SURELY ONE OF THE CONSTRUCTIVE AND STATESMANLIKE PROGRAMS being carried out by the Republican Party of the United States today is its effort to guarantee that our elections are free from the taint of “politics.” Wherever one travels, north, south, east or west, one encounters the strong hand of the GOP insuring against fraud, tightening registration, reducing voting days and hours and insuring in whatever way possible that voting is limited to those capable of grasping the vital importance of electing Republicans to govern our precious land. It is surely heartwarming to observe the diligence with which this process is being carried out. Following are several bulletins from the voting front.
I open with excerpts from this New York Times piece, “New G.O.P. Bid to Limit Voting in Swing States,” by Steven Yaccino and Lizette Alvarez, March 29:
“Pivotal swing states under Republican control are embracing significant new electoral restrictions on registering and voting that go beyond the voter identification requirements that have caused fierce partisan brawls.
“The bills, laws and administrative rules — some of them tried before — shake up fundamental components of state election systems, including the days and times polls are open and the locations where people vote.
“Republicans in Ohio and Wisconsin this winter pushed through measures limiting the time polls are open, in particular cutting into weekend voting favored by low-income voters and blacks, who sometimes caravan from churches to polls on the Sunday before election.
“Democrats in North Carolina are scrambling to fight back against the nation’s most restrictive voting laws, passed by Republicans there last year. The measures, taken together, sharply reduce the number of early voting days and establish rules that make it more difficult for people to register to vote, cast provisional ballots or, in a few cases, vote absentee.
“In all, nine states have passed measures making it harder to vote since the beginning of 2013. Most have to do with voter ID laws. Other states are considering mandating proof of citizenship, like a birth certificate or a passport, after a federal court judge recently upheld such laws passed in Arizona and Kansas. Because many poor people do not have either and because documents can take time and money to obtain, Democrats say the ruling makes it far more difficult for people to register.”
Republicans, of course, note that these arguments clearly have no validity and are simply efforts to make it easy to vote for Democrats, a purely political tactic which has no place in honest politics. Alex M. Triantafilou, the chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party in Ohio, wisely observed, “We think they’re stoking these things for political gain.” Unbelievable!
North Carolina led the way in this drive to purity and politically free elections with the country’s most sweeping restrictions on voting. “The law did away with same-day voter registration and a popular program to preregister high school students to vote. It cut early voting to 10 days from 17, mandated a strict photo identification requirement that excluded student and state worker IDs and ended straight-ticket party voting, all of them measures that are expected to hurt Democrats, election law analysts said.
“The Supreme Court decision (freeing up states to set their own rules) also cleared the way for Texas to institute its strict photo identification requirements.”
In statements, clearly partisan, by Democrats, citing the absence of evidence documenting organized fraud in Ohio, critics said the moves would lead to even longer lines in urban districts already plagued by them.
“‘They know when they are taking away early voting exactly who it’s affecting,’ said Ed FitzGerald, the executive of Cuyahoga County and a Democratic candidate for governor.”
But while it may be wrong, undemocratic and a few other unsavory things, one is forced to admit it is right out in the open. It’s honesty — GOP style!
For another view we go to “The GOP’s new voting laws are nothing less than a war on democracy,” subtitled, “The Grand Old Party has all but admitted that it no longer represents America’s ‘silent majority,’” by Damon Linker of The Week, April 1:
“Allow me to provide a handy summary: Having spent the last several years trumping up unsubstantiated charges of voter fraud in order to justify new laws and regulations making it more burdensome to vote in poor and minority (read: Democratic-leaning) districts around the country, the Republican Party has now changed tactics. In the name of enforcing the ‘uniformity’ of voting rules, Republican governors and legislatures in a number of swing states have begun to increase the obstacles to voting still further. Some states are requiring that would-be voters show birth certificates or passports (which many poor people don’t possess), while others are curtailing the days, times, and places available to vote (which is particularly onerous for poor people who have little workplace flexibility and often lack transportation).
“Let’s leave aside the spectacle of Republicans, usually our most fulsome champions of local control, suddenly banging on about the need for statewide uniformity in voting rules.
“What’s far more noteworthy (and frankly pathetic) about these moves is that they’re a tacit acknowledgement by the Republican Party that it’s in dire demographic straits — and that one of the key pillars of its ideology over the last half-century is crumbling right before our eyes.”
I conclude with the report of a stunning setback to the noble GOP drive to guarantee the right kind of voters to guide our destiny. A federal judge recently struck down Wisconsin’s voter ID law, as reported by Dinesh Ramde of the Associated Press (“Federal Judge Strikes Down Wisconsin Voter ID,” April 29):
“A federal judge struck down Wisconsin’s voter identification law Tuesday, declaring that a requirement that voters show a state-issued photo ID at the polls imposes an unfair burden on poor and minority voters.
