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Get all misty-eyed over Star Spangled Banner

Posted: Nov 5, 2012

We can recite the Pledge of Allegiance from memory, send our young people to war, defend the Constitution, declare a special day for Veterans, shine up our flag pins, and then turn around and suppress people voting in Florida and Ohio?

Can someone explain this to me? Perferably a declared Republican?

My entire growing up years I recall being told that it was my civic duty to vote, no matter who I voted for. I have voted in every election I was able to. I cannot believe American Citizens are being treated this way. We must look like a 3rd world nation to the rest of the world.

;

How are voters being suppressed in Ohio and Florida? - ZvilleMT

[ In Reply To ..]
I live in Ohio and have also voted in every election since I was 18 and have never had any trouble voting. I'm not sure where your outrage is coming from.

Some just like to hate and spout DNC talking points - There has been NO voter suppression

[ In Reply To ..]
As you know, there are some on this board that will post anything to start turmoil where there is none.

The area I live in was hit by Sandy and there have been MAJOR accommodations to voters so they can vote.

When you live in a bubble, you have no idea what happens in the rest of country.

Sandy - bootstraps

[ In Reply To ..]
I hope you and your family didn't suffer too much loss or inconvience from Sandy. I've been through my share of bad weather and power outages for several days at a time in some instances... excruciatingly hot days (I know yours was the opposite with the cold), so I empathize with anyone who has to go through that. The aftermath is the worst.

I've read and seen how accommodating your elected officials have been up there, bringing in generators and even setting up polling in parking lots, very dedicated in making voting as easy as possible even under trying circumstances.

Well, anyhow, good luck to you!

For shame. You excuse pub subversion of a legal transfer of power, but - you'd be screaming if it were the dems.nm

[ In Reply To ..]
What kind of American thinks stealing elections is just fine as long as the system breaks his or her way?

voter supression in FL - bootstraps

[ In Reply To ..]
In Florida the early voting hours were cut in half from last presidential election.

As a consequence, many voters, especially in S FL had to wait in line for up to 8 hours. Four hours is the average, I think.

Some people call that voter suppression. They feel that no one should have to wait that long in line to vote in America.

The people who are early voting are doing it because many cannot afford to take a day off or can't get the day off to vote on Tuesday.

And many S Floridians fit into that category as Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties are very densely populated, so 8 days just wasn't enough time to accommodate everyone in a timely manner. Not to mention their ballot is 10 pages long.

Those who are claiming voter suppression feel that Rick Scott, the governor, should not have cut the the days to early vote in half. The 2 previous Republican governors extended voting hours.

You're kidding, right? - Ohio republicans and

[ In Reply To ..]
your GOP Secretary of State John Husted have been positively manic in their ruthless pursuit of voter suppression in your state. First they tried cutting back on early voting periods from 35 to 11 days, and the no-voting-on-the-last-Sunday-before-the-election maneuver, on account of historically high turnouts that day of African-American and minority democrats. After activists marshaled enough signatures to block the restrictions and force a referendum, the GOP repealed their own bill in an effort to avoid the possibility of a (God forbid) a direct vote on the issue, but kept the ban on the last 3 days before the election, except for military voters who tend to go GOP. This was promptly overturned after the Obama campaign sued them.

Husted’s hands-on efforts have been even more impressive. He disenfranchised voters who made mistakes when filling out a secondary provisional ballot form, a voting method favored by Ohio’s five largest counties where democratic turn-out is typically high. After he lost in federal appeals court, which restored early voting, he STILL limited hours the polls could be open, telling an audience at an election law symposium that the court decision to restore the early voting periods was an “UNAMERICAN approach to voting.” Of course, early voters overwhelmingly supported Obama in 2008, and are doing so again this time. After the court ruled his efforts unconstitutional, he defiantly ORDERED election officials NOT TO COMPLY, but backed down when Judge Economus order him to appear in court in person. Incidentally, he fired two Montgomery County Board of Election members after they voted in favor of early voting on weekends.

Flagrant voter suppression. No two ways about it.

Unless you live there - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
I don't think you have any real knowledge of the situation, just a yammering recast of the liberal media's flagrant sensationalism.

Having to stand in line is not voter suppression. Not being able to vote early is not voter suppression.

This was what I was going to reply... - ZvilleMT

[ In Reply To ..]
Thank you for posting it for me :)

Here's a mainstream link - bootstraps

[ In Reply To ..]
Internet and newspapers, etc. afford us the possiblity to know what is going on in places other than where we live.

Standing in line may not be voter suppression, but what's the harm in making voting more convenient for everyone?

I don't have to live there to know voter suppression - when I see it

[ In Reply To ..]
Where was standing in line mentioned? Ohio GOP efforts were clearly aimed at suppressing overall turnout, and were more concerted and minutely calculated to affect specific partisan precinct pocket areas.

BTW, standing in line for a couple of hours is to be expected. Standing in line for an entire day in excess of 8 hours may be easily dismissed by younger, more physically fit voters, but I can assure you it is very much of a consideration for those who cannot afford to be off from work without pay, single parents with small kids and school-age children, people with chronic pain issues and/or diabetics like myself, the handicapped and elderly, just to name a few. There are some who simply cannot do it and it is a waste of time to try to convince anyone this is not done deliberately, when we see efforts to close the polls over the weekend. It is particularly telling to note how similar GOP efforts in various states have increased and intensified since 2008 with the election of President Obama.

By no means are voter suppression tactics we've witnessed in this election confined to the few methods described in my post. Whether you agree or not, those methods include such things as impediments designed to make voter registration more difficult, like voter ID laws ALEC tried ramming through in so many red states, succeeding in only 3 so far (Indiana, Kansas and Georgia) due to the angry blow-back they encountered.

