"Fraud" vs. "Suppression"

[helderheid]

October 14, 2008
Categories: John McCain
"Fraud" vs. "Suppression"

The campaigns are sparring today over voter fraud and voter suppression, with the McCain camp demanding Davd Plouffe respond to a letter proposing cooperation against "voter fraud" and the Obama campaign saying he already wrote back (after the jump) in a letter that raises fears about "suppression."

One thing to keep in mind as this fight continues over the next three weeks: This sparring is ritualistic, and automatic. Republicans always raise the fears of voting fraud, though there has yet to be evidence of double voting. Democrats always raise fears of voter suppression (as the Obama campaign did in the primary as well). Anecdotes of both -- Acorn's registration mess; a contested report in Michigan about challenging voters who lost their homes -- are wildly overblown.

What matters more than these media wars, though, is what's going on on the ground: How many voters the Obama campaign has identified and registered; and whether the Republican rhetoric about Acorn has been matched by a large-scale legal effort to challenge new registrations or disqualify masses of Democratic voters.

So far, it's been all talk -- which could frame a recount battle or raise doubts about a close outcome, but which isn't likely to affect vote totals.

» Continue reading "Fraud" vs. "Suppression"

September 23, 2008



Honorable John C. Danforth

Honorable Warren B. Rudman

McCain-Palin 2008

P.O. Box 16118

Arlington , VA 22215



Dear Senator Danforth and Senator Rudman:



We have received your letter of September 15, 2008, informing us of the formation of what you call the “Honest and Open Election Committee” by the McCain-Palin Campaign.



However attractively labeled, this seems a starkly political maneuver to deflect attention from the reality of the suppression strategies pursued by national, state and Republican party committees. This has been the shameful history of the party from the Goldwater "Operation Eagle Eye" program to the present day—a history replete with instances of systematically planned and executed programs to block access to the vote for targeted communities of voters.


MORE >>>

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1008/Fraud_vs_Suppression.html?showall