Restrictive and disenfranchising laws for Photo ID requirements at the polls are being pushed all over the country as part of a nationally orchestrated GOP scam that’s been underway since at least the first few hours after the 2004 Election.
(For more details, see this series of BRAD BLOG articles exposing the phony GOP front group at the epicenter of this national effort. They are the “non-partisan” and ironically-named “American Center for Voting Rights”. We discovered their onerous, ongoing scam early in their attempt to pull off this nationwide hoax with the direct aid and comfort of now-disgraced Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio, and others even higher-up in the GOP.)
This week, news on the Photo ID scam front from Georgia, Arizona and Missouri, where the laws have been repeatedly struck down by courts as blatantly unconstitutional. Yet the democracy-haters in favor of these laws continue to leverage big-time GOP resources in their never-ending search for legal forums with friendly judges. If that doesn’t work, as in Georgia, they’re prepared to use the laws anyway, even if they’ve already been ordered not to.
The Associated Press is reporting that voters in Georgia have received letters stating they must show a photo ID to cast a ballot on Nov. 7th. In fact, that letter is wrong and the courts found it was wrong before many of the letters went into the mail…
ATLANTA (AP) – Tens of thousands of Georgia voters recently received letters telling them they must show a photo ID to cast a ballot Nov. 7 – a message some fear will create confusion on Election Day, since a judge recently struck down the requirement. The State Board of Elections mailed more than 300,000 of the letters – about 20,000 of them after the judge issued his ruling Sept. 19.
It should be noted that Georgia’s disenfranchising Photo ID laws have now been struck down several times by Federal Courts, and the democracy-loathing sponsors in the Georgia legislature have so far been unable to produce any examples of the Voter Fraud that would have been prevented by their legislation.
As with all such cynical Photo ID laws for voting, no form of identification is needed for absentee or military voters, who historically trend heavily Republican. Examples of Voter Fraud via absentee voting are far more prevalent than voter fraud at the polling place. Of course, in both cases, the number of actual cases of Voter Fraud is far exceeded by the number of voters disenfranchised via faulty voting machines, purges of registration rolls and unequal distrubution of polling places and voting equipment. So far, the Republicans who have pushed their phony efforts at “reform” through Photo ID restrictions — which research has shown to mainly affect minority and elderly (read: Democratic) voters — have done nothing to solve the real problems voters face in having their ballots cast and counted as intended.
Meanwhile, in Arizona, the democracy-hating Secretary of State Jan Brewer is facing defeat as well, as her attempts at keeping voters away from the polls this year have encountered legal obstacles. From Reuters on Friday…
…
The Arizona Attorney General’s Office said it would seek an immediate review of the ruling and would take it to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary in coming days.
Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer said the ruling could lead to “extreme confusion” on polling day.
Brewer will likely encourage such “extreme confusion” by sending a letter to voters similar to the one uncovered in Georgia. Regular BRAD BLOG readers will remember Brewer as the Republican Secretary of State who called election integrity advocates “conspiracy theorists” and “anarchists” for demonstrating against her approval of hackable Diebold touch-screen voting systems in the state.
That’s funny — we call them patriots.
On Wednesday, the Missouri Supreme Court heard opening arguments in a suit to stop that state from using their repressive and disenfranchising voter ID law in November. According to The Maneater, two parts of the state’s voter ID law, which was overturned in a lower court last month, were also argued.
Those opposing the law argue that it indirectly enacts a poll tax because in order to receive a birth certificate, which is necessary to be issued a state ID, a person must pay roughly $15.
The second part of the law that was deemed unconstitutional by the lower court related to violations of the Hancock Amendment, which relates to taxation and spending. The lower court specifically cited, as a violation, the creation of an unfunded mandate due to the authorization of more provisional balloting, which would cause additional costs for increased production and processing of provisional ballots without providing for the costs.
Additional Reporting by John Gideon.
From an article in the new (November issue. p. 33) Atlantic magazine:
(snip)
“The National Election Pool–the outfit that runs the exit polls–has made one useful concession to reality and set out to stop leaks from racing across the Web, hitting upon an ingeniously low-tech solution to a high-tech problem. This year the pollsters will be placed in a ‘quarantine room’ and stripped of cell phones, pagers, Internet access, and other means of outside communication. They won’t be allowed back into the electronic real world until many hours later.”
