Voter suppression in the news

Our local counter-voter suppression task force completed its final strategy session Tuesday evening, but not without revealing one of the latest attempts to reduce Barack Obama's tally in Harris County. I'll let Gerry Birnberg take over:

There is a FALSE rumor going around by e-mail telling people that if they vote Straight Democratic Party, they must also cast a vote specifically for Barack Obama in order to have an Obama vote registered. THIS IS FALSE INFORMATION probably initiated by Republican dirty tricksters, but now being spread by well-meaning Barack Obama supporters.

The truth is that if you cast a Straight Democratic Party vote, you will be voting for Barack Obama and your Straight Democratic vote will count as a vote for Obama. But if you then go down and “vote” for Obama, you may actually be cancelling your Obama vote.

Don’t be fooled: Just cast a Straight Democratic Party vote and that will get Obama and all the Democratic candidates up and down the ballot.

If you vote on a Hart InterCivic e-Slate DRE (which you will in most all of our beloved Deep-In-The-Hearta) and emphasize your vote for a particular candidate after having clicked the "straight ticket" box, you have deselected that candidate. As in un-voting for him/her. And that's not a bug, it's a feature.

It takes a bit of devious thinking just to come up with a rumor like this to spread. And why would anybody want to go to the trouble of trying to fool people into not voting for Obama in Houston? They don't seriously believe he has a shot at winning Texas, do they?

This is just mischief-making, but it should be the least of anybody's worries. Don't believe me?

Despite bustling registration drives, population growth and excitement about the candidates, Harris County may head into the Nov. 4 election with the about same number of registered voters as in the 2004 presidential contest.

Ahead of Monday's registration deadline, about 1,912,000 citizens were on the voter roll as of Friday, county officials said. The number will grow as registrations continue through the weekend and mail postmarked by Monday arrives next week.

But the county must add 30,000 new eligible voters just to reach the 2004 level, and Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt, the county voter registrar, acknowledged a strong chance that the sign-ups will go no higher than the figure from four years ago.

Why is that, Paul? Houston Votes added somewhere between 80,000 and 100,000 registrations alone. Yet with at least 100,000 registrations from all sources -- yes, Republicans too -- the county is still 30,000 short of 2004? What gives?

But unlike in past elections years, Bettencourt said, registration efforts are producing an exceptionally high number of voters who are re-registering to update their address and a relatively low number of people who have never registered before.

"The excitement we're seeing is among people already registered to vote," he said. He pointed to the record-high total turnout in the March primaries, in which 98 percent of the participants already had been registered here before this year. ...

Dee Young of the registration group Houston Votes said the county's refusal to seek an extension of the registration deadline while Ike victims got back on their feet ran against the public interest.

"After all of the frustration I have dealt with, with the county, I don't trust their numbers," she said of Bettencourt's latest projections. ...

The secretary of state's methods of maintaining the Texas voter roll may have helped put a lid on the Harris County numbers. Applying new federal and state laws for the first time, the state immediately removes from the Harris County rolls the registration of those who have registered this year in other counties, Bettencourt said. In comparison, the 2004 list may have contained many inactive registrations.

Purging voter rolls by removing voters who have moved within Texas, or because they have not voted in one of the last two federal elections, could be a violation of federal law. But that's exactly what has been happening in several states (the Lone Star isn't named as one), coincidentally all of them identified as "swing states" in the 2008 presidential election now three-and-one-half weeks away. The New York Times elaborates (without placing blame on nefarious intent, I would add):

Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law, according to a review of state records and Social Security data by The New York Times.

The actions do not seem to be coordinated by one party or the other, nor do they appear to be the result of election officials intentionally breaking rules, but are apparently the result of mistakes in the handling of the registrations and voter files as the states tried to comply with a 2002 federal law, intended to overhaul the way elections are run.

Still, because Democrats have been more aggressive at registering new voters this year, according to state election officials, any heightened screening of new applications may affect their party’s supporters disproportionately. The screening or trimming of voter registration lists in the six states — Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina — could also result in problems at the polls on Election Day: people who have been removed from the rolls are likely to show up only to be challenged by political party officials or election workers, resulting in confusion, long lines and heated tempers.

