Republicans don’t even care anymore. The effort to disenfranchise minority voters is so obvious at this point that it’s simply met with a shrug in places like Arizona:
The Maricopa County Elections Department mistakenly listed the wrong date of the upcoming general election on an official government document.
The error appears on a document containing a voter ID card.
In addition to the ID card, the piece of paper it comes in lists other information such as important election dates.
In the corner of the document, it says November 6th in English but in Spanish it reads 8 de Noviembre, the 8th of November.
Sure. The election date in Spanish was wrong. But only in Spanish. That was a mistake. Of course it was. Now show me your papers, citizen. You must be one of those undesirables if you’re asking questions about this.
MattF
Oh, c’mon… everyone knows that ‘6’, in Spanish, is ‘8’.
linda
That wasn’t on purpose! Thry didn’t kmow the Spanish numbet for “6”
Ben Franklin
No matter. they have Binders with Hispanic voters they want to help.
Elizabelle
Perhaps this could help increase turnout, once news of the “mistake” gets out.
Mal Wood
I just don’t understand why your country, which purports to be some sort of democratic paradise, does not have a national independent Electoral Commission that takes care of voting and elections like we do in Australia. What gives?
aimai
I agree with Elizabelle, I have to believe (I HAVE to believe) that the counter programming of GOTV actually makes this little lie a huge boost. Basically no one is going to just wander into this election. very few serious voters or new voters just glance at the card and say “OK, that makes sense.” People who just registered to vote are on a GOTV list somewhere and they will be contacted 7 times before the election. That’s a lot of time to get people good and pissed off about this.
aimai
Elizabelle
From the link:
Read more: http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_phoenix_metro/central_phoenix/Maricopa-County-Elections-Department-admits-error-on-date-of-general-election-on-voter-ID-cards#ixzz29f5HE0K9
I wonder if it is only fifty.
And there’s nothing in the story about how the Elections Department plans to rectify this.
piratedan
I truly think AZ is more of a battleground than people think. The folks with their collective ears to the ground are implying that both the Latino and Native American voters are a wee bit more engaged this time around since the R’s have emphatically gone around the bend. Internal Latino polling is showing a big uptick in Latino participation:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/10/1142609/-Why-Arizona-may-be-the-surprise-of-2012-the-big-Latino-vote-that-you-didn-t-see-coming
Now, the 64 thousand dollar question is will the folks actually show up to the polls, this latest bit of Republican chicanery seems to imply that the R’s are scared enough to try and perform a bit of pre-emptive ratfucking just in case.
Also too, Flake has a completely bogus hit job ad out smacking Carmona on his “anger issues” taken from closed testimony from when he was leaving as Surgeon General when the Bush Administration tried to politicize health care. Projectionism at its finest. Timing is incredibly Rovian too.
Hoping that the R attention to the Latino details portend some doom in their future.
red dog
@Elizabelle: I hope this turns into the “47%” for Phoenix. Get it on the Spanish radio stations.
kindness
Republicans suck. Growing up in the north east I was surrounded by a Republican party that was socially liberal and fiscally conservative. When I moved out to CA I found Republicans here are pretty much foaming at the mouth trogladites. Sadly it is the trogladites that have taken over the party.
I’m really curious to see what Obama does on Jon Stewart tonight. Should be a fun watch.
Face
FTFY.
shortstop
Welcome to America! Now learn numbers!
Mnemosyne
Apparently Arizona Republicans did not learn from the mistakes of California Republicans, who decided that Latino voters were permanently apathetic and there was no way any action by the Republicans could energize them to get to the polls. So the Republicans sponsored Prop 187, and the only Republican who’s been elected to statewide office since then got there by exploiting a recall of the Democratic governor.
Whoops.
SatanicPanic
This is the kind of shit Republicans were doing in California right before they became a permanent minority.
some guy
seis, ocho
they look soooo similar, this is a totally understandable mistake.
hope this gets a ton of play in Hispanic media, in AZ and elsewhere
some guy
seis, ocho
they look soooo similar, this is a totally understandable mistake.
hope this gets a ton of play in Hispanic media, in AZ and elsewhere
Violet
I think the Republicans are going to far with this kind of stuff. People who are directly affected are really pissed off. They are making sure those folks never vote for Republicans. And folks like me who aren’t going to be affected by that sort of thing are equally pissed off. I’ll never vote for a Republican again. I live in a blood red state, so sometimes it’s a Republican or nothing, but in those cases I’ll abstain. Never. Again. NEVER.
