Via Memeorandum, I see that the “American Center for Voting Rights” has just issued a report stating the following:
The ACVR Legislative Fund report, “Vote Fraud, Intimidation & Suppression In The 2004 Presidential Election,” finds that while Democrats routinely accuse Republicans of voter intimidation and suppression, neither party has a clean record on the issue. The report finds that paid Democrat operatives were far more involved in voter intimidation and suppression activities than were their Republican counterparts during the 2004 presidential election. Examples include paid Democrat operatives charged with slashing tires on GOP get-out-the-vote vans in Milwaukee and an Ohio court order stopping Democrat operatives from calling voters telling them the wrong date for the election and faulty polling place information.
Sorry folks. I am calling bullshit on this group and on this report. The group was newly formed this year, it appears to be made up of nothing but Republicans, and for what it is worth, non-partisan groups concerned with voting rights don’t issue reports that amount to little more than “Democrats are worse. Neener Neener Neener!”
This appears to be nothing more than propaganda, and I will treat it as such. And since some of you will doubt the partisan nature of this report, here is an excerpt from the executive summary:
While Democrats routinely accuse Republicans of voter intimidation and suppression, neither party has a clean record on the issue. Instead, the evidence shows that Democrats waged aggressive intimidation and suppression campaigns against Republican voters and volunteers in 2004. Republicans have not been exempt from similar criticism in this area, as alleged voter intimidation and suppression activity by GOP operatives led the Republican National Committee to sign a consent decree repudiating such tactics in 1982. However, a careful review of the facts shows that in 2004, paid Democrat operatives were far more involved in voter intimidation and suppression efforts than their Republican counterparts.
I have no problem with the RNC paying for people to examine incidences of voter fraud and intimidation by Democrats and reporting them. But no one gets a free pass to have what amounts to little more than a partisan front group pretend to be a non-partisan ‘voter rights group.’ It isn’t acceptable when Democrats do it, and it isn’t acceptable when Republicans do it.
*** Update ***
The story has been yanked from the AZ website, and lefty bloggers are having a field day.
SomeCallMeTim
Why do you hate America, John?
Don Surber
More important, why do you hate bullshit :-)
Stormy70
Whatever. I hope Wisconsin can purge all the dead Democrats from the rolls in time for the next election, but I won’t hold my breath. I guess noone here will remember the shots fired into RNC buildings or the tire slashings that occurred by Democratic operatives that went on in the last election. I don’t know about this group, but the voting shenanigans by Democrats are known nation-wide.
Another Jeff
I never heard of this group, so they may very well be partisan hacks, but considering the ungodly amount of Democrats that think fraud and intimidation was started by Republicans in Florida in 2000, it doesn’t hurt to remind them every now and then, not that they’ll listen.
I’m a lifelong Philadelphian, Democrats have controlled the city for 60 years, and there hasn’t been an honest election in this town since, well, never.
neil
You can tell they’re not non-partisan because they use the phrase “the Democrat party.”
TallDave
Well, it does seem to be partisan, but at least those things actually happened unlike, for instance, the black voter intimidation we still hear about from Jess Jackson and the NAACP.
It would be nice to see a non-partisan report, though.
TallDave
Specifically, the 2000 FL allegations that were investgated and found to be false.
mac Buckets
It’s so hard to tell who really commits vote fraud these days.
Ahhhh, if only we could we get back to the simpler times, when the NAACP could just pay an ex-con in crack cocaine to forge Ohio Voter Registration cards for Mary Poppins, Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Michael Jordan, Dick Tracy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Brett Favre, George Foreman, and anyone else he could think of in his crackhead state.
But I’m sentimental, I suppose…
carpeicthus
Anyone who uses the word “Democrat” as an adjective where “Democratic” should go is, ipso facto, an asshole and not worth listening to. For Pete’s sake, even Stormy uses it right.
Marit
Please note that the Arizona Republic has taken the story off their website. [It is no longer available at the original link – http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0802votefraud02.html – or through an archive search on “Voting Rights”.]
Perhaps they are now questioning the objectivity of this GOP-developed document?
Rick
I would welcome in-depth scrutiny of this organization by the major media, if it’s accompanied by in-depth reporting on the matter of vote fraud in America.
But I expect the “speak truth to power” journos would rather just drop the matter, in order to protect the myth of Democratic representation of the honest little guy, and the “best in all of us.”
