Picture: White House press secretary Robert Gibbs (R) with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.
Today’s Washington Times has a review of President Obama’s pledge to post legislation online before signing it, where Press Secretary Gibbs is paraphrased:
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the clock starts ticking when a link is posted to bills when they are in their final version, such as a conference report, even if they haven’t passed Congress.
Q Robert, on the signings today, I’m wondering, the President had pledged to put bills up on the Web for five days before he signed legislation. And is that just pretty much out the window?
MR. BURTON: It’s been five days.
MR. GIBBS: I think we posted conference reports several days in advance. I can get you the exact days.
Q The conference reports?
MR. GIBBS: The conference reports that after they’ve voted on become the gross legislation that’s delivered here that the President ultimately signs that becomes public law.
Q So you’re — is that a finalized version of it that went out or –
MR. GIBBS: Well, a conference report, as you know, is an unamendable piece of legislation that has to be approved by both Houses, language has to be simultaneous, it gets sent down here, and we sign it. So if a conference report is — if something is delineated as a conference report or if there’s not a conference committee and there’s a separate piece of legislation, if the Senate passes a bill — if the House and Senate pass different versions of a bill and the House agrees to accede to the Senate version, then the Senate version might be put up before the House votes on it. Once they vote on it, both Houses have passed identical legislation, and it comes down here.
Q So it’s effectively a finalized version. It just hasn’t –
MR. GIBBS: It’s not effectively — it legally is, yes.
Q Okay.
Compare that to this post from WhiteHouse.gov from January 20th:
One significant addition to WhiteHouse.gov reflects a campaign promise from the President: we will publish all non-emergency legislation to the website for five days, and allow the public to review and comment before the President signs it.
The only other update from the White House has come in this post, which says:
The President remains committed to bringing more transparency to government, and in this spirit the White House will continue to publish legislation expected to come to his desk online for public comment as it moves through Congress.
A little clarity would go a long way here. The White House will either start to fulfill campaign promise, whether it’s meaningful or not, or they won’t. The least acceptable choice, though, is to continue to redefine online, or bill.
For a clearer version of the pledge, here’s the version Politifact cites:
“Too often bills are rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them,” Obama’s campaign Web site states . “As president, Obama will not sign any nonemergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House Web site for five days.”
That’s pretty clear. Posting a link from WhiteHouse.gov to THOMAS of a conference report that is expected to pass doesn’t cut it.
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For Immediate Release: December 9, 2008 Contact: Rob Richie (301) 270-4616, rr@fairvote.org
FairVote, a national nonpartisan, nonprofit election reform and voting rights organization, yesterday announced the inaugural winners of its Democracy Innovator awards at the conclusion of a conference about innovative election reforms. FairVote will issue its Democracy Innovator annually in recognition of outstanding local, state and national leaders for their effective advocacy of innovative policies to improve our elections.
This year's 2008 winners are:
---National Reform: Senator Bill Nelson (FL) won for developing and introducing an omnibus package of needed electoral reforms that include direct election of the president and innovative ways to improve voter registration, secure elections and meaningful primaries. Sen. Nelson's legislative counsel Matt Nosanchuk accepted the award on behalf on Sen Nelson
---State Reform: Maryland state senator Jamin Raskin and Maryland state representative Sheila Hixson won for their leadership in Maryland in 2007 becoming the first state to adopt the National Popular Vote plan for presidential elections and for advancing several innovative proposals encouraging voter participation. Sen. Raskin accepted the award for himself and on behalf of Delegate Hixson.
---Local Reform: Shelby County (TN) commissioner and University of Memphis law professor Steven Mulroy won for his effective advocacy of instant runoff voting, which was supported this year by 71% of voters for future city elections in the City of Memphis, and for his ground-breaking law review articles about proportional voting systems and the Voting Rights Act. Commissioner Mulroy accepted the award.
"Each of these leaders has been a true inspiration to Americans across the country," said Rob Richie, executive director of FairVote. "They embody the spirit of innovation and bold leadership that defines our country."
FairVote is a non-profit, nonpartisan organization that promotes such electoral reforms as universal voter registration; advance voter registration and civic learning for 16-year-olds; instant runoff voting for one-winner offices; the National Popular Vote plan for presidential elections; and proportional voting and redistricting reform for legislative elections. Musician and author Krist Novoselic heads FairVote's board, where he is joined by the New Yorker's Hendrik Hertzberg, former presidential candidate John B. Anderson, Advancement Project counsel Edward Hailes, Jr. and other reform leaders. For more information, contact Rob Richie at (301) 270-4616.
