GOP engaging in blatant voter suppression

Click it, bitches

Quote :

As courts continue to block voter suppression efforts around the county, conservative groups are redoubling efforts to intimidate voters at the polls come Election Day.


New Mexico has started its own voter purge of 177,000 people, including a voting rights activist married to a state representative. However, as the law won’t go into effect until November 2014, the local Republican Party has apparently started training “poll challengers” for this election. A hidden camera caught Pat Morlen, the vice chair of the Sandoval County Republican Party, instructing volunteer “poll challengers” to demand photo ID and force legal voters to use provisional ballots. The video, filmed by the nonprofit ProgressNow New Mexico, shows vice-chair Morlen making several claims that directly contradict New Mexico law:

MORLEN: You can request to see a form of ID. At the request of two or more precinct board members of different political parties, a voter shall still present the required physical form of identification.

VOLUNTEER: What happens if we get people in there who are part of what the media is calling the purge?

MORLEN: They’ll vote provisional. That’s all that’s gonna happen.

Holy shit. Just... holy shit. I could understand if there weren't sufficient regulations to stop this, but the GOP just... don't care. I couldn't imagine this happening in Australia, our biggest problems with voting are donkey voting from people who don't want to vote (voting is compulsory here) and third parties struggling to field extra candidates. This - people actively trying to stop other people from voting - is something I'm still struggling to comprehend. I'd suggest bringing in UN voting observers, but I just remembered I don't believe in the power of the UN anymore. Unless something is done to combat the misinformation and intimidation on a large scale, the US will see ANOTHER rigged presidential election.

Quote :

Obama has a narrow lead over Romney in the New Mexico polls, projecting a very close race. This particular training was filmed just two days after a study was released estimating 10 million Latinos could be disenfranchised by various voter suppression efforts. While Morlen’s statements are easily debunked, New Mexico voters are likely to be harassed and intimidated by these volunteer “voter challengers” armed with false information. But New Mexican voters aren’t the only targets; the national Tea Party group True the Vote has mobilized a large army of volunteers to go to the polls all over the country to harass voters. True the Vote tested out their voter intimidation skills during Gov. Scott Walker’s (R-WI) recall election in June, when poll watchers blocked students and African Americans from voting.

"Can't let those damn book-learnin' hippies vote, they'll bring in more SOCIALISM!"

"Can't let those blind folks vote, they can't even see the paper!"

"Can't let those damn n------ vote, they'll just put Obama back in!"

I guess they can't let anyone else not like them vote, either. Need a wheelchair and can't reach the voting booths? No vote for you! LGBT? Take your homo agenda someplace else! Not Christian? Stay out of our voting booths, you damn heathen!

I really don't understand why the GOP are even pretending to participate in a democracy any more. They may as well just stage a coup, ban elections and have the theocracy they've wanted so badly all these years.

Amazing. I now care 100% less about this issue simply because you were the one to start a thread about it. Are you working for the GOP?

xerrofoot wrote:

I'd suggest bringing in UN voting observers, but I just remembered I don't believe in the power of the UN anymore.

I don't think you realize just how many people firmly believe that "UN directly involved in domestic politics/blue helmets arrive" is the call to start shooting people.

Also: Welcome to about a week ago...

Just remember - It's important to crack down on voter fraud, because we can't have the wrong people voting.

the two party system is a sham anyhow and a blatant mockery of real democracy

five bux says i get purged if PA does anything like that this year

fuck bitches get socialism 420 smoke trees

Stupid question: Why haven't the people involved been arrested and the election postponed in order to try and ensure a fair result?
Another stupid question: Why wasn't the result of the 2004 presidential elections declared void and the elections re-held due to the level of interference in the counting of the votes compromising the integrity of the election results?

Anon wrote:

Stupid question: Why haven't the people involved been arrested and the election postponed in order to try and ensure a fair result?
Another stupid question: Why wasn't the result of the 2004 presidential elections declared void and the elections re-held due to the level of interference in the counting of the votes compromising the integrity of the election results?

because its rich old white dudes doing the suppressing and they can literally get away w murder in this country basically

literally kill and eat the rich imo

Anon wrote:

Stupid question: Why haven't the people involved been arrested and the election postponed in order to try and ensure a fair result?

Well, the thing is, it's up to the states to decide how they handle voting. As long as they're going about the proper legal channels to jerk people around, they can do it, as long as they're not specifically barring anyone due to gender, race, or the ability to pay a poll tax.

I'm not as up to speed on what exactly's going on in New Mexico; I'd mostly been hearing about Florida and Ohio right now.

Quote :

Another stupid question: Why wasn't the result of the 2004 presidential elections declared void and the elections re-held due to the level of interference in the counting of the votes compromising the integrity of the election results?

