Well people are getting involved in record numbers, so Republicans are trying to suppress the vote in record numbers.

Some interesting factoids I just learned:

• Donetta Davidson, former Secretary of State of Colorado, who has removed 1 out of 5 registered voters from the rolls in that state (19.4%), has been appointed by Bush to head.... wait for it.... the Election Assistance Commission. From there, she will train Secretaries of State in all 50 states how to purge voters from the rolls. In 2004, Ms. Davidson purged felons from Colorado's voting rolls. The problem with that is that Colorado does not bar felons from voting. She blatantly violated election law. Which is of course why Bush promoted her.

• Of course, if you live in New Hampshire, the CEO of the company that programs ALL the electronic memory cards that count your votes is a felon himself.

• Michigan Republicans are using the foreclosure lists, to purge voters from the rolls. Lose your home, lose the right to vote. In fact McCain’s regional headquarters are housed in the same office building as Trott & Trott, the states largest foreclosure specialists, and the CEO of that company has raised as much as $250,000 to fund McCain's campaign. As of July there were 62,000 foreclosure filings in Michigan, one of the key swing states. 60% of all the bad sub-prime loans were made to African-Americans. Welcome to Jim Crow version 2.0.

SPECIAL NOTE TO MICHIGAN VOTERS: If this has happened to you, and they attempt to challenge your right to vote at the polls, INSIST on receiving a ballot (not a provisional) anyways. Even if a person’s home has been foreclosed upon, and they have been evicted from that home, Michigan Election Law 168.507a allows a voter to vote at their last-registered voter address. Don't take any guff at the polls.

• In 2006, returned "Do Not Forward" cards sent to voters in Michigan were used to remove 230,000 registered voters from rolls within 90 days of that year's general election. In April 2007, the Bush Department of "Justice" sent out a letter ordering michigan to "clean up" it's voter rolls, and another 280,000 names have been purged from the rolls by using databases in OTHER states.

• If you're a Republican, what do you do when an official election observer in Arizona questions vote counting processes? Why, you have them arrested! Election Defense Alliance Coordinator for the Democratic and Libertarian parties, John Brakey was arrested when he noticed that a number of ballot bags being counted in the post-election audit were missing their proper security seals. This shouldn't surprise anyone familiar with Arizona elections, as their Republican Secretary of State Jan Brewer refers to election protection advocates who want verified paper trails as "anarchists". However this is part of a growing pattern of election accuracy advocates being arrested when they had the nerve to insist that officials follow the law.

• In Louisiana, refugees from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita who applied for a driver's license in a neighboring state in to quickly acquire an ID after losing their belongings in the storms, also were registered to vote in those neighboring states without their knowledge. As a result, 21,000 voters were purged from the rolls.

• 600,000 voters in just one of Ohio's counties can look forward to challenges at the polls, because they did not return a mailer sent out by Republicans as a part of their vote caging efforts there. If they are forced to vote provisionally, their votes will more than likely not be counted. However, the new, FAIR Secretary of State for Ohio, Jennifer Brunner, has issued a directive to local elections officials indicating that returned mail alone cannot be used as a partisan tool to suppress the vote, and that voters must be given notice to update their records instead of simply being told at the polls that they are ineligible. Brunner's action does not guarantee that voter suppression will be eliminated. Local officials may disregard her directive, training may be inadequate, and Republican suppression efforts may simply bet on a legal challenge. But the directive does give election monitors and individual voters a tool to resist.

• Half of all voters will be using voting machines different from the ones used in previous elections. Being first-time users, there is concern that this will cause long lines as people attempt to figure out the new system in their area.

• Half of the states will use new databases to verify voter registrations. (Wonder how many of those databases use the easily hackable Diebold GEMS system...)

• 1/3rd of absentee ballot applications received at Ohio's Hamilton County Board of Elections have been ruled invalid because Republican Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign printed a version of the form with an extra, unneeded box on it. This is a bit like the BS voters in Los Angeles had to endure during the primaries.

• If you're guilty of "voting while brown", you are 500% more likely to have your vote invalidated.

