GOP suppressing Latino vote

Daily Kos Staff

Thursday October 19, 2006 · 11:49 AM PDT

2006/10/19 · 11:49

SOP for our modern GOP:

State investigators have linked a Republican campaign to letters sent to thousands of Orange County Hispanics, a spokesman for the attorney general said.

"We have identified where we believe the mailing list was obtained," said Nathan Barankin, spokesman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer.

He declined to identify the specific Republican campaign Wednesday, citing the ongoing investigation. The Los Angeles Times and The Orange County Register both reported Thursday that the investigation appeared to be focused on the campaign of Tan D. Nguyen, a Republican challenger to Democratic U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez [...]

The letter, written in Spanish, tells recipients: "You are advised that if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time."

In fact, immigrants who are naturalized U.S. citizens can vote.

People get so fixated with voting boxes that they lose sight that the vast majority of voter disenfranchisement happens before election day. The Conyers Report on the 2004 election in Ohio was page after page of voter disenfranchisement tactics, and nothing on hacked voting machines.

They don't need to hack the machines to eliminate Democratic votes.

So what can we do? Be vigilant for now. But the real solution is to win important races. Win back legislatures and governorships and then press them to enact electoral reform. Me, I think the solution to all those problems is Oregon-style vote by mail. But there are other solutions.

And don't forget your Secretary of State offices -- those guys run the elections.

Update: The DNC has a hotline to report voter supression efforts:

1-888-DEM-VOTE.

GOP suppressing Latino vote

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