Cacti
The politics in this state are a sewer of unchecked Republican corruption.
Our hispanic population will continue to be goaded, mistreated, and provoked, until such time as they decide to flex some political muscle in the voting booth.
Lurking Canadian
Is my understanding correct that the Voting Rights Act has some kind of special treatment for a handful of ((cough) Confederate) states that requires them to get federal approval for voting law changes, but exempts other states not on the “You are bad because of Jim Crow” list? What is the likelihood that law could be modified so every state had to meet the same standard of federal scrutiny? It seems this shit is happening in places (Ohio, Pennsylvania, Arizona) that are not former Jim Crow states, and therefore get to skate by the rules.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
NC early voting starts…now. I am in line and moving forward.
Patricia Kayden
@Elizabelle: Hope this is true. Kind of like what’s going on in Ohio with Black voters.
This is all just silliness and will not work. Better for a certain party to change its ways so that it can actually attract minority voters and not worry about trying to suppress them.
Jimi
If six turned out to be nine,
I don’t mind…
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
Not quite true. Steve Poizner got elected Insurance Commissioner, largely by having enough money that he didn’t have to get campaign cash from the insurance industry.
Back on topic, I’m waiting for the complaints that we shouldn’t be issuing voting cards in Spanish in the first place, because all our voting materials should be in English like God intended.
danimal
The state level information I’ve seen indicates that AZ is much more in play than the national folks believe. Carmona has a lead in the Senate race, and the presidential race is considered safe GOP ‘cuz McCain won by 8 points last time. Um, McCain is from AZ, of course he got a home state advantage. Plus, the immigration initiative does appear to have created some solid Dem momentum in the Hispanic community.
It’s becoming interesting. We could see a red WI and blue AZ this year.
Spatula
Wow.
rlrr
@Roger Moore:
because all our voting materials should be in English like God intended.
If English was good enough for Jesus…
japa21
Well, it seems to me that the only proper recourse is to go to court and require the polls also be open on November 8 to allow for those who received this in error to vote on that day. And since I am sure they have no idea of the specific voters involved, and since many may have already discarded the letter, they cannot tell who did and did not receive this notice. And since it is only in Spanish, only Spanish speaking voters would be allowed to vote that day.
Let’s say the election is within a couple thousand votes and the Hispanics in that county know they can turn out enough votes to change the election, don’t you think they would be able to?
Phoenix_rising
El Piolin gonna have a field day with this.
Earned media, for real. Have they forgotten the marches of schoolkids, organized entirely by radio and social media, a few Mays ago?
Can Eric Holder parachute some lawyers from the civil rights division in there, today?
rlrr
@danimal:
McCain is from AZ, of course he got a home state advantage.
Something that eludes the current GOP nominee…
eric
hey liberals, where was all this outrage when the country elected Obama?
Yutsano
@danimal:
Nah. Not even Paulie Boy will turn WI red. And really AZ only went red in 2008 because of Grandpa Walnuts.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Lurking Canadian: You mean the law that the South is trying to get the Supreme Court to end, because, in part, the conservatives on the Supreme Court are itching to end.
Yutsano
@danimal:
Nah. Not even Paulie Boy will turn WI red. And really AZ only went red in 2008 because of Grandpa Walnuts.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Lurking Canadian: You mean the law that the South is trying to get the Supreme Court to end, because, in part, the conservatives on the Supreme Court are itching to end.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Lurking Canadian: You mean the law that the South is trying to get the Supreme Court to end, because, in part, the conservatives on the Supreme Court are itching to end.
catclub
@Lurking Canadian: “What is the likelihood that law could be modified so every state had to meet the same standard of federal scrutiny?”
