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REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS
Florida voter purge "giving white Republicans a pass"
Wednesday, May 30, 2012 5:52 AM
NIKI2
Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...
Quote:"The state’s quest to get rid of noncitizens voters this election year has turned up 180,000 hits — but it incidentally targets minorities and Democrats while giving white Republicans a pass."Quote:Hispanic, Democratic and independent-minded voters are the most likely to be targeted in a state hunt to remove thousands of noncitizens from Florida’s voting rolls, a Miami Herald computer analysis of elections records has found. Whites and Republicans are disproportionately the least-likely to face the threat of removal, the analysis of a list of more than 2,600 potential noncitizens shows. The list was first compiled by the state and furnished to county election supervisors and then The Herald.And it isn't as if there was an identifiable problem. Rather,Florida went looking for potential noncitizen voters, following the lead of Republican secretaries of state in Colorado and New Mexico — two other Hispanic-heavy swing states this election year.
Quote:Hispanic, Democratic and independent-minded voters are the most likely to be targeted in a state hunt to remove thousands of noncitizens from Florida’s voting rolls, a Miami Herald computer analysis of elections records has found. Whites and Republicans are disproportionately the least-likely to face the threat of removal, the analysis of a list of more than 2,600 potential noncitizens shows. The list was first compiled by the state and furnished to county election supervisors and then The Herald.
Quote:"To say to already registered voters 'come down and prove who you are,' I’m not sure there’s anything in the law that says that," said Mark Herron, an elections lawyer and expert. http://flapolitics.blogspot.com/2012/05/florida-voter-purge-giving-white.html Wikipedi: Quote:"According to the Palm Beach Post, among other problems with the list, although blacks accounted for 88% of those removed from the rolls, they made up only about 11% of Florida's voters.[9] Voter demographics authority David Bositis, a senior research associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, DC, reviewed The Nation's findings and concluded that the purge-and-block program was "a patently obvious technique to discriminate against black voters". The only reliable measure of accuracy of the felon list comes from Leon County (Tallahassee), whose in-house experts checked each name in their county one by one. Out of the 694 named felons in Tallahassee, they could verify only 34 of them, or 5%.[citation needed] The Palm Beach Post reported that "[C]omputer analysis has found at least 1,100 eligible voters wrongly purged from the rolls before last year's election. [...] At least 108 law-abiding people were purged from the voter rolls as suspected criminals, only to be cleared after the election. DBT's computers had matched these people with felons, though in dozens of cases they did not share the same name, birthdate, gender or race. One Naples man was told he couldn't vote because he was linked with a felon still serving time in a Moore Haven prison. Florida officials cut from the rolls 996 people convicted of crimes in other states, though they should have been allowed to vote. Before the election, state officials said felons could vote only if they had written clemency orders, although most other states automatically restore voting rights to felons when they complete their sentences. [...] Records used to create the felon list were sometimes wrong. A state database of felons wrongly included dozens of people whose crimes were reduced to misdemeanors. Furthermore, clemency records were incomplete." Additionally, there are other accuracy problems with the list. For example, Linda Howell, Madison County supervisor of elections, who is not a convicted felon and was never on the felon list provided by the Division of Elections or the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, erroneously received a form letter referencing a prior felony conviction from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement stating: "The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) received your Voter Registration Appeal Form. After reviewing your Florida criminal history, we have determined that you have a Florida felony conviction in our repository. FDLE will notify your supervisor of elections that we have data indicating that you meet the criteria of a convicted felon."Just one example:Quote:An Army World War II Veteran, who was awarded the Bronze Star as a medic in the Battle of the Bulge and honored by France with its Chevalier Legion of Honour, received another distinction from the State of Florida this year. Ninety-one year old Bill Internicola said he was amazed and a little insulted when he read a letter that said he'd been disqualified as a voter. The Stars and Stripes reports he recently received the letter purging him from the voter rolls. Florida is a vital swing state in this year’s presidential election. The WWII Veteran participated in a news conference Tuesday that was arranged to demonstrate flaws in the state’s effort to purge voter rolls prior to the election. “I never had any trouble. I voted here for the last 15 years,” Internicola told freelance reporter Patricia Sagastume. “ To me, it’s like an insult.” http://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/post/world-war-ii-veteran-purged-florida-voter-rollsAmazing. How bald-faced can you get, and you wanna bet they'll get away with it?
Quote:"According to the Palm Beach Post, among other problems with the list, although blacks accounted for 88% of those removed from the rolls, they made up only about 11% of Florida's voters.[9] Voter demographics authority David Bositis, a senior research associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, DC, reviewed The Nation's findings and concluded that the purge-and-block program was "a patently obvious technique to discriminate against black voters". The only reliable measure of accuracy of the felon list comes from Leon County (Tallahassee), whose in-house experts checked each name in their county one by one. Out of the 694 named felons in Tallahassee, they could verify only 34 of them, or 5%.[citation needed] The Palm Beach Post reported that "[C]omputer analysis has found at least 1,100 eligible voters wrongly purged from the rolls before last year's election. [...] At least 108 law-abiding people were purged from the voter rolls as suspected criminals, only to be cleared after the election. DBT's computers had matched these people with felons, though in dozens of cases they did not share the same name, birthdate, gender or race. One Naples man was told he couldn't vote because he was linked with a felon still serving time in a Moore Haven prison. Florida officials cut from the rolls 996 people convicted of crimes in other states, though they should have been allowed to vote. Before the election, state officials said felons could vote only if they had written clemency orders, although most other states automatically restore voting rights to felons when they complete their sentences. [...] Records used to create the felon list were sometimes wrong. A state database of felons wrongly included dozens of people whose crimes were reduced to misdemeanors. Furthermore, clemency records were incomplete." Additionally, there are other accuracy problems with the list. For example, Linda Howell, Madison County supervisor of elections, who is not a convicted felon and was never on the felon list provided by the Division of Elections or the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, erroneously received a form letter referencing a prior felony conviction from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement stating: "The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) received your Voter Registration Appeal Form. After reviewing your Florida criminal history, we have determined that you have a Florida felony conviction in our repository. FDLE will notify your supervisor of elections that we have data indicating that you meet the criteria of a convicted felon."
