Voting Problems

For the latest reports on voting problems or to report problems, go to Our Vote Live.

Scant Proof of Voter Fraud

Despite allegations of voter fraud, McCain-Palin campaign cannot cite a single instance of voter fraud.

For weeks, Republican leaders have warned that widely reported problems with fake voter registrations could result in a flood of phony votes in pivotal states.

But Ronald Michaelson, a veteran election administrator and member of the McCain-Palin Honest and Open Election Committee, said in an interview that he could not name a single instance in which this had occurred.

Fox Guarding the Henhouse

TPM points out these salient facts about Indiana's Secretary of State, the man responsible for holding free and fair elections.

Earlier today, we reported that Rokita, a Republican, has said he's proud that he was part of the team of GOP activists that descended on Florida and pulled out all the stops to block the 2000 recount and put George Bush in the White House.

Now, a reader points us to this 2007 Associated Press story, which reports:

During a speech Thursday at a Republican event, Todd Rokita said 90 percent of blacks vote for Democrats.

"How can that be?" Rokita said. "Ninety to ten. Who's the master and who's the slave in that relationship? How can that be
healthy?"

And here's a bit more about voter suppression tactics used by the GOP in heavily African American Lake County, IN.

Try, Try, Try Again

If the Supreme Court dismisses your complaint, try the White House.

The White House has asked the Department of Justice to look into whether 200,000 new Ohio voters must reconfirm their registration information before Nov. 4, taking up an issue that Republicans and Democrats in the battleground state have been fighting over in court for weeks.

Odds and Ends

Sean Quinn describes Obama's massive ground-level organization in northern Virginia. Hard not to be impressed by the scale of organization.

Andrew Burmon identifies places where voter suppression are likely to happen.

Palin hits Obama on women's issues. (Gag!)

Dem. House leadership contribute to the DCCC after Pelosi's call for cash.

The Truth About ACORN

Great Reads

Washington Post has an interesting article on Ashwin Madia, the Democrat running for the open seat in Minnesota's 3rd CD.

...But while that disparity in credentials may normally favor Paulsen, it is helping Madia in a climate in which voters appear to be hungry for something, anything, different.

"Here's a guy who has no government experience," University of Minnesota political scientist Lawrence Jacobs said of Madia. "He literally points to being involved in university student government."

Rolling Stone is back with an article on "GOP's campaign to deter new voters and discard Democratic ballots."

On February 5th, the day of the Super Tuesday caucus, a school-bus driver named Paul Maez arrived at his local polling station to cast his ballot. To his surprise, Maez found that his name had vanished from the list of registered voters, thanks to a statewide effort to deter fraudulent voting. For Maez, the shock was especially acute: He is the supervisor of elections in Las Vegas.

Deja Vu

TPM points out the connections between the attorney firings under Alberto Gonzales and the current attacks on ACORN.

We've already discussed the fact that most of the US Attorney firings stemmed from particular US Attorney's refusal to use the power of their office as an adjunct of the Republican party by mounting trumped up vote fraud investigations. In recent election cycles, Republicans have used the last several weeks before federal elections to whip up a storm of interest in phony charges of 'vote fraud' by groups like ACORN and others. And what one of the players in the scandal, Bradley Schlozman, got in trouble for was using his powers as a US Attorney to pull together a made to order investigation and subsequent indictments to add more credibility to Republican charges. That violates DOJ guidelines which are in place to prevent the party in power from using the DOJ to manipulate elections. And now we appear to be witnessing a replay of Schlozman's scam, though perhaps on a much larger scale.

Voter Fraud or Suppression?

From Salon:

...But according to Lori Minnite, a professor of political science at Barnard College, who has spent the last eight years studying the role of fraud in U.S. elections, the Republican crusade against voter fraud is a strategic ruse. Rather than protecting the election process from voter fraud -- a problem that barely exists -- Minnite says the true aim of Republican efforts appears to be voter suppression across the partisan divide. According to Minnite, investigating voter fraud has become a Republican cottage industry over the last 20 years because it justifies questioning the eligibility of thousands of would-be voters -- often targeting poor and minority citizens in urban areas that lean Democratic. Playing the role of vigilant watchdog gives GOP bureaucrats a pretext for obstructing the path of marginalized and first-time voters headed for the polls.