GOP poll challengers tried to intimidate Genoa voters, clerk says

[James48]

Source: Livingston County Press

Republican poll challengers attempted to intimidate voters in each of Genoa Township's 12 voting precincts this month, the township's GOP clerk said.

Township Clerk Polly Skolarus said the Republican challengers did not challenge voters' registration, but transmitted their data electronically to state party officials during the Nov. 6 election.

Skolarus said none of the GOP poll challengers arrived with lists of voters they planned to challenge, as is customary.

"There were a lot of people that were not happy that those people were sitting there. They felt it was an invasion of their privacy," she said."The Republican Party making the decision to put them in every precinct did them no favors. I think it made them enemies," Skolarus added.


(more)

Read more: http://www.livingstondaily.com/article/20121120/NEWS01/211200308/GOP-poll-challengers-tried-intimidate-Genoa-voters-clerk-says

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Note: THIS is in an area that the township next to the burial place of former Michigan Governor and father of the (R) candidate, George Romney (Brighton, Michigan). It's about as "red" a township as it gets in Michigan. Yet all precincts had voter intimidation republicans on duty, to offend voters going to the polls.

Please feel free to add your own comments over on the newspaper's facebook comment section.

[liberal N proud]

1. Our whole voting process in this nation has become a shambles

From the voter registrations debacles to the purging of the voter roles, gerrymandering and voter ID laws. Something has to be done to fix our process where every one has the right and the opportunity to vote without impunity.

There needs to be voter protection laws that will prevent these actions from taking place and even impel people to practice their duties as a United States citizen and vote.

The republicans have made these practices a centerpiece of their election strategy and they need to be stopped!

[hlthe2b]

2. Thank you to the OP for indicating that this is in Michigan... something many posters fail to do

The link itself was not at all apparent as to where this was occurring, so I give KUDOs for the editorial note included.

[Ganja Ninja]

3. The GOP didn't have a GOTV ground game. They had a playbook of dirty tricks.

That pretty much tells you the type of people they are.

[efhmc]

4. I wish we had stats on the number of voters that were motivated to go to the

polls to defy those wanting to take their votes from them. this one really backfired on the repukes.

[Jim Lane]

5. Can the poutrage. The Republicans did nothing wrong in this instance.

The woman who's doing the complaining "said the Republican challengers did not challenge voters' registration, but transmitted their data electronically to state party officials during the Nov. 6 election."

Democrats did the same thing, and properly so. This is just the updated electronic version of a classic GOTV method. You keep track of who has voted so that you know who hasn't. You check your list of previously identified supporters, strike off those who've voted, and set your phonebankers to calling the ones who haven't voted, to get them to the polls. All that's new is the use of a smart phone to transmit the data.

This year, because of the well-publicized snafus of the Romney campaign's ORCA system, there were probably more Democrats doing this than Republicans. Many of the Republican volunteers didn't have the necessary credentials or the proper information.

We have a secret ballot. It's a secret as to how you voted. There is, however, no secrecy or legitimate expectation of privacy concerning the fact of whether or not you voted.

This whole thing is just not a big deal. It's a distraction from genuine problems, such as people having to wait hours to vote (many of them being "urban" voters, nudge nudge wink wink).

[hughee99]

6. From this article, that was my take too.

Barbara Shreve said "it's the worst I've ever experienced" and felt intimidated when she questioned the challengers role at the voter application table and they wrote her name down.

Some people would call this "white people's problems" compared to some of the intimidation and shenanigans that goes on elsewhere.

[1monster]

7. They tried that in a precinct around here that has a large black population...

They were made to leave, despite this being a very red section of the state.