Voter ID Passed To Help Romney Win PA

Comments

1. Tom Sullivan says:

   June 27, 2012 at 9:46 pm

   Any more? You have specifics?

   Oh, wait. Here’s a little boost from Ari Berman:

   According to Judicial Watch, which led the fight to impeach Clinton, the Obama Administration is “aggressively pursuing plans behind closed doors to enact ‘stealth’ amnesty’ for millions of illegal aliens in a move to curry favor with Hispanic voters and potentially make it easier for illegal aliens to break the law and vote in 2012,” along with “continuing to funnel tax dollars to the corrupt and criminal ACORN.”

   Such assertions are easily debunked. There is no “stealth amnesty” program, there is no record of noncitizens intentionally voting in US elections and ACORN no longer exists. Yet such outlandish claims are deeply ingrained in the conservative psyche. A 2009 survey by Public Policy Polling found that “52% majority of GOP voters nationally think that ACORN stole the Presidential election for Barack Obama last year, with only 27% granting that he won it legitimately.”

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2. Roger E. Hartley
   Twitter: I
   says:

   June 28, 2012 at 6:29 am

   There is mixed political science on the actual impact of these laws. But the intent is crystal clear. It is a campaign by “smart” people to sell model legislation state by state to make it just slightly more difficult to vote. They believe in the rational voter model and the intention here is to add to the costs of voting.

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3. Roger E. Hartley
   Twitter: I
   says:

   June 28, 2012 at 6:36 am

   One more thing that gives me the willies on this. It is how it can be used selectively to discriminate. How strongly will the laws be enforced and where? Imagine an urban voter location with long long lines on voting day in an intense election. Poll workers could intentionally slow down the lines forcing long waits. Outsiders called pools watchers can do the same…and there is a right wing group intent on challenging voters at the polls who they think might not be valid voters. The challenging of legit voters will slow the polls even further now that there are reasons (is your ID valid???…is that the right form?). Even reasonable laws can fall prey to duty tricks (a phone call arguing that you need three forms of ID to vote or picture ID).

   Now imagine a small rural county with easy lines…everyone knows each other…sympathetic poll workers..no poll watchers. Will they even ask for it?

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4. Tom Sullivan says:

   June 28, 2012 at 6:39 am

   Here’s a short (and incomplete) list of current and recent suppression vote efforts for you:

   Confuse

   * precinct splitting (in redistricting)
   * changing voting locations
   * sending mailings and robocalls with wrong voting dates

   Deny

   * enacting voter ID laws
   * shortening early voting periods
   * enacting laws aimed at punishing voter registration efforts
   * shorting machines in Democrat-leaning precincts and increasing them in Republican areas
   * eliminating Sunday voting
   * eliminating same-day registration
   * purging voter rolls
   * withholding state funds for conducting elections

   Intimidate

   * sending threatening mailings warning of prosecution for illegal voting
   * compiling voter challenge lists (vote caging, True the Vote, etc.)
   * alleging widespread voter fraud
   * attempting to overturn the 1982 consent decree enjoining the RNC from stationing police with armbands and signs warning of prosecution for illegal voting outside minority polling places

   Overwhelm

   * sending wave after wave of attack mailers
   * flooding answering machines with annoyance and “false flag” robocalls
   * jamming Democratic party phone lines on and before Election Day

   People will argue with any particular pixel in this picture, but step back and the whole pattern is visible.

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5. Roger E. Hartley
   Twitter: I
   says:

   June 28, 2012 at 6:53 am

   Bingo Tom. Great post.

   This is what I’m talking about. Combine this national tea party effort with voter ID laws and you get at least slower voting at crowded polls….at worst an effort to target democrat polls and suppress vote.

   http://m.npr.org/story/148518795?url=/2012/03/13/148518795/tea-party-spawns-new-effort-against-voter-fraud

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6. Davyne Dial
   Twitter: dixiegirlz
   says:

   June 28, 2012 at 8:52 am

   Mr. Hartley,
   It’d be an asset to us here in WNC if you could do an online instructional in citizenship.

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7. Roger E. Hartley
   Twitter: I
   says:

   June 28, 2012 at 9:27 am

   Thanks Davyne. I teach about law and society and Direct our Masters in Public Affairs at WCU. Love what I do. Love my students…conservative, liberal, libertarian….

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