McReaction

Here We Go Again: Republicans Purge Voters!

Just as in Florida during the 2000 election and Ohio in 2004, evidence suggests the Republican party is purging legitimate voters, harassing early voters (photographing voters and writing down their license plate numbers), and working ceaselessly to attack new voter registration forms—which clearly favor the Democratic ticket in this election.

The New York Times has reported that boards of elections in at least nine crucial states, including Ohio, have violated federal law in conducting purges and have been illegally using Social Security databases as part of those purges. The Times' Ian Urbina quotes Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman as asking the Colorado Attorney-General to review how some 2,500 citizens were removed from the registration lists there. The Times has cited purges in Colorado, Louisiana, and Michigan that have apparently been conducted within 90 days of the upcoming November 4 election, violating federal law that allows states to expunge only those who have been convicted of a felony, moved out of state, or died.

The Times has also reported that boards of elections in Nevada, North Carolina, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio have illegally used federal Social Security databases to flag and possibly eliminate voters whose registration applications were suspected of irregularities. The Times reported some 37,000 Colorado voters removed in the three weeks after July 21; Secretary Coffman said the number was 14,000.

Michigan elections director Christopher Thomas said his state had removed about 11,000 voters in August, while the Times estimated the real number to be closer to 33,000. Thomas refused to make the purged files public. Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land is a long-standing Republican partisan whose political activism traces back to the mid-70s when she worked for Gerald Ford's campaign in high school. Critics charge that she functions in the tradition of Florida's Katherine Harris and Ohio's J. Kenneth Blackwell.

A CBS News report has revealed organized caging attempts by the GOP to eliminate registered voters from the rolls in 19 states. The report marks one of the first initiated by a corporate news organization isolating Republican anti-vote campaigning.

The grassroots organizing group ACORN has come under serious attack in Nevada, Missouri, Ohio and elsewhere from Republicans attempting to negate the thousands of generally low-income citizens ACORN has registered to vote. As a matter of law, ACORN is required to report irregular registrations that come through its process. But GOP operatives have equated these with "fraudulent" filings, and a have ramped up a smear and fear campaign aimed at negating thousands of legitimate ACORN registrants throughout the US.

It seems to me the Republican party is once again undermining our democracy and the very principles they purport to uphold. Their activities are not only illegal and immoral, they are shameful. Assuming your vote isn't stolen, erased, blocked, or intimidated away, I hope you will send the "Grand Old Party" a clear message that no matter how many voters they illegally remove, or how many votes they manage to electronically shuffle to McCain's side, THEY CANNOT STEAL ANOTHER ELECTION FROM THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

Run them out on a rail.