,” debating evolution in classrooms and permitting the carrying of guns into business parking lots have given Tennessee “a black eye nationally,” Geer said.

Just 22 percent of the people surveyed said it was more important to protect the rights of handgun owners to carry their weapons into any commercial establishment than it was to protect the rights of business owners to set their own rules. More than 7 in 10 said the opposite.

“The public is not wild about this stuff,” said Geer, co-director of the poll, which was sponsored by Vanderbilt’s Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions. “When you aggregate opinion in the state, it’s more moderate than the aggregate behavior of state legislators. On certain issues, like guns in parking lots, they were way out of step.”

This is factual evidence for what my gut feeling tells me all the time - Tennesseans are not as conservative as our reputation as a Red State seems to imply. There are plenty of Democrats and Independents here, and our state usually runs about 50/50 in major elections. But there's still so much work to be done to drag us back into blue or even toss-up status. It broke my heart in the last election that the local Democratic Party spent more time campaigning in North Carolina than here, although that was certainly worthwhile for Obama. And while NC has had their problems with the recent Gay Marriage Amendment Debacle, the educated large urban areas of NC will still go for Obama, you can bet on that. And if NC can be a swing state, so can TN! So let's take this Vanderbilt poll as a glimmer of hope that our Democratic votes may not be wasted or cancelled out this time around, at least in the down-ticket races.

Arizona's Birther Bennett Wants Obama Off Ballot

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett says he just isn't sure that Barack Obama should be on the presidential ballot this fall. Say WHAT???

This buffoon takes being a "birther" to a whole new level. The sane and rational people of Arizona need to take back their state, pronto, and quit looking to bogus "leaders" like Crazy Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

The Low-Low-Down from Talking Points Memo

Bennett, the state’s No. 2 elected official just below Gov. Jan Brewer (R), said his investigation isn’t personal. He said the reason he started looking into it is because he got more than 1,200 emails asking him to do so after Arpaio’s investigation came out.
“I’m not a birther. I believe the president was born in Hawaii — or at least I hope he was,” Bennett said on the show. “But my responsibility as secretary of state is to make sure the ballots in Arizona are correct and that those people whose names are on the ballot have met the qualifications for the office they are seeking.”
. . . On Thursday, Bennett said he sent his request to Hawaii officials eight weeks ago but has yet to get the proof he was hoping for. He said he didn’t want another copy of the birth certificate. He wants Hawaii to give him what he described as “a verification in lieu of a certified copy of a birth certificate.”
In the weeks since then, Bennett said, Hawaii officials have forced him to provide proof that he is who he says he is. They asked him to send them copies of the Arizona laws that prove the secretary of state really is the person in charge of handling the ballots. Admittedly, Bennett said they told him they were “tired of all the requests.” But he is continuing anyway.

Insidious ALEC Draws More Fire

 Source: Common Cause

From Bloomberg

Common Cause, a Washington-based political ethics watchdog group, today filed a complaint accusing the American Legislative Exchange Council of violating its tax-exempt status by lobbying state legislators.The filing asks the Internal Revenue Service to force ALEC to pay back taxes and penalties.

“ALEC is a corporate lobby front group masquerading as a public charity,” Common Cause President Bob Edgar, a former Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania, said in a statement announcing the complaint. “It tells the IRS in its tax returns that it does no lobbying, yet it exists to pass profit-driven legislation in state houses all over the country that benefits its corporate members.”

By definiton, the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, which was founded in 1973, is supposed to be a registered Non-Profit Group that idealistically brings together business and politics in a productive way. In reality, ALEC has literally written much of the Republican legislation passed in this country, such as the NRA-backed Stand Your Ground laws, as well as new strict rules passed in Florida, Tennessee, Arizona and elsewhere that require even long-time voters to produce a picture ID. At least 2000 members of ALEC are elected politicians in State Legislatures so obviously Corporations are paying for access to those members when they join. When a group "sells" access to a bunch of politicians, we have what is known as "lobbying." That's not illegal, but it also doesn't deserve tax-exempt status from the IRS.

You can read the complete IRS complaint filed by Common Cause Here.

