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You are here: Home / Can ordinary people get some legal protections from conservative celebrities?

Can ordinary people get some legal protections from conservative celebrities?

by Kay|  January 12, 201210:37 am| 75 Comments

This post is in: Assholes

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Soonergrunt wrote that O’Keefe and his co-conspirators may have violated federal law by impersonating people who had recently died in New Hampshire, but it looks to me like they violated state law, too:

Here’s the process for obtaining a ballot in New Hampshire:

1. A voter shall announce their name to the Ballot Clerk.
2. The Ballot Clerk shall repeat the name loud enough for the voter and any challengers to hear.
3. The Ballot Clerk shall search for the voter’s name on the checklist.
4. If the Ballot Clerk finds the voter’s name on the checklist, the ballot clerk shall put a checkmark next to the voter’s name, and again, repeat the voter’s name.
5. The Ballot Clerk shall state the voter’s address.
6. If the voter’s address has changed and is still within the town or ward, the Ballot Clerks shall change the address in red on the paper checklist.
7. The voter should confirm the name and address with the Ballot Clerk.

I viewed the video but it is chopped up so it’s (of course) not reliable and shouldn’t be considered fact. Presenting this as fact is unfair to the ordinary people depicted in the video, because their statements and actions are taken out of sequence and sections are omitted. Presenting this as fact is unfair to readers or viewers for the same reasons.

In any event, I don’t know if they violated state law, because I don’t know what they (actually) said and I don’t know what the pollworker (actually) said, but here’s some New Hampshire law:

659:34 Wrongful Voting; Penalties for Voter Fraud. –
I. A person is subject to a civil penalty not to exceed $5,000 if such person:
(a) When registering to vote; when obtaining an official ballot; or when casting a vote by official ballot, makes a false material statement regarding his or her qualifications as a voter to an election officer or submits a voter registration form, an election day registration affidavit, a qualified voter affidavit, a domicile affidavit, or an absentee registration affidavit containing false material information regarding his or her qualifications as a voter;
(b) Votes more than once for any office or measure;
(c) Applies for a ballot in a name other than his or her own;
(d) Applies for a ballot in his or her own name after he or she has voted once;
(e) Votes for any office or measure at an election if such person is not qualified to vote as provided in RSA 654; or
(f) Gives a false name or answer if under examination as to his or her qualifications as a voter before the supervisors of the checklist or moderator.
II. A person is guilty of a class B felony if, at any election, such person purposefully or knowingly commits an act specified in subparagraph I(b). A person is guilty of a class A misdemeanor if, at any election, such person purposefully or knowingly commits any of the other acts listed in paragraph I.

We’ll see if this is pursued and anything comes from it. I certainly hope so.
I’m wondering how the families of these recently deceased people feel about conservatives using their family member names in this manner. Anyone is fair game for the media professionals at the Daily Caller or Andrew Breitbart, apparently. They’d use any one of us like this. Ordinary people in New Hampshire, going about their business in good faith, and conservatives swoop in and use them as political pawns and to promote their own careers. It’s absolutely disgusting. This isn’t truth to power. This is paid conservative hacks harassing ordinary people who don’t have a godamnned dog in this fight and didn’t agree to be conscripted into the Right Wing Army. The Brave Men of Conservatism don’t mind some colateral damage to civilians when waging their war on voting.

I hope major media, including the New York Times, are proud of themselves for caving to pressure from conservative activists and donors and promoting and marketing this scumbag who poses as a “journalist”. They created him, by presenting his carefully orchestrated and edited video “stings” as fact, never mind that doing so smeared and defamed the low-level ACORN workers who were used in the videos. I guess it will now be up to law enforcement to protect ordinary people from Right wing celebrities and media outlets.

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Reader Interactions

75Comments

  1. 1.

    TheOtherWA

    January 12, 2012 at 10:50 am

    This time they better get some real jail time.

  2. 2.

    The Moar You Know

    January 12, 2012 at 10:50 am

    I guess it will now be up to law enforcement to protect ordinary people from Right wing celebrities and media outlets.

    Which, as we’ve already seen, they will not do. There was no reason O’Keefe and his cohorts couldn’t have been arrested in NH.

