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Stacking the deck for 2008? - Voter Disenfranchisment and the new FEC

by roxy317

Sun Sep 30, 2007 at 05:43:45 PM EST

As ePluribus Media has reported previously, there are serious problems with protecting our elections process. Voter caging, a tactic covered by ePluribus Media in Voter Caging: Is this Tool still in the RNC Arsenal? has now become a publically funded state law in Ohio. The process of caging is thoroughly explained in Voter Suppression, an indepth piece by Mark Johnston.

"Caging" is a method of voter suppression in which first-class mail is sent to registered voters to confirm their addresses. If the letter is returned to the sender, the name and address on the returned mail is entered into a database known as "caging list."

McClatchy Washington Bureau reports:

In Ohio, which swung the 2004 election to Bush, new Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said in a phone interview that an election law passed last year and signed by former Republican Gov. Bob Taft effectively "institutionalized" vote caging. [emphasis mine]

The law requires that the state's 88 county election boards send non-forwardable, pre-election notices to all 7.8 million registered Ohio voters at least 60 days before the election. Undelivered letters are public record, she said, meaning that effectively, "now the counties are paying for" the data needed to compile challenge lists.

Under the present administration, the dirty tricks used to disenfranchise voters have been taken to new levels and -- as evidenced by the new law in Ohio -- they are finding "cagey" new ways to do it.

commentary :: :: :: buzz-it!

We had high hopes in November 2006, with a newly elected Democratic majority. Surely the runaway train of destruction would at least be slowed down, at best be drawn to a screeching stop. But it seems the Democratic majority is not any closer to effecting change -- or disaffecting change -- than they were when they were the minority party.

Again from Greg Gordon at McClatchy:

Over the last three years, the Republican-controlled state legislatures in Indiana, Georgia, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have passed laws requiring every voter to produce a photo identification card — measures that civil rights groups contend were aimed at suppressing minority voting.

It is under the auspices of the Voting Rights Section, led by John Tanner, that "preclearance" is given for implementation of a Voter ID Law. In Resurrecting Jim Crow, ePluribus Staff Writers report:

Tanner's memo, supposedly representing the analysis of the Voting Section, went against the recommendations of four of the five attorneys and analysts to provide "preclearance" or approval for the State of Georgia to institute the new voter ID law. Toby Moore, former Voting Section political geographer, told McClatchy last month that Tanner "doctored the memo ... reversing many of our findings."

Missouri, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have had their ID laws overturned, and the Supreme Court has agreed to hear argument on the Indiana law, but the Georgia law was upheld by the Governor and Florida has passed to two new laws that will undoubtedly disenfranchise many voters.

The passage of ID laws are "wins" for people like von Spakovsky and his ilk, but are losses for the poor and elderly. von Spakovsky was

[...] instrumental in again overriding the recommendations of career professional staffers, who believed the laws illegally discriminatory, and approving photo ID laws in Georgia and Arizona.

The most recent loss in the Voting Rights arena has been the soon-to-be-confirmation of Hans von Spakovsky to the FEC -- a man, well-known for his efforts to strangle voting rights. As standingup pointed out yesterday in Give 'Em Hell Harry or Dirty Harry? Make Hans Von Spakovsky's Day "Will we ever hear from Reid or will his actions continue to speak for him?"

I will close with a quote from Doug Larson: