Oh, thank goodness. John Danforth is riding to the rescue to make sure that nobody misbehaves themselves by trying to commit vote fraud this November. Missouri’s straight arrow ex-senator and ex-senator Warren Rudman are working for the McCain campaign to achieve “honest and open elections”. They have reached out to the Obama campaign asking that the two groups work together to solve election fraud issues.
The issues they’re most concerned about are fake registrations and too many registrations.
Oh.
Too many registrations, huh?
Yes, during a conference call with reporters that I participated in, Danforth and Rudman waxed eloquent about ACORN registration abuses, whining pointing out that in some states as much as 30-40 percent of the registration cards they turn in are incomplete or duplicates. The McCain spokesmen emphasized how unfortunate it is that these ACORN workers are gumming up the works at county election boards, making it difficult to register those who really deserve to sign up.
The senators said that a few ACORN workers have even ended up with prison sentences for vote fraud.
ACORN has its faults, and the Obama campaign is determined to work with its own volunteers registering people. But I’d be more impressed with Danforth’s plaint if the Republicans weren’t such snotty, cheating liars about their vote suppression tactics. I get my knickers in a twist when I hear, for example, about a Republican party official in Michigan announcing plans to use poll challengers to block anyone whose house is in foreclosure proceedings from voting. Danforth dismissed that report as false, just something that gained traction because it was “reported on a blog.” (You can’t trust a blogger as far as you can spit, you know.)
“We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses,” party chairman James Carabelli told Michigan Messenger in a telephone interview earlier this week. He said the local party wanted to make sure that proper electoral procedures were followed.
Everything I know about Republican tactics to disenfranchise Democratic voters in Florida in 2000 and 20004, as well as Kenneth Blackwell’s scummy tactics in Ohio when Kerry was running makes this story credible. It’s classic Republican suppress the vote style.
And consider the ramifications of this cheesy trick. The county where these plans were to be implemented–no matter how much Danforth denies that any such plans were harbored–has a high concentration of African-Americans. They’ll be out in force come November, and the lines to vote will be lo-o-ng. Think what even just a few challenges could do to gum up the works and slow down the lines.
But even if Danforth deserved the benefit of the doubt on that particular vote caging effort, the ACLU last week filed a lawsuit in that swing state because of other shenanigans Republicans are up to:
Under one voter removal program, the Michigan Department of State, which administers both driver’s license and voter registration records, immediately cancels the voter registrations of Michigan voters who obtain driver’s licenses in other states instead of issuing the appropriate confirmation of registration notices and following the required voter removal procedures mandated by the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA). According to the Department’s own estimations, over 280,000 voters per year are removed from the rolls in this manner.
Under the second voter removal program, a Michigan state law requires local clerks to nullify the registrations of newly-registered voters whenever their original voter identification cards are returned by the post office as undeliverable. Detroit elections officials report that nearly 30,000 voters per year in that city alone are removed from the rolls as a result of this state election law, which violates the NVRA and other federal and state laws. The NVRA permits voters to remain on the voter rolls for at least two federal elections after voter registration cards are returned.
As for Danforth/Rudman harping on the flood of new registrations, well of course they’re worried. Don’t think Republicans haven’t noticed that if the popular will actually prevails, they lose elections. But I notice that the St. Louis County Republican elections director, Joseph Goeke, is taking the task of processing it all in stride:
At least 20,000 of those registrations are in St. Louis County, where the Election Board has 50 workers – many of them temporary employees – tackling the backlog.
County Republican elections director Joseph Goeke acknowledged that his office may not be complying with a state law mandating that new voter registrations be on the books within seven days.
“We’re doing them as fast as we can,” Goeke said, noting that an additional 2,000 new registration cards showed up Monday at the Election Board.
A spokeswoman for Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, the state’s chief elections official, said the office is concerned about St. Louis County’s troubles, but pleased that all the registrations should be on the books in the next few weeks.
People who deal with new registrations understand that it is, by its nature, a messy process, bound to produce duplications and inaccuracies. Clark told me that when he asked an elderly woman at her door if she was registered, she said: “Oh, do you have to be registered to vote?” “Yes, ma’am.” But as he set about getting her registered, he asked if she had ever tried to vote, and she told him that she always votes. “Did you vote in the primary last February?” he asked. “Yes, I did.”
She may have registered fifty years ago and was confused about what’s required now. Perhaps another volunteer would have simply had her fill out the card without questioning her further. That would be one of those duplicates Danforth accused us of using to gum up the works.
So I say, keep on registering them folk and ignore the outrage vibrating in Danforth’s voice when he reminds us of the time back in 1992 when a dog got registered to vote as a Democrat. How those Republicans love to pull that old chestnut out of the fire.
Ignore Danforth. For all his vaunted reputation as a straight shooter, he’s still … just … a Republican.