Quote:An Army World War II Veteran, who was awarded the Bronze Star as a medic in the Battle of the Bulge and honored by France with its Chevalier Legion of Honour, received another distinction from the State of Florida this year. Ninety-one year old Bill Internicola said he was amazed and a little insulted when he read a letter that said he'd been disqualified as a voter. The Stars and Stripes reports he recently received the letter purging him from the voter rolls. Florida is a vital swing state in this year’s presidential election. The WWII Veteran participated in a news conference Tuesday that was arranged to demonstrate flaws in the state’s effort to purge voter rolls prior to the election. “I never had any trouble. I voted here for the last 15 years,” Internicola told freelance reporter Patricia Sagastume. “ To me, it’s like an insult.” http://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/post/world-war-ii-veteran-purged-florida-voter-rolls
Wednesday, May 30, 2012 6:32 AM
FREMDFIRMA
Wednesday, May 30, 2012 1:13 PM
Wednesday, May 30, 2012 3:05 PM
ANTHONYT
Freedom is Important because People are Important
Wednesday, May 30, 2012 5:13 PM
PIRATENEWS
John Lee, conspiracy therapist at Hollywood award-winner History Channel-mocked SNL-spoofed PirateNew.org wooHOO!!!!!!
Quote:“What’s the difference between a hockey mom and pit bull? A pit bull is delicious.” -Dictator Hussein Obama Soetoro, White House Correspondents’ Dinner 2012
Thursday, May 31, 2012 5:15 AM
Thursday, May 31, 2012 5:39 AM
GEEZER
Keep the Shiny side up
Quote:Florida elections officials compared information from the state's mammoth voter rolls with a Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles database that began collecting citizenship information relatively recently. Many people register to vote at drivers' license offices under the so-called "motor-voter" law. There's a chance that some noncitizens who get a license mistakenly fill out a voter-registration card. Some may willingly ignore the law that restricts Florida voting to U.S. citizens who are state residents. Other noncitizens don't register to vote when they get their license. However, when those people become citizens, no one notifies the state. So when the elections department compares the voter rolls with the highway safety database, there's a good chance that the citizenship information is out of date for some. In Artabe's case, for instance, state data showed he last had a "transaction" with DHSMV in 2006 -- three years before he says he became a citizen. Enrique Barreto, a 54-year-old Republican, said he became a citizen in 2008 -- about the time the state database records an interaction with DHSMV. He said he had received his letter from Miami-Dade County. But he hadn't read it yet. "I thought it was proof required because it is an election year," said Barreto, of Miami, who was born in Cuba. He said he became a citizen in 2008, when he voted in the presidential election. The state has requested access to federal citizenship databases maintained by the Department of Homeland Security, which has stonewalled the request of Florida and Colorado as they've hunted for noncitizen voters.
Thursday, May 31, 2012 6:51 AM
Thursday, May 31, 2012 8:38 AM
Quote:Originally posted by Niki2: Would there not be some other way to obtain those names than Homeland Security?
Quote:No matter what, the fact is that voting fraud is a TEENY proportion of the votes, while this and the other voer-suppression measures will keep many, many people from exercising their rights. Do you condone that?
Quote:Also, how do you explain the vast difference between white Republicans and minorities and Democrats? I'd be interested to know.