    As for “what can we do if we find ourselves victimized by this kind of crap”, well, if law enforcement won’t step in, the true answer is “nothing”. Sure, you can sue. It will cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars. What? You don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars? O’Keefe can get that much legal representation in a day.

    Too fucking bad for you, plebe.

    EDIT: Forgot this part: the way that this will get stopped is that O’Keefe will go a bridge too far with some grieving family and either get a world-class beatdown or shot.

  3. 3.

    Redshift

    January 12, 2012 at 10:51 am

    From what was reported on TPM, the federal crime is casting or procuring ballots fraudulently under the laws of the State where the election is held, so it sounds like they have to have broken state law for the federal law to apply.

    I really hope they get some of the ‘recruits’ and flip them to tell all about how O’Keefe organized it, enabling them to get him on conspiracy. Considering how boneheaded his other schemes were, I’m betting he was sure he was safe since he didn’t actually participate.

  4. 4.

    Punchy

    January 12, 2012 at 10:53 am

    OT:

    Anyone else know that Ron Jeremy bought a NFL team? Neither did I.

  5. 5.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    January 12, 2012 at 10:54 am

    I hope major media, including the New York Times, are proud of themselves

    They have their collective heads so far up their collective asses to be aware of anything other than their fear of being called LIBRUL!!!!!!! and losing another 18 dead copy edition subscriptions as a result.

  6. 6.

    kay

    January 12, 2012 at 10:56 am

    @Redshift:

    The New Hampshire AG says he is looking into it. I don’t understand why the O’Keefe operative was allowed to flee. Pick him up. I was a pollworker. This would be Big News in a polling place. Any non-celebrity would be picked up, pronto. Are there special rules for conservatives? Are we indulging these 30 year olds because they’re “kids”?

  7. 7.

    Redshift

    January 12, 2012 at 10:56 am

    @The Moar You Know:

    Which, as we’ve already seen, they will not do. There was no reason O’Keefe and his cohorts couldn’t have been arrested in NH.

    From what I’ve read, the ones who were caught didn’t hang around, and obviously they hadn’t revealed their actual identities. While poll workers can call the police if someone is causing trouble, there aren’t cops hanging around to arrest people who attempt voter fraud, nor would it be much of a priority if you called them.

    Some crimes are likely to lead to immediate arrest, but fraud isn’t one of them. It may amount to nothing, but I choose to remain optimistic, especially since O’Keefe got some legal consequences for his last escapade (though not enough, of course.)

  8. 8.

    kay

    January 12, 2012 at 10:58 am

    @comrade scott’s agenda of rage:

    I was amazed by it. It’s exactly the same as presenting a doctored photograph as a depiction of facts, or actual events. It can’t happen. If it DOES happen, we’re off to the races, and NOTHING they present is reliable, ever again.

  9. 9.

    Tone In DC

    January 12, 2012 at 11:00 am

    This idiot O’Keefe should already be in jail for posing as a utilities worker and BREAKING INTO A LEGISLATOR’S OFFICE.

    I cannot take these damn people. I just can’t. The cops beat down the kids in OWS, tear gas them and confiscate their belongings. What the hell is wrong with this picture.

  10. 10.

    r€nato

    January 12, 2012 at 11:03 am

    HIs rationale for doing this, was to demonstrate how (allegedly) shockingly easy it is to commit vote fraud… by attempting to commit vote fraud (and failing).

    I’d like for Mr. O’Keefe to demonstrate how easy it is to rob a bank by going to a bank with a toy pistol.

    If nothing happens to O’Keefe, I would hope that at the very least this sparks some media discussion of how bogus the right’s vote fraud hobby horse is. Individuals *could* attempt to commit vote fraud, but in order to sway an election it takes coordination of dozens, hundreds or even thousands to cast their votes. Only conspiracy nuts believe that coordinated schemes can stay hidden forever.

    Furthermore, part of the Right’s argument about voter fraud is ZOMG SCARY ILLEGALS WILL VOTE AND TURN AMERICA INTO THE NORTHERNMOST STATE OF MEXICO. Given that undocumented migrants are so leery of interaction with government authorities who might get them deported that they won’t even report crimes against themselves to the police… why on Earth would they go cast illegal votes?

    I would love to hear what that lying weasel John Fund has to say about this.

  11. 11.

