North Hudson (WI) Man Files Voter Suppression Complaint Against Americans For Prosperity

[sybylla]

Source: Hudson Patch

When Charles Shultz received an absentee ballot application form in the mail on Thursday, July 28, it didn't take long before he found something fishy with it.

The mailer, sent by conservative advocacy group Americans For Prosperity (AFP) to his North Hudson home, included directions to mail the application to Madison instead of his village clerk.

"It seems to me like it was an effort by this organization to delay the process or make the process more complicated," Shultz said. "And, of course the date of when it should be returned was wrong."

That set off red flags for Shultz.

Read more: http://hudson-wi.patch.com/articles/north-hudson-man-files-voter-suppression-complaint-against-americans-for-prosperity

---

Hopefully these will pop up all over - let AFP play whack-a-mole for a while.

[alp227]

1. the creator of Peanuts? Oh nvm, but still good on Shultz w/o a C for doing something

about this problem.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. He's not lettin' Lucy jerk the football this time.

[Kolesar]

6. Good grief

[Swede Atlanta]

8. It's standard OP for Repukkkes..

If they can't win legally they will do everything they can to steal an election by fraud and deception. IMHO this should be a capital offense because it tears at the very heart of our democracy.

[Hubert Flottz]

18. "should be a capital offense "

I couldn't agree more. American service men and women die all the time, to protect our rights to vote and to live in what we're told is a democracy. Mothers and fathers see their children come home in flag covered coffins and then these criminals want to steal our votes and diminish and undermine the very democracy, that our loved ones died to protect.

Unless these un-American bastards are brought to justice and made an example of, nothing will ever "CHANGE." In a democracy your vote should mean more than something to throw in the trash and then laugh about how you got away with a dirty trick and committed what by all rights should be a capital offense.(malicious, traitorous, criminal, subversion)

Edit...In a real democracy an election thief should be so afraid of the consequences for committing such a crime as subversion by election theft or election rigging, that none would ever dare try it. A far worse criminal than a pot head, IMHO. So maybe we need to shift our resources away from the war on weed and start a war on election thieves. How do you feel about sending your kids off to war so that election thieves can be free, to ruin our country and what we're told, it stands for?(democracy)

[Blue Owl]

11. Pig Pen's stinkin' up the governor's mansion in Wisconsin

n/t

[Berserker]

30. No but

the little red headed girl really did live in Hudson.

[Kingofalldems]

2. Repubs are dirty tricks experts

[asjr]

4. I thought Peanuts Shultz died a few years ago.

[kentauros]

24. He did,

but try googling your real name and see how many hits you get ;)

[pauljulian]

49. I'm kinda honored

I get a lot of hits that are me... but I get even about from a pretty slick scientist in the UK!

[Courtesy Flush]

25. Well, they always claimed that dead Democrats keep voting. nt

[jwirr]

5. If this gets to court a fitting punishment should be that all votes turned

in before the 12th should count. They would never do it again.

[Mechasr]

12. HAHAHAHA - nice

what'll those teabaggers think of next?

[truedelphi]

13. Big problem is that much of this type of activity is illegal, but

Even the most illegal of voting activity often doesn't carry any penalty.

None. Nada. There is really no incentive to obey the laws.

[Lasher]

19. That's right, there's no real deterrent.

There's lots of people who would love to steal an election and just have to pay a $1,000 fine.

[progressoid]

23. Let's hope it at least gets some airtime on the media.

I know, I know. Wishful thinking.

[Doctor_J]

28. Someone needs to file a suit for all of the tax breaks

that would be received in case of a Repuke win. For instance, if it's determined that the Cock brothers would receive 10 billion dollars in tax breaks from a Repuke Congress, that should be the fine. I think some clever lawyer could work this angle.

[truedelphi]

61. Let me know when you find that lawyer. Hoping you do.

However, our judiciary is every bit as tainted as the legislators are.

So even if such a lawyer pursued such a case, and even if it won in the District Court level, once it went on up to the Supreme Court, (as it would surely do) you'd find that every thing the good old Koch Bros are doing is okey-dokey.

Corporations are people, and carry more weight than the average citizen. Rich people are just unincorporated corporations and carry as much weight as any corporation of equal value.

[stevedeshazer]

7. This is a very important story, despite all the "Peanuts" cracks.

We're talking election fraud here.

K & R

[ooglymoogly]

56. If it should ever be picked up by corporate media (unlikely)

It will be under the heading of voter fraud.