“U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman sided with opponents of the law, who argued that low-income and minority voters aren’t as likely to have photo IDs or the documents needed to get them. Adelman said the law violated the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection. He also said the law appeared too flawed to fix with legislative amendments.
“Adelman’s decision invalidates Wisconsin’s law and means voter ID likely won’t be in place for the fall elections, when Republican Gov. Scott Walker faces re-election. While Walker committed last month to calling a special legislative session if the law were struck down in court, his spokeswoman wouldn’t commit to that Tuesday.
“‘We believe the voter ID law is constitutional and will ultimately be upheld,’ Walker spokeswoman Laurel Patrick said in an email. ‘We’re reviewing the decision for any potential action.’
“The ruling could set a precedent for similar legal challenges in Texas, North Carolina and elsewhere. There are 31 states with laws in effect requiring voters to show some form of identification, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Seven states have strict photo ID requirements similar to the one a state judge struck down in Arkansas last week; that decision has been appealed to the Arkansas Supreme Court. Pennsylvania’s voter ID law has been put on hold because of court challenges.”
In short, should this ruling stand, the whole voter ID scam, so beloved of the GOP, would collapse. We can be very, very certain that every legal scholar available to the Republican Party will be put to work immediately, seven days a week, two shifts a day, prepared to carry this issue to the Supreme Court if necessary. If there is one principle sacred to the Republican Party, it is that democracy entails governance of the many by whatever few can stack the deck with the assistance of virtually limitless funding. On this principal the current version of the Grand Old Party stands firm. (It was not always so!)
And so it goes on just one more day in the life of a republic seeking to clarify just exactly what those revered founders had in mind when they cranked up the Constitution.
Jerome Page is a Benicia resident.
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Interesting article…although Fresh Approach might be a bit off. More like a resuscitated approach to democracy because these laws, for all intents and purposes, bring back a lot of Jim Crow, couched in a specious “let’s avoid fraud” excuse. I suppose the next step will be for these states to impose a requirement that minority voters recite parts of the US Constitution which was, horribly, part of these same states’ voting histories. We are losing our democracy surely as we allow money – in many cases in the form of ALEC-backed initiatives which some of these are – to determine where we go as a country. Anyone want to revisit a history of the fall of Rome?
Beyond the GOP bashing—
A deeper more profound look at our …”fresh approach to Democracy.”
From the article below more information for Mr. Page and the community to consider…
“The goals of corporate capitalism are increasingly indistinguishable from the goals of the state. The political and economic systems are subservient to corporate profit. Debate between conventional liberals and conservatives has been replaced by empty political theater and spectacle. Corporations, no matter which politicians are in office, loot the Treasury, escape taxation, push down wages, break unions, dismantle civil society, gut regulation and legal oversight, control information, prosecute endless war and dismantle public institutions and programs that include schools, welfare and Social Security. And elected officials, enriched through our form of legalized corporate bribery, have no intention of halting the process.”
“The government, by ignoring the rights and needs of ordinary citizens, is jeopardizing its legitimacy. This is dangerous. When a citizenry no longer feels that it can find justice within the organs of power, when it feels that the organs of power are the enemies of freedom and economic advancement, it makes war on those organs. Those of us who are condemned as radicals, idealists and dreamers call for basic reforms that, if enacted, will make peaceful reform possible. But corporate capitalists, now unchecked by state power and dismissive of the popular will, do not see the fires they are igniting. The Supreme Court ruling on our challenge is one more signpost on the road to dystopia.”
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/05/05-0
Beyond the GOP bashing— Save the Internet!
A deeper more profound look at our …”fresh approach to Democracy.”
From the article below more information for Mr. Page and the community to consider…
“When President Obama ran for office, his position was the opposite of what is now being proposed by the FCC Chairman. In April 2008 during his presidential campaign, Barack Obama took the side of the people saying:
The most important thing we can probably do is to preserve the diversity that’s emerging through the Internet…something called net neutrality. I will take a backseat to no one in my commitment to network neutrality.”
“Every current member of the FCC was appointed by Obama and confirmed by the Democratic Party controlled senate. This is Obama’s FCC.”
“When President Obama appointed Thomas Wheeler as the Chair of the FCC, it was a signal that his administration was taking the free and open Internet into a tiered Internet that favors the wealthy. Many in the Internet freedom community expressed deep concerns about the appointment but were ignored by the Democratic-controlled Senate that confirmed Wheeler.”
http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/05/save-the-internet/#more-54018
I agree Will, that’s why I defend the 2nd amendment.
Steven Yaccino and Lizette Alvarez of the NY Times make the following statement, as appears in the piece:
weekend voting favored by low-income voters and blacks, who sometimes caravan from churches to polls on the Sunday before election.
