this is from the blackcommentator. a frightful read. the points the author brings up are important. those republicans we now know who were invloved in supressing votes should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. if anything that comes of this ohio debacle should be this: charge as many men and women as possible who were involved in criminal activity in supressing votes in Ohio and elsewhere. I say if the party wont spend the money to do then we should set up a pac or 527 or whatever to hire a leagal team to prosecute these people. here are some of the crimes the author lists:
I say book 'em.
http://www.blackcommentator.com/119/119_cover_vote_thieves_pf.html
A prosecutor like Rudy Giuliani would have a field day with the GOP's myriad 2004 criminal offenses. Just a few examples:
Nathan Sproul, the former head of the Arizona Republican Party (and of the state's Christian Coalition), managed a multi-state, Republican National Committee-financed campaign to sign up new GOP voters. In the process, his poorly paid employees, pretending to be non-partisan voter registration workers, reportedly destroyed hundreds if not thousands of signed, but unwanted, Democratic registration forms - serious criminal offenses committed in concert in the furtherance of the GOP's electoral fortunes. A non-Republican "Giuliani" would want to know about every conversation Sproul had had with Republican Party officials over the course of at least a year. Investigators would interview each of Sproul's interlocutors, and warn them - and Sproul - of the additional penalties attached to conspiracy. The investigator's goal is to "turn" conspirators into witnesses in the search up the chain, or to catch bad actors in a lie - an additional charge to hold over their heads. This is how the larger scheme - the criminal enterprise - is routinely fleshed out.
According to the Free Press, a team of 25 men calling themselves the "Texas Strike Force" positioned themselves at a hotel across the street from Republican Party headquarters in Franklin County, Ohio (Columbus), and proceeded to make intimidating phone calls to likely Democratic voters, "targeting people recently in the prison system." These imported Texans' rooms were reportedly paid for by the Ohio Republican Party. A "hotel worker heard one caller threaten a likely voter with being reported to the FBI and returning to jail if he voted" - a crime if committed by an individual, but a much more serious conspiracy if engaged in by the entire interstate flying squad and the Republicans who paid, accommodated and sent them on their felonious mission. There is a raft of conspiracy angles to be worked in this case - angles that could lead...anywhere in the GOP matrix in Ohio, Texas and beyond.
Another issue of the Free Press - an excellent chronicler of the GOP election crime wave - reported that in "a largely minority area in Hillsborough County [Florida] half as many voting machines were in use as had been used for the earlier primary.... [A]s it turned out, the same happened all throughout Florida and Ohio. But in predominantly Republican neighborhoods, plenty of voting machines were on hand, lines were normal, and everyone who wanted to vote, did." Such practices form a pattern, conceived by real persons, who handed down orders to other persons, with the result that Black precincts were so starved of voting machines that it was mathematically, predictably and deliberately impossible to service the area's voters.
Those who act in concert with others to violate the Voting Rights Act or related laws (such as the National Voter Registration Act, in the box below) should be confronted with the prospect of conspiracy charges in addition to criminal penalties (prison time) for individual offenses. That's the way gangsters are brought down, every day.
National Voter Registration Act
973gg-10. Criminal Penalties
A person, including an election official, who in any election for Federal office,
knowingly and willfully intimidates, threatens, or coerces, or attempts to intimidate, threaten, or coerce, any person for--
registering to vote, or voting, or attempting to register or vote;
urging or aiding any person to register to vote, to vote, or to attempt to register or vote; or
exercising any right under this subchapter; or
knowingly and willfully deprives, defrauds, or attempts to deprive or defraud the residents of a State of a fair and impartially conducted election process, by--
the procurement or submission of voter registration applications that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under the laws of the State in which the election is held; or
the procurement, casting, or tabulation of ballots that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under the laws of the State in which the election is held, shall be fined in accordance with Title 18...or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.