Zero. SATSQ
General Stuck
Eternal republican over reach. It is our best weapon and we usually don’t have to move a muscle to deploy it, as the nutters are always helpful that way. They do not understand the basic economics of messaging, even though they are very disciplined. The laws of diminishing returns for treating minorities like second class citizens (at least the ones that don’t vote GOP) is like any other threshold of moderation. You venture past it at your own risk of blowback in electoral politics, that is zero sum and your opponent WILL make hay from your excesses.
Take for instance Scott Brown and his sidekick Colonel Mustard going super nova with the asinine Indian thing with Liz Warren, an they are now reaping a giant crop of Kudzu for their trouble.
This should have been predictable in a very liberal state. But once the wingnut latches onto a tasty bone with a stench of rabid bigotry, they just can’t let go. The echo chamber between their ears tells them that everyone hears the same wind rushing through that empty space. I’ve never seen it this bad, with a near psychotic break from reality throughout the right wing realm. Obama is the worst person in the world and EVERYONE KNOWS IT. So he can’t possibly be reelected. And it spreads out from there in concentric circles of blissful ignorance.
We often envy the republican discipline for messaging. But when the message is shit and you don’t know when to stop, that is nothing to envy.
Violet
@Phoenix_rising: That was a real big deal. The largely Latino high school near me was shut when the marches happened. The young women who worked at the dry cleaners where I took my clothes were talking about it the day or so before: “Are you going to go?” “I don’t know, I’ll have to miss work,”
Forum Transmitted Disease
Time to send the National Guard into Maricopa County and declare martial law.
When the election’s done they can put Arapaio into his own fucking jail on the way out.
Yutsano
FYWP. No really.
Chris
OT: apparently, Gallup has Romney beating Obama in the polls for the first time ever.
The Tragically Flip
Funny how these “mistakes” always put the election date after the real one, and it’s always a minority group that gets these “misprints.”
People need to be prosecuted for this. It should be a form of criminal negligence, anyone telling others when the election is have an affirmative duty to get the information correct.
eric
@The Tragically Flip: pretty soon gringos will be the minority…..
rikyrah
thought I was the only one who saw it your way, ZANDER.
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
Rightwing response: I’m sure it’s just an honest mistake. You libtards are all so quick to jump to conclusions and take offense.
hueyplong
“hey liberals, where was all this outrage when the country elected Obama?”
The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Obama for nothing more than ending GOP rule of the executive branch in the world’s most powerful country. So it appears that around the world, the proper term wasn’t “outrage” but was instead “prayers of thanksgiving,” sparky.
Your own “outrage” was just a Schadenfreudelicious treat for dessert. I believe I’ll have Mitt order the waitstaff to bring another helping.
Chris
@kindness:
Heck, I remember (not really, but I read history books) when the face of the New Deal in New York City was a Republican mayor.
If you moved back to the Northeast, I suspect you’d find they’re foaming at the mouth troglodytes nowadays too. The Northeast did give us the Ovenmitt, after all.
Forum Transmitted Disease
@Mnemosyne: Pete Wilson is very good friends with my dad’s neighbor, so I get to run into him a couple of times a year. I always tell him “thank you”. He always looks a bit puzzled (I’ve never said what I’m thanking him for) but says “you’re welcome!” Very polite man.
He gave Dems this state for at least a generation. He’ll go to his grave not understanding that.
peach flavored shampoo
But they’d have to actually be allowed in the booth, first. This is where they’ll be stymied, IMO. Lots and lots of police stops and document checks half-mile from the polling stations.
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@General Stuck:
Scott Brown’s one (and as far as I can tell, only) gift is his charisma/likeability/charm. Hey, some folks are just born with it.
That’s why I was shocked that his campaign went negative, while he was still somewhat ahead in the polls. Badly advised, I suspect.
Sen. Brown’s only ‘coin’, and he spent it all too eagerly. Now it’s probably gone forever (along with any chances he might have had to be Mass Gov in the future).
Lurking Canadian
@catclub: Honest question: why zero? It’s not a constitutional amendment, is it? Is it because the Senators wouldn’t go for it, federal encroachment, states’ rights la la la?