Friday, June 1, 2012 6:07 AM
Quote:Democrats are the most-likely to be flagged. Republicans account for 36 percent of the overall voter rolls but only 21 percent of the potential noncitizens on the state’s list. The Republican Party is disproportionately white non-Hispanic as well. Only 13 percent of the potential noncitizen list is white, though whites account for more than 68 percent of the overall Florida active voter rolls. Blacks account for about 13 percent of the overall voter rolls and roughly 14 percent of the potential noncitizen voter list. http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/12/2796905_p2/noncitizen-voter-hunt-targets.html] As to Hispanics:Quote:About 58% of those identified as potential noncitizens are Hispanics, Florida’s largest ethnic immigrant population, the analysis of the list obtained by The Herald shows. Hispanics make up 13 percent of the overall 11.3 million active registered voters. http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/12/2796905/noncitizen-voter-hunt-targets.html] I shouldn't even bother, given I know you'll find some other reason to say it's not happening, but I'm posting this for the benefit of other, open-minded people who might have questions about it. You guys may be deliberately blind, but even Republicans in Florida are resisting, not to mention election officials from both sides.Quote:You need to know this. Florida Governor Rick Scott's Democratic-voter purge is ramping up – although he's now meeting some resistance from local election supervisors. Palm Beach County Supervisor of Election Susan Bucher said that her office received a list of 115 names from Governor Scott's office identifying registered voters who are believed to be undocumented immigrants. But upon reviewing the list – Bucher concluded it was "not credible" and refused to send out letters asking for voters to verify their citizenship status. Bucher also noted that Governor Scott's voter purge lists are relying on information that is a decade or more old. http://truth-out.org/news/item/9506-on-the-news-with-thom-hartmann to election supervisors, the list is riddled with inaccuracies. Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Mike Ertel, a Republican, posted a picture on Twitter earlier this week of a voter on the list falsely identified as ineligible, with his passport. In 2000, the presidential election in Flordia was decided by just 537 votes after many eligible voters were purged from the state roles. http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/05/23/488882/how-governor-rick-scott-is-preventing-eligible-us-citizens-from-voting-in-florida/] Quote:Volusia County Supervisor of Elections Ann McFall (said) that she and the state’s 66 other county elections supervisors sent a “clear message” to the Scott administration at a Tampa conference two weeks ago. “One after another, [they] got up and talked about inaccuracies [in the state’s voter purge list of alleged non-citizen voters].” In Miami-Dade, the count of voters whose citizenship status has been challenged by the Scott administration numbered in the hundreds. With time left to respond, nearly a quarter of those sent letters in have already proven their eligibility. Several smaller counties also confirmed that voters have proven that their inclusion on the list was in error. In Clay County, near Jacksonville, the elections supervisor received two names from the state. One proved citizenship; the other was purged from the rolls for not responding within 30 days. Charlotte County (two out of nine) and Bradford County (two out of nine) also reported significant percentage of errors on the state’s list. Citrus County Supervisor of Elections Susan Gill (R), who serves a Tampa-area county with a population of just about 140,000, received just three names from the state that it deemed likely non-citizens. But already two of those have produced documentation to verify their citizenship and voter eligibility. One of the two was even born in New York State. The third voter, who has yet to respond to a registered letter, has never even voted. http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/05/31/492395/elections-supervisors-confirm-errors-voter-purge-florid/ to the Palm Beach Post, among other problems with the list, although blacks accounted for 88% of those removed from the rolls, they made up only about 11% of Florida's voters.[9] Voter demographics authority David Bositis, a senior research associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, DC, reviewed The Nation's findings and concluded that the purge-and-block program was "a patently obvious technique to discriminate against black voters". Wiki It's happening in Georgia too, by way of redistricting:Quote:The proposed House maps PURGE Georgia of White Democrats Forty-eight percent of Georgians supported Obama in the last election cycle. New maps reduce Democratic representation to 32 percent – with as few as 10 White Democrats in a state that is still predominately White in population. http://gafairdistricts.com/ways.php the subject of voter fraud in general:Quote:The most common example of the harm wrought by imprecise and inflated claims of “voter fraud” is the call for in-person photo identification requirements. Such photo ID laws are effective only in preventing individuals from impersonating other voters at the polls — an occurrence more rare than getting struck by lightning. By throwing all sorts of election anomalies under the “voter fraud” umbrella, however, advocates for such laws artificially inflate the apparent need for these restrictions and undermine the urgency of other reforms. Moreover, as with all restrictions on voters, photo identification requirements have a predictable detrimental impact on eligible citizens. Such laws are only potentially worthwhile if they clearly prevent more problems than they create. If policymakers distinguished real voter fraud from the more common election irregularities erroneously labeled as voter fraud, it would become apparent that the limited benefits of laws like photo ID require ments are simply not worth the cost. Royal Masset, the former political director for the Republican Party of Texas, concisely tied all of these strands together in a 2007 Houston Chronicle article concerning a highly controversial battle over photo identification legislation in Texas. Masset connected the inflated furor over voter fraud to photo identification laws and their expected impact on legitimate voters: Quote:Among Republicans it is an “article of religious faith that voter fraud is causing us to lose elections,” Masset said. He doesn’t agree with that, but does believe that requiring photo IDs could cause enough of a dropoff in legitimate Democratic voting to add 3 percent to the Republican vote.This remarkably candid observation underscores why it is so critical to get the facts straight on voter fraud. The voter fraud phantom drives policy that disenfranchises actual legitimate voters, without a corresponding actual benefit. Virtuous public policy should stand on more reliable supports. There have been a handful of substantiated cases of individual ineligible voters attempting to defraud the election system. But by any measure, voter fraud is extraordinarily rare. In part, this is because fraud by individual voters is a singularly foolish and ineffective way to attempt to win an election. Each act of voter fraud in connection with a federal election risks five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, in addition to any state penalties.18 In return, it yields at most one incremental vote. That single extra vote is simply not worth the price. Instead, much evidence that purports to reveal voter fraud can be traced to causes far more logical than fraud by voters. Below, this paper reviews the more common ways in which more benign errors or inconsistencies may be mistaken for voter fraud. More precisely, “voter fraud” occurs when individuals cast ballots despite knowing that they are ineligible to vote, in an attempt to defraud the election system.1 This sounds straightforward. And yet, voter fraud is often conflated, intentionally or unintentionally, with other forms