This practice, a violation of the law long tolerated; By Democrats because they get the majority of the votes from these Church sanctioned voting drives and by Republicans, because if they, object or try to enforce the law, we will hear the same old cries of racism.
I would venture to say that Mr. Page seems to not have no objection to these illegal actions, as he is quoting the Times in support of his position.
If I am mistaken on the apparent condoning of illegal voting activity by these churches, I do hope Mr. Page will correct the record.
Churches and Political Campaign Activity
In order to remain tax-exempt under 501(c)(3), churches must abide by strict guidelines that prohibit election activity.
Steven Yaccino and Lizette Alvarez of the NY Times make the following statement, as appears in the piece:
weekend voting favored by low-income voters and blacks, who sometimes caravan from churches to polls on the Sunday before election.
This practice, a long tolerated violation of the law, benefits Democrats because they get the majority of the votes from Church sanctioned voting drives and by Republicans, because if they, object or try to enforce the law, we will hear the same old cries of racism.
I would venture to say that Mr. Page seems to not have any objection to these illegal actions, as he is quoting the Times in support of his position.
If I am mistaken on the apparent condoning of illegal voting activity by these churches, I do hope Mr. Page will correct the record.
Churches and Political Campaign Activity
In order to remain tax-exempt under 501(c)(3), churches must abide by strict guidelines that prohibit election activity.
IRS investigating churches? Never gonna happen. And if it did, and was fairly administered, your side would be the first to squawk because that shit would cut you deeply.
The first posting contains an error, which is corrected in the second post.
Both postings contain errors in discernment and morality.
Perhaps Obama can issue an ‘Executive Order’ banishing all Republicans to Mexico. There by eliminating all bothersome political disagreement while at last deporting someone across the southern border. Unfortunately, I fear that such an action would leave Jerome void of topics on which to ‘Bloviate’.
“while at last deporting someone across the southern border.”
Obama has never deported anyone across the southern border?? I’ve been reading the wrong news sources.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/04/wisconsin_s_voter_id_decision_judge_lynn_adelman_destroys_the_conservative.html
The key word I think is “eviscerates.” Though we all — all of us, even the so-called conservatives, perhaps especially them — know there was never any validity to cries of vote fraud in the first place.
See also: the recent decision in Arkansas.
Mr. PAGE has now set the standards and we are all free to do as we -please, without any proper ID. I will proceed to the bank now and ask for that credit card that I assume Mr. Page says is your right. Just give then Mr. Pages name and it will be OK. Many other things these folks that Mr. Page is talking about will also now be available to them. Enter a federal building, board an airplane and many other things that require an ID. Mr. Page I am so glad you have cleared this ALL up. Next time someone asks me for a photo ID I will say no because Mr. Page says I do not need one. I do believe Mr. Page there will be a stampede now for all these folks to get credit cards and board a plane without proper ID. Strange world you live in Mr. Page.
Reductio ad absurdum much?
Washington Times: North Carolina answers Democrats’ question ‘What vote fraud?’
N.C. proves multiple voting occurs and dead cast ballots
Kim Strach, the North Carolina director of elections, has living proof …She has identified 35,750 persons who voted in North Carolina sharing a name and birth date with someone who voted in another state in 2012.
Fraudulent ballots cast cancel valid votes, but only a tiny fraction of 1 percent of the cases cited in the North Carolina audit were referred for investigation and prosecution
————
Both parties jeer embrace of fraudulent voter
Melowese Richardson… a Democrat, was convicted of voter fraud after using her position as poll worker to vote more than once (8 times) in the 2012 presidential election. She got a five year prison term, but was released earlier this month after local Democratic activists pressed for a fairer term.
Richardson was among the more than 400 at Word of Deliverance Church in Forest Park when Cincinnati National Action Network President Bobby Hilton called her on stage for a “welcome home.”
(Note: Richardson was a long time poll worker and some Democrats celebrated her as a hero!)
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/28/republicans-admit-voter-id-laws-are-aimed-at-democratic-voters.html
Don’t worry, I have no plans to stop. Got lots more truth that you can’t handle.
Of course Dennis would be ingesting falsehoods from the right and taking them as gospel …
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/voter-fraud-north-carolina-not-so-fast-0
Three strikes your out at the ole ball game. You just went down swinging. HH. Please keep up the comments we all need a little fun in our life and you do make me laugh..
You got nothing. Once again.
Fraud: Local NBC Investigation Discovers Dozens of Illegal Voters in Florida
watchdog group True the Vote — whose founder’s businesses and family have been harassed by the IRS and other federal agencies — documents voter fraud prosecutions in 46 states since 2000.