-end-
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- Court Rules Wal-Mart Parody is Protected Free Speech: Public Citizen won a resounding victory for free speech! In the case, a federal judge in Georgia ruled that parody Web sites that criticize the business practices of Wal-Mart are protected under the First Amendment. Learn more.
- Hollywood Star Tells Dangers of Mislabeled Drugs, Devices: Lawmakers got an earful from Hollywood actor Dennis Quaid when he testified about how his twins were almost killed when they received the wrong drug as part of a labeling mixup. Learn more about Public Citizen's involvement as part of Quaid's legal team and about his testimony.
- Court: No More Secrecy for Crash Data: An appellate court ruled that information automobile and tire manufacturers submit to the government about crashes resulting in death, injury and property damage should be available to the public. Learn more.
- Bush Signs Strong Product Safety Bill Into Law: A new law that will overhaul product safety and bolster the Consumer Product Safety Commission requires the testing of toys and infant products before they reach store shelves, as well as the creation of the first publicly accessible consumer complaint database. Learn more.
- Federal Government Releases Early Warning Data on Autos: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration made its Early Warning Reporting data available on its www.safercar.gov Web site in response to Public Citizen's successful lawsuits and Freedom of Information Act requests. Learn more.
- Fluoroquinolone Antibiotic Leads to Tendon Ruptures: Public Citizen sued the FDA in federal court to force the agency to act on a petition seeking stricter warnings for the antibiotic. Learn more.
- Bills Would Restore Rights of Patients Injured by Faulty Medical Devices: Public Citizen urged Congress to promptly pass legislation that would restore the rights of patients injured by defective or inadequately labeled medical devices to seek compensation for their injuries from the device manufacturers. Learn more.
- Public Citizen to Congress: Reform Oil Industry, Financial Markets: Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen's Energy Program, told a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee that uncompetitive practices by oil companies and manipulation of the market by financial speculators are two culprits behind soaring gas prices. Learn more.
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VoteWatch culls breaking news on voting issues from around the web, focusing in particular on key swing states where problems (ranging from voter registration to machine malfunction to alleged fraud or suppression) are anticipated. You can see the latest news below, but if you see a report that we haven’t caught, please let us know.
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Promises, Promises: A Fiscal Voter Guide to the 2008 Election presents a summary of the major policy proposals and the costs of the policies forwarded by Senator McCain and Senator Obama’s presidential campaigns. Each candidate’s policies are broken into four categories: tax, health care, energy, and other spending/savings. Policies that would enlarge the deficit (or reduce the surplus) are shown as negative numbers, and those that would reduce the deficit (or increase the surplus) are shown as positive numbers. The guide is not intended to express a view for or against either candidate or any specific policy proposal.
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Government reform orgs. deliver news on major events within their areas of expertise.
As General Election Day- Tuesday, November 4th- approaches, many public interest groups have stepped up to serve we, the people- the voters. This nation has already seen allegations of abuses from both major political parties. These volunteer jobs available right now address many types of election problems and help voters enjoy a smooth, trouble-free voting experience.
All Things Reform has a list of these volunteer opportunities in the lefthand column of this blog. Just find what you are most interested in, and go to those web sites for instructions on how you can help. Most voters will cast their ballots on Tuesday, but our help is needed right now for early and absentee voters, and to prepare for helping on General Election Day.
Get involved now, and above all, vote! Thanks
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Image via WikipediaGovernment reform orgs. deliver news on major events within their areas of expertise. From: MAPLight
"Remote Control" - House raises 79% of funds from out-of-district
As U.S. House members crisscross their districts looking for votes, they fail to mention that a shocking 79% of their campaign funds come from outside of the districts where their voters live. MAPLight.org released our new report, "Remote Control," this morning, revealing this and other stunning findings:
91 House members raised 90% or more of their campaign funds from outside their districts.
Only 13 House members, three percent, raised more than half of their funds from in-district, where their constituents live.
Of the top 20 Zip Codes contributing to U.S. House members, 15 are in Washington, DC and the surrounding area.
