New York Election Fraud: Is Arizona Happening Again?

[Time for change]

According to a recent news article:

Huge problems plagued the Arizona primary earlier this week, with allegations of election fraud resounding across the Internet. People who said they were previously registered Democrat suddenly found their registrations inactive and couldn’t vote in the primary. Now people are discovering the same thing in New York.

What the article doesn’t say, perhaps because the writer is unaware of it, further investigation into the voter suppression in Arizona strongly suggested that it was targeted at Bernie Sanders. In an attempt to shed more light on the voter suppression in AZ, an attempt was made to identify as many voters as possible who were disenfranchised because they found out on Election Day that they were no longer registered as a Democrat, and find out who they intended to vote for. Other than a few whose voter preferences the investigation could not discover, 113 intended to vote for Sanders and 2 intended to vote for Clinton. Much anecdotal evidence from New York (there are also reports of it happening in Pennsylvania, but this article is just about New York) suggests that this voter suppression in similarly targeted at Sanders.

The article goes on to say that the New York Democratic Board of Elections Commissioner, Douglass Kellner, extended the registration deadline to March 25, so that anyone whose registration was purged could re-register. The article goes on to say:

Unfortunately, many people reported technical problems with the DMV site on Friday. If you’re listed as inactive or unaffiliated, you can still change your registration, but it won’t help in time for the primary.

In my opinion, the Commissioner’s “fix” to the problem is woefully inadequate. That is not only because of the “technical problems” with the website prevented people from re-registering, but because in all likelihood, the vast majority of voters whose registration was purged will not become aware of it until Election Day, when it will be way too late. The reports of purged voters in New York are coming from those who, suspicious about what happened in Arizona, re-checked their voter registration status. I doubt that more than a small fraction of voters actually re-checked their registration status.

I want to know: Since the purging of voter registration was the fault of the election system and not the fault of the voters, and because the website continued to have “technical problems” even after the purge, why stick with an arbitrary deadline? It seems to me that the only decent fix to this problem is to allow same day on-site registration in New York this year, at the very least for voters who present valid Democratic registration cards at the polls.


Consequences

Evidence strongly suggests that Bernie Sanders would have won the Arizona primary if not for the voter suppression there, especially the voter suppression that was targeted specifically at him. He continues to surge in polls everywhere. He is the only candidate in either Party with net positive favorability ratings. But he cannot win the nomination if his supporters continue to be purged of their voter registrations and little or nothing is done to stop it.

This kind of thing is outrageous for a supposed democracy. I ask Hillary and her supporters to join in the calls to stop this voter suppression and fix it immediately in states where it has already occurred but the election has not yet been held.

[LexVegas]

1. How many pre-built excuses for losing do you guys have? nt

[Else You Are Mad]

2. So...

Being disenfranchised is an excuse?

[LexVegas]

3. FYI - most of the groups that have historically been disenfrachised in this country support HRC.

Is there a long history of white people being kept from the polling places?

[Else You Are Mad]

5. That has nothing to do with what I asked. Nt

[Dem2]

11. Most people don't respond to straw man arguments

[Else You Are Mad]

13. What I asked

Wasn't a straw man argument. It was a valid question.

[Dem2]

16. I suppose

The response was equally flippant - I guess y'all get a draw on that one.

[Chasstev365]

4. That is a disgusting response

I find disenfranchising any voter to be a criminal act, regardless if they support Sanders or Clinton. Remember the Bush crime family in Florida in 2000? I'm sure you would have been just fine with the GOP calling it "pre-built excuses" on the part of the Gore campaign.

[LexVegas]

6. I find the excuses you guys make every time you lose to be disgusting.

Whether its because of "low information" minority voters, or poor disenfranchised white people. Super delegates are bad...super delegates are good. The South doesn't matter...the popular vote doesn't matter....pledged delegates don't matter.

Don't lose mad. Just lose.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. I find your applause for voter suppression

Cute in the extreme (and undenocratic to boot)

[Dragonfli]

18. I would use a different descriptor than "cute" fot applause of such undemocratic behavior Nadin

Nonetheless such support for voter suppression is, I agree, most undemocratic to say the least.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. Well if I use the words that actually come

Juries will get their fi fis in a bunch.

[Dragonfli]

21. Understood, along with the fact they have an admitted (elsewhere) target on your back, I get it. /nt

[bkkyosemite]

29. I find your denial of actual vote rigging disgusting.

[Time for change]

8. What don't you understand about the need to prevent voter suppression?

[Else You Are Mad]

12. My guess..

Is that it is because it is currently helping his preferred candidate. If this happens come November and Hillary is the candidate, he and the Hillary supporters shrugging the current disenfranchisement off, will do a 180 change when it is too late. See, e.g. Bush v. Gore.

[Time for change]

14. It happened in Ohio in the 2004 GE, and helped prevent John Kerry from winning the election

I didn't see anyone on DU suggest that that was ok or that it wasn't a serious problem.