Because at the end of the day, the entire election process is so jacked up from gerrymandering alone that there are any number of valid reasons and excuses to question whether the election is 100% valid. Besides which, the Democrats were in a weak position to challenge the 2004 election results since they failed to win Florida for Gore in 2004. Going to such lengths to fight the 2004 election would prove in the minds of many voters that the Democrats would gladly cheat to win.

The first elected official to call for a delay in elections would provide his or her opposing party with all the ammunition they'd need to accuse them of trying to undemocratically hold on to their office.

dude they didn't fail to win florida in 2000

there was active disenfranchisement of black voters going on as well as faulty voting systems that just fucked everything to hell countwise

Penguin wrote:

Amazing. I now care 100% less about this issue simply because you were the one to start a thread about it. Are you working for the GOP?

No, you're a dick.

xerrofoot wrote:

Penguin wrote:

Amazing. I now care 100% less about this issue simply because you were the one to start a thread about it. Are you working for the GOP?

No, you're a dick.

doesnt change the fact that yr a complete Cocks McGraw who ruins everything he touches by sheer dint of being a utterly repulsive fucknut

Quote :

In Florida, NBC News reported that elections officials discovered 108 potentially fraudulent registration forms submitted by Sproul's consulting firm with suspected phony signatures and home addresses "that matched those of a gas station, a medical building and a Land Rover dealership."

Hypocrisy, thy name is GOP.

GOP is terrible, details at eleven.

SirDixonDongs wrote:

dude they didn't fail to win florida in 2000

there was active disenfranchisement of black voters going on as well as faulty voting systems that just fucked everything to hell countwise

The end result, though, was that through all the recounts and Supreme Court battles, they ultimately lost. It's like people saying we won in Vietnam. Sure the NVA were nearly wiped out and the VC functionally ceased to exist after the Tet Offensive, but there's a curious lack of a "South" Vietnam these days. And the President in 2001 had a curious difficulty with elementary grammar.

In the end, the Republicans got Florida and were able to sell the whole affair to their side as the Democrats trying to steal the election. Without the margins as thin as in 2000, the Democrats had a lot more to lose by trying to have the election declared invalid. Hell, here in WA the 2004 governor election went into recounts a couple times until the Democrat candidate, Christine Gregoire, was declared the winner. This was proof positive to local Republicans that Democrats will simply demand recounts until enough votes are coughed up from liberal counties for their candidate.

I guess the TL;DR version is that the bipartisan support necessary to fix the system just isn't going to happen. Not in an election year, anyway.

Penguin wrote:

Quote :

Another stupid question: Why wasn't the result of the 2004 presidential elections declared void and the elections re-held due to the level of interference in the counting of the votes compromising the integrity of the election results?

Because at the end of the day, the entire election process is so jacked up from gerrymandering alone that there are any number of valid reasons and excuses to question whether the election is 100% valid. Besides which, the Democrats were in a weak position to challenge the 2004 election results since they failed to win Florida for Gore in 2004. Going to such lengths to fight the 2004 election would prove in the minds of many voters that the Democrats would gladly cheat to win.

The first elected official to call for a delay in elections would provide his or her opposing party with all the ammunition they'd need to accuse them of trying to undemocratically hold on to their office.

So any attempt at ensuring the integrity of elections would be seen as undermining the integrity of elections? This explains a lot.

Yeah, pretty much exactly.

You have to remember, the reason why these things have any support in the GOP base is because they're sold as preventing voter fraud. Since Democrats are evil, their natural allies are felons and illegal immigrants, so the Democrats want as many fraudulent voters voting as possible. This isn't about keeping minorities from voting, it's about preventing fraud, and anyone who opposes it approves of undermining the integrity of the election. That's what they believe, anyway.

It's the sort of horseshit that only flies in the always-heightened polarization during an election year.

Well, we've been having elections in my country six months ago, and hardly anyone is impressed with the system.

This is even worse.

WAY worse.

We don't even have voter registration, they just send invitations to vote to anyone over 18.

I guess that's why so many dead ultra-orthodox Jews end up voting.

Oh? Both sides starting to make up people to vote/trying to ban people to vote?

*yawn* Tell me when they do something NEW.

Well, there was that one guy four years ago that handed out flyers saying that Republicans got to vote on Friday and Democrats got to vote on Saturday so if you were going to vote for Obama, you didn't need to show up.

Aggie wrote:

Well, there was that one guy four years ago that handed out flyers saying that Republicans got to vote on Friday and Democrats got to vote on Saturday so if you were going to vote for Obama, you didn't need to show up.

That would have kept everyone who believed him away from the polls, since the election is always on a Tuesday.

SirDixonDongs wrote:

xerrofoot wrote:

Penguin wrote:

Amazing. I now care 100% less about this issue simply because you were the one to start a thread about it. Are you working for the GOP?

No, you're a dick.

doesnt change the fact that yr a complete Cocks McGraw who ruins everything he touches by sheer dint of being a utterly repulsive fucknut

dixondongs I just want you to know that you're my wgw idol god bless your soul.