Via Tanya Somanader at ThinkProgress…
“It’s really crazy,†she added. “I’ve got all this proof. You mean to tell me that I’m not a U.S. citizen?†But state officials have informed Frank that, because the state Register of Deeds does have a record of her birth, they can issue her a new birth certificate — for a fee. And because of a spelling error, that fee may be as high as $200
Add Frank’s to the stories of 96-year old Dorothy Cooper in TN who has voted in every election since woman were granted the right to vote, but who no longer may be able to cast her vote on Election Day next year, and 86-year old WWII veteran Darwin Sparks in the same state; along with hundreds of thousands of others who are likely to find themselves unable to cast their legal vote on Election Day next year thanks to new voter suppression laws implemented in about a dozen states by GOP legislatures and governor’s since they took control in 2010.
In Wisconsin, where “an estimated 177,399 Wisconsin residents 65 and older do not have a driver’s license or state photo ID — 23 percent of that population,” and where Frank may have to pay as much as $200 to cast her legal vote under the GOP’s new anti-democratic and anti-Democratic polling place Photo ID restrictions, the non-partisan League of Women Voters has filed suit charging the law is in violation of the state’s constitution, as The BRAD BLOG detailed in October. That case is still pending.
Article today in the Guardian about jeb bush being questioned about voter suppression with minorities in 2000.
Jeb Bush, the governor of Florida and brother of president-elect George W Bush, was hauled in front of the US civil rights commission yesterday to face questions about the irregularities which allegedly discriminated against voters from ethnic minorities.
He was one of the first called to testify at the two-day hearing of the allegations that thousands of people were denied the right to vote in Florida on November 7 by harassment, registration irregularities, illegal polling purges and intimidating police road blocks.
Another article from the Guardian. They are covering election fraud and voter suppression better than US MSM.
NAACP warns black and Hispanic Americans could lose right to vote
Civil rights group petitions UN over ‘massive voter suppression’ after apparent effort to disenfranchise black and Hispanic people
The elderly are the most reliable voters there are. If you want to throw an election into unpredictable territory, suppress the most reliable voters where general election outcome probably can be predicted based on party affiliation.
This same method would probably change the outcome of primaries, because if the overall number of voters in primaries goes down, then it only takes a very small number of voters to throw the vote in another direction.
Source: Baltimore Sun
Schurick guilty of election fraud in robocall case (Md)
A Baltimore jury said Tuesday that Paul Schurick, former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.’s campaign manager, was guilty of election fraud for his role in an Election Day 2010 robocall.
The jury found Schurick guilty on all four counts, including election fraud and failing to include an Ehrlich campaign authorization line on the calls.
“We made a faux pas,” defense attorney A. Dwight Pettit said in his closing statement Monday. “That’s not criminal. That’s evidence of somebody who made a political misjudgment, a political faux pas, a political mistake.”
State Prosecutor Emmet C. Davitt told the jury Monday that the primary evidence against Schurick is “the message itself. It’s not just a dirty trick,” he said. “It’s not just an unfair tactic. In the state of Maryland, it’s illegal.”
Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/breaking/bs-md-schuric…
When was the last Democrat arrested for election fraud???? Scoundrels
Wow. that is I suppose insane. flip side of it though is it should prevent foreign nationals etc voting.
To the Pol Parties – 200$ for a vote. come now…
It costs 20.00 dollars to do a database search for your birth certificate in the state of Wisconsin, no where on the website does it say it costs 200.00 dollars to get a copy of one even if there is no original. Also how do you get by for 84 years with no legal ID
Patrick G
Apparently, Ms. Frank, and likely millions of others managed to get through life fine without legal ID. Legal ID only became an issue over the last few years as the GOP has gone pedal-to-the-metal to disenfranchise all those it does not wish to vote.
It’s quite telling that disenfranchised American voters need to go to the UN to have their grievances addressed.
I removed my money from big banks to small banks, and will continue to do so.
If they will steal the vote of this WI Lady, they will steal anything.
I am in reference to the Plunder Barons who run The Chamber of Corruption.
