Andrew Lazarus (sincerely) and VT (less so) have been asking for more information about voter fraud and intimidation in the USA from the Democratic side. I'm actually going to include incidents from both sides here, and lay out the broader problem, but I will suggest to them that the preponderance may not be where they think it lies.
Still, this is a problem inherent to politics as a whole. The question is what to do about it, and that shouldn't be partisan. Read this in-depth roundup of links and incidents, and you'll see why I'm becoming concerned:
- Bill Hobbs has a whole archive devoted to voter fraud reports. His tenacity on this issue throughout the 2004 election is a public service. There are a lot of them. Most (but not all) involve Democrats.
- Which may explain the situation in Milwaukee. Kos is indignant, but the article he links notes that the city requested 938,000 ballots from the county - who had "serious questions" about the need for that many ballots when the city reported having 382,000 registered voters in September. I'd wonder too.
- Then we have Oregon & Nevada. Messing with voter registration is serious, and the trail seems to lead to the RNC. Serious law-enforcement investigations are underway. If this checks out, I hope they charge and jail the people involved.
- John Fund describes an additional pattern of serious violence that ought to worry people. It even includes more than one incident of gunfire into Republican campaign offices, and a charming lawn-burning (shades of the Klan, geez). This fire in front of a Kerry campaign office is also serious, as set fires always are due to the potential for destruction and tragedy.
- There's also the usual rash of destroyed signs and minor vandalism that one always finds in political campaigns. It's worse in this election, and does seem to tilt toward vandalism of GOP supporters (to give just one example - see here for more - but there are anti-Democrat examples too), and that concerns me. Especially in light of the description in this comment by Gonzalo Rodriguez re: the disturbing attitudes he's seeing, and scattered public comments by Dem supporters about killing George Bush. Not funny.
- Computer theft may be a bipartisan sport [Dem-OH | GOP-WA]... though both burglaries may also be just burglaries. Computers are tempting targets, and campaign offices are easy to case.
- And then there's the Drudge Report re: new DNC advice to election operatives: declare voter intimidation -- even if none exists. LGF links to the official DNC response, whch offers broader context while confirming the aforementioned tactic. Dave Schuler notes that there may be much less here than meets the eye. I'll go with his interpretation.
- Joshua Micah Marshall reports a case in South Dakota that he describes as voter fraud, which triggered resignations in the Republican campaign. Follow the link, though, and there seems to be less here than meets to eye, too.
- This isn't fraud, but Florida, which has a law that removes voting rights frm some felons, is still having troubles with the "purge lists" that enforce it. The new list was released July 1, and complaints are surfacing that it still has mistakes. In addition, a flawed database merge may keep many Hispanic felons on the list. There is evidence of at least incompetence here. Looks to me like some people need to be looking for work.
- Fund, who has written Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy, describes the extent of this problem. It's not exclusive to one party, as he notes very clearly, but let's just say that there's strong Democratic Party representation in the case studies.
As I said in one recent comment thread:
"Messing with voter registration is serious stuff, and violent intimidation is really serious stuff, and people who deny, spin or make excuses for either one are [a] no friends of democracy; and [b] morally damaged."
Most people can grasp that. So when the media reports these things fairly and consistently (unlike, say, CBS "News"), they raise the costs for bad actors. When enforcement is taken seriously, and charges are laid, and real penalties and criminal records follow, it raises the costs for bad actors. When people who are normally partisan in favour or undecided express their anger about this sort of chicanery with their votes, and are public about it (q.v. Stephen Green's "It's How You Play The Game"), it raises the costs for bad actors.
Got more examples for us? Use the comments, and follow the instructions for live links. Then push for change. It's time for a bipartisan campaign to raise the costs for bad actors. Period.
And that's all I have to say about that.
JUNE 30/05 UPDATE: Gateway Pundit followed the trial and conviction of Jessie Lewis, Sheila Thomas, Yvette Johnson and former city official Kelvin Ellis -- all of whom were found guilty of conspiracy to commit election fraud and election fraud while working for the Democratic Party during the November 2004 election.
JAN 24/06 UPDATE: Wall St. Journal OpinionJournal notes:
"Wisconsin is one of the few states that allow voters to register and vote on the same day as an election, thus creating an incentive for dubious registrations and other kinds of political hanky-panky. After the 2000 election, a Park Avenue heires working for Al Gore pleaded guilty to plying the homeles in Milwaukee with cigarettes as an incentive to vote. If anything, the 2004 election appears to have featured even more dramatic violations of law.
