The whole democratic election process is being corrupted before our eyes.
But there is one group that needs the bleaching action of sunlight. The Republican Voting Monitors, brought to you by the group, "True the Vote."
It is a simple fact that in order to try to save the democratic election process, we have to be willing to outwork, outthink and outsmart the hugely wealthy and influential plutocratic/theocratic/neocon Tea Partier's who now call themselves the Republican Party.
They are a fully owned and operated subsidiary of Multi-National Corporations who although they may be based in the United States, are globalized and don't really owe any allegiance to America or her people. These globalized entities have been planning a hostile takeover of this country for a long time; buying judges, and state/national congressional/senate members,etc.; as no doubt you already know.
Needless to say, if we don't get Democrats elected up and down the ticket, then climate change, women's/gay's rights, medical care, etc., etc, won't matter because all of those issues will be removed from democratic influence and fashioned into 'for profit' cash cows; the 99% and the planet, be damned. And Karl Rove's wet dream of a perpetual Republican Majority will be fact, rather than a night time fantasy.
Soooo, it behooves us to really try to keep on top of what threats there are to voting rights and do what we can to prevent them. It looks like a lot of attention is being paid to the state and local government issues and actions taken to court. Meteor Blades has kept our feet to the fire on several issues concerning problems with voting. And today has a Front Page Diary on The week in the War on Voting: Pennsylvania Supreme Court hears appeal in photo-ID ruling+.
But what about citizen's groups 'that just happen to have just sprung up?' The astroturf is not even being hidden anymore. We urgently need to turn our attention to them and their plans about wrecking havoc on election day. They plan to disrupt voting nationwide through spurious claims of 'voter fraud' with a huge army of rabid volunteers. How are we going to protect our voting rights nationwide from this onslaught?
Let me introduce you to True the Vote They are the front of the RW militants who are planning and being trained to discount votes in election process itself, according to their arbitrary rules and beliefs. This group has been present in a lot of the hotly contested election contests recently and although they have been cited for 'intimidation', they continue to operate with their 'might makes right' Modus Operandi.
They present themselves benignly as a 'nonpartisan group'.... (cough, cough, choke...) They base their whole machine on the 'truth' of 'voting fraud' and use the blatant lies and screeds from websites such as The Election Law Center which promotes and justifies their lies about voter fraud. This site blantantly plays the 'race card' by posting a picture entitled: "Black pastor uses lynching photo to help get out the vote"
"True the Vote" invites volunteers to
participate with True the Vote in a variety of ways – leading an effort in your county/area, working at the polls, registering new voters and helping in other efforts to ensure the accuracy of our elections. Are you ready to GET INVOLVED to ensure a Free and Fair Election?
(from their website.)
The founder, Catherine Engelbrecht is GOP, interviewed on Brietbart and celebrated on Red State and a Tea Partier. So, her credentials are hardly impartial.
Media Matters has been following the exploits of this group closely.
Fox Whitewashes Tea Party Group
The Houston Chronicle reported that True the Vote's poll watching also sparked a lawsuit from the Texas Democratic Party as well as an ethics complaint from the watchdog group Texans for Public Justice.
And a list of speakers at True the Vote's 2012 national summit -- which was held over the weekend -- reads like a Who's Who of voter fraud hucksters, including J. Christian Adams, Hans von Spokovsky, James O'Keefe, and John Fund. (Adams has also acknowledged serving as a lawyer for True the Vote.)
And while True the Vote bills itself as nonpartisan -- a point Carlson was sure to repeatedly mention -- it's worth noting what one speaker had to say at the organization's 2012 summit over the weekend: that President Obama is going to register the "food stamp army" in order to steal the election:
With the likes of James O'Keefe associated with this group, it is not surprising to hear and read of their shady intimidation tactics.
Another group has been interested in the intimidation plans/actions of "True the Vote" and gives a good history and analysis of this 'front' of the plutocrats. It is a goldmine about the background of this type of organizing of basically of what amounts to election intimidation by rabid RW storm troopers. It is a must read:
How the Right's Building a Poll Watcher Network for November
Bill Ouren, True the Vote’s national elections coordinator, is presenting before a group of about 50 recruits in Boca Raton, Fla. He stands beneath a banner bearing his organization’s name, alongside that of the Koch brothers’ SuperPAC Americans For Prosperity, and the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity’s “Citizen Watchdog,” a rightwing group that teaches people how to become “investigative” journalists. He’s telling the story of how True the Vote grew from a small posse in Harris County, Texas, in 2009, to a deployed army of over 1,000 poll watchers across most of the state the following year. Ouren brags that the 2010 recruits reported “over 800 individual incidences of voter … irregularities.”
Quite a distinguished Who's Who List of Plutocrats who are determined to take over this country are openly backing this group. And how does this group want our democratic elections to take place?
But while that might garner headlines, the group’s real focus is on policing the act of voting itself. As Ouren declared during the group’s national summit in April, and repeated again in Boca Raton, his recruits’ job is chiefly to make voters feel like they’re “driving and seeing the police following you.” He aims to recruit one million poll watchers around the country.
(my bold)
If that isn't voter intimidation, I don't know what is?
These alliances have helped expand True the Vote’s range of influence over election activities. Today it boasts having trainees in 35 states, people who’ll spot “irregularities” and chalk them up as “fraud” and then use that tally to justify new voting restrictions. As one strategy, the group buys voter rolls from states and counties, then disseminates the lists to thousands of largely unsupervised volunteers, who are urged to submit to election officials names from the rolls that may be improperly registered.