Cordially…
Rome Again
Bravo John, and I wholeheartedly agree, we should not be more concerned about our parties then we are about our country, and more importantly, our personal integrity. Had the exact opposite report come out smearing Republicans without nary a word of the behavior of Democrats, I’d be suspicious of that too!
Good on you.
HH
Ah for the days when partisan propaganda on election irregularities was government-funded (and wildly inaccurate).
debraz
TallDave –
ahem… “The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other civil rights groups today announced the settlement of a class-action lawsuit filed against the state of Florida and seven counties after many African American and other voters were disenfranchised during the presidential election on Nov. 7, 2000.
Some of the provisions of the agreements include:
Central Voter Database
Eligible voters who were removed from the voter rolls in error will be identified and restored to the lists. New procedures will be implemented to help prevent mistakes, such as misidentifying voters as having been convicted of a felony, or incorrectly identifying voters as having registered elsewhere, from occurring in the future as the new statewide Central Voter Database is put in place.
Poll worker Training
The Division of Elections has prepared a poll worker manual that provides examples of election administration procedures as required by the new election laws. Under this agreement they will collect data on how elections are run throughout the state, including whether the procedures outlined in the manual are actually followed. The Division will report to the Legislature, beginning in 2003, on the extent of variations across the state in Election Day procedures and may make recommendations to improve effectiveness and bring about greater uniformity in a wide variety of specific areas. Florida citizens who are registered and seek- to vote should have an equal opportunity to cast their ballot.
Alternative Voting Procedures
These include provisional ballots and voting by affirmation. Counties will be encouraged to notify people who vote by alternative procedures if their vote is not counted and to give them an explanation of why the decision was made not to count their vote.
Voter Registration
The State has created a position for a National Voter Registration Act (a.k.a. “motor voter”) Coordinator within the Division of Elections who will help the Secretary of State carry out his responsibility to coordinate the state’s activities under the law. The NVRA Coordinator will be authorized to visit agencies and offices within the state that are required to offer their clients and consumers voter registration opportunities, to collect data from the agencies/offices, and to provide training for agency and office personnel when needed to remedy or prevent noncompliance with the NVRA.”
Kimmitt
This sort of thing is precisely why I like to spend time on this site.
PlacitasRoy
“Specifically, the 2000 FL allegations that were investgated and found to be false.”
What a bullshit or ignorant statement. Only someone who is uninformed, propagandized, willfully ignorant, or just plain stupid could make such a dumbsass statement.
Disenfanchise legal voters, stop the recount, and bury the results of the The media consortium that included The NY Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Tribune Company, The Washington Post, The Associated Press, The St. Petersburg Times, The Palm Beach Post and CNN. The group hired the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago in January to examine the ballots.
The data produced by the ballot review allows scrutiny of the disputed Florida vote under a large number of situations and using a variety of different standards that might have applied in a hand recount, including the appearance of a dimple, a chad dangling by one or more corners and a cleanly punched card. The result clearly demonstrated that Al Gore won the 2000 Florida vote. “In a finding rich with irony,” note the Times writers, “a statewide recount — could have produced enough votes to tilt the election his [Gore’s] way, no matter what standard was chosen to judge voter intent.”
If the Repugs weren’t stealing the election, why did they sue to stop the count? Regardless of what you’ve heard from Lush. O’Liely, et al there never was never a recount of the votes. Those damn old trial lawyers Shrub and the boys hired took the case to the activist judges, who absolutely violated their “states rights” philosophy. http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0103-32.htm
TallDave
I’m sorry, but I live next to Chicago. It is utterly impossible for me to take the Democrat(ic) Party seriously on the issue of voter fraud, especially when they keep going ballistic over the idea of voter ID requirements.
What a bullshit or ignorant statement. Only someone who is uninformed, propagandized, willfully ignorant, or just plain stupid could make such a dumbsass statement.
Your statement is “rich with irony.” as it seems to apply to you pretty well. Your link has nothing to do with the allegations that black FL voters were intimidated.
TallDave
debraz,
Your post also has nothing to do with the claim black voters were intimidated.
Not “were confused by the ballot,” or “were removed from the voting lists in error” or any of the other things in the lawsuit.
Learn to read if you want to have a serious debate.