Just go read the whole thing. There's more in the AP's summary of the Times' investigative report:

The six states seem to have violated federal law in two ways. Some are removing voters from the rolls within 90 days of a federal election, which is not allowed except when voters die, notify the authorities that they have moved out of state, or have been declared unfit to vote.

And some of the states are improperly using Social Security data to verify registration applications for new voters, the newspaper reported.

More on 2008 voter suppression across the United States. Still more from Amy Goodman, Greg Palast, and Robert Kennedy Jr.

Coming back home ...

I have no idea how Paul Bettencourt manages the database of Harris County voter registrations. There's very little voluntary transparency and FOI requests by media and Democratic party officials are often slow-walked and counter-offered (questions regarding Hart's electronic processing of votes are often met with the "proprietary information" block, for example).

I further have no idea how much Harris County voter suppression can be allocated to malicious intent, garden-variety incompetence, or simple and somewhat blameless human error on the part of the registree, the volunteer registrar, or the assistant clerk processing it.

More than likely the determination of this sort of thing will rest with legal discovery after the fact of an epic fail.

Update: Oh yeah, almost forgot ...

Voter Suppression Wiki

Election Protection Wiki

Stocks, McCain plummet

After six consecutive days of huge losses -- the DJIA has lost nearly 35% of its value since hitting its high of 14,000 a year ago, and 10% just this week -- the markets actually look a little better this morning. But not even a half-point drop in the Fed's rate was enough to stop the bleeding yesterday as the two-hundred point loss added insult to portfolio injury. Update (4:30 pm): Oops. A 678-point crash in the final hour, due to the gloomy prospects of General Motors and the rest of the auto industry, leaves us at a 40% loss for 2008.

I'm so old I can remember when either a 50-basis-point rate cut or a 200-point decline was enough to be big financial news all by themselves.

If you have a 401K, your losses are all on paper -- like Warren Buffet's, or Boone Pickens'. Don't sell now and turn it into a real one. I'm not licensed to dispense financial advice, so don't take my words to the bank (... ugh).

If you were planning on retiring at the end of the year and cashing out ... well, you're screwed worse than anybody I can think of. You ought to rethink that.

But while the markets will eventually make a comeback, we can't say the same for John McNasty's presidential aspirations:

Three weeks of historic economic upheaval has done more than just tilt a handful of once-reliably Republican states in Barack Obama’s direction. Democratic strategists are now optimistic that the ongoing crisis could lead to a landslide Obama victory.

Four large states McCain once seemed well-positioned to win—Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio and Florida—have in recent weeks shifted toward Obama. If Obama were to win those four states—a scenario that would represent a remarkable turn of events—he would likely surpass 350 electoral votes.

Under almost any feasible scenario, McCain cannot win the presidency if he loses any of those four states. And if Obama actually captured all four states, it would almost certainly signal a strong electoral tide that would likely sweep the Southwestern swing states—Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada—not to mention battlegrounds from New Hampshire to Iowa to Missouri.

If I were to post my weekly EV projection early it would show Obama having captured Ohio, Florida and Nevada for a total of 338 electoral votes. But hey, I'm conservative.

(You won't see that phrase typed here very often, so mark the date.)

If this current scenario holds then the focus would turn to lengthening Obama's coattails to help Democrats down the ballot. As in everywhere across the country. But despite the good polling news and the favorable trends, Texas apparently will still not benefit, at least according to the senator responsible for getting more Democratic senators elected ...

Sen. Charles Schumer, (D-NY) head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, spoke to reporters this morning about his party's prospects for increasing their numbers this cycle. He seemed ready to count his chickens before they've hatched when he said, "The wind is more strongly at our backs than ever before."

For the record, Schumer declared Texas out of reach, as "too expensive. That's the problem."

Despite that, Schumer and the Democrats have added other previous-cycle crimson states to their target list: Georgia, North Carolina, Mississippi and Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's seat in Kentucky. He went so far as to call Georgia and Kentucky "even-steven races." The DSCC put up their first ad in Kentucky today.

Adding to those states, he sees Alaska, Colorado, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon and Virginia as likely pick ups.

