It would appear that John McCain and his camp-pain are shining a 1,000 megawatt flashlight on an acorn, casting a shadow from it large enough to obscure a dark forest of underhanded voter suppression. It is ironic how a complete misrepresentation of the fact that some employees working on a per registration basis with ACORN who got greedy and lazy and fabricated voter registrants has become in the words of McCain, "maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy.”
In compiling this article I want to express my heartfelt thanks to Greg Palast for writing the story from which I have pulled so much material, and as always, to Amy Goodman for doing what she does and being so darn good at it.
Amy Goodman aired a report from BBC Investigative journalist Greg Palast on October 9th regarding vote rigging and suppression ahead of the 2008 election, and you can find it here on Democracy Now! Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., among others, is interviewed. Not only are voters being purged in some states when DMV records don't exactly match up to the name or the initial, but thanks to Karl Rove new voter ID laws have been passed recently which will prohibit many citizens from voting who don't drive or travel abroad. As well, many of the states—coincidentally swing—will also require a copy of a government ID to be sent in with the ballot, but voters are not aware of this as it isn't really written anywhere.
Here in my home state of New Mexico, quickly swinging to blue, another story unfolded where earlier this year one in nine voters were turning up to vote and saw their names were not on the voter rolls. Vanished. Completely. In Las Vegas County even the County Elections Supervisor found his name was missing. Palast reports,
"The presidency could be decided right here. Republicans won New Mexico last time by barely 5,000 votes. Which voters have gone missing? A lot of poor folk on this street—officially, they don’t exist. In fact, this whole street doesn’t exist. Low-income voters, especially, have been purged from voter rolls under new US law. Republicans claim these purge laws are needed to prevent voter fraud.
We caught up with one of the party’s top anti-fraud crusaders at a Republican celebration. Lawyer Pat Rogers singled out ACORN, a Democratic Party-linked group.
Are the Democrats using fraudulent means to stuff the voter rolls and steal the election? "
Pat Rogers responded his "experience in Albuquerque with the ACORN group is that they were involved in serious registration fraud." His "experience in Albuquerque with the elections over the last few years have indicated that there have been isolated instances of voter fraud."
David Iglesias, a rising Republican star appointed US prosecutor by George Bush, was hired to go after individual Democrat voters who were committing voter fraud. But he said he couldn't find any in his investigation after two years. Not one. So he was fired. Yes ladies and gentlemen, not prosecuting innocent people led to his removal by the Bush administration.
Greg Palast and Amy Goodman have done a good thing here but how many people listen to this program? How many people are aware the laws have been changed since they last voted? How many people assume their name is still on the voter roll and it isn't? How many people are really going to check this out before they vote? The truth is, not enough.
Palast's report says that Karl Rove, "the man known as Bush's brain", demanded new ID voting laws. In the words of Robert Kennedy, Jr.,
"I have an ID, and most Americans have an ID. But one out of every ten Americans don’t have a government-issued ID, because they don’t travel abroad, so they don’t have passports, and they don’t drive a car, so they don’t have driver’s licenses. The number rises to one in five when you’re dealing with the African American community."
And according to Palast, an estimated 100,000 black voters in just one swing state, Indiana, will lose their vote to the new law.
In Michigan a reporter for the Michigan Messenger wrote that the local Republican chairman told the journalist that his party would challenge residents right at the polling station to stop them from voting if their names are on a foreclosure list. The Republicans now deny this. But the Michigan Messenger sticks by its story. As if that isn't enough David Trott, "Michigan's foreclosure king", gets the prize for evicting the most families in the state—thousands—and his offices also house the Republican Party HQ in Michigan. Greg Palast:
"David Trott not only houses the Republican Party, he’s also one of their biggest Michigan contributors. He and his wife have given hundreds of thousands to the party.
McCain has just given up on Michigan, yet the foreclosure controversy remains key to swing states Nevada and Florida. "
Isn't there something a little fishy going on here? Did McCain really 'give up' on Michigan, or is Mr. Trott going to be taking care of some pesky Democrat voters for him?
Moving right along into another critical swing state, Colorado, sits the very woman Bush appointed as the head of the United States Elections Assistance Commission, Donetta Davidson, whose job is to tell the rest of the nation how to run unbiased elections. She also happens to be the secretary of state in Colorado; a state which has had 19.4% of its voters “taken off the rolls in an unparalleled massive purge.” She denied the Democrats’ accusations of being responsible for this and replied local officials have the final say over voter rolls. Her Washington appointment is like putting a fox in charge of the coyotes to keep an eye on the chicken coop—another heinous move from Vice Puppet Bush, his brain, the roving Rove, and President Dick Tator.
Why do they keep doing this? Because they can. Or they have been able to up until now. People are getting wind of the situation. Little by little light is being shed into the dark forest of radical right Republican deceit. When Palast interviewed Kennedy he said,
"A lot of Europeans ask, Why are Americans so crazy? They keep reelecting this guy. Well, the answer is, we don’t. You know, they keep stealing these elections. And they stole it in 2000, they stole it in 2004, and they’re all set up to steal it again."
Yes they are. And they have been for some time. Palast and Kennedy are attempting to fight this forest fire and coming out with a big exposé in Rolling Stone, and here is a sneak preview of the article entitled Block the Vote "Will the GOP's campaign to deter new voters and discard Democratic ballots determine the next president?" They also have a comic book which you can get from here Steal Back Your Vote! and it looks to be full of some really good tips for protecting your rights and maintaining your voice within our democracy and republic. Democracy is defined according to Wikipedia thus: "Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is held completely by the people under a free electoral system." "Republic" from the same source says: "A republic is a state or country that is not led by a hereditary monarch, but in which the people (or at least a part of its people) have impact on its government."
Let us be that "part of its people", the we the people who have an impact on government with regard to our free electoral system. Free, I am assuming, means the antithesis of constrained, fixed, dictated or coerced. A choice with our voice to vote freely in this United States of America.
And did you know Joe the Plumber isn't even on the voter roll? In Ohio. A swing state. Imagine that.
You can find out more regarding how YOU can protect your vote here at TheBluePointOfView.com
Author Post Script
I appreciate all the comments. I wrote this for those who were unaware of these issues with encouragment to be informed, be prepared, and MAKE YOUR VOTE, regardless of what you are hearing. Palast and Kennedy are saying (and perhaps I should have made this clearer), DO NOT BE DISSUADED. GET OUT AND VOTE!
If your state has it, vote early and vote now!