Republican Crossovers Fuel Record Democratic Voter Registration in Pennsylvania

[sabra]

Source: ABC News


PA County Officials Say Several Crossovers to the Democratic Party Hope Their Switch Will Help McCain This Fall


Republican crossovers are a key factor in record-level voter registrations for the Pennsylvania Democratic presidential primary, officials say.

State Democratic party officials touted a record-level four million registered Democratic voters in anticipation of the upcoming primary on April 22. The Philadelphia suburbs and the state's central region, including counties where Republicans still outnumber Democrats, had some of highest proportions of party-switchers.

Bill Meck, a resident of a Philadelphia suburb, remarked that after 41 years of voting Republican, he recently registered with the Democratic party. "I wanted to be a part of the choice," said Meck.

...

While many of the new Democrats appear to be moderates or independents who simply want to be a part of the process, county voter registration officials in central Pennsylvania told ABCNews.com that many new registrants spoke openly about changing their party affiliation to give McCain "a better shot in November."

Officials in Perry and Northumberland counties in central Pennsylvania told ABCNews.com that quite a few new registrants said they were switching to help the Republican party in the fall. Both counties are historically conservative, having voted for Bush in 2004 in wide margins, but the number of voters changing their party affiliation to Democrat this year is proportionally large, said the officials.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4527837&page=1

[Bensthename]

1. "switching to help the Republican party in the fall.".. Rush will be proud of his work

[LakeSamish706]

2. My big concern here once again is are these crossovers doing this to...

vote for Hillary to try and get her to be the nominee in order to run against McCain? Hillary being easier for McCain to beat of course.

[billbuckhead]

4. Or do they want the easy to beat black candidate?

[Dems Will Win]

17. The answer is: Does Rush want the "easy-to-beat" black candidate?

Um, no...

[billbuckhead]

19. Actually, yes he want the easy to beat black candidate

That's why he wants you to think he wants Hillary, it's a Rovian political world nowdays.

[susankh4]

25. Correct-amundo!

When will these Dem newbies come to understand that Rush Limbaugh never says what he really means? He says what he wants you to think he thinks.

In PA, Barack would be the "easy to beat" Dem.

(That may not be the case in every state... and Rush will twist his message aorund as suits the situation.)

[dysfunctional press]

47. but his followers will be voting for shrillary....

:shrug:

[lark]

35. So why did Repugs in Nevada, Wyoming etc.

switch and vote Obama? Could be it's the same reason you are now ascribing to Repugs who vote for Hillary?

[darue]

38. there may be real switches too - this trick-talk is just cover for the fact that they're bleeding

there could well be a good percentage of registered repubs who are actually switching parties, this talk of sabotage is just bluster to try to cover over that fact.

How is the party doing with previously undeclared new registrants? how many of them are coming in?

[razorman]

3. There is nothing new about this. Both parties have done this for decades.

It has just never been this organized and blatant before. I am afraid that a precedent is being set, and crossover voting will become SOP from now on.

[sharesunited]

7. It is only a problem because the GOP has already chosen their candidate.

If McCain, Romney and Huckabee were still duking it out, no Republican primary voter would waste their vote by crossing over to meddle around with the Democratic nomination.

Idle hands are the devil's workshop.

[shanti]

27. really...

i don't know any dems that do that, much less on a regular basis. :eyes:

[razorman]

32. I know a couple of people who did it in NH, and voted for McCain, to piss off the conservatives.

They liked both Clinton and Obama, and wanted to mess with the Pubbies. So, it does happen. Now it is out in the open, and will become an accepted practice, unfortunately.

[Lance_Boyle]

36. I did, in 2002,

in a loosely organized effort to try to keep Dole off of the ballot for her Senate seat. Didn't work. Won't work in this case, either. You'd have to motivate a HUGE number of people to do this to have any impact.

on edit - no registration-switching was involved. I am registered "unaffiliated," and can request the D ballot, the R ballot, or the I ballot in primaries.

[Mike Daniels]

42. Dems crossed over in Virginia during a Republican primary for Senate when J. Warner was running

Warner was up against some serious heat for his role to torpedoing Oliver North's senate bid.