    Redshift

    January 12, 2012 at 11:05 am

    @kay: I agree it’s odd that it doesn’t seem to have been news until they released their crime video. But picked up how? He ran off, and they didn’t know his real identity.

    I haven’t been a pollworker, but I’ve worked outside the polls and I’ve hung around with them a lot on Election Day. While I’d like to think our poll workers would have called the police, I can well imagine them saying “what the hell was that all about?” and just reporting it up the chain.

  12. 12.

    kay

    January 12, 2012 at 11:07 am

    @comrade scott’s agenda of rage:

    I feel like there’s a huge difference between public figures and regular people. Regular people didn’t sign up for this. I don’t understand why there aren’t some measures taken to protect their reputations and personal lives, by “responsible” journalists. Demand the uncut video, pre-publication. Insist on a time stamp, and no missing portions. Something. I mean, jesus. Show a little decency. I’m not even asking for “ethics”.
    One of these people has been dead TEN DAYS. Imagine if that person was one of “yours”, and had become an (unwilling) money-maker for the Daily Caller? How is that right?

  13. 13.

    Valdivia

    January 12, 2012 at 11:07 am

    but but: he proved there’s voter fraud!!!
    as always thanks for shining a light on this.

  14. 14.

    CT Voter

    January 12, 2012 at 11:09 am

    The NY Times, and

    NPR deserve their own special awards for crappy journalism

  15. 15.

    kay

    January 12, 2012 at 11:09 am

    @Redshift:

    I think it would be a big deal, here. Polling places remind me of courts. Same sort of serious “civic religion” feel. I just think it would stick way the hell out.

  16. 16.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    January 12, 2012 at 11:10 am

    I keep having an argument on FB with an old high school classmate over whether there is voter fraud. I love the fact that every time I actually have evidence of voter fraud it’s some Republican being an ass.

  17. 17.

    barath

    January 12, 2012 at 11:12 am

    Kay – I have been meaning to ask you about voter registration. I’d like to direct people I know to donate money to get voters registered in swing states. But now that ACORN is gone, I’m not sure I know of any organizations that register likely-Dem voters.

    Do you know of any organizations that accept donations whose primary objective is voter registration?

  18. 18.

    Benjamin Franklin

    January 12, 2012 at 11:12 am

    I’m thinking a lot of these unfortunate, but gleefully reported, unsavory acts by Occupiers, were actually these New Ratfuckers. Donald Segretti would be proud,

  19. 19.

    Violet

    January 12, 2012 at 11:14 am

    @kay:

    Are there special rules for conservatives?

    IOKIYAR. SATSQ.

  20. 20.

    gnomedad

    January 12, 2012 at 11:14 am

    @Punchy:

    Anyone else know that Ron Jeremy bought a NFL team? Neither did I.

    I’ll be looking forward to the halftime show.

  21. 21.

    kindness

    January 12, 2012 at 11:15 am

    What I don’t get is how they are trying to frame this as New Hampshire is liberal or Democrats are bad?

    It isn’t like Democrats have organized flagrant voter fraud like they did or anything.

  22. 22.

    Jack

    January 12, 2012 at 11:15 am

    O’Keefe will go down too; it’s called ‘organized crime’.

  23. 23.

    feebog

    January 12, 2012 at 11:16 am

    OK, well I am a poll worker. In California. The interaction described in the post is similar, but not the same as ours. In California, the voter gives their name, or just as often, has their sample ballot and gives it to the clerk. The voter is then asked to give his/her address. They are then asked to sign the roll, ensuring that they will not be able to vote twice.

    Our team at the polling place usually consists of five people, four seniors and a student. If someone did try to vote illegally, no way any of us are going to try to restrain him/her. Get a description and call the poll supervisor, those are the instructions.

    I’m not optimistic that this will be persued, but a few emails, letters, or phone calls from concerned NH restidents couldn’t hurt.

  24. 24.

    Corbin Dallas Multipass

    January 12, 2012 at 11:16 am

    @Tone In DC: I like your line of argument. I feel that one of the great arguments you can make for many things as a result of Occupy is the police response there relative to other unethical and potentially criminal acts (most notably the malfeasance on wallstreet/the financial industry and its regulators).

    I’m wondering how the families of these recently deceased people feel about conservatives using their family member names in this manner.