TallDave
And finally, while it has nothing to do with my original point, it’s amazing to me that lefty nutjobs try to spin the consortium results, which found that Bush would have won the (illegal) hand recount under the FL standard, into a suggestion Gore could have won. Even for an article that compares Bush to Stalin, that’s pretty crazy.
Avedon
But, the consrium did find that Gore would have won under a state-wide recount.
I don’t know where you get the idea that the recounts were illegal. They are clearly provided for – required, in fact – under the Florida administrative code.
Ted
I donât know about this group, but the voting shenanigans by Democrats are known nation-wide.
As are the well-known flyers posted on telephone/power line poles in heavily black neighborhoods of major and minor cities in every Pres. election telling them, usually something like 1: If you don’t get around to voting on Tuesday, you can still vote on Wednesday, and 2: all tickets/warrants MUST be dealt with BEFORE you can vote. The flyers never have identification on them, and the people who put them up are never, ever found.
Please spare me the whining exclusively about allegations of evil liberals slashing tires.
Redleg
The question as to which party most violates the voting rights statutes is irrelevant to me. It’s about fucking time our nation straightened out it’s voting process so that we all, Dems, Repubs, and Independents, can be more confident that our elections are legitimate. Anyone who denies there are problems with voting or who accepts the problems we’ve had in the past is an ignorant putz.
Sojourner
It was the SC that behaved unconstitutionally by refusing to allow the recount. Can’t let states rights get in the way of getting their man in the WH.
EasyRider
Looks like all those dead Democrats’ votes seem to counted for GOP candidates. I wonder what those brain dead Democrats were do that for?
TallDave
But, the consrium did find that Gore would have won under a state-wide recount.
Which is great, except for the small problem Gore didn’t ask for a statewide recount.
I donât know where you get the idea that the recounts were illegal.
Because they were against the law. The law says the count must be reported by a certain date, not whenever the powers-that-be feel like it. They also lacked a consistent standard.
TallDave
Thanks Sojourner, it’s always nice to hear from the loony left. Reminds why I don’t vote Democrat despite agreeing with a lot of their positions.
Jason
No one has even mentioned the New Hampshire phone-jamming scandal of 2002, where the GOP hired a telephone bank to make endless robo-calls to a Democratic get out the vote phone room, thus tying up their lines. I believe their have been actual indictments in this case, including some people who are close to Bush.
When Republicans to dirty tricks, the REALLY do dirty tricks, not just small stuff.
Dothehop
After hearing all of these arguments and all of the whining about voter fraud from both sides, I will say that here in Oregon and recently added to Washington, vote by mail is the only way to go. It is true that there are small problems of voter fraud, but the last time I looked, no one had any problems with an Oregon vote. And it saves money and time for people, allowing them to vote at their leisure. Threats of police arrests don’t have merit, such a nice tactic to pull against minority groups, as I don’t believe the police could stake out all of the mail boxes. The biggest disenfranchisemnt of voters occurs because there is no incentive to go and waste half a working day standing in line to cast a vote for someone you don’t like over someone you really hate.
Stormking
Its pretty easy to see who cheats the most. Just look at who is fighting voter reform. If the right thinks the left cheats “too” (funny) then lets have a paper trail.
Jess
Good call, John! I read about this on the Moderate Voice earlier, and was wondering what your take on it would be.
This is yet another issue that should not be framed as left or right; all of us, as fellow Americans, need to unite on this and push for a cleaner system. No one in power really wants democracy. When the Dems have control, they suppress the right-wing vote, and the GOP is in control they suppress the left-wing vote. No surprises there. Like so many issues (such as pollution, poor national security, education, etc.) this should not be something that divides us, so let’s quit the blame game and start talking about reform measures that work better for us all. (and now for a chorus of Kumbaya…)
Sojourner
Look it up, asshole. There is a procedure in place in the Constitution to allow the legislative branch to sort it out. The SC kept that procedure from happening.
bains
I’m curious… Has anyone actually read the report? Or is the fact that some of the authors have Republican credentials the only criticism? And do we really want to summarily reject anothers conclusion solely based upon which party they happen to reside?
Ted
Looks like all those dead Democratsâ votes seem to counted for GOP candidates. I wonder what those brain dead Democrats were do that for?
All your bases are belong to us.
we on the loony left
already tackled the credibility of the ACVR in March.
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001282.htm
Enjoy.