Warner was able to set the terms for the primary and chose an open primary. He then asked Dems and indepenents to vote for him in the primary which they apparently did in droves.

This set up J. Warner v. M. Warner in the general which John won probably as a result to crossover votes in the GE. Furthermore, it appears that a number of Repubs voted for M. Warner in the GE in another attempt to get back at J. Warner.

That's the main instance I know of re: Dem crossover. However, I have no reason to believe that it's not done every election by both sidea of the political aisle since it's a pretty common sense strategy when your side isn't involved in a nomination battle.

[jwirr]

5. And this is exactly why our superdelegates should be careful of

nominating Hillary. We need to be sure that the new people who come out to vote for one of our candidates will be there in November.

[Botany]

6. Rush Limbaugh calls it "operation chaos" and was openly laughing about ....

... this and Ohio too.

[LeFleur1]

8. Patriotic Americans

Republicans are the most corrupt bunch of people that have ever banded together.

[Botany]

9. What these mouth breathers fail to see .....

..... is the damage the republican admin. is doing to our
country and to them economically (in most cases they are
not in the top 2% of income nationally).

The party and the super delegates need to step forward and
put a stop to Hillary's failed campaign.

I just checked out a right wing web site and the mouth breathers
are openly laughing about the damage they are doing.

[MidwestTransplant]

12. The Ohio people can be charged with a felony if they lied on a form they filled out

prior to switching to vote in the Dem. primary.

[razorman]

14. Theoretically, yes. But do we want to start using legal action against people

based on how they vote, or why? That is a slippery slope. Once the genie is out of the bottle, it can't be put back in. Besides, were those actual government forms or legal contracts? I do not foresee anyone actually being charged in this.
Face it. We had a fast one pulled on us. If we had done this to them (which some on their side believe to be true), we would be laughing, as well.

[susankh4]

26. True...

but there has never been a case of voter fraud prosecuted here in OH. And it's unlikely we'll see one this time either. Crossovers were more likely to vote for Barack than Hillary. Exit polls showed 10% to 7%.

That's just way to close to prosecute.

[MidwestTransplant]

30. It's not who they voted that matters. It's whether they lied on their affidavits.

[susankh4]

31. How will you prove who lied?

And who will pay to bring suit?

[MidwestTransplant]

37. The state would bring suit. Proving who lied would be hard. If they bragged about it on a blog for

example.

[susankh4]

41. The state of Ohio has never brought suit

and the board of elections has indicated that a third party (say the Clintons or the Obamas, for instance) would have to do so.

I will see if I can find that memo. It was circulating just before our primary.

[AngryOldDem]

49. Ohio SOS Brunner admits this is almost impossible to do.

Even though in Cuyahoga County people did give blatently bogus reasons for changing affiliation, which to my mind should be easy enough to prosecute. If the law can't be enforced, then take it off the books, or retool it so people can't jerk around the process like this. Supposedly the Ohio legislature is going to look into it.

From the Ohio board:

http://blog.cleveland.com/openers/2008/03/brunner_2.html

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=172x24008

Then, there is this interesting take on Ohio's primary, also from the Ohio board:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=172x23729

[aggiesal]

34. Actually, the voter registration document is more powerful than people give it credit. ...

The registration form here in CA. has the following:
"The information that I have provided is true to the
best of my knowledge under penalty of perjury. If I
have provided false information, I may be fined,
imprisoned, or (if not a U.S. citizen) deported from
or refused entry to the United States."

I'm sure it is similar in all the states.

The county Registrar Of Voters (ROV) has the option
of questioning the facts on behalf of the citizens
of that county. If the ROV feels that perjury is
occurring, the ROV can then ask the District Attorney
or the State Attorney General to investigate and
prosecute if necessary.

In Ohio, some people who switched, literally wrote on
the voter registration document "For 1 day only".
Which means they only want to be Democrats for election
day, and then switched back to Repuke the day after.

I think we should get on the Secretary of State
(the state representative in charge of elections),
and the ROV to go after these 1 day Democrats.