    Thank you for this argument Kay. It is a strong personal argument that I have not seen mentioned elsewhere.

  25. 25.

    r€nato

    January 12, 2012 at 11:17 am

    I’ve been a pollworker. At least in my area, there’s a county elections official who comes around periodically to check in on things. In addition to this, we have his cellphone number and there’s also a county hotline to report election problems, everything from non-functioning equipment to, perhaps, incidents like this.

    The cops aren’t standing by to collar anybody, but it seems to me the elections department staffers take their work seriously as do those of us who volunteer to work the polls.

    If a hypothetical James O’Keefe came by and attempted to cast a vote illegally, there’s really not much we could do if he didn’t stand around to wait for the cops to talk to him. We could give a description of him and possibly a license plate number if the marshal (that’s usually me, who is the only person who’s near the door and not seated behind a table) is able to chase him down as he takes off. We wouldn’t, presumably, have a valid ID from the would-be vote fraudster with which to identify him.

    Really, the best protection against vote fraud are diligent poll workers. Also, too, none of these pearl-clutchers ever brings up the issue of early voting ballots/absentee ballots. These, it seems to me, are RIPE for abuse as their secrecy is completely unverifiable; somebody could plausibly take a look at your ballot, verify that you voted for this candidate or proposal, then give you money and seal/mail your ballot. But again, this requires coordination and sooner or later, somebody would say something about it and the jig would be up.

  26. 26.

    r€nato

    January 12, 2012 at 11:18 am

    @barath: League of Women Voters does this a lot.

  27. 27.

    kay

    January 12, 2012 at 11:18 am

    @barath:

    Do you know of any organizations that accept donations whose primary objective is voter registration?

    Are you looking for national or state? I have strong opinions on this :)

    I would go “state”. I say this because I saw the national orgs in action in Ohio in 2004 and I felt as if they were sloppy. Voting is precise, it’s rule-bound, and it’s state law. It’s unfair to register voters if you’re not going to do it right, because then they arrive to vote and it’s all fucked up and it’s too late to fix it.

    The Obama ’08 campaign did a great job in Ohio, and they were national, so that’s the exception to that rule.

    So, swing states?

  28. 28.

    Violet

    January 12, 2012 at 11:20 am

    @Corbin Dallas Multipass:
    I agree. I wonder if any of the family members of the deceased will come forward to describe how this feels from their perspective. Grieving family members who have been dragged into voter fraud, through no fault of their own, would be a pretty compelling image.

  29. 29.

    GregB

    January 12, 2012 at 11:20 am

    It should be noted that the raving wingnut Speaker of the House’s son actually voted in Maine where he goes to college and in NH so that he could vote for his dad.

    So the one case of voter fraud known is that of the son of Bill O’Brien, Republican and Speaker of the NH House of Representatives.

    Link.

  30. 30.

    barath

    January 12, 2012 at 11:20 am

    @kay:

    Yup, swing state-level is great. I’m even fine if the organizations are smaller than that (county-level), as long as they’re good at what they do (voter reg) and are accepting donations.

  31. 31.

    smith

    January 12, 2012 at 11:21 am

    Isn’t this little douchenozzle supposed to be on parole? How the hell is he being allowed to keep going from state to state doing these frauds?

    His face just screams “Beat Me” – the problem is he’s probably hoping for a beatdown so he could sue or pull a Kenny Gladney.

  32. 32.

    Ivan Ivanovich Renko

    January 12, 2012 at 11:21 am

    @Punchy: Jesus, Mary and Joseph– did you get a load of some of the comments on that story?

    People are upset that a Muslim bought an NFL team… like that fucking matters.

    Let the Jags become winners, and the straight-white-Christian-men will climb right on board.

    Fuck all, it’s too damn early in the day for strong drink.

  33. 33.

    burnspbesq

    January 12, 2012 at 11:22 am

    @Benjamin Franklin:

    Got evidence? Even a teeny bit?

    Or is this just another Fig Newton of your hyperactive imagination?

  34. 34.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    January 12, 2012 at 11:23 am

    If O’Keefe and his buddies were anything but white and pulling this shit they would be sitting in jail right now.

    That’s how fucked up this is.