of election misconduct or irregularities. There are many such problems that are improperly lumped under the umbrella of “voter fraud.” Some result from technological glitches, whether sinister or benign: for example, voting machines may record inaccurate tallies due to fraud, user error, or technical malfunction.2 Some result from honest mistakes by election officials or voters: for example, a person with a conviction may honestly believe herself eligible to vote when the conviction renders her temporarily ineligible,3 or an election official may believe that certain identification documents are required to vote when no such requirement exists.4 And some irregularities involve fraud or intentional misconduct perpetrated by actors other than individual voters: for example, flyers may spread misinformation about the proper locations or procedures for voting; thugs may be dispatched to intimidate voters at the polls; missing ballot boxes may mysteriously reappear. These are all problems with the election administration system … but they are not “voter fraud.” Conflating these concerns is not merely a semantic issue. First, the rhetorical sloppiness fosters the misperception that fraud by voters is prevalent. That is, when every problem with an election is attributed to “voter fraud,” it appears that fraud by voters is much more common than is actually the case. This, in turn, promotes inappropriate policy. By inflating the perceived prevalence of fraud by voters, policymakers find it easier to justify restrictions on those voters that are not warranted by the real facts. http://www.truthaboutfraud.org/pdf/TruthAboutVoterFraud.pdf?tw_p=twt It's a game, anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows it, but please do go right ahead and spout the party line. Why should legitimate citizens HAVE to prove their citizenship to exercise their rights? As to it being an onerous taxk, we've already been through that one at length. It IS onerous, especially for the poorer class. We all know you'll keep coming up with arguments, but that in no way nullifies the very real problem and why it's been implemented. At least, thank gawd, the DOJ has finally stepped in:Quote: The U.S. Department of Justice said late Thursday that Florida's controversial attempt to purge ineligible voters appears to violate federal laws and gave the state until June 6 to indicate whether it will halt the process. T. Christian Herren, chief of the department's voting section, sent a letter to Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner that said the state's actions appear to violate two federal voting laws. "Our records do not reflect that these changes affecting voting have been submitted to the United State District Court for the District of Columbia for judicial review or to the attorney general for administrative review as required by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act,'' the letter said. "Accordingly, it is necessary that they either be brought before that court or submitted to the attorney general for a determination that they neither have the purpose nor will have the effect of discriminating on account of race, color or membership in a language minority group under Section 5." The letter also said Florida could be violating another law known as the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which includes standards for how voter lists are maintained. Part of the law requires states to finish the systematic removal of ineligible voters 90 days before a primary or general election --- a deadline that passed May 16 for Florida, which has a primary on Aug. 14. The Department of Justice gave Detzner less than a week to say how the state will deal with the possible legal violations. "To enable us to meet our responsibility to enforce federal law, please inform us by June 6 of the action that the state of Florida plans to take concerning the matters discussed in this letter,'' Herren wrote. "Specifically, please advise whether the state intends to cease the practice discussed above, so that the department can determine what further action, if any, is necessary." http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2012/jun/01/doj-says-florida-voter-purge-might-break-laws/?partner=RSS hope they are successful; this is an egregious purging of legitimate voters, and given Florida's history of voter suppression, is obviously just another tactic intended to do the same.
Quote:About 58% of those identified as potential noncitizens are Hispanics, Florida’s largest ethnic immigrant population, the analysis of the list obtained by The Herald shows. Hispanics make up 13 percent of the overall 11.3 million active registered voters. http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/12/2796905/noncitizen-voter-hunt-targets.html] I shouldn't even bother, given I know you'll find some other reason to say it's not happening, but I'm posting this for the benefit of other, open-minded people who might have questions about it. You guys may be deliberately blind, but even Republicans in Florida are resisting, not to mention election officials from both sides.Quote:You need to know this. Florida Governor Rick Scott's Democratic-voter purge is ramping up – although he's now meeting some resistance from local election supervisors. Palm Beach County Supervisor of Election Susan Bucher said that her office received a list of 115 names from Governor Scott's office identifying registered voters who are believed to be undocumented immigrants. But upon reviewing the list – Bucher concluded it was "not credible" and refused to send out letters asking for voters to verify their citizenship status. Bucher also noted that Governor Scott's voter purge lists are relying on information that is a decade or more old. http://truth-out.org/news/item/9506-on-the-news-with-thom-hartmann to election supervisors, the list is riddled with inaccuracies. Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Mike Ertel, a Republican, posted a picture on Twitter earlier this week of a voter on the list falsely identified as ineligible, with his passport. In 2000, the presidential election in Flordia was decided by just 537 votes after many eligible voters were purged from the state roles. http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/05/23/488882/how-governor-rick-scott-is-preventing-eligible-us-citizens-from-voting-in-florida/] Quote:Volusia County Supervisor of Elections Ann McFall (said) that she and the state’s 66 other county elections supervisors sent a “clear message” to the Scott administration at a Tampa conference two weeks ago. “One after another, [they] got up and talked about inaccuracies [in the state’s voter purge list of alleged non-citizen voters].” In Miami-Dade, the count of voters whose citizenship status has been challenged by the Scott administration numbered in the hundreds. With time left to respond, nearly a quarter of those sent letters in have already proven their eligibility. Several smaller counties also confirmed that voters have proven that their inclusion on the list was in error. In Clay County, near Jacksonville, the elections supervisor received two names from the state. One proved citizenship; the other was purged from the rolls for not responding within 30 days. Charlotte County (two out of nine) and Bradford County (two out of nine) also reported significant percentage of errors on the state’s list. Citrus County Supervisor of Elections Susan Gill (R), who serves a Tampa-area county with a population of just about 140,000, received just three names from the state that it deemed likely non-citizens. But already two of those have produced documentation to verify their citizenship and voter eligibility. One of the two was even born in New York State. The third voter, who has yet to respond to a registered letter, has never even voted. http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/05/31/492395/elections-supervisors-confirm-errors-voter-purge-florid/ to the Palm Beach Post, among other problems with the list, although blacks accounted for 88% of those removed from the rolls, they made up only about 11% of Florida's voters.