Last week, four local workers for the John Kerry campaign pleaded no contest to charges they slashed the tires of 25 vehicles that Milwaukee Republicans were planning to use to get out the vote on Election Day. Two of the guilty come from prominent local political families: One is the son of former Milwaukee mayor Melvin Pratt and another is the son of current Congreswoman Gwen Moore. A fifth man who was not directly tied to the crimes was acquitted after his four fellow defendants abruptly entered no-contest pleas while their trial was already underway.
Prosecutors agreed to accept the no-contest pleas during the second day of jury deliberation in the case, after the presiding judge was informed the jurors might deadlock. In exchange, prosecutors pledged to recommend the four men receive only probation if they agreed to pay restitution for the slashed tires. Given how much the four campaign workers tried to subvert the electoral proces, here's hoping the judge rejects the bargain and imposes some jail time. The charges the four pleaded guilty to carry a maximum penalty of nine months in jail and a $10,000 fine."
Hey, if the Republicans can't stand up to a bunch of AFL-CIO members, how can we trust them to stand up to Al Qaeda?
praktike, I figure there must be some deeper meaning in your comment. Care to explain it to we dunces?
Wisconsin allows day-of-election registration, so the number of voters registered in September has a much looser connection to the number of ballots needed than in most states. According to that same article, the larger number of ballots printed for 2000 and 2002 (a lower-turnout midterm!) was not adequate in some polling stations. Something's fishy, but not what you think.
Meanwhile, today Paul Krugman reminds us that in Florida, the full apparatus of the state run by Brother Bush has been devoted to suppression of the black vote. Florida continues to keep qualified blacks off the voter rolls as part of a "felon purge"—and little details like merely having the same name as a convicted felon don't matter. Most revealing, though, is their deliberate use of a database matching strategy that guaranteed that Hispanic felons (or people with similar names) would not be stricken from the rolls, while blacks would be. Hispanics in Florida tend Republican; blacks vote heavily Democratic.
But, oh yeah, some random nut fired a gun into Republican HQ. In at least one case, evidence suggests that the "complaint" is a fake set up by a Republican campaign worker who is, oddly enough, always being assaulted by Democrats (who in one case looked just like his own son wearing a Democratic T-Shirt!)
Here's a new one for you to add to the list regarding a theft of computers from a Kerry campaign office in Ohio a couple of days ago.
But as Andrew points out, systemic institutionalized fraud is a far greater threat to our democracy than random acts by individuals, even though they are not to be tolerated either.
Perhaps we can all agree on the need to reform the system to minimize the possibility of fraud in the future, although I'm not holding out much hope for this.
praktike, I figure there must be some deeper meaning in your comment. Care to explain it to we dunces?
Pure, unadulterated snark.
You also left out this one in South Dakota where six Replicans resigned while under investigation for possible voter registration fraud.
Interestingly enough, some of the individuals involved have now been relocated to Ohio to work for BC04 there.
And another regarding phone jamming in New Hampshire by Republicans during the 2002 midterms.
Sorry about seeming so "insincere" about my requests for similar evidence from the Democratic side of the aisle, but then again you are not giving us anything here to refute the imbalance at top levels except a memo citing a questionable campaign strategy.
I haven't read the whole directive—just the cover page. And I don't read it quite that way. The way I read their direction is that they want their operatives to talk about past offenses and keep the subject up in the air. A FUD strategy. Not quite the same thing as accusations of present intimidation. Pretty much politics-as-usual stuff. Not felonious conduct (as would be fraudulent claims of intimidation).
Why do you say this? I honestly don't understand what you meant.
Why do you say this? I honestly don't understand what you meant.
A reference to what Cheney said about Howard Dean and the $87 billion in the debates. It was meant to be funny. Alas.
Andrew J. Lazarus (3:59pm),
Thanks for the three citations on Republican monkey-business in your post. The cited sources are Paul Krugman, Miami Herald op-ed columnist Jim Defede, and the Daily Kos.
Krugman has earned his spotty reputation for honesty, though certainly what he says might be true, and might even be in context. I haven't heard of columnist Defede. By the Daily Kos' entry, you have conflated the strange poster-teardown episode with the referenced complaint on the bullet-thru-a-window incident. That creepy guy being in the office hardly proves that he arranged the shot.
Here are a few incidents:
Lafayette, LA
State College, PA
Grand Rapids, MI
Boone, NC
Hat tip: hilzon, Obsidian Wings
To follow up, I picked one of the dozen or so charges that Krugman levels at Republicans in his 10/15/04 NYT opinion piece that AJL cited at 3:59pm:
Either I'm better than Krugman at quickly Googling, or less prone to making hysterical charges. Here is a seemingly-fair 9/29/04 Columbus Dispatch report on the Ohio paper-weight issue that Krugman referenced. Readers can follow the link, read the article, and decide if Krugman's characterization is balanced, or even particularly accurate.