Our Remote Control report was featured yesterday evening on the National Public Radio show Markeplace, which reaches 4.5 million listeners each week. In the Marketplace story, Representative John Tanner (D-TN) defends raising 99% of funds from outside his district by saying, "In this town you have to raise money to participate in the system. I don't like the system, but that is the system that we deal with."
When elected officials like Rep. Tanner try to disassociate themselves from our broken money and politics system, it paves the way for change. Make a contribution to MAPLight.org and support our research so we can continue shining a light on the connection between money and politics.
See our full report on out-of-district campaign contributions, including maps and figures for your Representative, at: Remote Control.
Please help us spread the word about our broken money and politics system--forward this email to a friend. Thank you for your support.
Dan Newman Executive Director
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All Things Reform now has even more voter volunteer opportunities in its lefthand column. A second list for it was made, because Blogger.com, the host blog service from Google, has broken feed modules. Nevertheless, there are still links in the lists that take you right to the volunteer opportunities.
General Election Day is coming upon us- it will be on Tuesday, November 4th, next week. Above all, please vote; the volunteer opportunities listed here include tweeting your voting problems and video recording and uploading your experience. There are many more opportunities that you can engage in, the most important of which is being a poll worker (please sign up soon!) and poll watcher.
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Image via WikipediaGovernment reform orgs. deliver news on major events within their areas of expertise. From: Change Congress
[We are in an important phase of Change Congress' project to bring the most important government reforms of today to Congress. Please help. -David Weller]
A democracy crisis
Just over 6 months ago, I agreed with Joe Trippi to help start a movement for fundamental reform in Congress. We understood that this was a long term project. But as we felt then -- and as the events of the last 6 months only confirmed -- we face, as Al Gore has put it, "a democracy crisis." And until we fix this, we won't fix any of the critical problems that face our society.
Many of you urged me to do this. And so I'm asking now for a favor in return. We've started. We've made important progress. But we need you now to help us make an important mark before this election comes to an end. Will you pester your member of Congress today?
Our first project has been to get Members of Congress as well as candidates for Congress to take a stand on our issues of reform. We don't demand that they agree with any particular reform (yet). We simply call upon them to have the courage at least to say where they stand.
The five people you see listed below are the first five Members of Congress to take a stand: Barney Frank (D-MA), Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), Jim Cooper (D-TN), Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), and John Tierney (R-MA). Four Democrats, and one Republican have signed a pledge to support planks in our platform for reform. These 5 are joined now by over 200 challengers, meaning so far we have about a quarter of all candidates for Congress who have taken a stand.
That's a start. But it's not good enough. And so I'm asking again: please help us get Members and candidates to take a stand. You can join our "pester" campaign by clicking below, and we'll make it extremely easy for you to write, or call, or email members or candidates who have not yet taken a stand.
This should be a simple thing in a democracy: Tell us, candidate, what you believe. It should be a hard thing to hide. Yet in the politics of today, the simple thing is to hide. Help us make the simple hard. Thank you,
Lawrence Lessig Founder, Change Congress
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The Pentagon, US Deparment of Defense. Image via WikipediaGovernment reform orgs. deliver news on major events within their areas of expertise. From: Judicial Watch [Our nation's armed services men and women deserve every assistance needed to get their vote out this upcoming Election Day. -David Weller]
Will overseas military have their vote counted?
You may recall that in July columnist Robert Novak made the startling assertion that many overseas military personnel might not have their votes counted in this year's election. Novak noted that according to the Federal Election Assistance Commission overseas and absentee military voting rates were only 5.5% for the 2006 mid-term elections. Based on these figures, some, including Judicial Watch, began to question whether the Department of Defense is doing what it should to make sure that members of the American Armed Forces stationed overseas will be able to cast their votes.
Here's a bit more from Novak's article, which can be read in its entirety here:
"Nobody who has studied the question objectively thinks there has been any improvement since 2006, and that is a scandal. Retired Marine Corps Capt. Charles Henry wrote in the July issue of the U.S. Naval Institute's Proceedings Magazine: 'While virtually everyone involved . . . seems to agree that military people deserve at least equal opportunity when it comes to having their votes counted, indications are that in November 2008, many thousands of service members who try to vote will do so in vain.'"
Following the Novak article, on August 7, 2008, Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Department of Defense to obtain as much information as possible regarding the voting process for overseas military personnel.