• Typically, 2 million votes in the national elections are considered "spoiled" and tossed. Of those, 54% are votes made by African Americans. So that means on a REGULAR basis, one million black votes just disappear.

To prevent this sort of bullshit from being successful in future elections, we need to pay attention to who gets to be Secretaries of State in our respective areas. They must be committed to increasing access to the vote, and fully counting the vote.

In addition to the Presidential and Congressional races this year, there are also races for Secretaries of State in Oregon, West Virginia, Montana, and Missouri that are critical. In Oregon, Democrat Kate Brown is running against GOP nominee Rick Dancer. In West Virginia, Democrat Natalie Tennant is working to unseat Republican Betty Ireland. In Montana, Democrat Linda McCulloch is trying to unseat ultra-conservative Brad Johnson. And in the key battleground state of Missouri, Democrat Robin Carnahan (a strong reformer) is up for reelection.

thanks for the information especially about CO...where did you get it from?

just to add where is the DNC on making sure this crap does not happen?!?!?!?!?

Links are within the post.

ok...........do you mind if I copy and paste to my myspace?

Paste away (with a credit/link please).

how come the media is not reporting on this...,.this makes me sick!

The "Purging" of Voter list is REQUIRED by Federal law. People who moved, former students and others who are no longer in a particular district don't belong on the voter registration list.

Maybe this website will help ...............

http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/hava.htm From the Website .....................

Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA)

Passed by the United States Congress and signed into law by President Bush on October 29, 2002, the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) embodies the most sweeping overhaul of elections laws since the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Pursuant to its provisions, every state must examine the way it promotes democracy and implement fundamental changes to the electoral process.

Some of the changes under the new HAVA requirements will affect the way you register to vote, the way you cast ballots and the way you exercise your power as citizens.

The most visible changes to the election process for voters include:

New Voting Equipment

HAVA required county elections officials to buy and deploy new voting systems designed to improve the process and enable almost every voter to vote independently and confidentially. Voters should now be able to review their ballot to verify their choices and to look for “errors� – ballot contests where a person “overvoted� (accidentally voted both “yes� and “no� on a ballot measure, for example) or ballot races where a person “undervoted� (accidentally skipped a race where they could vote for a candidate, for example). Voters with disabilities will also be provided with voting equipment that lets them vote independently and confidentially in most instances (by having a blind voter “hear� the ballot through audio recording, instead of asking for assistance in marking a ballot, for example).

Provisional Voting Rights

Every person who shows up at a polling place on Election Day is entitled to a provisional ballot, even if there is a question about whether they are a registered voter. Every person who votes a provisional ballot is provided free access to a system that maintains the confidentiality of the voter, while at the same time letting the person know if his or her ballot was counted, and, if it was not, why it was not counted.

New Voter Registration Rules

Voter registration rules have also been changed by HAVA. Every person who registers or re-registers to vote after January 1, 2006, is now required to include on their voter registration affidavit their California driver’s license number, if they have a current and valid driver’s license, or their California identification card number, if they have one, or, if they have neither a driver’s license nor a California ID, the last four digits of their Social Security number, if they have a Social Security card. If a person does not possess a driver’s license, state-issued identification card or a Social Security card, he or she will still become a registered voter. But, if they do have this information, they must provide it. Any person voting for the first time who registers by mail who does not provide this information will be asked to show a form of identification when he or she goes to the polls, or to provide a copy of that identification with his or her vote-by-mail ballot. There are 30 forms of identification that can be used for this purpose under HAVA, including a government issued check or a utility bill that includes the person’s name and address.

Wnd of Website quote.

It's NOT a plot to purge, the HAVA is designed to be accurate! This act was passed by Congress with wide support from both major parties. It's not a conspiracy. It's a law passed with bipartisan support.

HAAVA was underfunded just like NCLB. Not much oversight either.

Wonder if it was on purpose?

ANOTHER RW TALKING POINT WHERE IF YOU KEEP SAYING IT ITS TRUE!

It's the Help America Vote Republican Act.

