Voter fraud: a rarity only in the fantasies of the far left

[Zevico]

Yes, when one party pushes to do something that the other party strenuously objects to because they see it as a ridiculous witch-hunt intended to provide them with ammunition to pass voter suppression laws, it is generally seen as partisan.

This is exactly the kind of fantasy I referred to in the thread title.

[kentonio]

This is exactly the kind of fantasy I referred to in the thread title.

So calling partisan game playing partisan is now fantasy? I guess the old joke about Australia being the continent where everything is upside down isn't really so far from the mark after all..

[Zevico]

ammunition to pass voter suppression laws, it is generally seen as partisan.

Find me a voter suppression law called for by any side of politics in the United States.

I guess the old joke about Australia being the continent where everything is upside down isn't really so far from the mark after all..

Wow. A joke about things being upside down in Australia? Have a medal mate. In fact, have two.

[kentonio]

Find me a voter suppression law called for by any side of politics in the United States.

Yes, I'll certainly spend my time linking you to the dozens of republican sponsored voter suppression bills, just so you can turn around and insist they are not intended to suppress the vote. That would surely be a wonderful use of my time.

[regexcellent]

lol kentonio it never ceases to amaze me that someone with basically zero connection to the United States can feel so involved in partisan politics here.

[Dinner]

If he doesn't know about the Republican Party's very, very long history of voter suppression in the US then he just doesn't want to know. There is a ton of information out there and it has been covered to death by the media for the last half century as have their recent voter suppression efforts.

[Dinner]

lol kentonio it never ceases to amaze me that someone with basically zero connection to the United States can feel so involved in partisan politics here.

You could say the same thing about Zevico as he lives in Australia and makes threads like this one. Ken just responds to obvious BS while Zev goes out of his way to make BS threads in support of American neo-con **** all the time.

[regexcellent]

Yes, that's true too.

[Zevico]

If he doesn't know about the Republican Party's very, very long history of voter suppression in the US then he just doesn't want to know. There is a ton of information out there and it has been covered to death by the media for the last half century as have their recent voter suppression efforts.

Silly assumptions about a person from Australia who may not have a clue what you're talking about.

Reminds me of the articles on how an Aussie comedy show putting on black facepaint for a skit show was racist. Memo: Australians live halfway accross the world and do not know everything there is to know about American politics. What is offensive in the Deep South is not offensive to Australians.

Point being, we just don't have that shared base of cultural-historical knowledge you assume we have. Sure, I've watched tons of American tv shows and I know that American tv writers despise Republicans. But that doesn't establish much.

Yes, I've read a few books on American history--which happened to document rampant voter fraud by Democrats in the Deep South during Jim Crow and Tammany Hall, by the way, along with Democrats like FDR who cleaned up politics. As a matter of fact I have not heard much about voter fraud perpetrated by Republicans at all. And mind you, the last history I read was by a Roosevelt Democrat (or at any rate a historian quite sympathetic to FDR)-Hugh Brogan's Penguin History of the USA.

So again, provide me an example of Republican-sponsored voter fraud legislation and I'll happily take it on board.

[kentonio]

Yes, I've read a few books on American history--which happened to document rampant voter fraud by Democrats in the Deep South during Jim Crow and Tammany Hall, by the way, along with Democrats like FDR who cleaned up politics. As a matter of fact I have not heard much about voter fraud perpetrated by Republicans at all. And mind you, the last history I read was by a Roosevelt Democrat (or at any rate a historian quite sympathetic to FDR)-Hugh Brogan's Penguin History of the USA.

That might make more sense to you if you knew that the Republicans and Democrats basically swapped bases. Google Southern Strategy.

[Dinner]

Let's wait and see if it is a couple of thousand votes or whether its yet another scare about nothing and we're talking about a handful.

That's what it always boils down to. Seriously, the Republicans have spent tens if not hundreds of millions of tax payer dollars trying to find supposed voter fraud yet they always come up with nothing but a handful of cases. Going back a decade ago Karl Rove tried to push this conspiracy theory to justify voter suppression of black voters but it really has all been bull****.

Voter fraud is a problem which was solved in the US a half century ago.

[DinoDoc]

You guys do realize that voter id laws have been declared Constitutional already, right? In fact wrt Georgia at least, black voter participation went up in 2010 after voter id was passed there.

[kentonio]

Wiki says it all really..

In 2007, a report prepared by the staff of the federal Election Assistance Commission found that, among experts, "there is widespread but not unanimous agreement that there is little polling place fraud". The report was based on research conducted by a Republican elections lawyer and another expert with liberal leanings.

The final version released to the public, however, stated that there was "a great deal of debate on the pervasiveness of fraud." Democrats charged that the commission, with a Republican majority, had altered the conclusion for political reasons, which the commission denied. During the George W. Bush administration, "The [Department of Justice] devoted unprecedented resources to ferreting out polling-place fraud over five years and appears to have found not a single prosecutable case across the country" Slate reported.

[Dinner]

You guys do realize that voter id laws have been declared Constitutional already, right? In fact wrt Georgia at least, black voter participation went up in 2010 after voter id was passed there.

As you well know, DD, Republican voter suppression efforts go well beyond the ID law (which most states had to change to comply with the law; I.E. they had to be made free so that the worst effects were avoided). Just in the last two years in dozens of states Republicans have:

-tried to eliminate or reduce early voting especially stopping it on the Sunday before election day because that's when black churches across the south had their national "souls to the polls" drives.

-They've tried to eliminate or reduce absentee ballots in some states making it near impossible to get; Republicans used to love absentee ballots when it was just old white folks doing it but now that poor blacks and hispanics have figured out they can do it too suddenly Republicans want absentee ballots to disappear.

-The have engaged in changing and "reallocating" polling stations and voting machines so that polling stations in minority areas are few and far between while in Republican areas they're every block or so. That way there is no waiting for Republican voters but very, very long lines if you live in a black neighborhood; no it's not an accident that Republicans always rig things in this manner.

-Scrubbing of voter rolls in a highly selective and deceptive way designed to disenfranchise minorities. Some worthless southern state will have a law that ex-cons lose their voting rights (and that in itself is a relic of jim chow which needs to go) so they'll find ex-cons with common names (John Smith, Jim Jones, etc...) and challenge every voter of that name in the state IF they live in a democratic area but NOT if they live in a Republican area. They KNOW that person is not the ex-con because they can see from the birth date and social security number on the voter registration form that it is a different person but their goal is to stop likely democratic voters from voting so they purge the names.

-One of the rethugs favorite tactics this year is to shorten the time polling stations are open. Make sure they close early so that people working late can't go to vote after work and make sure they open late so people can't go vote before work. Oh, and, of course, they only want the new shorter hours in black neighborhoods not white ones.

-They'll distribute fake fliers deliberately made only for black neighborhoods with the wrong election day date on it and with the wrong polling location on it (magically the fliers going to the white neighborhood all have the correct infomation, imagine that). They'll send out other fake fliers claiming black groups like the NAACP endorsed Republican candidates when no such endorsement ever occured. They'll send out fliers saying the police are going to be at the polling station doing background checks on everyone who tries to vote in an attempt to scare blacks into not voting. There is no end to this ****.

It is 2012 but southern conservative ****bags are still at their same old games.

[regexcellent]

That might make more sense to you if you knew that the Republicans and Democrats basically swapped bases. Google Southern Strategy.

Not really, no. The Southerners started voting for Republicans but the Republican party did not subsequently adopt Jim Crow as a policy position. Instead it merely opposes stuff like affirmative action.

If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 60 years ago, a liberal 30 years ago and a racist today.