[9] Voter demographics authority David Bositis, a senior research associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, DC, reviewed The Nation's findings and concluded that the purge-and-block program was "a patently obvious technique to discriminate against black voters". Wiki It's happening in Georgia too, by way of redistricting:Quote:The proposed House maps PURGE Georgia of White Democrats Forty-eight percent of Georgians supported Obama in the last election cycle. New maps reduce Democratic representation to 32 percent – with as few as 10 White Democrats in a state that is still predominately White in population. http://gafairdistricts.com/ways.php the subject of voter fraud in general:Quote:The most common example of the harm wrought by imprecise and inflated claims of “voter fraud” is the call for in-person photo identification requirements. Such photo ID laws are effective only in preventing individuals from impersonating other voters at the polls — an occurrence more rare than getting struck by lightning. By throwing all sorts of election anomalies under the “voter fraud” umbrella, however, advocates for such laws artificially inflate the apparent need for these restrictions and undermine the urgency of other reforms. Moreover, as with all restrictions on voters, photo identification requirements have a predictable detrimental impact on eligible citizens. Such laws are only potentially worthwhile if they clearly prevent more problems than they create. If policymakers distinguished real voter fraud from the more common election irregularities erroneously labeled as voter fraud, it would become apparent that the limited benefits of laws like photo ID require ments are simply not worth the cost. Royal Masset, the former political director for the Republican Party of Texas, concisely tied all of these strands together in a 2007 Houston Chronicle article concerning a highly controversial battle over photo identification legislation in Texas. Masset connected the inflated furor over voter fraud to photo identification laws and their expected impact on legitimate voters: Quote:Among Republicans it is an “article of religious faith that voter fraud is causing us to lose elections,” Masset said. He doesn’t agree with that, but does believe that requiring photo IDs could cause enough of a dropoff in legitimate Democratic voting to add 3 percent to the Republican vote.This remarkably candid observation underscores why it is so critical to get the facts straight on voter fraud. The voter fraud phantom drives policy that disenfranchises actual legitimate voters, without a corresponding actual benefit. Virtuous public policy should stand on more reliable supports. There have been a handful of substantiated cases of individual ineligible voters attempting to defraud the election system. But by any measure, voter fraud is extraordinarily rare. In part, this is because fraud by individual voters is a singularly foolish and ineffective way to attempt to win an election. Each act of voter fraud in connection with a federal election risks five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, in addition to any state penalties.18 In return, it yields at most one incremental vote. That single extra vote is simply not worth the price. Instead, much evidence that purports to reveal voter fraud can be traced to causes far more logical than fraud by voters. Below, this paper reviews the more common ways in which more benign errors or inconsistencies may be mistaken for voter fraud. More precisely, “voter fraud” occurs when individuals cast ballots despite knowing that they are ineligible to vote, in an attempt to defraud the election system.1 This sounds straightforward. And yet, voter fraud is often conflated, intentionally or unintentionally, with other forms of election misconduct or irregularities. There are many such problems that are improperly lumped under the umbrella of “voter fraud.” Some result from technological glitches, whether sinister or benign: for example, voting machines may record inaccurate tallies due to fraud, user error, or technical malfunction.2 Some result from honest mistakes by election officials or voters: for example, a person with a conviction may honestly believe herself eligible to vote when the conviction renders her temporarily ineligible,3 or an election official may believe that certain identification documents are required to vote when no such requirement exists.4 And some irregularities involve fraud or intentional misconduct perpetrated by actors other than individual voters: for example, flyers may spread misinformation about the proper locations or procedures for voting; thugs may be dispatched to intimidate voters at the polls; missing ballot boxes may mysteriously reappear. These are all problems with the election administration system … but they are not “voter fraud.” Conflating these concerns is not merely a semantic issue. First, the rhetorical sloppiness fosters the misperception that fraud by voters is prevalent. That is, when every problem with an election is attributed to “voter fraud,” it appears that fraud by voters is much more common than is actually the case. This, in turn, promotes inappropriate policy. By inflating the perceived prevalence of fraud by voters, policymakers find it easier to justify restrictions on those voters that are not warranted by the real facts. http://www.truthaboutfraud.org/pdf/TruthAboutVoterFraud.pdf?tw_p=twt It's a game, anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows it, but please do go right ahead and spout the party line. Why should legitimate citizens HAVE to prove their citizenship to exercise their rights? As to it being an onerous taxk, we've already been through that one at length. It IS onerous, especially for the poorer class. We all know you'll keep coming up with arguments, but that in no way nullifies the very real problem and why it's been implemented. At least, thank gawd, the DOJ has finally stepped in:Quote: The U.S. Department of Justice said late Thursday that Florida's controversial attempt to purge ineligible voters appears to violate federal laws and gave the state until June 6 to indicate whether it will halt the process. T. Christian Herren, chief of the department's voting section, sent a letter to Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner that said the state's actions appear to violate two federal voting laws. "Our records do not reflect that these changes affecting voting have been submitted to the United State District Court for the District of Columbia for judicial review or to the attorney general for administrative review as required by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act,'' the letter said. "Accordingly, it is necessary that they either be brought before that court or submitted to the attorney general for a determination that they neither have the purpose nor will have the effect of discriminating on account of race, color or membership in a language minority group under Section 5." The letter also said Florida could be violating another law known as the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which includes standards for how voter lists are maintained. Part of the law requires states to finish the systematic removal of ineligible voters 90 days before a primary or general election --- a deadline that passed May 16 for Florida, which has a primary on Aug. 14. The Department of Justice gave Detzner less than a week to say how the state will deal with the possible legal violations. "To enable us to meet our responsibility to enforce federal law, please inform us by June 6 of the action that the state of Florida plans to take concerning the matters discussed in this letter,'' Herren wrote. "Specifically, please advise whether the state intends to cease the practice discussed above, so that the department can determine what further action, if any, is necessary." http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2012/jun/01/doj-says-florida-voter-purge-might-break-laws/?partner=RSS hope they are successful; this is an egregious purging of legitimate voters, and given Florida's history of voter suppression, is obviously just another tactic intended to do the same.
