Whatever they have to do to win. And given the odds against them in ’08, expect them to pull out every stop imaginable between now and the election in order to “win.”
Add this to our “DoJ is the New ACVR” article last week, describing how the DoJ has now institutionalized “vote caging” at the federal level via, among other things, a recent letter sent to 10 states ordering them to purge their voter rolls. While Thor Hearne’s ACVR is no more (at least officially) and the RNC is barred from minority-targeted caging by a court-ordered consent decree, state parties can do whatever the hell they damn well please, according to our friend Greg Gordon at McClatchy today…
Backers of the new laws say they’re aimed at curbing vote fraud. But the statutes also could facilitate a controversial Republican tactic known as “vote caging,” which the GOP attempted in Ohio and Florida in 2004 before public disclosures foiled the efforts, said Joseph Rich, a former Justice Department voting rights chief in the Bush administration who’s now with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights.
Caging, used in the past to target poor minorities in heavily Democratic precincts, entails sending mass mailings to certain voters and then using the undelivered letters to compile lists of voters for eligibility challenges.
…
Asked whether they might employ vote caging in 2008, Executive Director Jason Mauk of the Ohio Republican Party and spokeswoman Erin Van Sickle of the Florida Republican Party said they couldn’t discuss election strategy.
See Gordon’s complete report for more details.
As well, we’ll have more on all of this Thursday and Friday while Guest Hosting for “Progressive News with John Scott” on San Francisco’s Air America affiliate Green 960am (formerly “The Quake”), where we’ll be bringing these issues to drive-time listeners (4p-6p PT) in the Bay Area! Hope you’ll tune in! (See “Media Appearances” box at top-right for more details.)
Since we are expecting this strategy, what can be done to prevent it?
Exactly my thought.
Why wait for another crisis before addressing the problem.
The laws for this are not strong enough or fast enough to prevent some fall guy in the DOJ from doing this.
One fall guy equals millions of lost votes, and the fall guy (if ever caught) get’s a year or two, or they tie it up in courts for the next ten years. Long after your right to vote has been removed, and long after their goal are achieved.
In essence it’s worth it to be corrupt, crime pays.
Is this the message the DOJ is telling me?
How is this not domestic terrorism?
Tell me one reason why a marine shouldn’t take specific targets out.
If the DOJ operated out of San Francisco they could all be locked up on an obscure law:
It is illegal to pile horse manure more than six feet high on a street corner.
Maybe they should purge the voter roles in Republican districts. Then when REpublicans start to cry foul about election fraud, the officials can bring up the memos from the Republican owned DoJ.
That’s some terrible, scary shit. I suppose that comment would work for any of the comments in this thread 🙂
CH, how would you like to go vote in an election and come to find out you are not eligible because some political party sent a letter to you intentionally at the wrong address and removed you from the list of eligible voters??? I bet you’re one of those people that thinks it’s okay as long as it doesn’t happen to you!!!