[beac]

9. K&R. n/t

[Forkboy]

10. K&R

:kick:

[patrice]

14. K&R

[SoapBox]

15. K & R n/t

[PuffedMica]

16. Republicans are going lie, cheat, and steal this election

The Republicans are embolden from their theft of the Presidential election in 2000
They are embolden with the theft of Ohio in 2004
They are embolden with the theft of Prosser over Kloppenburg
Now the Republicans are burning down Democratic campaign headquarters and poisoning the absentee voting.

They have been successful at cheating so many times, it has become their modus operandi

[Enthusiast]

21. They are emboldened

because the DOJ is obviously on their side.

[Jackpine Radical]

45. And in WI, the State Attorney General is one of them.

J.B. Van Hollen is as big a wingnut criminal as you'll find in office anywhere.

[Enthusiast]

54. That's just great.

:puke:

[Jackpine Radical]

58. Van Hollen is an open wound that the Dems inflicted on themselves

by the stupid campaign they ran against him. The previous AG, Peg Lautenschlager, was a very effective liberal who went out & got herself a DUI while driving her State-assigned Buick Park Avenue home. A certain Democratic Governor (I won't name him, but his initials are Jim Doyle) had long disliked Peg, and talked Kathleen Falk into running against her, playing up the DUI. Peg lost the primary & Kathleen lost the General. To Schmuck Van Hollen.

As an aside, Kathleen had also made Doyle's election possible back in 2002. She ran as a liberal against Doyle (a dull "moderate") and Tom Barrett, who was also running to the left. Kathleen split enough of the liberal Dem vote away from Tom to allow Doyle to take the primary. Doyle went on to win the General against a very weak Republican ex-lieutenant governor who was "filling in" the remainder of Tommy Thompson's last term after Bush appointed Tommy to a Cabinet post.

[sybylla]

59. Well said, as always, Jackpine.

I would add that Doyle barely won his first gubernatorial race - which any solid Dem should have run away with in a landslide. It was ridiculous that it was even close against that incompetent, arrogant buffoon.

[Jackpine Radical]

62. Thanks for the flattery, Sybylla.

And yeah, Doyle barely pulled it off. And I really disliked the whole flavor of his administration--all lackluster lawyerly avoiding lawsuits & stuff instead of advancing any remotely progressive causes.

[ooglymoogly]

57. They have been covering all bases for decades to steal elections.

This is true in most of the country and why 20% lunatics, of the country controls the other 80% that is sanity.

[Doctor_J]

29. I think you and I both know how this is going to end

The Dept of Justice has completely ignored this. To avoid living in a fascist state, our options are running out. Will we fight back, or not? That's the only question that remains.

[PuffedMica]

17. K&R

[KansDem]

20. Why is a private group issuing absentee ballots?

Wouldn't this be the province of local government?

I read the article but it doesn't give details why this is happening. Ever since the 2000 election I think it strange we still let private corporations count our votes, considering the debacle that election was.

I don't know; maybe I'm missing something here. But how did AFP get the responsibility of handing out absentee ballots?

[LiberalFighter]

31. Where I'm at any group can send out absentee ballot applications.

That is an application for the absentee ballot. Once that is filled out it goes to the appropriate election office and they process it and send out the absentee ballot for the person to fill out and return. Some groups have it sent to their hdqtrs so they can keep track of those that are voting absentee. But the legitimate groups don't do it in this manner and this close to an election. It doesn't give the voter time to consider what action to take and do everything in a timely fashion.

Depending on the finances of a campaign they might initiate a absentee ballot program mailing out the apps to their strong supporters and not have to worry about their vote on election day. The state party, county party, or candidate campaigns. Other groups may attempt to do it too. Some do it just to their members. Others might do it based on other criteria. Some for the purpose of preventing others from having their vote count.

Now it may be that interfering with the vote of a voter is a felony. If so, it should be pursued like a hound dog.

[Taverner]

38. Because they're fake

It's a Rovian trick

[donquijoterocket]

40. I've wondered

That same thing myself. Was wondering if it wasn't something little Scotty and the thieving repubs hadn't hustled through their legislature. Besides the other irregularities it would seem these wouldn't be official ballots. You'd think the state AG would be all over this,but maybe they're in a pocket too. I'm hoping somebody somewhere clears that question up.

[sybylla]

42. Reports keep saying "absentee ballots" when what they are sending out are request forms

The issue is that on their handy-dandy request form they say the ballot, when you get it, must be returned by August 11, two days after the election.

[No Elephants]

22. Why does a private citizen have to file a lawsuit. Where is no prosecutor investigating and prose-

cuting?

And why has not Congress acted on voter suppression and voter fraud? No, I don't mean the Republican House. I would not expect it the party of dirty tricks to initiate that kind of legislation. But Congress from Januay 2007 to January 201i was Democratic.