Quote:You need to know this. Florida Governor Rick Scott's Democratic-voter purge is ramping up – although he's now meeting some resistance from local election supervisors. Palm Beach County Supervisor of Election Susan Bucher said that her office received a list of 115 names from Governor Scott's office identifying registered voters who are believed to be undocumented immigrants. But upon reviewing the list – Bucher concluded it was "not credible" and refused to send out letters asking for voters to verify their citizenship status. Bucher also noted that Governor Scott's voter purge lists are relying on information that is a decade or more old. http://truth-out.org/news/item/9506-on-the-news-with-thom-hartmann to election supervisors, the list is riddled with inaccuracies. Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Mike Ertel, a Republican, posted a picture on Twitter earlier this week of a voter on the list falsely identified as ineligible, with his passport. In 2000, the presidential election in Flordia was decided by just 537 votes after many eligible voters were purged from the state roles. http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/05/23/488882/how-governor-rick-scott-is-preventing-eligible-us-citizens-from-voting-in-florida/]
Quote:Volusia County Supervisor of Elections Ann McFall (said) that she and the state’s 66 other county elections supervisors sent a “clear message” to the Scott administration at a Tampa conference two weeks ago. “One after another, [they] got up and talked about inaccuracies [in the state’s voter purge list of alleged non-citizen voters].” In Miami-Dade, the count of voters whose citizenship status has been challenged by the Scott administration numbered in the hundreds. With time left to respond, nearly a quarter of those sent letters in have already proven their eligibility. Several smaller counties also confirmed that voters have proven that their inclusion on the list was in error. In Clay County, near Jacksonville, the elections supervisor received two names from the state. One proved citizenship; the other was purged from the rolls for not responding within 30 days. Charlotte County (two out of nine) and Bradford County (two out of nine) also reported significant percentage of errors on the state’s list. Citrus County Supervisor of Elections Susan Gill (R), who serves a Tampa-area county with a population of just about 140,000, received just three names from the state that it deemed likely non-citizens. But already two of those have produced documentation to verify their citizenship and voter eligibility. One of the two was even born in New York State. The third voter, who has yet to respond to a registered letter, has never even voted. http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/05/31/492395/elections-supervisors-confirm-errors-voter-purge-florid/ to the Palm Beach Post, among other problems with the list, although blacks accounted for 88% of those removed from the rolls, they made up only about 11% of Florida's voters.[9] Voter demographics authority David Bositis, a senior research associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, DC, reviewed The Nation's findings and concluded that the purge-and-block program was "a patently obvious technique to discriminate against black voters". Wiki
Quote:The proposed House maps PURGE Georgia of White Democrats Forty-eight percent of Georgians supported Obama in the last election cycle. New maps reduce Democratic representation to 32 percent – with as few as 10 White Democrats in a state that is still predominately White in population. http://gafairdistricts.com/ways.php the subject of voter fraud in general:Quote:The most common example of the harm wrought by imprecise and inflated claims of “voter fraud” is the call for in-person photo identification requirements. Such photo ID laws are effective only in preventing individuals from impersonating other voters at the polls — an occurrence more rare than getting struck by lightning. By throwing all sorts of election anomalies under the “voter fraud” umbrella, however, advocates for such laws artificially inflate the apparent need for these restrictions and undermine the urgency of other reforms. Moreover, as with all restrictions on voters, photo identification requirements have a predictable detrimental impact on eligible citizens. Such laws are only potentially worthwhile if they clearly prevent more problems than they create. If policymakers distinguished real voter fraud from the more common election irregularities erroneously labeled as voter fraud, it would become apparent that the limited benefits of laws like photo ID require ments are simply not worth the cost. Royal Masset, the former political director for the Republican Party of Texas, concisely tied all of these strands together in a 2007 Houston Chronicle article concerning a highly controversial battle over photo identification legislation in Texas. Masset connected the inflated furor over voter fraud to photo identification laws and their expected impact on legitimate voters: Quote:Among Republicans it is an “article of religious faith that voter fraud is causing us to lose elections,” Masset said. He doesn’t agree with that, but does believe that requiring photo IDs could cause enough of a dropoff in legitimate Democratic voting to add 3 percent to the Republican vote.This remarkably candid observation underscores why it is so critical to get the facts straight on voter fraud. The voter fraud phantom drives policy that disenfranchises actual legitimate voters, without a corresponding actual benefit. Virtuous public policy should stand on more reliable supports. There have been a handful of substantiated cases of individual ineligible voters attempting to defraud the election system. But by any measure, voter fraud is extraordinarily rare. In part, this is because fraud by individual voters is a singularly foolish and ineffective way to attempt to win an election. Each act of voter fraud in connection with a federal election risks five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, in addition to any state penalties.18 In return, it yields at most one incremental vote. That single extra vote is simply not worth the price. Instead, much evidence that purports to reveal voter fraud can be traced to causes far more logical than fraud by voters. Below, this paper reviews the more common ways in which more benign errors or inconsistencies may be mistaken for voter fraud. More precisely, “voter fraud” occurs when individuals cast ballots despite knowing that they are ineligible to vote, in an attempt to defraud the election system.1 This sounds straightforward. And yet, voter fraud is often conflated, intentionally or unintentionally, with other forms of election misconduct or irregularities. There are many such problems that are improperly lumped under the umbrella of “voter fraud.” Some result from technological glitches, whether sinister or benign: for example, voting machines may record inaccurate tallies due to fraud, user error, or technical malfunction.2 Some result from honest mistakes by election officials or voters: for example, a person with a conviction may honestly believe herself eligible to vote when the conviction renders her temporarily ineligible,3 or an election official may believe that certain identification documents are required to vote when no such requirement exists.4 And some irregularities involve fraud or intentional misconduct perpetrated by actors other than individual voters: for example, flyers may spread misinformation about the proper locations or procedures for voting; thugs may be dispatched to intimidate voters at the polls; missing ballot boxes may mysteriously reappear. These are all problems with the election administration system … but they are not “voter fraud.” Conflating these concerns is not merely a semantic issue. First, the rhetorical sloppiness fosters the misperception that fraud by voters is prevalent. That is, when every problem with an election is attributed to “voter fraud,” it appears that fraud by voters is much more common than is