  35. 35.

    kay

    January 12, 2012 at 11:23 am

    @barath:

    Too, barath, registering voters, “motor voter” was a bipartisan compromise. Conservatives wanted voter registration at DMV outlets, and liberals wanted voter registration at county social services agencies.
    Conservative governors then didn’t enforce the registration rules at social services agencies. Voting access people brought suit, and won, so now social services agencies have to (and do) offer voter registration. That’s been wildly successful, as far as registering poor people. There’s a huge difference pre-lawsuit to post-lawsuit.

  36. 36.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    January 12, 2012 at 11:27 am

    @barath:

    Here you go this is brand new

    http://1911united.com/

    Spoke to one of my local leaders this morning and volunteered my time and help in any way I can.

  37. 37.

    rlrr

    January 12, 2012 at 11:28 am

    @kay:

    “Are there special rules for conservatives?”

    Yes.

  38. 38.

    barath

    January 12, 2012 at 11:29 am

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    I saw them (others pointed me to them), but they’re not focused on voter registration from what I can tell… I mean, they do voter reg, but they do lots of other stuff too.

  39. 39.

    kay

    January 12, 2012 at 11:32 am

    @barath:

    Okay. I’ll put it together and post it. I don’t know: it gives me fits. Here locally, I just get paranoid when they’re fast and loose with collecting registrations, because I worry that they’re not going to do it properly, and the VOTER is going to get screwed when they show up. I harangue the new voters like a crazy person. I’m babbling at them to VERIFY that they are IN FACT registered. In my ideal scenario, they would all deliver their registrations in person and then vote at the county board of elections, where the (career) employees know what they’re doing.

    Towards the end of my tenure as a pollworker, they had me passing out I VOTED stickers, because I wouldn’t shut up about THE RULES.

    I was marginalized, basically. Silenced. So sad. I’m a victim, really :)

  40. 40.

    biff diggerence

    January 12, 2012 at 11:33 am

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    With some large, non-Caucasian cell buddies, hopefully.

  41. 41.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    January 12, 2012 at 11:34 am

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    PS) here is a really cool video about the group.

    http://pragmaticobotsunite.blogspot.com/2012/01/wednesday-open-thread-1911-united.html?spref=tw

  42. 42.

    barath

    January 12, 2012 at 11:35 am

    @kay:

    great, thanks!

  43. 43.

    amk

    January 12, 2012 at 11:37 am

    DOJ sez obama recess appointments constitutionally legal.

    http://www.justice.gov/olc/2012/pro-forma-sessions-opinion.pdf (pdf alert)

  44. 44.

    kay

    January 12, 2012 at 11:39 am

    @barath:

    We had this nice lady from Tennessee emailing me on their voter ID law, Mary, so I’m going to ask her who’s reliable and good w/donor funds.
    She’s a voter access pro.

    I don’t know where you live, but one thing you can do is go to your sec of state site and read the rules. That way, if you encounter a brand new would-be voter, you can tell him or her how it’s done.

  45. 45.

    Shinobi

    January 12, 2012 at 11:41 am

    Well we don’t want “journalists” to let silly things like laws get in the way. The NYTimes is also concerned about this whole reporting “Facts” issue.

    I mean, holding people to some kind of objective standard of truth? Why would they do that?

  46. 46.

    Steve

    January 12, 2012 at 11:43 am

    I heard plenty of claims of New Hampshire election fraud in 2008 when Hillary surprisingly won the primary. Some of the slower Obots at MyDD were literally invoking the name of Diebold, no joke.

  47. 47.

    Monkey Business

    January 12, 2012 at 11:44 am

    Committing voter fraud the way that O’Keefe and co. keep talking about is so inefficient as to be unworkable.

    If you’re gonna commit voter fraud, you use unaccountable electronic voting machines that don’t have any type of auditable access log, then install a backdoor so the machine occasionally phones home to a server at the home company, so someone can, using publicly available demographic and voting data, generate election results that would fit with trends in that district but not be so outrageous as to provoke an investigation.

    Essentially, why change one vote when you can change a million with much less effort?

  48. 48.

    kay

    January 12, 2012 at 11:52 am

    @Shinobi:

    I mean, holding people to some kind of objective standard of truth? Why would they do that?

    I know I’m obsessing on this, but I am genuinely confused. Some years ago, a photographer for the Toledo Blade edited a photo prior to publication. It didn’t change the meaning or import of the photo, as I recall.