[roseBudd]

45. SoS Brunner said yesterday it would probably be unconstitutional

[kskiska]

23. He's selling t-shirts now. n/t

[Bigmack]

33. "Operation Chaos" in Freepland, too.....

The first time I heard the term, I thought they were finally admitting that the * misadministration was a clusterfuck.

[DBoon]

39. fascists do often think free and open elections are humorous

the subtext to Rush's strategy is that democracy can't work, and that we need an elite headed by a strongman to rule over the masses

[bluestateguy]

10. It is time for the COngress to hold hearings on this matter and subpoena Rush Limbaugh

nt

[dysfunctional press]

48. why, and to what end?

:shrug:

he's not doing anything illegal, or anything that hasn't been done before.

[Habibi]

11. So what's the law in PA?

Didn't see it addressed in the article. Here in Noo Yawk, you can change your party affiliation to vote in the party primary, but then you have to wait until the next election cycle to change it back. So you're fucked if you want to play around with the process like that.

[Botany]

13. In PA you have 30 days before the primary vote to switch

Hell, Bill Clinton went on Rush Limbaugh's show to ask
for votes.

[Blue State Bandit]

24. It's a little sketchy.

http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2008/3/23/162416/286/7#c7

[Irishonly]

15. Neocons have never cared about anything

except for getting their ilk elected. I don't know what per cent age of people registering democratic are messing with the primary. I can only hope it backfires badly on them.

[tblue37]

16. They aren't all neocons. Only a subset of republican

conservatives are neocons. Many are paleocons, many are theocons, many are "Republicons." Most are trouble, but not all are neocons.

[ben_meyers]

18. Let's have some fun in Michigan

I guess it's funny when the great Markos does it. Didn't this idiot think there would be a backlash?

And we want Romney in, because the more Republican candidates we have fighting it out, trashing each other with negative ads and spending tons of money, the better it is for us. We want Mitt to stay in the race, and to do that, we need him to win in Michigan.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1/10/2713/87225/55/434206

Of course the problem might be audience size.

[jeanruss]

20. cheating

We have all known since the 2000 election that Republicans can only win by cheating. The internet has just made it a little harder to cheat, but they are highly motivated to find a way. Republicans are composed of wealthy people (a relatively small group of Americans) and a larger group of suckers who aren't smart enough to vote in their own self-interest. The question is "How bad do things have to get, to mobilize the HUGE group of voters who don't bother?" The Rich could never steal ANY election if everyone started to care about their country again.

[JDPriestly]

21. A good number of the Republicans who claim to be crossing

over to help McCain will actually vote for a Democrat in November. That's what I predict. They will become more interested in the Democrat who actually wins the race. I would not predict that the number of real converts will be extremely high, but it could be enough to swing the election. McCain is a weak candidate.

[eagertolearn]

22. It may just be that these are true switches...

and that the republicans are just trying to cover it up to deny the demise of their party. How many ex-repubs do you know that have truthfully switched over because they are disgusted with their own party? I know a lot!

[susankh4]

28. I know several as well.

In Ohio it was very common. Many of my own family members crossed over to Hillary. And I also know folks who crossed over for Barack.

[spinbaby]

43. Exactly

I know several who switched parties to vote for Obama.

With our closed primary system, it's pretty common here to switch party affiiliation to vote in the more interesting primary. I've been a Republican a number of times.

[Roy]

29. People give repubs way too much credit.

This will only give the knuckle draggers something to convince themselves they screwed dems, nothing but fodder for their next circle jerk.

[superconnected]

40. How immoral the republicans are is absolutely scary. They won't win

because they're too stupid to win. That takes real crooks who have had 30 years of practice at the highest levels like the current junta, not the insipid dung that's changing affiliation to prevent fair elections while preaching moral and and American values.

Other than it being proof that these people are dung the news is worthless.

[roseBudd]

44. And they are going to vote for the one with high negatives Hillary

[chat_noir]

46. bs?