The Department of Defense failed to respond to our request within legally mandated 20-day period forcing Judicial Watch to file a lawsuit on Wednesday. Here is a summary of the information we're after:
All documents concerning or relating to the Department's procedure of providing members of the Armed Forces with Federal Post Card Applications;
All documents concerning or relating to how the Department informs members of the Armed Forces of their right and ability to vote in the 2008 Federal Election;
All documents concerning or relating to how the votes of members of the Armed Forces will be collected and counted for the 2008 Federal Election;
All documents concerning or relating to the January 15, 2008 deadline for providing members of the Armed Forces with post card applications;
All documents concerning or relating to Armed Forces Voter Week 2008; and
It is beyond shameless that we are now less than three weeks out from the 2008 elections and we still do not know whether military personnel and their families stationed overseas will be able to exercise effectively their basic right to vote. What a scandal it will be if large numbers of our overseas military do not have their votes counted this Election Day. You can be sure we will continue to press the Defense Department to stop stonewalling so the American people can know with confidence that the voting rights of the American Armed Forces are protected. It is the least we can do for those who pay the price for our freedoms, which, of course, includes the right to vote. I'd be interested in hearing from military members and their families about this issue so please contact us with any concerns or experiences you'd like to share.
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Brad Roach Can Finally Bring Accountability to Diebold Nationally, If He Can Get Elected in Tucson... Blogged by Jim March on 10/18/2008 3:37PM Guest Blogged by Jim March
Folks, I'm writing to tell you personally about the most important election in America for election integrity: putting Brad Roach into the Pima County (Tucson) Arizona county attorney's office. Why do I believe it's the most important election in America in regard to the issue of Election Integrity? Click the cartoon above and/or read on...
If Roach is elected:
He'll have all the powers of a DA, including criminal subpoenas;
He'll also have control over the county's civil lawsuit division including the ability to sue over fraud;
HE GETS IT ON ELECTION INTEGRITY and is saying so publicly with a bit of humor. (See his must-view cartoon, part of which is linked above.)
As I write this, I've been involved in the non-partisan fight to reform elections since mid-2003. Many of you know who I am, perhaps through my work with BlackBoxVoting.org; we may not agree on every point but I don't think anyone will disagree that I've been in the fight.
We're not getting to the goal fast enough. The goal, the real goal, should be to expose what's wrong with the current election oversight process. The National Assoc. of Election Directors (NASED) and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) --- the Federal-level bureaucracies that have allegedly "managed" voting system testing and certification in succession, with largely the same staff overseeing the process in each body --- have been a grotesque failures. Diebold (their election division's new name, "Premier", triggers my gag reflex), Sequoia Voting Systems, ES&S and others have subverted all citizen oversight and we can prove it down here in Tucson...except that we can't get the issue into court.
We, the people, lack "standing". According to the courts, it's not us poor voters who have been ripped off, it's the counties who've paid for these junk systems. There are supposed to be processes to allow citizens to sue on the government's behalf, but the case in California along those lines was subverted by the state AG, and more recently the Federal-level system was closed to us by a Supreme Court decision.
So what do we do?
Well, we need to still cover the basics: more research, LOTS of watch-dogging during the election periods in particular, public records digging, exit polls, etc. You can bet that's what I'm up to.
But while we do all that, let's attack the weak spot: the structure will stand so long as nobody with the power to investigate criminal actions objects. So far not one criminal subpoena has been filed in relation to voting systems, and in several cases officials who could have done do something have covered it up. Think about that.
Brad Roach can change all that, and he's promised to do so if he's elected. He's running against a 12-year incumbent who has been one of the main "blockers", along with the Arizona state AG (Terry Goddard). One of the critical things at issue is whether the paper ballots from the 2006 "Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) bond race" in Pima County should be examined.
In this video, you can see local activists in Pima, including myself (a Libertarian), Democratic Party Attorney Bill Risner and Democrat John Brakey confronting the Democratic AG Goddard on his stonewalling. Brad Roach, a Republican, is also seen in the group confronting Goddard...
Like Sarasota FL in 2006 (where 18,000 votes simply disappeared on electronic voting systems in an incredibly close Congressional election) and Georgia in 2002 (when Diebold illegally inserted uncertified patches into the voting machines just before an election "upset" that unseated Rep. Max Cleland), the Pima County RTA race is one of those elections that just plain looks foul.