actually the case. This, in turn, promotes inappropriate policy. By inflating the perceived prevalence of fraud by voters, policymakers find it easier to justify restrictions on those voters that are not warranted by the real facts. http://www.truthaboutfraud.org/pdf/TruthAboutVoterFraud.pdf?tw_p=twt It's a game, anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows it, but please do go right ahead and spout the party line. Why should legitimate citizens HAVE to prove their citizenship to exercise their rights? As to it being an onerous taxk, we've already been through that one at length. It IS onerous, especially for the poorer class. We all know you'll keep coming up with arguments, but that in no way nullifies the very real problem and why it's been implemented. At least, thank gawd, the DOJ has finally stepped in:Quote: The U.S. Department of Justice said late Thursday that Florida's controversial attempt to purge ineligible voters appears to violate federal laws and gave the state until June 6 to indicate whether it will halt the process. T. Christian Herren, chief of the department's voting section, sent a letter to Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner that said the state's actions appear to violate two federal voting laws. "Our records do not reflect that these changes affecting voting have been submitted to the United State District Court for the District of Columbia for judicial review or to the attorney general for administrative review as required by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act,'' the letter said. "Accordingly, it is necessary that they either be brought before that court or submitted to the attorney general for a determination that they neither have the purpose nor will have the effect of discriminating on account of race, color or membership in a language minority group under Section 5." The letter also said Florida could be violating another law known as the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which includes standards for how voter lists are maintained. Part of the law requires states to finish the systematic removal of ineligible voters 90 days before a primary or general election --- a deadline that passed May 16 for Florida, which has a primary on Aug. 14. The Department of Justice gave Detzner less than a week to say how the state will deal with the possible legal violations. "To enable us to meet our responsibility to enforce federal law, please inform us by June 6 of the action that the state of Florida plans to take concerning the matters discussed in this letter,'' Herren wrote. "Specifically, please advise whether the state intends to cease the practice discussed above, so that the department can determine what further action, if any, is necessary." http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2012/jun/01/doj-says-florida-voter-purge-might-break-laws/?partner=RSS hope they are successful; this is an egregious purging of legitimate voters, and given Florida's history of voter suppression, is obviously just another tactic intended to do the same.
Quote:The most common example of the harm wrought by imprecise and inflated claims of “voter fraud” is the call for in-person photo identification requirements. Such photo ID laws are effective only in preventing individuals from impersonating other voters at the polls — an occurrence more rare than getting struck by lightning. By throwing all sorts of election anomalies under the “voter fraud” umbrella, however, advocates for such laws artificially inflate the apparent need for these restrictions and undermine the urgency of other reforms. Moreover, as with all restrictions on voters, photo identification requirements have a predictable detrimental impact on eligible citizens. Such laws are only potentially worthwhile if they clearly prevent more problems than they create. If policymakers distinguished real voter fraud from the more common election irregularities erroneously labeled as voter fraud, it would become apparent that the limited benefits of laws like photo ID require ments are simply not worth the cost. Royal Masset, the former political director for the Republican Party of Texas, concisely tied all of these strands together in a 2007 Houston Chronicle article concerning a highly controversial battle over photo identification legislation in Texas. Masset connected the inflated furor over voter fraud to photo identification laws and their expected impact on legitimate voters: Quote:Among Republicans it is an “article of religious faith that voter fraud is causing us to lose elections,” Masset said. He doesn’t agree with that, but does believe that requiring photo IDs could cause enough of a dropoff in legitimate Democratic voting to add 3 percent to the Republican vote.This remarkably candid observation underscores why it is so critical to get the facts straight on voter fraud. The voter fraud phantom drives policy that disenfranchises actual legitimate voters, without a corresponding actual benefit. Virtuous public policy should stand on more reliable supports. There have been a handful of substantiated cases of individual ineligible voters attempting to defraud the election system. But by any measure, voter fraud is extraordinarily rare. In part, this is because fraud by individual voters is a singularly foolish and ineffective way to attempt to win an election. Each act of voter fraud in connection with a federal election risks five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, in addition to any state penalties.18 In return, it yields at most one incremental vote. That single extra vote is simply not worth the price. Instead, much evidence that purports to reveal voter fraud can be traced to causes far more logical than fraud by voters. Below, this paper reviews the more common ways in which more benign errors or inconsistencies may be mistaken for voter fraud. More precisely, “voter fraud” occurs when individuals cast ballots despite knowing that they are ineligible to vote, in an attempt to defraud the election system.1 This sounds straightforward. And yet, voter fraud is often conflated, intentionally or unintentionally, with other forms of election misconduct or irregularities. There are many such problems that are improperly lumped under the umbrella of “voter fraud.” Some result from technological glitches, whether sinister or benign: for example, voting machines may record inaccurate tallies due to fraud, user error, or technical malfunction.2 Some result from honest mistakes by election officials or voters: for example, a person with a conviction may honestly believe herself eligible to vote when the conviction renders her temporarily ineligible,3 or an election official may believe that certain identification documents are required to vote when no such requirement exists.4 And some irregularities involve fraud or intentional misconduct perpetrated by actors other than individual voters: for example, flyers may spread misinformation about the proper locations or procedures for voting; thugs may be dispatched to intimidate voters at the polls; missing ballot boxes may mysteriously reappear. These are all problems with the election administration system … but they are not “voter fraud.” Conflating these concerns is not merely a semantic issue. First, the rhetorical sloppiness fosters the misperception that fraud by voters is prevalent. That is, when every problem with an election is attributed to “voter fraud,” it appears that fraud by voters is much more common than is actually the case. This, in turn, promotes inappropriate policy. By inflating the perceived prevalence of fraud by voters, policymakers find it easier to justify restrictions on those voters that are not warranted by the real facts. http://www.truthaboutfraud.org/pdf/TruthAboutVoterFraud.pdf?tw_p=twt
Quote:Among Republicans it is an “article of religious faith that voter fraud is causing us to lose elections,” Masset said. He doesn’t agree with that, but does believe that requiring photo IDs could cause enough of a dropoff in legitimate Democratic voting to add 3 percent to the Republican vote.