(snip)
So, don’t be counting on exit poll results to tell us whether the elections were hacked. Before you see the exit poll results, the data will be massaged until they match the ‘official’ tallies.
OT.
North Korea Conducts Nuke Test
are ya feeling safa ?
UNIREALIST,.. Comment # 1,..
You got that right,..
if we get bogus exit polls,.. and they are able to fudge those figures at will without our knowledge. Then they can readily fudge the vote tabulations coming from the electronic voting machines.
In the absence of honest bonafied exit poll data they are at the liberty to steal the election,.. without having left foot prints indicating there was a theft.
These fascists will employ every trick from the Rove – Hijack The Election Book.
Kinda like a free speech zone for pollsters, eh Uni ?
Look when I said the same thing here
We’re getting pretty good at this stuff, or they’re getting more transparent
http://www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/...x?Section=1774
Ohio voters are now required to provide proof of identity before voting. The form of identification that you may use includes your current and valid state-issued photo identification card, military identification, copy of utility bill, bank statement, paycheck, government check, or government document showing your name and current address. (Note: You cannot use as proof of identification a notice that the board of elections mailed to you.) If you do not have, or fail or refuse to provide, the required proof of identity, you may cast a provisional ballot.
R.C. 3503.28(A)(1)(6)
Voters must bring identification to the polls in order to verify identity. Identification may include a current and valid photo identification, a military identification that shows the voter’s name and current address, or a copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document, other than a reminder or a voter registration notification, that shows the voter’s name and current address. Voters who do not provide one of these documents will still be able to vote by providing the last four digits of the voter’s social security number and by casting a provisional ballot.
Voters who do not have any of the above forms of identification, including a social security number, will still be able to vote by signing an affirmation swearing to the voter’s identity under penalty of election falsification and by casting a provisional ballot.
(The above requirement is effective June 1, 2006)
If George Soros had ANY brains at all he would put up the $5,000,000 necessary to have fair and impartial exit polling done in every single congressional district in America — EVERY SINGLE ONE!
And all the data staight to a farm of web servers putting it out to the world.
With the soundtrack “the whole world is watching” playing under the display of the data.
But, alas, capital is capital and power is power, so we are going to get screwed again. And when it is all over, the mainstream media is going to screw us over one more time by telling us all those “Republican upsets” were totally legitimate.
Shouldn’t results in precincts where they demand photo IDs be immediately challenged in courts?
Those votes should be tossed out, forcing a new election.
Get Ready for Another Stolen Election
Polls showing a Democratic landslide assume a fraud-free election.
Will the GOP steal the election again?
Does Diebold switch votes?
Can there be any doubt?
The Repugs have stolen the last three elections.
It’s the only way they can win.
Bush and Cheney are confident that they will retain the House and Senate.
Why?
They have the means: The DREs are certified to be hacked.
They have the motive: They fear Democratic investigations into 9/11, Iraq, torture, warrantless spying, the outing of Valerie Plame, etc….
They have the opportunity: The Dems who could have done something about HAVA are still drinking DLC kool-aid.
Here is the trend in Generic House of Representative Congressional polls over the past 12 months:
http://www.progressiveindepende...8;mesg_id=3213
unirealist #1
I knew it!
In 2004, they worked on making sure the final count discrepancy was JUST large enough to prevent recounts, and this time they have to make to exit polls coincide with the voting results.
“Have I said today how much I hate these people?”
~Mike Malloy
by Charlie L
Sorry to be a buzzkill, Charlie but do you really think this billionaire, Soros, is stupid? He knows exactly, his role as Left Gatekeeper.
Do something but never enough. Never anything that truly challenges the system. In classic reformist style, he does some things but never enough to truly change things or satisfy the people. Thus he keeps his fans always clamoring for him to stop being ‘stupid’ and do more.
Gimme a break.
He’s obviously a part of the MoveOn-DFA-PDA gatekeeper crowd that exist to make sure that while serious change never happens enough change does happen that we don’t lose faith in the system and scrap the whole thing.
Regarding the GA letters, they are now talking about sending correction letters out to people, adding to the confusion.
And if the letters themselves weren’t enough, they took the scattershot approach in sending them. Anyone who had a name that resembled someone in the dbase they thought didn’t have a valid ID, got a letter. I’ve talked to people that have had valid ID for a decade that got the letter saying they might not be able to vote.
Intentional confusion by the Georgia State Board of Elections which is populated by five people, four of whom are Republicans.