By a miracle, and citizen outcry, the paper ballots from the election in question still exist and a current court case is deciding whether or not they'll be destroyed. While a hand-recount of the election is illegal under state election code, reviewing them to determine whether a crime was committed isn't, so long as someone with the proper authority does so. Brad Roach will have that authority if he's elected.
If you can't, at least DIGG or REDDIT up-vote this story at the buttons below (and please Slashdot this article if you're a member over there!) as we must get this message to the computer-tech community and out beyond just the election integrity activists.
This is for all the marbles, folks. This one matters. Please help.
==
Jim March is a member of the Libertarian party, a trans-partisan election integrity advocate, a board member at BlackBoxVoting.org, and currently active in the Arizona election reform movement led by AuditAZ.
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Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. Image via WikipediaGovernment reform orgs. deliver news on major events within their areas of expertise. From: TPM Muckraker [Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner acts quickly and beats Friday deadline on state voter registration rules. -David Weller]
The justices on Friday overruled a federal appeals court that had ordered Ohio's top elections official to do more to help counties verify voter eligibility.
Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, faced a deadline of Friday to set up a system to provide local officials with names of newly registered voters whose driver's license numbers or Social Security numbers on voter registration forms don't match records in other government databases.
The ruling could make it easier to vote for thousands of Ohioans whose voter registration information did not match up with other government records.
And the McCain campaign has already responded. On a conference call with reporters just now, campaign manager Rick Davis said: "If you look at what the ruling said, it said that the Republican party didn't have standing in order to bring the suit, it didn't make a decision on the merits of the case." Davis added: "I think that the Secretary of State ought to do her job."
[TPM Muckraker article accepts comments]
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Image via WikipediaGovernment reform orgs. deliver news on major events within their areas of expertise. From: The BRAD BLOG
[Republican presidential nominee John McCain went below and beneath the call of duty by alleging election fraud- if it happens it only happens on Election Day, November 4, 2008. -David Weller]
John McCain Continues to Put Winning by 'Destroying the Fabric of Democracy' First, and His Country and its Democratic Ideals a Distant Second
As Some (But Not Enough) Republicans Back Away From the GOP's ACORN 'Voter Fraud' Hoax...
"There's some who sort of enjoy chaos. That's kind of what's going on more than fraud." - Republican FL Gov. Charlie Crist
Hopefully, soon will come the GOP's ACORN "voter fraud" fraud backlash, though I realize that's still very much a hope given the continuous rightwing media's full-throated reporting attempt to punk American democracy in regards this issue.
Palm Beach Post, thankfully, bothered to do some actual reporting yesterday, and led with the following good news:
Republican National Committee officials are turning up the heat on a left-leaning organization linked with Sen. Barack Obama that tried to register "Mickey Mouse" to vote this summer, but state officials say accusations of voter fraud in Florida are mostly unfounded.
The story goes on to quote FL Secretary of State Kurt Browning who says: "'we have not seen a persistent problem across the state of Florida' with registration fraud by ACORN or other groups."
And FL's Republican Governor Charlie Crist who says: "There's some who sort of enjoy chaos. That's kind of what's going on more than fraud."
Bingo, Charlie. And rather ironic, given the outrageous statement John McCain made during last night's debate; the GOP's own far-worse-than-ACORN's record of registration form problems in California; Crist's own record of voter purges in his own state; and the Republican Party's dismal history of trying to use ACORN at the last minute, just before elections, in order to wreak the "chaos" that Crist was referring to...
John McCain: 'Destroying the Fabric of Democracy'
Said the once-honorable McCain during last night's debate: "We need to know the full extent of Senator Obama's relationship with ACORN, who is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy."
So who's really 'one of the greatest frauds'? And who's really "destroying the fabric of democracy" here? Even ABC's Jake Tapper called that claim "so hyperbolic I don't even know where to begin," and Dahlia Lithwick at Slate tonight says "Even for McCain that was a little bit of breathless chest-heaving."
It's also no small point that the comments above come from FL's Crist and Browning. Those two have been in the process of purging thousands of legal Florida voters from the rolls based on the flawed "No Match, No Vote" concept which dumps thousands of legal voters from the rolls simply because they do not have a perfect match on their registration forms with either the state's Dept. of Motor Vehicles or the U.S. Social Security databases.
Eg., If I'm registered to vote as "Brad Friedman", but my driver's license says "Bradley Friedman", I can be tossed from the rolls, along with thousands of others, under the sort of strict matching that Crist/Browning are now allowing in their state.