    It was this HUGE DEAL. It was treated as a serious ethical violation.

    So. Why are they showing O’Keefe clips on tv as “news”? They’re not an accurate depiction of actual events if they’re ALL CHOPPED UP. They could do anything, to anyone, at any time, with this tactic. This is okay? We’re just accepting this as “news”?

  49. 49.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik

    January 12, 2012 at 11:52 am

    @Shinobi:

    As someone in the comments said on that, it’s sad that this is even a posited question.

    Objectivity is dead. Balance is king.

  50. 50.

    Shinobi

    January 12, 2012 at 11:56 am

    @The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik: I tweeted something similar, and used the fword a lot.

    @kay: EXACTLY! If anything the quest for truth has to be even more strict now that technology makes it easier to lie. But in other ways it is HARDER to lie, because everything everyone has said is on the internet forever, it is not that hard to find the truth. So really the problem is journalists are lazy.

  51. 51.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik

    January 12, 2012 at 11:56 am

    @kay:

    You goddamn truth vigilante! Don’t you know casting judgment on anything with quantifiable truth or facts is the EPITOME of bias?! This is why you’re only a blogger, and not a great incredible journalist who only reports the fact! You know, what people said and what people believe, and NO MORE!!

  52. 52.

    Palli

    January 12, 2012 at 11:59 am

    @smith: D @kay:

    Do we actually know ringleader O’Keefe was in NH? The nerve center of the dastardly conspiracy against homegrown democracy could be a computer in his parent’s basement. Does that makes it an interstate crime?

  53. 53.

    Hob

    January 12, 2012 at 12:02 pm

    @Monkey Business: O’Keefe is (or pretends to be) so stupid that when he heard about famous incidents of vote-rigging in Illinois using dead people’s names, he thought that meant a person went to the polls to vote individually under each of those names– rather than just tampering with the ballots, which is how corrupt local governments have always done this (and which can’t be prevented by any photo ID laws). Unfortunately, judging by the right-wing internet, he has plenty of company in this delusion.

  54. 54.

    catclub

    January 12, 2012 at 12:03 pm

    @kay: Of course, every single news report is also ‘ALL CHOPPED UP’. There are tons of hours of video taken but only a few seconds appear on the nightly news.

    There may be a more focussed intent to deceive with O’Keefe, but the same editing out, of things that the maker considers unimportant, is there in every single news show.

  55. 55.

    slag

    January 12, 2012 at 12:03 pm

    @kay:

    Here locally, I just get paranoid when they’re fast and loose with collecting registrations, because I worry that they’re not going to do it properly, and the VOTER is going to get screwed when they show up. I harangue the new voters like a crazy person. I’m babbling at them to VERIFY that they are IN FACT registered.

    I do the same thing. Having spent many a cold, snowy/rainy hour registering voters, the laissez-faire attitude toward this data that I’ve personally encountered makes me absolutely crazy. I’ve made calls for random people on the street who have told me they’re having registration problems; I’ve run around with people to find copy machines for their documents and paid for their copies; I’ve researched felon laws and lectured passersby on them. And in the end, I have no idea whether or not the stack of registrations I bring in is going to make it all the way through the system. CRAZY it makes me. We need a School House Rocks video on How a Citizen Becomes a Voter.

  56. 56.

    Palli

    January 12, 2012 at 12:05 pm

    @The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik:

    But not the balanced scale Ms Justice holds.

  57. 57.

    Monkey Business

    January 12, 2012 at 12:05 pm

    @Hob: That would fit his MO. Of course, it wouldn’t occur to someone like O’Keefe that no one has done that since the 30s, for the simple reason that there are just too many living voters, and not enough dead ones.

    Voter ID laws are disenfranchisement, pure and simple.

  58. 58.

    kay

    January 12, 2012 at 12:06 pm

    @The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik:

    The truth is, I love newspapers. I buy three, every day. I want nothing but the best for them. They should listen to me. I’m a big fan, and better, I’m a customer. I think they should all get paid for the work that they do, and I don’t kid myself that I’m doing what they do, posting here.

    But if I see a video clip and it’s presented as “fact” or “news” it should be fact, not a spliced together account of what kinda sorta happened. If I want that, I’ll watch a movie.