Quote: The U.S. Department of Justice said late Thursday that Florida's controversial attempt to purge ineligible voters appears to violate federal laws and gave the state until June 6 to indicate whether it will halt the process. T. Christian Herren, chief of the department's voting section, sent a letter to Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner that said the state's actions appear to violate two federal voting laws. "Our records do not reflect that these changes affecting voting have been submitted to the United State District Court for the District of Columbia for judicial review or to the attorney general for administrative review as required by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act,'' the letter said. "Accordingly, it is necessary that they either be brought before that court or submitted to the attorney general for a determination that they neither have the purpose nor will have the effect of discriminating on account of race, color or membership in a language minority group under Section 5." The letter also said Florida could be violating another law known as the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which includes standards for how voter lists are maintained. Part of the law requires states to finish the systematic removal of ineligible voters 90 days before a primary or general election --- a deadline that passed May 16 for Florida, which has a primary on Aug. 14. The Department of Justice gave Detzner less than a week to say how the state will deal with the possible legal violations. "To enable us to meet our responsibility to enforce federal law, please inform us by June 6 of the action that the state of Florida plans to take concerning the matters discussed in this letter,'' Herren wrote. "Specifically, please advise whether the state intends to cease the practice discussed above, so that the department can determine what further action, if any, is necessary." http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2012/jun/01/doj-says-florida-voter-purge-might-break-laws/?partner=RSS hope they are successful; this is an egregious purging of legitimate voters, and given Florida's history of voter suppression, is obviously just another tactic intended to do the same.
Friday, June 1, 2012 6:12 AM
KWICKO
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)
Friday, June 1, 2012 10:23 AM
Quote:Originally posted by Niki2: Quote:Democrats are the most-likely to be flagged. Republicans account for 36 percent of the overall voter rolls but only 21 percent of the potential noncitizens on the state’s list. The Republican Party is disproportionately white non-Hispanic as well. Only 13 percent of the potential noncitizen list is white, though whites account for more than 68 percent of the overall Florida active voter rolls. Blacks account for about 13 percent of the overall voter rolls and roughly 14 percent of the potential noncitizen voter list. http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/12/2796905_p2/noncitizen-voter-hunt-targets.html] As to Hispanics:Quote:About 58% of those identified as potential noncitizens are Hispanics, Florida’s largest ethnic immigrant population, the analysis of the list obtained by The Herald shows. Hispanics make up 13 percent of the overall 11.3 million active registered voters. http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/12/2796905/noncitizen-voter-hunt-targets.html I shouldn't even bother, given I know you'll find some other reason to say it's not happening, but I'm posting this for the benefit of other, open-minded people who might have questions about it.
Quote:Democrats are the most-likely to be flagged. Republicans account for 36 percent of the overall voter rolls but only 21 percent of the potential noncitizens on the state’s list. The Republican Party is disproportionately white non-Hispanic as well. Only 13 percent of the potential noncitizen list is white, though whites account for more than 68 percent of the overall Florida active voter rolls. Blacks account for about 13 percent of the overall voter rolls and roughly 14 percent of the potential noncitizen voter list. http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/12/2796905_p2/noncitizen-voter-hunt-targets.html] As to Hispanics:Quote:About 58% of those identified as potential noncitizens are Hispanics, Florida’s largest ethnic immigrant population, the analysis of the list obtained by The Herald shows. Hispanics make up 13 percent of the overall 11.3 million active registered voters. http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/12/2796905/noncitizen-voter-hunt-targets.html I shouldn't even bother, given I know you'll find some other reason to say it's not happening, but I'm posting this for the benefit of other, open-minded people who might have questions about it.
Quote:About 58% of those identified as potential noncitizens are Hispanics, Florida’s largest ethnic immigrant population, the analysis of the list obtained by The Herald shows. Hispanics make up 13 percent of the overall 11.3 million active registered voters. http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/12/2796905/noncitizen-voter-hunt-targets.html
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