That same sort of "perfect match" test, previously approved by a wholly politicized U.S. DoJ, resulted in the purging of some 26% of new voters in CA in 2006, and 43% purged in Los Angeles County alone, before the policy was trashed in this state.
That's a similar type of database cross-checking that OH Sec. of State Jennifer Brunner is being forced to make following a Republican lawsuit brought against her this week. She's now had to file an emergency appeal at the Supreme Court, to avoid the "chaos" being brought about in Ohio, after the federal appeals court ordered her to change the state's policies by Friday. Republicans had filed suit alleging 200,000 improper voters might have recently signed onto the Buckeye State voting rolls.
Same Old Desperate GOP Attempts to Effect Elections
The original EAC report, before it was re-written without the agreement of the authors, noted "there is widespread but not unanimous agreement that there is little polling place fraud." The only dissenting voice to make up that "not unanimous agreement", was a member of the now-defunct "non-partisan" American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR), who The BRAD BLOG was the first to out, back in 2005 as nothing more than a phony GOP front-group pushing for voter-suppression legislation, and publishing propaganda to support it.
The report, after being rewritten by the EAC (chaired, at the time by Paul DiGregorio, a Missouri colleague of the ACVR's founder, Bush/Cheney national general counsel, Mark F. "Thor" Hearne) rewrote the above to read instead: "there is a great deal of debate on the pervasiveness of fraud."
So it's an old scam, but one that's being perfected now that the media is almost entirely controlled, wall-to-wall, by Rightwingers.
Back in 2004, Michelle Malkin and wingnut "media" outlet Newsmax (along with many others of her ilk), alleged ACORN "voter fraud" in Ohio, just days before the Presidential election. In that case, both of them had falsely reported that ACORN was registering terrorists to vote in the Buckeye State.
Despite all the phony charges and bogus lawsuits against ACORN in 2004 having fully collapsed by the next year, the same nonsense was drudged up again in 2006.
After the Bush Administration had managed to purge a number of their own U.S. Attorneys because they refused to bring phony ACORN "voter fraud" charges during the previous election, their new USA in Missouri was kind enough to bring several indictments just days before an incredibly tight Senate race in the state. We would later learn that bringing such indictments at that time, so close to an election, was in strict violation of the DoJ's written policies.
Those 2006 indictments in Missouri --- the state was later described by McClatchy as "Ground Zero" for the GOP's "voter fraud" scam --- were the topic of an extraordinary Senate Judiciary hearing, finally convened after the Democrats took over Congress in 2006. The charges were brought by new Bush puppet U.S. Attorney, Bradley Schlozman, who was confronted about them in the must-watch exchange below, with Patrick Leahy (D-VT)...
Schlozman was later forced to retract his testimony, where he had blamed the DOJ's Public Integrity unit for his bringing the prosecutions.
GOP Registration Fraud Outpaces ACORN
Finally, Steven Rosenfeld filed a superb report yesterday at AlterNet, pointing out, ironically enough, that the California GOP had the same voter registration error problems as ACORN in 2006. Only much worse...
Faked names on voter registration forms. Error rates as high as 60 percent. Firing the people responsible for these errors. Investigations launched by local and state police. Sound familiar? This is not ACORN in the 2008 election's final days.
This is the California Republican Party and its contractors in 2006, when the same problems that are now dogging ACORN and providing political fodder for GOP attacks plagued an effort by California Republicans to register 750,000 people.
Rosenfeld's excellent reporting goes on to "put ACORN's errors in perspective" by noting...
More than 120 million Americans may vote in November. ACORN, which hired 13,000 workers to register 1.3 million voters, had a few bad hires - like any big company.
But unlike the California GOP in its 2006 voter drive, ACORN has a policy of telling local election officials when it believes it has fraudulent registrations. It is required by states to submit all voter applications and urges election officials to prosecute knowing mistakes. The current case against ACORN comes from its own disclosures.
...before noting that ACORN's estimated error rate on registrations seems to be "less than one percent".
In 2006, contractors for the California Republican Party had local error rates of 60 percent in San Bernadino County, the Los Angeles Times reported, where 1,800 out of 3,000 submitted registrations were incomplete and could not be processed.
How does ACORN's nationwide error rate compare to other voter registration problems? The data is thin, academics say. But two statistics are telling.
