GOP purging voter rolls

[John Q. Citizen]

GOP purging voter rolls
Election Board approves the action despite objections from Democrats
By Cordell Eddings
[e-mail]
August 1, 2006

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060801/NEWS02/608010415/1008

Republicans may continue purging names from the Marion County voter rolls despite Democrats' concerns that some voters could be disenfranchised.

In an emergency meeting Monday, the Marion County Election Board sided with Republicans, who were concerned about potential voter fraud due to people registered in more than one location and deceased voters who were never taken off the books.

The Election Board voted 2-1 in favor of allowing Republicans to continue purging names.
The controversy began Friday when Republicans started removing the names of voters they thought were ineligible. The names came from a list supplied by a vendor contracted by the secretary of state's office that indicated about 36,000 Marion County voter registrations were questionable. Republicans were certain that about 4,500 of those names should be purged immediately. Purging of additional names also is being considered.

Democrats questioned the criteria and the motives Republicans were using in determining who was a legitimate voter. In the past when the two sides disagreed on a voter registration issue, nothing happened, according to Marion County Democratic Party Chairman Ed Treacy.

more....

[havocmom]

1. GOP got ballots of some troops in Iraq thrown out

check out Palast on how a bunch of black military personnel lost their right to have their votes counted not long ago

http://www.gregpalast.com/massacre-of-the-buffalo-soldiers

Now, carry that forward and connect it to that laptop with info on MILLIONS of vets & active duty personnel disappearing then suddenly re-appearing.

That happened the same week Cheney boldly announced the GOP would prevail this November.

Connect the dots.

[JAbuchan08]

2. In the case of duplicate names

I'm guessing that they get rid of both.

[LiberalFighter]

5. Depends on if those Hoosiers are smart.

They could just as easy determine which are dupes and then send out postcard with notice that oldest registration will be purged.

Of course they don't say anything about any of their own registered at more than one address.

[redqueen]

3. There they go again!

The GOPranos are the party of corruption... I hope the election board is going to punish them if they're up to their old tricks again (which I mean come ON do you have to have everything spelled out for you FCOL?!)

[LiberalFighter]

4. Need to obtain list of those purged and determine

if they need to be contacted to challenge purge.

[yurbud]

6. call Greg Palast! Will press cover it this time or wait until after

election settled like they did with purge of black voters in Florida in 2000.

[Kurovski]

7. K&R(nt)

[Maven]

8. Don't "question motives"

Sue and get a goddamned injunction! Enough with this milquetoast bullshit!

[John Q. Citizen]

10. I'm with you! That was my first thought. n/t

[tbyg52]

11. Yep!

Don't just stand there wringing your hands!!!!

[glitch]

13. We already know what their motives are - they are way way way beyond

benefit of the doubt.

[BrklynLiberal]

22. Absolutely. Where are the lawyers? Why wait until AFTER the election?

[autorank]

9. Centralized Voter Registration Databases=Disenfranchisement

Excellent post JQC, as always. The Indiana centralized database has ben a feature of controversy.

Good work.

[blm]

12. THIS is the battle the DNC must take on LOUDLY AND VICIOUSLY. It should've

happened after we learned about it in 2001, but Clinton and McAuliffe did not set the DNC's course to counter the GOP's suppression of Dem voters.

Why? Why did they let the GOPs tricks go uncountered for the entire four years before the 2004 election?

[AtomicKitten]

14. Somebody needs to call Lou Dobbs.

He should include this in his exposure of election fraud. This is just as prevalent and just as corrosive to the integrity of the vote as electronic voting machine fraud.

[bloom]

15. If the governor(R) of Indiana wins a second term...

it will be because he stole it. He's terrible.

[IndyOp]

35. He probably stole it the first time, but Daniels is not up for re-election

this October/November.

[DallasNE]

16. Red Flag Alert

"Vendor hired by the Secretary of State" is a major red flag alert. We should have learned that lesson from examing what Katherine Harris did in Florida in 2000 where she dictated the purge criteria to the vendor.

Most States handle registeration rolls at the local level. What my State does is to send out a post card telling the registered voter where their voting precinct is located. That post card, however, carries instructions to not deliver unless the person on the address actually lives at that address. When the post card is returned by the Post Office the voter is marked as challenged. Challenged voters are allow to vote provisionally provided they have picture ID with that address. Voters challenged who do not show up at the polls are removed before the next election cycle. This method is probably more accurate than any list provided by a vendor anyway. Plus, it is a hell of a lot less expensive.