And, if you allegedly cannot get such a bill passed unless you have at least 75 Senators, at least make Republicans (and maybe conservadems) go on record as voting against clean elections.

But the Democratic Congress did not do that, despite all the talk of stolen elections in 2000 and 2004. WHY?

Come on, ask yourself.

[Ganja Ninja]

36. Exactly! I don't know why this is allowed to continue.

It would seem a simple matter to write a law banning this type or any other type of deception.

[sybylla]

43. In Wisconsin, all election complaints must go through a government agency.

This guy is just trying to shorten the process by going right to court. It's where this will have to be settled because said government agency (GAB) is toothless at best.

It was reformed a few years ago to streamline the process. We used to have two agencies - one for ethics complaints and one for election complaints. Now we have one group to handle both, but all that means is that they reach the conclusion sooner that there's nothing they want to do about it.

[No Elephants]

55. Thanks. Interfering with elections is the most anti-American thing possible

But we focus on whether someone is wearing a flag pin.

[Hubert Flottz]

48. A VERY good question.

Talking about "High Crimes"...

[Doctor_J]

26. I'm sure Holder will get right on this

:puke:

[mwb970]

27. The republican defense is that it was a "typo". What a joke.

How brazen can you get!

republican crooks make "typos" on election dates all the time when addressing Democrats, and the "typos" alwayds specify dates AFTER the election, never before. To a thinking person with the tiniest knowledge of statistics, this demonstrates that the errors are not random, in which case they would distribute roughly evenly on the before and after sides. Not all "after".

It reminds me of Fox "News" misidentifying misbehaving republicans as Democrats, but never EVER the reverse.

I am amazed at my capacity to despise republican assholes more and more with each passing day. I'm easy-going, I like people, but THESE people make me want to join the NRA. For all the wrong reasons!

[LiberalFighter]

32. There is an easy remedy for that.

Require any group that does an absentee ballot application mailing to get it approved by the state election board or all local election boards involved.

[Evasporque]

35. If the solution doesn't include preventing democrats from voting...the GOP won't adopt...nt

[sybylla]

44. This has been happening too many years and too many times just in the recalls

for this to be called a typo. I think that's the reason this court case has a chance. This organization especially has a history of "typos" that should come back to bite them in the backside this time.

[Courtesy Flush]

33. It's amazing that those who claim to be patriots

and those who wave the flag and the Constitution around like they invented them, are always the first to undermine democracy. These acts are un-American.

[Ganja Ninja]

34. Isn't it about time they made this type of crap a felony?

Why does this go on election after election and it's always the Republicans? How about passing a law that makes it a felony to mislead voters with fake ballots, phony polling places, misstated times and dates or any other deliberate attempt to to deny voters rights through deception of any kind.

How many times do the Democrats have to get slapped in the face before they wake up?

[denverbill]

37. Sounds like a criminal conspiracy. Their assets should be frozen.

"In the criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to break the law at some time in the future, and, in some cases, with at least one overt act in furtherance of that agreement."

If AFP did deliberately send out false literature in an attempt to suppress voting, there was sure as hell more than 2 people involved.

[Lint Head]

39. Hell. File a complaint to the District Attorney for prosecution of fraud.

This is deliberate. Not a mistake.

Though he took action filing complaints with any board is an impotent act

[geardaddy]

41. K and R

I started seeing fake absentee ballots showing up in the mail during the last state election here in MN.

[Zambero]

46. Americans for WHAT???

So according to the most recent addendum to end-justifies-the-means conservative doctrine, prosperity can be assured by 1) running phony primary election candidates to (hopefully) confuse the electorate, and if that doesn't work, go with step 2) perpetrate election fraud by deliberately deceiving voters who might not support your candidate.

And not to worry, Wisconsin prosperity-seekers -- for added insurance there's a new voter ID law in place that requires a photo ID (but NOT a student ID -- so sorry all you brainy kids!) in order to vote, and hey, we hope you don't mind the slight inconvenience now that state DMV offices are being shuttered in the most notorious prosperity-hating lefty enclaves. Hook or crook, k'know! :sarcasm:

[myrna minx]

47. K&R n/t

[Uncle Joe]

50. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, sybylla.

[sybylla]

60. You're welcome! nt.

[OneAngryDemocrat]

51. Interesting Topic on AFP-Wisconsin's Facebook Page...

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=146716918692692&topic=676

I think it's time for the feds to divest ALL funds to this group... if any, just like ACORN.

What do you all think?

[Blue Owl]

52. Americans For Depravity

n/t

[pam4water]

53. Awesome!