    I view video footage all the time in my work. I watch the counter at the bottom. There can’t be anything missing, or I don’t know what happened.

  59. 59.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik

    January 12, 2012 at 12:12 pm

    @kay:

    But what’s some minor fact or context compared to the BIG PICTURE, huh?! I mean, how else can they insist that both sides have a viewpoint, and they’re both equally valid until the readers make their own personal judgment calls? What do you want to do, make the Times into…gasp…a KRUGMAN op-ed?!

    (Seriously, I love how the guy actually uses Krugman has proof of something the Times should never ever be…)

  60. 60.

    The Moar You Know

    January 12, 2012 at 12:21 pm

    @Shinobi: Goddamn. That’s the most discouraging thing I’ve read in well over ten years. From the post:

    As an Op-Ed columnist, Mr. Krugman clearly has the freedom to call out what he thinks is a lie. My question for readers is: should news reporters do the same?

    My God. If a news reporter will not call a lie a lie, there is no further need for news reporters.

  61. 61.

    Carolinus

    January 12, 2012 at 12:34 pm

    I’m wondering how the families of these recently deceased people feel about conservatives using their family member names in this manner.

    Here’s one reaction to it:
    http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20220112id_theft_at_polls_stuns_nh_widow/srvc=home&position=2

    A grieving New Hampshire widow said she was stunned to learn her beloved husband’s identity was used for a political gotcha — just 10 days after his death.

    “That’s awful,” Rachel Groux said. “Why should they use his name? They shouldn’t use anybody’s name — alive or deceased.”

    Activist filmmaker James O’Keefe secretly recorded video showing his operative using Roger Groux’s name and address to obtain a Republican ballot at Manchester polls Tuesday. The U.S. Navy veteran died Dec. 31 at an assisted living home. His family held funeral services Monday, his widow said. “Oh my God, I know what he would say, ‘Call the cops, call the police,’ ” Rachel Groux said.

  62. 62.

    Kay

    January 12, 2012 at 12:58 pm

    @Carolinus:

    Thanks.

    It would bother me if I were her, and I wouldn’t do it to someone else.

    I know the names are a public record, but so soon after his death? I would just assume it was going to hurt his family. There’s something so sleazy about it. I hate, hate, hate the tone of the voices in the film, too. It’s just that asshole snarky arrogance that I associate with people who don’t actually do anything useful, but instead act as critics.

    I’d like to see Breitbart do 14 hours as a pollworker, dealing with conservative assholes.

  63. 63.

    WereBear

    January 12, 2012 at 1:13 pm

    @Punchy: I await what he will name it with much enthusiasm.

  64. 64.

    Maus

    January 12, 2012 at 1:19 pm

    I love how Republicans are now trying to co-opt hipsterism to define why they are “ironic” felons.

  65. 65.

    Maus

    January 12, 2012 at 1:21 pm

    @smith:

    Isn’t this little douchenozzle supposed to be on parole? How the hell is he being allowed to keep going from state to state doing these frauds?

    He’s trying to enforce the status quo, therefore is not a “risk” to any established system.

  66. 66.

    Ohio Mom

    January 12, 2012 at 1:37 pm

    The couple we bought our house from died in a car accident a few years later. We first heard this from our next-door neighbor who kept up with them, and then we saw the shared obituary in the paper.

    We got absentee ballot applications in their names for a number of years. Once I tried calling the Board of Elections to get them removed from the mailing list but they said without the submission of death certificates the names would remain on the list until a certain number of years had passed (memory fails me here) and no one had voted using those names. The last time my husband and I received absentee ballot applications we did not receive any for the previous owners so I guess they are finally off the rolls.

    Anyway, it did occur to me that under these circumstances, it might be easy to vote in the dead person’s name, particulary if you were a family member, say a widow or widower, and had copies of the deceased’s signature to use in forging it on the forms.

    So I’d say yes to whoever it was upthread who wondered if absentee ballots were a riper area for vote fraud than just showing up at the polls.

  67. 67.

    Ben Cisco

    January 12, 2012 at 1:50 pm

    A grieving New Hampshire widow said she was stunned to learn her beloved husband’s identity was used for a political gotcha — just 10 days after his death.
    __
    “That’s awful,” Rachel Groux said. “Why should they use his name? They shouldn’t use anybody’s name — alive or deceased.”