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, yesterday we had our second call like this. We’ve had callers from Texas who are foot soldiers, enlisted officers in Operation Chaos. Both of these gentlemen — one in Austin, the other from Galveston — not only voted for Hillary Clinton in the Texas primary, they went a step further.

They went back and they caucused! Operation Chaos operatives went back and caucused for Hillary Clinton. These two are just two of many. These two are now delegates to the Texas state convention. We have operatives on the inside of the Texas state convention. They are delegates for Hillary Clinton. They will be there undercover. They will be there as Operation Chaos covert operatives. But they are not the only two. I’ve heard talk (I’m sure that you have, too) that the Drive-By Media says that Operation Chaos isn’t working, which, as I said yesterday, is just great news. It’s music to my ears. If they think it’s not working, they will continue to ignore us (ha-ha) and we will be able to slither in underneath the radar making them even more vulnerable. Now, folks, there are many phases here to Operation Chaos. We’re simply here still in phase one. Phase one consists of operatives changing party registration, voting in Democrat primaries in upcoming states. This happened in Ohio and Texas in record numbers. It looks like it’ll happen in Pennsylvania in record numbers. In this case, voting for Hillary to continue the bloodletting in the Democrat Party all the way through their convention, for the chaos to continue.

Now, the second and third phases of Operation Chaos consist of exactly what you’ve heard happening in Texas: Our operatives actually are being named delegates to state party conventions. The third phase of Operation Chaos will lead to some of these delegates being sent and named as delegates to the Democrat National Convention in Denver. So Democrats out there, and you members of the Drive-By Media — you who think that Operation Chaos isn’t working and is ineffective — remember this: When we get to Denver and the Democrat National Convention and you look around and you’re a delegate, the person next to you could be mine. The person sitting next to you in your delegation could be an Operation Chaos operative. Now, let’s fantasize for a moment about where phase three of Operation Chaos could take us. I mean, let’s say we get down to this convention and they get into a credentials fight and all of the votes that have taken place up ‘til now in the Democrat primaries are rendered meaningless. The superdelegates weigh in, credentials fight, all that goes on. Let’s say it comes down to a close vote, 10, 20, maybe 30 votes separating Obama and Hillary. Phase three of Operation Chaos makes it quite possible that my operatives — my operatives! — will determine the Democrat nominee.

It is quite possible that I and my operatives will be choosing the Democrat presidential nominee. They might be saying, “Rush, why are you giving this away? I mean, you’re running a covert operation, yet you’re telling us about it.” That’s exactly right. Because you don’t think it’s true. You think I’m making it all up. You think I’m smoking you. You think I’m just having fun. Furthermore, you don’t even think it’s effective anyway. You are wide-open vulnerable for phase three of Operation Chaos. I’m happy to tell you what I’m going to do. I spell out what our intentions are every day on this program for 20 years and you haven’t been able to stop us. You will not be able to stop phase three of Operation Chaos. Here at the EIB Network, we have highly skilled information technology technicians and professionals working on a special encryption program so that I can send instructions to our operatives at the Democrat National Convention via their handheld wireless devices: iPhones, whatever it is, whatever they use. This is how Operation Chaos will send the message to various operatives that are there as delegates to the Democrat National Convention. It’s being tested as we speak. It will be ready in just a few days, probably toward the end of next week.

So even if you are forewarned — all of you liberals and the Drive-By Media people, Democrats — you will not know and you will not be able to trust and you will not be able to confirm just of which your delegates in Denver are mine. Part of Operation Chaos. They will have been credentialed. They will have passed all the tests. They will have been to state conventions prior to arriving in Denver. They will have been briefed. They will be told how to vote by me, depending on their number and the closeness of the final vote at the convention, and it will be easy for them to receive my instructions because of the special encryption that we are working on for our wireless transmission to their handheld devices. So those are the next phases of Operation Chaos. I just wanted to alert you to both of these instances. No crimes have been committed, no charges in Ohio for voter fraud. I mentioned the phase two and phase three of Operation Chaos yesterday in the final hour of the program, and I wanted to get to it the first part of the program today so that everybody was up to speed on it.

END TRANSCRIPT

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_032808/content/01125107.guest.html.guest.html