Voter Suppression Alive And Well

[Sarrek420]

Sproul & Associates, a consulting firm owned by the former chair of the Arizona Republican Party, was hired by the Republican National Committee to conduct voting registration drives in several states -- Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Florida, Nevada, Oregon and possibly others -- which it did at least partly through another company, Voters Outreach of America (VOA).

Former employees in several states have said they were instructed not register Democrats, or people planning to vote for Kerry.

When screening failed, registration forms were destroyed -- a felony in most states.

Sproul / VOA also misrepresented itself as non-partisan, even claiming to be another non-partisan organization, America Votes, as part of its strategy to occupy public spaces -- such as libraries-- where partisan groups are forbidden. They used the name "Project America Vote" as a cover for this deception.



IN NEVADA

A former VOA worker provided KLAS TV News (Las Vegas) with shredded voter registration forms, which the county election department confirmed had not been submitted -- a felony.

Its estimated that hundreds, or thousands of registrations were destroyed.

The Democratic Party went to court to re-open registration so that those whose registrations had been destroyed could re-register. The judge, Valerie Adair, a Republican, first told both sides to work out a deal for limited re-opening of registration, then reversed herself and dismissed the case.

Criminal investigations are ongoing.



IN OREGON

Sproul and Associates contacted county libraries across the state, misrepresenting itself as working for America Votes, which would have allowed it to register people inside the libraries.

On October 13, Oregon's attorney general opened an investigation into allegations that Democratic voter registration forms were destroyed or discarded by Sproul / VOA, based on reports from several counties across the state.

In addiction to direct witnesses, reports cited Klamath County statistics, which were 3-1 Republican in the last month, double the GOP's usual 3-2 edge.



IN PENNSYLVANIA

Workers were trained to only register Bush supporters. Sproul / VOA misrepresented itself as America Votes to get permission to register people outside at least one major library.

On October 15th, Republican operatives submitted last-minute requests to relocate 63 polling places in West Philadelphia, 53 of which have less than 10% white voters. One GOP operative, Matt Robb, let his name be used on at least five requests, because the polling places were in heavily-black neighborhoods. "I'm just not going in there to get a knife in my back," he said.

The request was denied as too late.



IN WEST VIRGINIA

VOA workers were trained in deceptive practices to only register Bush supporters.



IN OHIO

In 2000, almost 100,000 provisional ballots were cast in Ohio.

This year, Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell (R) issued a directive that provisional ballots not be provided if a person cannot prove they are in the right precinct.

On September 27th, The Ohio Democratic Party and a coalition of labor and voter rights groups sued Blackwell in Federal Court, charging discrimination against minorities and low-income voters who move more often than other voters.

On October 14th, Judge James Carr ruled that ballots must be provided and counted, provided they re-cast in the right county.

Misinforming Ex-Felons of voting rights took place in Ohio.

Ohio felons automatically regain the vote on leaving prison. However, the Prison Reform Advocacy Center (PRAC) found that county boards of election frequently told felons other wise.

On August 17th, PRAC sued in federal court to ensure that proper information would be given, alleging that 21,000 potential voters could be disenfranchised. The suit named Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell and 21 county boards.

On Sept 13th, PRAC dropped the suit, after a lawyer in the Ohio Attorney General's (OAG) office, told them that the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) "will support your efforts."

Two days later, another OAG lawyer, Richard Coglianese, told PRAC executive director David Singleton that there was no agreement because the ODRC was not named in the suit.

Registration closed October 4th.

On October 13th a Watergate-Style Burglary occurred late night at the Lucas County Democratic headquarters in Toledo. Cash and other readily-saleable items were bypassed. But however, computers with sensitive campaign information -- e-mails discussing campaign strategy, candidates' schedules, financial information, phone numbers of party members, candidates, donors, and volunteers was targeted for theft.

In Franklin County (Columbus), calls have been made to voters falsely instructing them that their polling place has been changed, and fraudulently claiming to come from the board of elections.



IN SOUTH DAKOTA

A scandal surrounding absentee ballot applications lead to the resignation of six Republican operatives, including the state director of the Republican Victory Program, Larry Russell.

Four of them were rehired to work in Ohio, with Russell running the Ohio get-out-the-vote operation.



IN FLORIDA

Intimidation:

In March, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer won re-election, avoiding a run-off by the margin absentee ballots could have provided.

After the loser, Ken Mulvaney, asked for an investigation, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) launched an investigation, focused on 73 year-old Ezzie Thomas, who has collected hundreds of absentee ballots in the black community for years -- in many cases from the elderly, blind or disabled.

Armed officers entered people's homes to interview them, in a manner recalling a long history of intimidation against blacks who dared to vote in the South.

The U.S. Justice Department is investigation charges of voter intimidation.


Non-Felons Purged In Felony Purge:

In 2004, Florida produced a "NEW" felony purge list of 47,763 alleged felons, which it refused to release to the media. A group of media outlets sued for its release, and won on July 1.

Within 24 hours, the Miami Herald identified 2,100 eligible voters on the list. On July 10th, Secretary of State Glenda Hood, under a firestorm of pressure, withdrew the list.

On October 16th, it was revealed that Governor Jeb Bush had been warned of problems with the list two months prior to its release, but ignored the warnings.


Rejected Registrations:

Secretary of State Glenda Hood has instructed county election supervisors to reject registration forms for failure to check off boxes for U.S. citizenship, felony status and mental capacity, or failure to provide an identification number. Over 10,000 registrations are affected.

Although required by Florida law, citizenship and felony status are affirmed by the applicants signature, and thus are redundant. Furthermore, Florida's election law has historically ALWAYS favored the right to vote over technicalities. In the 2000 election, for example, Democratic Judges routinely rejected two lawsuits that would have invalidated thousands of Bush votes due to the same irregularities.

Last known news on this issue, is that it is still pending a courts' decision.


Dirty Tricks:

Election boards across Florida have received complaints about people posing as election officials collecting absentee ballots -- and apparently destroying them. Over 100 complaints were received in Manatee County alone.