Christoper West @ 5 said:
Um, you do realize that foreign nationals already don’t vote, right?
Don’t believe me? Good. You don’t need to. You can find out for yourself — as can anybody dumb enough to believe such things — since voter registration info is public info. You can check every single name/address on the list and see if they’re non-citizens (who were dumb enough to register to illegally vote, facing thousands of dollars in fines, years in jail and deportation, as they gave their name and address to authorities in the bargain!)
Duh.
Patrick G @ 6 said:
Please read the linked articles. She didn’t have a birth certificate at all. So it’s a matter of both having one made for the first time and correcting the birth record which had a typo in it. If she gets a birth certificate with the wrong name, she’ll not be able to use it for the “free” Photo ID for voting.
And yes, she had “legal ID”. What she didn’t have was the very specific type of state-issued Photo ID required by the GOP to vote now. It is no mistake that they are so narrow in the type of allowable legal ID that can be used. They are, after all, trying to keep people — certain people — from being able to cast their legal vote.
Feel free to compare her story, by the way, to the 96-year old Dorothy Cooper in TN. She had a birth certificate, and all kinds of other records. But, since she got married during her 96 years, her name had changed. But she couldn’t find her marriage certificate, so may well be denied the right to vote because she can’t prove that her name was changed (never mind all the other docs she already has showing her changed name!)
And yes, you can buy a beer, rent a video, board a plane with state-issued Photo ID, despite what the con-men proponents of polling place Photo ID restrictions love to repeat over and over.
I have a voter ID card. Distributed by Michigan, local township and county. No photo ID required. If they demand a Photo ID, I’ll pull my pistol and then cast my ballot. We progressives also own weapons! Occupy America, or lose it!
I believe that the only way to force this issue is to get the democratic controlled senate to introduce and debate legislation reducing the apportionment (number of house seats) for those states that have voting id laws abridge the right to vote as authorized by section 2 of the the 14th amendment. Unfortunately, this woman would not be counted as that amendment specifically relies on abridgment of men’s voting rights.
Wow, 84 years old and no legal ID and partially paralyzed since birth. I suppose then she isn’t able to collect SSI or Social Security, food stamps or any other form of state or federal aid. What is she living on? Seems it would make a lot of senses for her to spend $200 to get an ID, not just to vote.
Bob said @ 13:
She has ID. Just not the very specific Photo ID that the GOP has determined she must have in order to vote (knowing many like her do not have one.) Why should she spend $200 to get one? She’s live 84 years just fine without one. Why would you support the idea of an unconstitutional poll tax in the bargain?
Can one of Ruthelle Frank’s Brokaw, Wisconsin, friends promise to take her out of the count on election day and then she can legally vote absentee ahead of time. Sounds like it could be a media circus. A MUCH better way to spend the $200 that it would cost to get her state-approved photo ID and a MUCH better way to spend the amount of time that getting the photo ID would take and a MUCH better way to spend a Tuesday in Wisconsin. Maybe even get a bus and fill it with these “old folks” that they don’t want to vote and make it an all-day party. As long as they are out of the county by the time that the polls opena nd don’t come back until after the polls close.
I’m sure you don’t have any problem with people having to pay for permits, ID, training, back ground checks, mental health status investigation, etc. associated with the requirements imposed by Government on them wanting to exercise their 2nd Amendment rights.
Bob said @ 16:
Are you kidding? If a particular group or class, let’s say, All White Guys Who Call Themselves Bob were being singled out and discriminated against by being forced to pay $200 to excercise their “well-regulated” right to bear arms while everyone else got to do so for free, I’d have a huge problem with that!
What part of “equal justice under the law” do you not understand?
By the way, while I’m aware of Supreme Court decisions finding poll taxes (eg. as low as $1.50 as in 1965, I believe it was) to be unconstitutional, I’m unaware of any SCOTUS decisions finding that permit costs, equally applied, for the “well regulated militia” called for in the 2nd Amendment is in any way unconstitutional. Are you aware of any such decisions?