    In those two short sentences, Mrs. Groux has shown more integrity, and told more truth, than O’Keefe’s crew and his media enablers combined. On a day when the editor of the New York Times is asking whether or not reporters should seek out the truth or continue to take dictation, Mrs. Groux shows a directness and common sense that is all but extinct in the MSM.
    __
    Some sort of dishonorable mention should be handed out to the Ferengi media that spread O’Keefe’s doctored BS as gospel truth in the first place. The fact that they legitimized – no, REWARDED his smearing of legitimate organizations and persons (out of mortal terror at being considered anywhere to the left of Genghis Khan) in the first place has led directly to this. There is no honor in them; liars, cowards, and weaklings all.

  68. 68.

    ericblair

    January 12, 2012 at 1:59 pm

    @Ohio Mom:

    So I’d say yes to whoever it was upthread who wondered if absentee ballots were a riper area for vote fraud than just showing up at the polls.

    Of course they are, but are disproportionally used by older gooper-friendly voters so We Don’t Talk About That.

  69. 69.

    smtaylor

    January 12, 2012 at 2:40 pm

    @Ohio Mom:

    In Washington State just about all voting is mail-in ballots. In King County where I live, the voters are required to sign the outside of the envelope they return the ballot in and that signature is compared to the official signature on file from the voter registration application.

    I’ve worked for King County elections and the signature checkers take their job very seriously. Someone voting a deceased person’s ballot would have to do a good job at forging the signature to get through.

  70. 70.

    ellennelle

    January 12, 2012 at 5:52 pm

    i’m sure you saw where NH officials are hoppin’ mad and demanding prosecution to the fullest extent of the law, for not only the voter fraud – both a state and federal crime – but for the state crime of the hidden camera.

    given that o’keefe is himself laying claim to this stunt, and using it to beg for more money to commit more of these frauds – ya gotta wonder how his federal probation officer is going to view this little lapse into the very crime he’s serving probation for.

    could we be so blessed for these guys to be taken down and out this long before the election??

  71. 71.

    ellennelle

    January 12, 2012 at 6:11 pm

    @Palli:

    well, it’s a federal crime, in any case. and, in any case, he is on probation and not allowed to leave his mommy and daddy’s home, not in NH.

    i’m curious why everyone is so pessimistic about this. o’keefe and one of the folks post their names boldly on the video byline. o’keefe is emailing it all around to beg for more money. this is beyond admission; it’s bragging!

    and he is on probation, for a federal crime, specifically of fraudulently presenting himself in a federal building.

    i just don’t think his probation officer is going to smile when he reads about this.

    patience; this will take time.

  72. 72.

    g

    January 12, 2012 at 7:55 pm

    I’m curious about another aspect of this incident. Where I live, California elections code 18541 states: “No person shall with the intent of dissuading another person from voting, within 100 feet of a polling place…photograph, video record or otherwise record a voter entering or exiting a polling place.”

    I don’t know about the legality of secret cameras in general in NH, but in California, video recording in the polling place at all is illegal.

    The Secretary of State’s office says that election officials can grant permission to bonafide news organizations, but otherwise, cameras are strictly forbidden – I remember seeing a sign saying such outside my polling place.

    So O’Keefe might potentially have violated the law three ways – by procuring the ballots, by secretly recording people, and by recording in a polling place.

  73. 73.

    g

    January 12, 2012 at 7:58 pm

    Answering my own question – here’s a good resource:

    http://www.citmedialaw.org/legal-guide/state-law-documenting-your-vote#NH

    Looks like New Hampshire doesn’t have any law specifically prohibiting the use of recording devices in the polling places. But lots of other states do.

  74. 74.

    ellennelle

    January 12, 2012 at 9:23 pm

    @ellennelle: @g:

    it’s not that it was specific to the polling place, it’s that the camera was hidden, violating the state’s wiretapping code, a code B felony.

    in addition to the voter fraud.

    this case has legs; patience.

  75. 75.

    bjacques

    January 13, 2012 at 8:38 am

    Looks like the thread’s about dead. In any case, you could always find out who his probation officer is. It’s been said about being on probation or parole, that you’d better not have any enemies, because they’ll be only too happy to rat you out.

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