I can certainly see that you’d need a filibuster proof majority to get it through, but that’s “slim” not “none”. Surely every Democrat would see it as something that helped his or her own chances of reelection?
Roger Moore
@rlrr:
I’m more inclined to think that voting material should look like this the way it does at my polling place.
catclub
@Roger Moore: Link doesn’t work. Picasa says that page not found.
Roger Moore
@Forum Transmitted Disease:
I’m not sure about the not understanding that. I think he’s smart enough to recognize the outcome, even if his ideology may blind him to the reason that 187 was such a big deal.
catclub
@Lurking Canadian: I meant zero in a practical, not mathematical sense.
It would be a good law.
One that you could say to the states: “If you’re not doing anything wrong, why are you so worried about us forbidding you to have bedroom drapes.” Not an ideal selling point.
Roger Moore
@catclub:
Oops. Forgot to make the album public. Should be fixed.
Forum Transmitted Disease
@Lurking Canadian: I’m almost fifty. Dems (and Republicans for that matter) haven’t had a truly “filibuster-proof” majority in the Senate in my lifetime.
(And five Blue Dogs plus Lieberman does not count!)
Roger Moore
@catclub:
I think a better, but probably even less probable, approach would be to have actual uniform national voting rules. That would probably require a constitutional amendment, which isn’t going to happen as long as the problem of some states wanting to disenfranchise their voters persists.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
Teabagger just crossed the no-go line and got handed his ass by a lady who could have been my grandmother.
Think we haven’t noticed how we’ve been disrespected? Think again.
1badbaba3
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): Ahead warp factor one, Captain, aye! Or should I (dare I?) say forward? Either way, good on you. I can’t imagine the ghost of Jesse Helms has been resting easy these last five years what with all the nigras running around all upity and all, winning elections and throwing conventions, turning the state (gasp!) purple. Things sure have changed down there since I moved away in 2001. Never would have believed a Black man could take N.C. But he’s part Vulcan so that may explain at least some of it, no?
@Jimi: If all the hippies cut off all their hair/ I don’t care.
Hendrix rules. Hells yeah!
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@1badbaba3: About to enter the building, going dark. You have the bridge.
xian
@Mal Wood: because we’re the T Model Ford of democracy.
Marshall
@Lurking Canadian:
Most state politicians would be against it. A constitutional amendment to make voting uniform would be a lot more likely.
catclub
@Forum Transmitted Disease: “And five Blue Dogs plus Lieberman does not count!”
Lieberman is retiring this year. Or taking up his actual office as either health insurance lobbyist or AIPAC lobbyist.
Jay in Oregon
@Mal Wood:
Because elections, even for federal offices, are a state-level affair according to the Constitution.
We don’t directly elect the President, we are actually voting for which electors get sent to vote in the Electoral College.
It might be possible to develop a Federal Election Board that would pass Constitutional muster, but the screaming Teatards in Congress would never let such a thing be created.
Perspecticus
@Mal Wood: Because “Freedom” and “shut up”, that’s why.
xian
@kindness: i hate the term “fiscal conservative.” To liberals and moderates it means balanced budgets. To conservatives it means cutting taxes endlessly.
Nethead Jay
Along the lines of voting shenanigans, I think there might be something brewing in virginia. Check out this post: Virginia GOP Caught Destroying Voter Registration Forms- UPDATED. The update at the bottom is especially interesting IMO. Would be nice if they could nail these scumbags for voter registration fraud.
1badbaba3
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): Oh, we’ve noticed alright. Of course it’s not a hot button ish like ZOMG DROOOONNNNNZ! ! ! Or a cute-as-a-button adorable little meme like ZOMG BINDERRRRRZZZZ! ! ! But some of us have noticed (and you know who you are), and all I have to say is that Sununu and TargFlargFlagFleeenWhat the fuck ever better not ever find themselves “caught out” away from their Blackwater/Ze security detail. Be a shame if somethin’ were ta happen to ’em. Y’know, Chicago style.