Local election commission offices also read the obit. section and mark deceased voters challenged and remove them the following election cycle. The only base I don't have specific knowledge on the purge process is voters made ineligible, i.e., serious felons. I am sure one exists, I just don't know the specifics so I can't judge how effective it might be. And, yes, I worked elections for 30 years.

[Sadie5]

17. Quest is doing the purging

If this tells you anything. They are the ones who have screwed up the BMV so badly that it takes hours to get a drivers license renewed. Lately they cant get anything through the system. But did you notice they were quick to place the blame on the Democratic administration that was there before. I agree that MITCH the BITCH will have to steal the next election because he is disliked so much that no one will vote for his miserable butt.

[TheWarIzaLie]

26. Quest is the vendor ?

Aren't they owned by Bush41's Carlyle Group? I remember reading that somewhere... Hmmm

[elehhhhna]

Mental picture of your headline: GHWB pukes on Japans PM,

GWB pukes on voting rights.

[elehhhhna]

18. Mental picture of your headline: GHWB pukes on Japans PM,

GWB pukes on voting rights.

[LoZoccolo]

32. NOTE: THIS FOOTAGE IS GROSS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnOnDatqENo

[elehhhhna]

38. OMG YOU FOUND IT! MY HERO! I have searched

& searched for a photo of this and they are not to be found!~

Thank you soooooooo much!

[elehhhhna]

19. Mental picture of your headline: GHWB pukes on Japans PM,

GWB pukes on voting rights.

[Botany]

20. Just like Ohio 2004 & Florida 2000

"they" can't win a fair election so they have to cheat.

350,000 voters (min #) were purged from the rolls in OH prior to the election.

"Had we not begun the process on Friday, we would not be able to get the job done," said Kyle Walker,
the Republican co-director of the registration board.

Bastards!

[Pale Blue Dot]

21. Let me guess...

The "vendor contracted by the secretary of state's office" is Choicepoint, and the voters in question are in an overwhelmingly minority and/or poor district.

Am I right?

[xxqqqzme]

23. I am always amazed that the rethugs are always soooooo

concerned about voter fraud. Here in Orange County, last winter, the rethugs changed the political party registration of about 3500 democrats. And THEY f*cking own this county! If there is voter fraud, expect to find a rethug @ the bottom of it.

[juajen]

28. Why doesn't some disenfranchised voter, or voters

sue their asses off?

[Pale Blue Dot]

24. Interesting... let's look at the way back machine....

From April 2004:

The Marion County election board is meeting in an emergency session Thursday afternoon to look into a software swap involving its electronic voting system and an alleged cover-up by the company from whom they purchased the $11.1 million system.

Marion County Clerk Doris Anne Sadler revealed the situation this week involving Omaha, Nebraska-based Election Systems and Software (ES&S). The computer that counted all the votes in last November's election contained software that hadn't been approved by the Indiana Election Commission.

ES&S is already under fire for having uncertified firmware in voting machines that were used in Johnson, Henry and Wayne Counties last November.

***

Wendy Orange, the ES&S project manager for Marion County, blew the whistle on her employer. She discovered illegal software was used to tabulate last November's election results. The illegal software was still in the computer last January, when the I-Team tested the system for accuracy and reliability, and raised concerns about the system's security.

http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1806593

Continuing to research...

[Pale Blue Dot]

25. Indiana Democratic Party v. Rokita

http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/litigation/indy-dems.php

In this case, the Indiana Democratic Party, the Marion Democratic Central Committee and League of Women Voters (“Plaintiffs”), are challenging Indiana’s new voter identification scheme.

This law requires a voter to show valid photographic identification before casting a ballot. When voters do not have valid identification, they may cast a provisional ballot and have until the second Monday after the election to provide valid identification and sign an affidavit affirming they are the person who cast the provisional vote, or sign an affidavit claiming indigence or religious objection to having their photograph taken.

The Plaintiffs assert that there are four problems with this system: (1) the cost of the identification, travel and birth certificate required to obtain identification constitute a poll tax; (2) the need to go to the county election board to sign an affidavit constitutes an added unnecessary burden; (3) the regulations do not apply to all voters, namely absentee voters, giving rise to disparate treatment; and, (4) many of the Indiana Bureaus of Motor Vehicles, the only location to obtain valid identification, are difficult to get to, especially in rural counties.