Last night, Schumer walked that statement back, saying through a spokesperson that they are "in no way writing Texas off, and it doesn't mean that he (Noriega) won'tget some money in the future".

Tonight is the debate watch party at Noriega HQ for Rick's face-off with Big Bland John Cornyn. Noriega is closing the gap fast, and the conservatives comprising Cornyn's online mouthpieces are still seething over his yes vote on the bailout bill. Despite what Rob Jesmer thinks, Noriega is charging like Seabiscuit and is now poised to nip Corndog at the wire despite his $$$ advantage.

Senator Box Turtle is sinking. Let's throw him an anvil.

Grumpy Old Man, Part II

Those "hey-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn " jokes don't seem so funny this morning. I'm starting to feel sorry for poor old McGrouchy. I know I shouldn't...

I wasn't even aware of the outrage over "That One" until I got home and checked in online. I heard him say it but my reaction was that it was just more of the same nasty attitude he has demonstrated through two nights and three tortuous hours of "debate". I didn't see it as anything worse than everything else he has said and done to disrespect Obama. But Mrs. Diddie saw '50's-vintage racism laced within the retort.

Others also took offense, but I just don't think it was a racist remark, even subliminally by a guy who has a record of bigoted remarks.

No, McCain is just a mean old bastard. He left the hall quickly with his trophy wife following the debate, while Obama stayed long after and worked the crowd. Remember, this face-off was held in Nashville Tennessee, as red a state as they come. And during the "town hall" McCain touched the shoulder and shook the hand of a former chief petty officer who asked a question, so rapport with the audience -- even if it was superficial -- shouldn't have been his problem.

McCain is ornery, quick to judgment and self-righteous -- in other words, a classic conservative. Some would say "Maverickey".

And contrary to what he thinks about himself, I don't believe John McCain's hand is steady enough for the tiller.

Your Bingo card for tonight's debate

More here.

Update: What Obama should say tonight if the words 'Ayers' or 'Wright' fall out of McLame's mouth ...

John, your campaign has already said it intends to spend the last four weeks of this campaign mostly attacking me. And with the William Ayers thing, we have some idea of what kind of attacks to expect. But you folks at home, if you go to CNN's website -- and this is a bit of free advertising, I guess -- they have a thing called Campaign Fact Check. If you go there, and look up William Ayers, you'll see that they've called that attack FALSE, and you'll see exactly WHY it's false. And that's not my campaign saying that -- that's CNN! They're saying it's false.

That's why if it were just the two of us, if it were just Barack Obama and John McCain involved, and if there were nothing else at stake, I'd have no problem at all turning this election into a mudslinging battle. I've got plenty of mud for you, believe me.

But it's not just the two of us. The American people are also part of this, and if you drag this election down to that level, they're the ones who are gonna lose.

So for their sake, John, I'm asking you to join me in a pledge -- and I don't have any paper to sign, we'll just do it on a handshake if you agree. I'm asking you to join me in a pledge, for the last four weeks of this election, to get rid of the character assassinations, to get rid of the smears, and to run honorable campaigns that talk about the issues -- the economy, health care, Iraq, education, jobs, gas prices -- that the American people actually care about. That's the kind of campaign they deserve.

So John, will you come over here and shake my hand?

The Big Dog and Chris Bell; Richardson and Hoyer for Skelly

In exchange for his support for Hillary in the primary, Chris Bell gets a big ol' bone thrown his way:

Bill Clinton will come to Houston on Monday, Oct. 13 to headline a fundraising event for Chris Bell, candidate in the special election for State Senate District 17.

"I am honored to have President Clinton come to Houston to help my campaign,” said Chris Bell. “It’s unusual to have a former President of the United States of America help raise money for a state legislative race, but he knows that this is an incredible opportunity to make real progress for the people of Texas.”

Ambassador Arthur Schechter will host the fundraiser at his home Monday evening. Democratic Party stalwart Bernard Rapoport will serve as “Honorary Chair” of the event. Details on getting tickets will be posted on ChrisBell.com.