ALEC's primary, if not sole objective is to "influence legislation." Its bylaws state that its purpose is to "formulate legislative action programs," "disseminate model legislation and promote the introduction of companion bills in Congress and state legislatures," and "[e]establish a clearinghouse for bills at the state level, and provide for a bill exchange program." [1] As recently as April 11, 2012, ALEC boasted that "for years, ALEC has partnered with legislators to research and develop better, more effective ... legislation. [2] Notwithstanding these claims, however, ALEC has reported "for years" to the IRS that it has not spent a single penny on lobbying or attempting to influence legislation. These tax returns are patently false.
ALEC is a de facto organization of corporations, which have veto power over any ALEC legislation, and which pay enormous sums of money for the privilege of lobbying ALEC's legislator-members (who pay nominal dues of $50 per year). ALEC spends its resources enabling its corporate members to communicate their desired legislative outcomes to state lawmakers, publicly brags that it "partner]s]" with legislators to pass the so-called "free enterprise" corporate-drafted bills into law, but disclaims in its IRS 501(c)(3) filings that it spends resources on attempting to influence legislation. ALEC is a corporate lobbying group masquerading as a public charity.

The ALEC website also includes this brag about Legislative influence that seems to be admittance of guilt:

To date, ALEC’s Task Forces have considered, written and approved hundreds of model bills on a wide range of issues, model legislation that will frame the debate today and far into the future. Each year, close to 1,000 bills, based at least in part on ALEC Model Legislation, are introduced in the states. Of these, an average of 20 percent become law.

 Time Magazine's Swampland Blog has a great description of how ALEC works with State Legislatures:

For a modest membership fee, conservative legislators gain access to the group’s resources. Think of ALEC’s prepackaged and prelawyered legislation as Swanson TV dinners: all you need is a majority vote to reheat it, and it’s ready to serve. The result: similarly flavored bills in statehouses across the country.

Since the Trayvon Martin shooting highlighted the sketchy nature of "Stand Your Ground" laws as well as the possible racist connotations for the Voting restrictions and the strange legislative attacks on women, many large corporate sponsors such as Wendy's, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Mars Candy, Intuit, McDonald's, and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have severed ties with ALEC. Update: And just today, giant Proctor and Gamble pulled out. See the List of Remaining Corporate ALEC Sponsors on Sourcewatch. To send a message to remaining sponsors that they should break their connections with ALEC Click Here.

The pressure is working because last week ALEC disbanded its social-issues wing to concentrate on economic issues. But many groups say that is not enough. From CBS News

"ALEC's latest statement is nothing more than a PR stunt aimed at diverting attention from its agenda, which has done serious damage to our communities," ColorOfChange Executive Director Rashad Robinson said in a statement.
. . . "This year, because of ALEC, millions of voters who had been eligible to vote in 2008 will be denied access to the ballot box," NAACP President Benjamin Jealous said in a statement. "We may never know how many families will be denied justice because of the 'stand your ground' laws that continue to put communities in danger, or how many families will be torn apart under repressive anti-immigrant laws."

The only possible way that ALEC might keep it's non-profit status is because it defines itself as a "bipartisan" organization, yet the vast majority of bills it helps to pass favor the conservative agenda.Therefore, organizations such as Bold Progressives are calling for Democrats to "Dump ALEC" - story from Alternet:

"It's a sham to project that [ALEC] is bipartisan in nature. And no Democrat should give aid and comfort to this organization by participating in it, to promote its alleged 'bipartisanship,'" said New York State Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries. "It is very important that members of the Democratic Party, who traditionally have stood for enfranchising voters and have stood for promoting the rights to organize and for sensible gun laws, should withdraw from an organization that pushes an agenda that is exactly the opposite."

South Dakota State Sen. Angie Buhl added, "At the end of the day, the Democratic Party is big and diverse, but we've always been about standing up for middle- and working-class families, not for corporations. ALEC is the antithesis of what we stand for as Democrats. Dozens of companies like Kraft and Coca-Cola have already dumped ALEC, and it's time for Democrats to do the same."