NBC’s local affiliate in Ft. Myers, Florida. WBBH-TV reporter Andy Pierrotti managed to track down dozens of local residents who were (a) both non-US citizens and (b) registered to vote in the swing state. Many of them had illegally voted in recent elections.
Now Dennis you know you cannot call out the Liberals with facts. We all know ,that facts are all provided by MSNBC and CNN. I am very surprised that you even dangle facts in front of the local Liberals. They will not believe facts unless Mr. Page presents them and other Liberals.. Just watch the local Liberals come back at you. You know who they are. The ones that do not have a drivers licence, board air-planes or evern have credit cars all because Mr. Page says it is not necessary to have proper ID. I guess it is just a Liberal thing to not have proper ID. Oh well, lets see how they get along in life without a proper ID.
You apparently don’t know many libertarians. They wouldn’t be so quick to mock your absurd examples.
I like NBC
http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/11/13236464-new-database-of-us-voter-fraud-finds-no-evidence-that-photo-id-laws-are-needed
What is the big deal with showing an ID to vote? Why is this such a hardship? Someone is going to have to explain to me ow this is vote repression.
You need to show an ID to do the following:
Use a credit card for purchasing items.
Buy alcohol.
Sign up for a utility.
Drive a car.
Board an airplane.
Get a passport.
Register for public school.
Sign up for Little League.
Bring refuse to a municipal dump.
Are all these activities racist?
Voter fraud does happen. We can debate the levels, but so what? Shouldn’t we protect our most sacred right as citizens?
Showing a drivers license to vote is no big deal. What are you guys so afraid of?
You are so misinformed it is pointless to try to educate you. At any rate you are like DDL a known tribalist who will never accept the error of your beliefs.
Well HH please try to educate us. Now is your chance to make a meaningful comment. You never know HH some might just like what you are saying. HH help us correct the errors of our beliefs. A strong erxpklaination from you and not another source, you know HH just your own words and beliefs. Looking forward to your beliefs for all to see with an explanation
No thanks. You are too set in your ignorant ways. Life is too short to stress the stupidity of the Dennis Lunds of the world. It’s enough for me to let you know there are those of us who see through your tribalistic bullshit, and who will fight you every day in every way until our last breath — or better yet yours.
H H I do not wish anyone to have a last breath. We know it will come at some time. I will not take part in your name calling efforts on me and others. We do not agree and that is fine with me. But at the same time I see no solutions from you only name calling of others that do not agree with you. Just ADD some solutions instead of singing the same song that it does not exist. You have shown no proof other wise. That is all I am asking. Name calling of folks that do not agree with you does not answer the questions on these issues that we all go back and forth on..
As you say, we all take a last breath. Then you say you don’t wish for anyone to take a last breath. i honestly can’t follow you.
And my comment was about fighting your politics, nothing more. Why are conservatives so damned sensitive?
Your comment completly erxplains your position and feelings toward folks that do not agree with you. Voter ID is well and alive. By the way the Liberals are going to ge hammered in 20`14. Please H H do not give me that California stuff. Love California but at present they are on the losing side.
I cannot believe you are trying to make the point there is no voter fraud. Identification theft is rampant. Thieves steal ID freely … Not only to steal money, but just as easily can steal votes. I have been subject to voter fraud myself … Showed up to the booth only to be told I voted via mail. Someone took a letter or my name and address and used it to vote. Easy. I reported it. Nothing happened. This goes on every election. Again, why not positively identify a person when voting? It is so easy. And it is a safe method. No hardship at all.
It seems you are more interested in protecting fraudulent behavior then protecting a sacred democratic right.
How would requiring IDs at polling places prevent your (likely fictitious) vote-by-mail fraud scenario?
Mr. Harrison …. You state there is no voter fraud. Nada. Zip. I just showed you one example of voter fraud. It happened. So … Let me ask you this … What is so difficult about showing an ID to vote? Why are you so hostile, defensive, and obviously emotionally scared to show an ID? What is it about proving a correct identity of a person at a voting place that terrifies you?
Getting caught.
To paraphrase Shakespeare : me thinks thou does protest too much.
Matter,
Don’t forget, you also needed a photo ID to enter the Mass. Democratic Convention.’
http://www.massdems.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/C2C-To-upload1.pdf
(see page 14)
I guess that makes the dems racists.
As usual a perfectly bad comparison. Not even apples and oranges — apples and Thursday. You seem to take delight in perceived hypocrisy but you are both bad at actually identifying and understanding it and blind to its glaring existence on the right.
OK, no ID let’s just dip our finger in an inkwell.
works for me!
Cool, How bout you Hank? One dip , One vote
Works for me too. It would keep Republicans from disenfranchising millions to stop a problem that doesn’t exist.