This race is almost out of reach for the GOP. From the same press release:

A poll conducted by Cooper and Secrest in August showed that Chris Bell has a 34-point lead over the Republican candidates who remain clustered in a statistical tie for second place. The initial trial heat, asked of 400 likely special election voters Aug. 14-18, had Chris Bell at 42%, with Republicans Joan Huffman at 8%, Austen Furse at 5%, and Grant Harpold at 4%. A poll subsequently released by Mrs. Huffman’s own campaign confirmed Chris Bell’s standing as a frontrunner and the rest of the field’s statistical proximity to single digits.

In May, an independent poll conducted for Texans for Insurance Reform found that Chris Bell has higher name identification in SD 17 than U.S. Sen. John Cornyn. The pollster, Jeff Smith of Opinion Analysts, labeled Mr. Bell the “front-runner in a very winnable contest.”

Fifty-percent-plus-one eliminates a runoff. This race will be at the top of every ballot in the five Southeast Texas counties that get to vote on it.

In other heavyweight news flashes (pun intended, Governor Richardson), this missive from SDEC member Ron Rea contains the following announcement of events to benefit the campaign of CD-07 Democratic challenger Michael Skelly:

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson will be here for a luncheon on Thursday, October 16, at a location to be announced soon.

Steny Hoyer, Member of Congress and House Whip for the Democratic Party, will be here for a breakfast event in downtown Houston on Wednesday, October 22.

A political contribution for each event is $100 per plate.

More to come on these, but worth noting is that Skelly has pulled within striking distance of incumbent John Culberson, who last Friday hosted a shooting event with John Boehner at a west side gun club.

(I mean, really; could the differences be any more stark?)

The domestic terrorists pallin' around with Palin

When you and your husband spend a lot of time hanging out with a radical secessionist fringe third-party whose founder died in a plastic explosives deal gone bad, you probably shouldn't fling your conservative howler monkey poop at other people:



And if a radical fundamentalist evangelical preacher makes a prayer over you to keep away the witchcraft, then you probably shouldn't attempt to cast aspersions about someone else's minister. That horse, of course, was beaten to death before the summer began, but whipping up BS seems to be the only thing this woman is any good at.

We already knew you were stupid, Sarah. It's just too bad you don't have even the sense to shut up and stop proving it.

John McCain, his tangled involvement in the S&L scandal of the '80's that resulted in his charter membership in the Keating Five, not to mention its foretelling implications on the current economic disaster he so fervently desires to put aside, aside ...

Sarah Palin is nothing but a dumbass bitch who has no business whatsoever in politics above the level of Wasilla, Alaska. Thirty more days of this woman's nonsense and then we won't have to think about her again for at least four more years.

Update:

Palin, unleashed and unhinged, whips a Florida crowd into a racist frenzy ...

In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's questions for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy." ...

... Palin, speaking to a sea of "Palin Power" and "Sarahcuda" T-shirts, tried to link Obama to the 1960s Weather Underground. "One of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers," she said. ("Boooo!" said the crowd.) "And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,' " she continued. ("Boooo!" the crowd repeated.)

"Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience.

Gee, I wonder where the Secret Service was when the death threats against a presidential candidate were being shouted out.

And Joe Klein, with "Embarracuda":

I'm of two minds about how to deal with the McCain campaign's further descent into ugliness. Their strategy is simple: you throw crap against a wall and then giggle as the media try to analyze the putresence in a way that conveys a sense of balance: "Well, it is bull-pucky, but the splatter pattern is interesting..." which, of course, only serves to get your perverse message out. I really don't want to be a part of that. But...every so often, we journalists have a duty to remind readers just how dingy the McCain campaign, and its right-wing acolytes in the media (I'm looking at you, Sean Hannity) have become--especially in their efforts to divert public attention from the economic crisis we're facing. And so inept at it: other campaigns have decided that their only shot is going negative, but usually they don't announce it, as several McCain aides have in recent days -- there's no way we can win on the economy, so we're going to go sludge-diving.

But since we are dealing with manure here, I'll put the rest of this post below the fold.

You can't make shit like this up. And it's going to get worse. For the next month. And some people are going to decide to vote for the Republicans because of it.

How fucked up is that?