Florida laws are a good case in point where early voting was cut from 14 to 8 days. We saw longer poll hours (12) in GOP precincts when compared to shorter ones in democratic areas (6). Name and address changes previously permitted at the poll sites were eliminated. Third-party registration groups (ie League of Women Voters, NAACP and unions) who assist voters by the thousands now face heavy fines for late entries beyond a tight 48-hour turnaround time. GOP Senator Mike Bennett's attitude is that voting is a PRIVILEGE as opposed to a RIGHT which those of us who elect him to office expect to be accommodated and encouraged. Fewer locations in far-flung areas where democratic turn-out is heavy versus more locations in areas that turn out GOP voters is another example.

Here's a summary of other methods we've all witnessed lately:

1. Disinformation about voting procedures, such as in the Wisconsin recall where Americans for Prosperity wingers sent democrats letters with incorrect deadline information.

2. Partisanship in election administration and conflicts of interest that potentially impact 33 out of 50 states. Katherine Harris. Kent Blackwell. 'Nuff said.

3. Disparities in allocation of material resources and funding between states that impart clear advantages to wealthy vs poor districts.

4. Caging lists.

5. In NH, GOP operatives were busted after jamming phone lines for a democratic voter drive/ride share program.

6. Voter Outreach of America submitted GOP registrations while discarding democratic forms.

7. Robocalls telling voters their polling locations had been changed, their registrations were invalid and that voting could lead to arrest. In Maryland, African-Americans were contacted several hours before the polls closed and were told the democratic candidate had already won and they could "stay home and watch TV," (!), an effort organized by the GOP opponent.

8. Purging of voter rolls. For example, 5500 MI voters were reinstated by the court after they were purged based on home mortgage foreclosure lists, despite the fact they were still living in their homes. Another blatant grab involved a GOP attempt to purge 60,000 Wisconsin democrats, reversed in court.

9. LONG LINES.

This is not to say the dems haven't tried their own dirty tricks from time to time, but they pale by comparison to those which documented evidence shows us have overwhelmingly been made by the GOP.

poll watchers - F&F

[ In Reply To ..]
you've probably seen this, though.

So maybe this year they'll actually arrest and press charges - on the New Black Panthers,

[ In Reply To ..]
as apparently they plan to show up in force, bigger than last time.

It's happening in Cali, too. A bunch of mail-in ballots - were discovered in the trash/gutter recently

[ In Reply To ..]
in Northern CA. That's why I still vote at the polls (not that they can't be tampered with, either, but at least it would be harder than simply throwing them in the trash).

Your answer - From a republican prior military

[ In Reply To ..]
I for one would like to know why the democrats try to suppress the military's vote in every election. These are the people who above all else we should be going out of our way to make sure their vote counts. Actually EVERYONE's vote counts, but something about our heros and hearing they are suppressing their vote just gets me me. Brings a tear to my eye at how little respect democrats have four our fight men and women laying their lives on the line for us and that's the thanks they get?

Besides, as a poster pointed out, having to wait in lines or not vote early is not voter suppression.

I think it's funny that every four years the democrats have already prepared ahead of time that there is voter suppression. Guess it's a convenient excuse when they lose they can say, see voter suppression.

Why is it that this is only happening in republican - controlled states? SM

[ In Reply To ..]
Listen to what former Governor Crist of FLorida has to say about it. What is the explanation for cutting early voter days from 14 to 8, cutting the hours? Because standing in line for up to 8 hours in the result and the hope that many people will give up and go home. In Ohio, Husted tried to restrict early voting only in democratic counties. Hmmm. It is what is it, deny all you want. I praise Bloomberg and Christie for being decent people and realizing that trying to keep people in this country from voting is disgraceful. The far-right agenda of the republican party is not acceptable to most Americans, and it will continue to get worse for them as the country continues to progress and the older white idiots faze out and the younger generations come up. They can only win if they keep as many people from voting as possible. If you refuse to see this, then your head is in the sand.

That's incorrect - From a republican prior military - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Standing in line to vote is a part of voting. Having to stand in line is not voter fraud. Giving you 8 days to vote is not voter fraud, no matter whether you want to believe it or not.

Voter fraud is all over the place. It's not in just republican or democrat areas. Its everywhere. Democrats are the biggest group for voter fraud. GOP is trying to get rid of voter fraud. It is not fair for dead people, cartoon character, or people voting 8 and 9 times and sometimes 26 times. It wasn't fair that a democrat was caught with a voting machine in his trunk cranking out votes for Algore. It's not fair that people go to vote for a republican using a voting machine and they get the response thanks for voting for Obama. Hacking into computers to throw the election is voter fraud. Not standing in a line or giving people over a week to vote.

Democrats are all good and well for wanting democrats to vote. The military? The republican areas? Hey it's okay for people to throw their votes in the dumpsters.

And if you refuse to see that then YOUR head is in the sand.

FL Early Voting and hours of voting plus voting at the polls. - backwards typist

[ In Reply To ..]
Early voting begins 10 days before an election and ends on the 3rd day before any election in which there is a state or federal office race. Early voting may be held for a maximum of 12 hours, but no less than 6 hours, a day.

On Election Day, the polls are open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. and are normally less busy during the mid-morning and mid-afternoon.

This is a lie. The military vote is mostly a young vote. - It's NOT dems who are suppressing it. We

[ In Reply To ..]
are, of course, evil and intent on destroying our country, but we're not stupid. Every election we have to fight to GET the overseas vote in and counted. Guess who IS continually trying to suppress it? One guess.

really? - dina

[ In Reply To ..]
then why is it that the republicans are the ones protesting the fact that 1000s of our overseas troops did not receive ballots and will not be able to vote? If they were suppressing, why would THEY be protesting? One guess who that leaves as suppressors, one guess.

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