Island Dave's View

Via Kos, this is disgusting...

Today, around lunchtime, I went with my parents to the polls to vote in our primary election.
When I got there, I found that I had somehow been removed from the books, and hence could not vote.

Frustrated, I took the day off work and my mom took me down to the Election Board at 18th and Walnut. When we got there, we found that the reason I was not on the books is that SOMEONE had sent in an address change card for me. I live near 76th and Troost, but the voting database now had me down as living at 52nd and Locust - I've NEVER lived there, and have in fact lived at this address all of my life (well, except for the year in England, and even then this was my "permanent address"). It took about two hours, but the elections commission director straightened it out and I was finally able to vote. However, she told me why this has been happening, and it's very worrisome.

Apparently there are groups out there who buy copies of the voter registration rolls, then send in new registrations for registered voters giving them a new address. It's really a more sophisticated version of the whole thing with the felony lists in Florida in the last election - however, people aren't being REMOVED from the voting rolls, and hence there's no red flag being raised. After all, people DO move and send in change of address, so there's no reason for them to suspect voter fraud.

And there's really no way to trace this, so there's really no way to detect this. But in effect what it means is voters are removed from the rolls - after all, if you're unknowingly registered in another precinct, how can you vote at yours? I was lucky...I have the job flexibility and transportation to go down to the election board and find out the problems, but I'm betting a lot of the other people with the same problems don't. And there are a lot - at my precinct, during the period we were at the polls, which was pretty slow, there were only about five or six people in and out, including us. And of those, me and one other guy found ourselves off the rolls, and one woman said she'd had the same thing happen to her during the 2000 presidential election and had to spend the entire day down at the election board.

What do we have to do to stop this assault on our freedom to vote? If you think the GOP screwed our elections in 2000, you haven't seen anything yet. Felon lists are just the tip of the iceberg. Pre-checked voter registration cards are a minimal assault on voter rights. This Ohio story is but one beginning to surface which involves GOP fraud. They know they are on the ropes, and, as conventional wisdom goes, be very, very wary of a cornered, wounded animal. They will do anything to win this year. Vigilance may not be enough.

Granny, get your gun, and cock that hammer in preparation for the revolution of 2004. Drastic? Maybe, but, dammit, if they try to steal this election, we are not taking bending over and taking it again. This time, we'll take those SOBs out back and shoot their nuts in protest.