Hold Back the Vote
We've come to that point in an election campaign where the emphasis is on getting out the vote. Workers are manning phone banks and walking precincts in order to convince their candidate's supporters to actually show up at the polls next Tuesday. Well, at least that's what traditionally happens. Republicans have a different tactic. Many of them are busy finding ways to keep people from voting.
Voter suppression is certainly nothing new, but the Republicans are currently relying on it as never before. Voter rolls in Florida and Ohio have been unilaterally purged by Republicans. The Georgia legislature, controlled by the GOP, passed a voter ID bill that has been found unconstitutional by two courts so far. A Republican candidate for Congress in California sent out a letter to Spanish surnamed voters in the district implying that no immigrants were entitled to vote.
Now comes word that a Republican Party lawyer is challenging voter registrations in a New York just a week or so before the election. From an editorial in today's NY Times:
One of the most deplorable political tactics — trying to suppress the votes of poor or minority citizens by raising the specter of voter fraud — is playing out this week in the city of Yonkers. Republican Party lawyers are calling for an 11th-hour purge of voter rolls in a clear effort to help their endangered state senator, Nicholas Spano.
...last Friday, Republican lawyers filed challenges to nearly 6,000 voter registrations in the Senate district, charging discrepancies between county voter lists and change-of-address records compiled by the Postal Service.
There is a process for investigating an accusation of voter fraud. It involves sending a letter to an address in dispute, and possibly following up with a police inquiry. The Westchester County Board of Elections is doing that. But it has never had an outside party dump so many contested names so close to such a fiercely contested election.
No citizen wants the election tainted with fraud. Every citizen who actually votes wants that vote to count and not be offset by an illegal one, but the cynical tactic of voter suppression is shameful.
Apparently it's the only tool left for the Republicans. Running on their records doesn't seem to be working.
Voter suppression is certainly nothing new, but the Republicans are currently relying on it as never before. Voter rolls in Florida and Ohio have been unilaterally purged by Republicans. The Georgia legislature, controlled by the GOP, passed a voter ID bill that has been found unconstitutional by two courts so far. A Republican candidate for Congress in California sent out a letter to Spanish surnamed voters in the district implying that no immigrants were entitled to vote.
Now comes word that a Republican Party lawyer is challenging voter registrations in a New York just a week or so before the election. From an editorial in today's NY Times:
One of the most deplorable political tactics — trying to suppress the votes of poor or minority citizens by raising the specter of voter fraud — is playing out this week in the city of Yonkers. Republican Party lawyers are calling for an 11th-hour purge of voter rolls in a clear effort to help their endangered state senator, Nicholas Spano.
...last Friday, Republican lawyers filed challenges to nearly 6,000 voter registrations in the Senate district, charging discrepancies between county voter lists and change-of-address records compiled by the Postal Service.
There is a process for investigating an accusation of voter fraud. It involves sending a letter to an address in dispute, and possibly following up with a police inquiry. The Westchester County Board of Elections is doing that. But it has never had an outside party dump so many contested names so close to such a fiercely contested election.
No citizen wants the election tainted with fraud. Every citizen who actually votes wants that vote to count and not be offset by an illegal one, but the cynical tactic of voter suppression is shameful.
Apparently it's the only tool left for the Republicans. Running on their records doesn't seem to be working.
Labels: Election 2006, vote suppression, Voter Fraud
posted by Diane at 4:01 AM
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