The group has involved itself in every high-stakes electoral drama this year, from the Wisconsin governor recall election to Florida’s controversial “non-citizen” purging. True the Vote now turns its attention to the main event this fall, gearing up for an Election Day showdown that its leaders hope will establish voter fraud, rather than voter suppression as a dire threat to democracy.
(my bold)
This group gets lists of registered voters in its counties and combs through the lists in an attempt to purge the lists. They have already been cited for intimidation at the actual polls, and do it all in the guise of whipping up paranoia about unsubstantiated 'voter fraud'. They are telling their minions that Obama and the Democrats and libruls are out to 'steal this election with voter fraud'. I am reminded that one of the favorite tactics of the Republican playbook is to blame the Democrats for exactly the thing that they are doing. Then they can be teflon when actual charges are made. (It is a great passive aggressive tactic for these chicken hawks.)
I cannot urge you strongly enough to read this article; it lays it all out there.
As I have commented elsewhere:
This is the closest the plutocracy has come to their hostile takeover of this country and they simply won't give up.
I am convinced that Romney could walk naked into the WTC memorial and piss on the pilings and the plutocrats would just yawn and keep on sending the money and spin this outrage in his favor.
They want a deregulated Libertarian utopia for the 1% and a theocratic feudalism for the rest of us. They will not give up, no matter what any poll says, what any pundit says, even what Romney, Ryan and Rand, Inc. say. And besides they have the gazillions of dollars to do absolutely anything to buy this corporation, the USof A.
The GREAT UNKNOWN that even Nate Silver can't predict, is just how the Rethuglicans will try to tamper the actual voting process through all forms of voter suppression/intimidation/false challenges/purging of voter roles, etc. etc. and then their favorite: tampering with the machines.
And now we know of one group that is actually training to do all those things! One huge group with huge funding behind them, who under the claim of 'voter fraud' intend to scare away voters and steal their vote.
If you don't think they have gotten this game plan well in hand at this point, then you have a short memory.
And to keep forefront in our minds: "IT AINT OVER, UNTIL ITS OVER"
However, I do not want to finish this diary merely giving you information, which after all is very important.
Rather, I want to ask:
1)Where are our Voting Monitors? Is there a Democratic Organization that is training their own Voting Monitors? (I know there are lawyers being trained, but by sheer dint of numbers we will need more.)
2) And most specifically, WE NEED TO TRAIN OUR ELECTION MONITORS TO REBUFF THE SHENANIGANS OF THIS STORM TROOPER GROUP
UPDATE:
Crashing Vor has some excellent suggestions to support, rather than prevent, the voting process in DIY Counter Voter Suppression. The action items are workable and doable by anyone with a desire to help. Please T&R his diary.
A second diary by War on Error, that must be T&R'd is GOP will try TO STEAL THE VOTE AGAIN - Details here. This diary makes it clear that unless we do something about the fraud with the voting machines we will likely lose. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. This is must reading. (Thanks to vahanna for link to this diary.)
UPDATE II:
(h/t to rugby mom for Brennan Center connection.)
The Brennan Center has an article on its Blog, Challengers Can Cause Headaches at the Polls,
While these legal skirmishes continue to play out publicly, another voting rights battle is brewing behind the scenes — one that will be fought by private citizens rather than political parties or politicians. Independent groups in dozens of states are gearing up to recruit poll-watchers, remove voters from the rolls, and challenge voters at the polls. One such group, a Houston-based organization called True the Vote, has announced its plan to recruit 1 million poll-watchers nationally for the November election. Smaller groups have already challenged hundreds of voters in North Carolina and Maryland this summer and are poised to undertake similar efforts — particularly in swing states — in the coming weeks.
To do this, the groups will rely on antiquated state laws, known as “challenger laws,” that allow private citizens to contest the eligibility of individual voters, either on or before Election Day. Challenges are typically based on allegations that a particular voter lacks some requisite voting qualification, such as citizenship or precinct residency. Although these laws have been around for centuries, political operatives have relied on them with greater frequency in recent elections.
.....
States can and should protect against frivolous challenges by requiring challengers to substantiate their allegations with reliable evidence. In addition, states should require that all challenges be filed before Election Day — rather than at the polls — to ensure that election officials have enough time to verify every challenge they receive. Allowing challengers inside the polls often causes delays, distracts election officials, and leads to crowding and confusion on Election Day — which is why Texas, Ohio, and Alabama have all recently banned citizen challenges at the polls.
A potential action item from reading this is to flood our representatives with the demand that they:
1) Repeal Challenger Laws
2) Require Substantiation for Each Challenge
3) Require that Challenges take place before Voting Day
That seems like a good action plan to me.
What do you think?
UPDATE III:
(h/t to wdrath for Rachel Maddow's video on 'True The Vote's' actions:
Rachel Maddow Calls Out Ohio Poll Watching Efforts
From her blog:
The team over at MSNBC has been closely monitoring the state of Ohio and efforts there to suppress the vote. In this segment, Maddow calls the group True The Vote on the carpet for their plans to “poll watch” on election day — a tactic of intimidation and fear against minority voters.
Check out the segment and what looks to be a massive effort to scare voters this November. This is a damn mess!
Rachel does it like no one else can! Awesome!
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