Yeah, throw Jack Welch into that group too.
amk
@General Stuck: Did I ever I tell you I love reading your posts ?
chopper
@Elizabelle:
this is good if true. no just because it’s only 50 but also the news makes it look so sketchy and deliberate it could be use to fire up Latinos to vote even more. run with it, guys.
aimai
@Elizabelle:
What I find bizarre about this is how could that possibly even be true? The same documents are mailed to people that are handed out in person. There can’t be a separate stack of “fake” information unless this was a totally low level “hand this only to hispanic looking voters” in which case upper management should be firing people left and right. For it to make sense in a bureaucratic sense either someone very high up has to take responsibility for the “mistake” in all the printings-and the number printed should be publicly avaiailable–or the upper echelon should be publicly firing local people for handing this out.
aimai
Haydnseek
@rlrr: He speaks it rather well, considering that it’s a second language for him…..
Randy P
@Mal Wood: There is a long-standing legal tradition that elections are run by states. I don’t know if it’s constitutionally required, but states have always had a lot of independence on that score.
Still we do have a Federal Elections Commission.
xian
@hueyplong: good response to a meaningless non sequitur
Bokonon
Sez the media, “Oh well. Both sides do it! Now … stay tuned for the latest sports scores!”
Frankensteinbeck
@kindness:
Oh, please Celestia, no. Not another Stewart/Obama interview. The last one was Stewart’s lowest and most disgusting moment, they keystone for why I gave up on The Daily Show. Stewart spent the entire interview harping about how Obama hadn’t brought ‘change’, and the ONLY change Stewart would talk about was partisanship in Washington. Anything else Obama talked about was ignored. It was one of the most disgusting displays of blaming the victim I’ve ever seen, not to mention freakishly petty and tone deaf. It infuriated me.
Roger Moore
@Haydnseek:
You’re kidding, right? Try reading some of what he said; it’s all weird faggoty stuff like:
No red, white, and blue blooded American would talk like that!
pseudonymous in nc
@Randy P:
“The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing Senators.”
@Lurking Canadian:
Zero zip nada.
Large parts of the US simply do not have a tradition of free and fair elections, and the constitutional and judicial framework is insufficient to address that.
Ben Cisco
@1badbaba3: Mission accomplished, waited in queue about an hour.
NOTE: All Teabagger personnel voluntarily withdrew to WELL beyond the Neutral Zone (in fact, out of my line of sight altogether) after their scout ship got vaporized.
Patricia Kayden
@Nethead Jay: WOW. At least in this one instance, they were caught. How many registrations have other GOP offices destroyed/thrown away and not been caught?
Forum Transmitted Disease
@Frankensteinbeck: My wife still thinks he’s funny, doesn’t understand why I’ll leave the room if his goddamned show is on. Fuck Stewart and his damnable Broderism.
danielx
Only a fool or a Frenchman would think this is anything other than a mistake.
Forthcoming David Brooks column: Republican efforts to limit voting by minorities and the poor are actually to those groups’ benefit, because being denied the vote will make them more determined to educate themselves and vote in the next election.
Or something.
trollhattan
When I visit Arizona, I insist on staying at Motel Ocho. It’s dos better.
Davis X. Machina
@Frankensteinbeck: Good-bye “E pluribus unum”, hello “Too Cool For School”. Taking this politics stuff seriously is sooooo de trop.
I’ll watch a month of Colbert before an hour of Stewart.
Jay in Oregon
@Violet:
And then they claim they don’t have to appeal to minority voters because “they’ll never vote for a Republican anyway.”
Conservatives are always the victims. Always. And a victim mentality can be a key component of an abusive personality.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/anger-in-the-age-entitlement/201002/victim-identity-im-not-okay-youre-more-not-okay
Paul in KY
@Mal Wood: Because, you damn furriner, that would abrogate each state’s right to ratfuck elections. And shut up, that’s another reason why.
Paul in KY
@aimai: You can’t hardly fire them when that’s what you told them to do.
DavidTC
When are we going to get 14th amendment on their ass?
Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, _the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion_ which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
Let’s reduce their fucking congressional representation, along with their electoral votes, for this bullshit.
(Interesting fact: None of the later amendments actually changed ‘male’ or ‘twenty-one’ in this specific amendment, so, proportionally, representation is still tied to what percentage of over twenty-one year old males are not denied the vote.)