Plaintiffs requested injunctive relief preventing the enforcement of this regulation and declaratory relief stating that the regulation violates the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Defendants, Secretary of State and the co-directors of the Indiana Election Division of the Secretary of State’s office, claim they have no responsibility for enforcement of these regulations and cannot remedy the problem should judgment be granted against them, making them improper parties to this action. All Defendants, including the Marion County Elections Board, are claiming Eleventh Amendment immunity in this action.

Marion County seems to be using every single one of the Election stealing tricks used in 2000 and 2004 acrros the country.

[Patchuli]

27. So who in the (&%$^^ decides repubs do this??!!

And to whom do they answer? This is bizarre and a blatant disregard for democracy. These people should lose THEIR rights to vote!

[McCamy Taylor]

29. Al Gonzales did not enforce Voting Rights Act in Ohio 2004, now everyone

is repeating Blackwell's strategy of vote supression and election fraud, because they know that they will not be prosecuted either.

This is going to be massive and will occur in every state in the US. And the Department of Justice will look the other way.

[McCamy Taylor]

30. Crimes are being comitted here. These are not "loopholes". This is illegal

[Tab]

31. STAND UP TO THIS SHIT

OR THROW IN THE TOWEL.

This is what has happened at EVERY other GOP-based disenfranchisement.

Reports of this or that happening, and no movement that manages to block it.

It's not my state, I have minimum influence, but goddammit, if it IS your state, don't let it go.

It's sad that we have to move to protect our freedoms, but at least we're (currently) allowed to do so. YOU ARE THE CHECK AND BALANCE!!!

CHECK THE BEHAVIOR TO INSURE THE BALANCE!!!

Do it now, or don't whine come November.

Good god, what is this country coming to.

[snot]

33. WHAT SHOULD WE DO?

I don't have time to file a lawsuit, but I can double-check my registration in advance of the election -- would that help? Would it help to encourage others to do so? About how long before the election? Will it be self-defeating if we swamp the voter registrars with confirmation requests?

Other possibilities?

Please, we need a practical plan! One that includes small-scale tactics that anyone can take on.

[IndyOp]

36. Check your registration at www.IndianaVoters.com now & in September...

Rokita's office is doing this in broad daylight. They sent out postcards this month - any that bounce back as undeliverable will be followed up with a letter to the same address. If the letter also bounces back then the voter is removed from the rolls. Purging this close to an election looks exactly like disenfranchisement to me (especially because Republican Attorney General Stephen Carter order Republican Secretary of State Todd Rokita to conduct the purge). Nevertheless it is being done in broad daylight and we must counteract it with HUGE voter registration drives and registration checks in September. VOTING BEGINS OCTOBER 10th at your Indiana County Clerk's Office!

:kick:

[LoZoccolo]

37. Check if you're still on the rolls every week.

Catch it early if you're removed. Get everyone to do this.

[Chiyo-chichi]

34. The Indiana Sec. of State, Todd Rokita, had a duplicate listing HIMSELF!

from Jennifer Wagner's Indiana politics blog:
http://www.takingdownwords.com/taking_down_words/2006/06/double_your_ple.html
"Looks like the state's chief election officer could've voted twice in the May primary. Oops. Maybe this is why we shouldn't be sending out postcards to purge the state's voter rolls in an election year. Even with the new $10 million system that he oversees, the guy can't even get himself registered correctly, and we're going to trust him to get the right people off the lists? Baby steps, man. This is a fundamental right we're talking about, not another set of horrible campaign, er, issue-related commercials."

More on Rokita... He will serve as president of the National Assn of Secretaties of State.
http://www.takingdownwords.com/taking_down_words/statehouse_todd_rokita/index.html

His comments after Katrina from the Indiana Daily Student:
"(Rokita) thinks hurricane relief and reconstruction is the responsibility of local citizenry in New Orleans. Rokita also said he believes he can end the so-deemed era of big government by proposing the U.S. federal government not be in the business of protecting and securing its citizens in a time of crisis. What he called for, though, amounts to a de-ratification of the Constitution.

"It absolutely amazed me how quick we were to say that the government was responsible for that hurricane," Rokita was quoted as having said in the Indiana Daily Student Friday. "If we continue to think that way, pretty soon we will be living in a country that looks not unlike the former USSR."
http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.php?adid=search&id=31685