A 2007 National Science Foundation report for the U.S. Election Assistance Commission found county election workers who entered voter information into county databases made mistakes 5 percent of time, if poorly trained. This is not the same as making up a voter's name, which is a prosecutable offense, but not all of ACORN's errors are fake names. Some are the same people filling out more then one voter registration form.
This month in Columbus, Ohio, Franklin County Board of Elections Deputy Director Matt Damschroder said about 2.5 percent of the 200,000 new voter registrations turned into his office in 2008 could not be processed because of typos, unreadable writing or missing information. He said that error rate was pretty good.
Moreover, in gathering signatures for ballot measures, it is a common practice for their sponsors to turn in "150 percent of the legal requirement," said Richard Winger, editor of Ballot Access News. "With some people, you can't read their hand writing."
Nobody in the national media is praising ACORN for an accuracy rate of 99 percent in its voter registration drive. Nobody praised the California Republican Party for an accuracy rate that probably also was in the 90th percentile in 2006.
Presuming the GOP's California failures were accidents and not meant to defraud the democratic process, much less create an opportunity for Republican voter fraud (I realize that's a big presumption), that doesn't even begin to explain the purposeful destruction, by outfits paid by the RNC, of Democratic registration forms alleged to have occurred in in Nevada, and elsewhere where Team Bush actually paid millions to such operatives, and then tried to hide that fact from public disclosure.
And what about those 75,000 voter registration application cards discovered "in a construction trash bin at Atlanta Technical College in southwest Atlanta" in 2007? Did John McCain, the GOP, and Fox "News" forget to get exercised about that one for some strange reason?
Real Issues Ignored, the 'Fabric of Democracy' Shredded
In the meantime, the very real concerns about the impending 2008 election are still being largely ignored. Never mind, for the moment, that our voting machines don't work, and that there is absolutely no way to confirm the accuracy of at least 30% of America's votes which will be counted on unverifiable Direct Recording Election (DRE, usually touch-screen) voting machines. The real November Surprise is likely to have been spelled out for us in advance, but largely ignored by the bulk of the media, in several recent reports.
CBS News reported on Sept. 30th, on two different reports, by two different public advocacy groups noting tens of thousands of recently purged voters.
New York Times reported on Oct. 8th, on its own investigation revealing that tens of thousands of voters have been illegally purged in at least six swing states, based on erroneous use of the U.S. Social Security database for matching.
Of course, The BRAD BLOG has had our virtual hair on fire about all of the above, and much more, for years.
Unfortunately, the good guys don't have a Fox "News", a Rush Limbaugh, a Sean Hannity, or even a national candidate who is willing to stand up and tell the truth to a ready-to-listen national audience about the real scams being played out right now on American voters. And only occasionally, does anybody in the corporate mainstream media get the ACORN "voter fraud" fairy tale close to correct.
Though his desperate, dangerous and destructive, derision was misdirected at ACORN last night, instead of back at himself and his own party, where such charges rightly belong, John McCain was correct in one sense.
He and the GOP are "now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy."
As Lithwick notes at Slate tonight, in a just-in must-read, all of the disingenuous sturm und drang about creating just the impression of voter fraud. With that impression, the U.S. Supreme Court has already expressed its willingness to allow for still more draconian Photo ID restrictions --- sure to disenfranchise millions of minority, elderly and student (read: Democratic-leaning) voters --- at the polling place. Just like their recent decision to allow an Indiana Photo ID law that disenfranchised vets, 90-year old nuns, college students and untold others, and Florida's "No Match, No Vote" rule being implemented by Crist and Browning (even as they decry the "chaos" being caused by their fellow Republicans over ACORN.)
In McCain's pretend bloating and blustering last night about ACORN "destroying the fabric of democracy", despite lack of any evidence of any such voter fraud, he was, as Lithwick points out, "either deliberately or unconsciously encouraging his own supporters to grab a handful of the stuff and start ripping."
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Said the once-honorable McCain during last night's debate: "We need to know the full extent of Senator Obama's relationship with ACORN, who is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy."![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vqkUqnMJqVQKoJo_yDdv3M2zBq-7QUaVgrwo3CpAN_U66ePSbm3Cu_8DdsuDALBFbCFMSCESMaAWTv2fbIGtLe72InFwwwdsPdE-9MH0QvjoLg6v9DtyOjyvuOlRAeNID8rymudCVc9qBcLcq70Tqp=s0-d)