I can believe that some of Krugman's charges have merit, but he's too deep in stopped-clock territory for me to check further.
Ooops. Make that “hilzoy”.
Dave Schuler's reading of the DNC memo could be the case. If so, there's less there than meets the eye.
Next - read the South Dakota scandal link and followed it. Also seems like a "less there...." case:
OK. Is that serious?
Hmm, resignation over something that is not even a legal requirement. Doesn't look like there's any legal voter fraud investigation. But they do need to establish the genuineness of the student voters, using different means. Sounds like a common problem (esp. for students) that's not going to interfere with a single voter's rights, and the voter information must still check out (or it won't, and we'll know soon) so safeguards exist. So why the resignations?
Call me crazy, but that sounds like a positive thing to me. For future lelections, I might recommend tightening the law slightly re: absentee verification requirements - the article isn't really clear so it's hard to judge, but it sounds a bit weak.
finally, praktike, re: the AFL-CIO.
I will note that some did stand up, and at least one person has broken bones for his troubles. That strikes me as pretty serious, especially when we're dealing with coordinated actions here. But maybe your standards differ. Most civilized people realize that a brownshirt is not al-Qaeda, and so responding with automatic gunfire may not be the right tactic. But we're still talking about brownshirt stuff here, and treating that the way you did... I'd say it qualifies as your lowest-ever moment here.
And
Pensacola, FL
I was just lazy about the link to Florida using a database they already knew wouldn't match Hispanic felons, but would match black felons. (Plus the apparent added effect of disqualifying anyone with a similar name if they chose to, as they often did in 2000.) Here is the original article from a mainstream Florida newspaper.
As to West Virginia, we have a man who very strongly appears to have staged "assaults" on his family by Democrats at least three times (since once, the perp looks just like his own son), now claiming that shots were fired into his local GOP HQ. No doubt the shots were fired, but this man looks like a con artist with a consistent anti-Democrat M.O. Indeed, do we even know that he was inside the office at the time shots were fired, instead of just outside, except on his own worthless word?
VT beat me to the new evidence that the GOP is engaged in systemic criminal ballot fraud (the South Dakota case appears to involve illegal notarization, and that's a crime).
But in other news, in Old New Litchrich, Connecticut a Democrat had his dog pee on a Bush-Cheney yard sign. Gotta keep up with the important stuff.
OK, made some changes and additions to the post to inclde links people have thrown in. Some (like Krugman's) didn't make it because their credibility is in question, but many did. Thanks to all who helped.
Thanks for the stronger mainstream cite on the FL case, AJL. The WV incident is still unclear to me.
The last paragraph of your last post is unbecoming. As a lettered person, you are surely aware that the abuses that the current systems invite are not indulged by one side only. Methinks Oldnew Litchrich, CT ith a protest too much.
AMac, you're right. There have been times in American history when the great majority of election manipulation has been done by Democrats, and for volume the GOP will never, ever be able to catch up to the massive disenfranchisement perpetrated under Jim Crow, by Democrats.
In this election, the great majority of incidents appear to be against Democrats, and they show a level of national organization and a cash paper trail (about $500,000 to Sproul the Shredder) implicating the Republican Party itself. The performance of the Florida Elections Division in its repeated voter purges—which you will recall they attempted to keep secret until losing in court—bespeaks a conscious and deliberate attempt by the state to reduce Democratic electoral strength by invalid disqualifications and by restricting proper disqualifications to likely-Democratic registrants. I haven't seen anything comparable in Massachusetts; have you?
In the WV incident: the complainant about the shots has also claimed on three occasions (at least) to have been assaulted by Democrats for bringing a Republican sign to a Democrats' rally. A photograph of one such incident shows that the assault was committed by someone resembling one of his own sons, and I conclude the whole scene was a frame-up to embarrass the Democrats. If you start at the dKos link I gave, you can find the pictures, including a family shot from his own web site for comparison. So, yes, I am suggesting that he (or a confederate) fired shots into their own Campaign HQ.
finally, praktike, re: the AFL-CIO.
I will note that some did stand up, and at least one person has broken bones for his troubles. That strikes me as pretty serious, especially when we're dealing with coordinated actions here. But maybe your standards differ. Most civilized people realize that a brownshirt is not al-Qaeda, and so responding with automatic gunfire may not be the right tactic. But we're still talking about brownshirt stuff here, and treating that the way you did... I'd say it qualifies as your lowest-ever moment here.