[jillan]

10. It effects Hillary's voters too AND there was this:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2015/12/28/us-voter-database-leak/#16a452701bb9

191 Million US Voter Registration Records Leaked In Mystery Database

300GB of voter data, which includes names, home addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, party affiliations, and logs of whether or not they had voted in primary or general elections. The data appears to date back to 2000.

This isn't about Bernie v Hillary it also effects repugs.

[Dragonfli]

22. If so, the likely targets, assuming moneyed interests or establishments are behind it, the two

obvious targets of affiliation changes are Drumpf and Sanders. The moneyed establishment would love for them both to disappear.

Granted, I would like "the Donald" to disappear, but I am a small "d" Democrat as well as anything else and would not wish him gone via undemocratic means (Goddess help me but it's true, I take democracy seriously even when it hurts)

[noretreatnosurrender]

27. I'm with you on that

We all lose when any voter is denied their right to vote no matter who they vote for.

[Blue Meany]

7. It could have been simply targetted at

recent voter registrations, which would have tended to be skewed toward Bernie Sanders on Democratic side. There would be no need to actually have information about candidate preferences. Hopefully the state authorities will sort this out, but perhaps not until after it is to late for any changes in the election outcome to matter.

[noretreatnosurrender]

28. That was my thought too

but there have been stories about long time Democrats registration changing. One thing is for sure all of this needs to be investigated. This is not isolated to just one state and that is very troubling.

[Time for change]

32. But the investigation described in my link in the OP

found 113 complaints of losing their Democratic voter registration from intended Bernie voters and 2 from intended Hillary voters. That sounds to me like a more precise targeting than simply purging the registrations of recent Democratic registrations.

[Dragonfli]

15. It has already happened with me, my registration was changed without my knowledge and I only checked

once the tactic became known after Arizona, which meant at least one lifelong registered Democrat in NYS will not be able to vote this primary, I found out before the registration deadline, but as some (but unfortunately not enough) know, I only know because I am a wonk, your party affiliation registration CHANGES are a separate thing from new voter registration here, and must be made 6 months prior to count as changed.

Knowing that they had six months to fuck around with party affiliation without any recourse for the disenfranchised to correct it during those six months, I can only assume this may be the worst state where affiliation election fraud happens.

Goddess help us if I'm right.

[Time for change]

17. I think that New Yorkers should demand same day on-site registration because of

the type of problems that you relate.

That is the only way to fix this problem at this point, I believe.

I don't know what form the demand should take, but I hope enough New Yorkers become aware of it that they can pressure the authorities to fix the problem that they created.

[Dragonfli]

20. Highly unlikely we can force our State to do anything, at best, they may agree to NEW voter

registration same day, but the state power here is not as susceptible to pubic input as other states may be and in our state the two parties have achieved the highest form of art when it comes to Kabuki theater and passing laws against our wishes.

Each party loves having the power balance as it is and so do not on principle wish to make it easier to change parties. As far as changing affiliations for people without them doing it themselves, I have no idea where or who is orchestrating that, but because it appears to be happening across several States, I don't think we would be able to do much about it anyway.

It needs to be investigated deeply so we can find out where all these affiliation changes are coming from and by whom, as it is now a national issue of a very specific form of fraud.

[bkkyosemite]

30. It the damn election boards fault. They can see that someone was a dem and not is not..

They need to fix their affiliation now!

[Dragonfli]

31. They won't, I asked, and even re-registered (but was told they can't help me until after November)

[Karma13612]

34. +100. NY state here.

I was able to check online and I am still properly registered, but what about those who don't?

I also have the yellow postcard from last election cycle that shows me as registered democrat.

I am holding on to that for dear life.

Our 6 month deadline is voter disenfranchisement to the level of evil that satan only dreams of.

[geek tragedy]

23. .

And no, this thread is not about genuine concerns about vote suppression, it's about exploiting a legitimate issue in order to smear Hillary Clinton, delegitimize the voters of Arizona, and peddle insane conspiracy theories in order to make excuses for Bernie Sanders losing Arizona in the past and New York in the future.

So,

[Time for change]

25. You are either seriously misinformed, or else

you think voter suppression is ok as long as it benefits your candidate.

Tens of thousands of people were not able to vote in Arizona, either because their voter registration was changed or deleted, or because there weren't enough polling places. This is not a theory, it is a fact, and hearings have been held in attempt to find out the reason for it -- not whether or not it happened, but the reason for it.

I am not delegitimizing the voters of AZ. This was not their fault.

[msongs]

24. oddly enough the crowd only squawks about this when bernie LOSES lol nt

[Time for change]

26. Bernie has not lost NY yet

But he will if this voter suppression is allowed to stand.

[jeff47]

33. Go ahead and cite an instance where "the crowd" did not squawk. (nt)