If you do that SherriChardonnay I'd suggest that you check all of the links out yourself before posting it to make sure that the information is being presented accurately. I've looked at just one of the links and it has been reported incorrectly in the list presented by 5by5. My guess is that 5by5 is just copying this from somewhere else but there is no reason for you to make the same mistake, of posting it without checking out the sources for yourself. This is the one I looked at:



Notice that it says the mailer mailer was "sent out by Republicans". Go to the link however and you won't find that:

http://www.secstateproject.org/blog/republ...votes_in_o.html
"On Friday, election officials in Ohio sent a letter to every registered voter in the state. A state law that was passed in 2005 requires that this mailer - which is marked DO NOT FORWARD - is posted 60 days before federal elections. The purpose is to identify a list of voters for whom the mail is undeliverable. That list can then be used to challenge voters at the polls on Election Day."

The letters were sent by the State of Ohio...not by Republicans.

It does mention that the list of returned names will be available to Republicans who "can" challenge voters based on the returned letters. Not that it doesn't say "will" or "must" challenge. Of course it will also be available to the Democrats who "can" also challenge voters based on the returned letters. This whole "Republican scheme" that is being put forth by whoever compiled the list that 5by5 posted is just trying to mislead people to further his/her/their goals.

Check it all out for yourself before posting it on your personal webspace. Gary

MY sister just called me and she said she got a mcgimmick purge thing...so her and her "Obamatroopers" will be going door to door to make sure folks check their registration at city hall!....WOW

that republicans or karl rove are engaged in election fraud, is obvious

just look at the justice dept and the attempt to force the US attorneys to participate in election fraud

if we lose, we deserve it, i say bring on the disaster...i am getting the popcorn

And your "guess" would be wrong.

I obviously went to quite a few sites researching all of this, if I made one mistake in that entire post, color me human. You're welcome to review my 2 hours of work with 2 of your own, but not to imply that what I wrote was intentionally careless.

The mailers in question are USED by Republicans to invalidate people's votes, and the law which allows the mailers to be sent out in the first place, was passed by Republicans in the Ohio State Legislature.

The new, post-Ken Blackwell Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner has issued instructions that "no voter will lose their right to vote" based upon those returned mail notices, but it's an open question as to whether Republican elections officials in the individual counties will actually FOLLOW that directive.

Neither does my summary of the contents of one of those links, invalidate the 17 OTHER links I posted, or prevent you from reading ALL of them for verification.

I don't know what the new databases will be, and I agree with those who believe these things should not be put into private hands, but the new voting machines are there due to states getting rid of the "Diebold" style "touch screen" machines:

LINK FROM QU0TED POST
"At least 11 states will use new voting equipment as the nation shifts away from touch-screen machines and to the paper ballots of optical scanners, which will be used by more than 55 percent of voters."

Sounds like a pretty good idea to me since I never was a fan of the touch screen machines lacking a paper trail. Why are you putting this forward as a bad idea that is intended to discourage voters?

Optical scanned ballots and other e-voting options such as that by Sequoia have been hacked in under 3 seconds. On video. And all of that does nothing to address the Diebold GEMS program COUNTING all the votes (with paper trail or otherwise) in the state's central tabulators.

Get up to speed, you're WAY behind, my friend....

What is undeniable is republican operatives, regards to every election they are ever a part of, put a great deal of effort into processes/laws/actions that will make the vote turnout low as possible...

they know that outside of a few areas heavily dominated by repubs, like orange county, they cant win elections when the people turn out en masse...

Watch the video:

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6375

Suppressing the vote is their guiding principle.

What should a person do if s/he suspects caging? My brother in law got a letter today from the NJ voter registration agency (whatever it's called there) stating that if he doesn't respond to the letter he would be removed from voter eligibility. What's so upsetting about this is he's lived in the same town for the past 30 years, and at the house he's at now for 15 of those years. And, he's a democrat. When he called and responded, the woman apologized for the "mistake," stating that thousands of others were experiencing that same "mistake" in his town, Montclair, NJ.

Call me a skeptic, but this sucks. Your thoughts? How does one respond?