Just following the leadership example set by the Vice President.
AJL (7:25pm), the truth behind your sarcastic bashing of the Dems can be appreciated even by those of us who don't subscribe to your politics. Indeed, nothing done in 2004 begins to compare with the massive and systematic disenfranchisement that my party (yes, the Democrats) practiced during Jim Crow.
Now that we've found something to agree on, let's look at your assertion.
The links Joe provides above to committed-Left sites document your point. OTOH, the links Joe provides above to committed-Right sites document the converse point.
So far, to me, the Sproul case you refer to looks like the most serious single fraud, but it does not lack for company. Thanks for the links.
So, sorry, at this point, referring to 2004, the partisan moans of it's only the Evil Ones of the Other Side doing real mischief sound like, well, partisan moans. Maybe the majority of other readers who see themselves as center-right or center-left will disagree. But I suspect otherwise.
The comment about Jim Crow disenfranchisement by Dems was not intended as sarcasm. But it is about a generation obsolete.
FTR, I think it's likely that ACORN staffers mishandled voter forms. I'm very skeptical of paid canvassing.
I've done volunteer registration, and we left the "send in only the Dems" as a joke. At the time, it was so inconceivable it was funny; but the same way I stopped joking about jumping out of buildings after a friend did just that, I think the amusement is gone.
And for the record, I hope no American reader of this site finds any glee in recollecting Jim Crow. You brought it up to make a point, effectively. I found that fair enough. If you don't want to call it 'sarcasm,' that's fine too.
There's little amusement in any of these stories of potential fraud, disenfranchisement, or electoral incompetence. Identify the problems, then figure out how to ameliorate them.
New (?) vote suppression data point.
West Virginia GOP makes fraudulent calls to Democrats saying they won't be able to vote.
In regards to the Milwaukee case: There are only around 425,000 voting-age people in Milwaukee. Even assuming a massive turnout of voting-day-registration, there's no way they need twice as many ballots as they have potential voters.
Former judge and Fox News legal consultant Andrew Napolitano just confirmed the intepretation of the DNC directives that I gave earlier.
What a bunch of DU trolls.
Particularly the one describing the thuggery in West Virginia where the guy and his daughter were attacked. Here is the Michelle Malkin piece describing the apology from the Union that was responsible:
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/000558.htm
Just received a call from the IUPAT, which has now identified the union member who grabbed the Bush/Cheney sign from Phil Parlock's daughter and threw the pieces at the family as they left the event. "We are taking steps to deal with the individual," the union told me.
Gee, aaCharley (4:19am), thanks for the kind words. And so amply justified, as a stroll through the citations in the body of the main post would show.
You did check, I am sure, since it doesn't do wonders for one's credibility to accuse first, establish facts later.
It seems pretty evident from the URLs that you and AJL gave that Phil Parlock got a crummy reaction from the Kerry crowd when he had his daughter host a Bush sign. They've gotten justified bad press for their behavior.
It is also now evident that Parlock makes a habit of provoking Democrats, looking to set himself and his little kids up as victims for exactly these kinds of responses, preferably with newspaper photographers around.
Truthout.org is no more a reliable and balanced source than Michelle Malkin or Paul Krugman, but the story they tell seems sound, except for the claim that the union thug in the photo is provably a member of Parlock's family.
While Parlock is a provocateur, and as such, it's his job to get beaten up, the union thug in the picture is not his son. Look at the earlobes on the two pictures. WV isn't known for its wide genetic diversity, and it's not surprising that two early-20s young men look a lot alike, but the son isn't the union thug.
Real voter intimidation in Florida.
There's a reason that in word association tests, I answer "thug" to "union".
Republican-affiliated companies owned by Nathan Sproul have been named in voter-fraud activities in a number of states (see the body of this post). While this thread is stale, for completeness' sake I am adding this link to a blogger discussing Sproul misconduct allegations in Minnesota. Ace of Spades links to an interview that strongly suggests that the misconduct in this case was not was not as it seemed, and not perpetrated by Sproul
I just Googled the phrase "Substitute teacher Adam Banse wanted a summer job" and found >100 versions of one news story that incorrectly paints Sproul as the villian, and Banse as the truth-telling victim.
please can anyone one tell me why people from outside the U.S are currently unauthorised to view your presidents website? kris U.K
Kris,
I bet you're typing whitehouse with a .com at the end, which is a porno site and probably blocked by your firewall.
Try http://www.whitehouse.gov instead - that's where the American President can be found.