Republican Election Theft Watch for 10/21/04

Robert Kuttner pulls no punches and tells us exactly what we can all see is brewing:

THE REPUBLICANS are out to steal the 2004 election -- before, during, and after Election Day. Before Election Day, they are employing such dirty tricks as improper purges of voter rolls, use of dummy registration groups that tear up Democratic registrations, and the suppression of Democratic efforts to sign up voters, especially blacks and students.



On Election Day, Republicans will attempt to intimidate minority voters by having poll watchers threaten criminal prosecution if something is technically amiss with their ID, and they will again use technical mishaps to partisan advantage.



But the most serious assault on democracy itself is likely to come after Election Day.



Here is a flat prediction: If neither candidate wins decisively, the Bush campaign will contrive enough court challenges in enough states so that we won't know the winner election night.



The right stumbled on a gambit in 2000, which could become standard operating procedure in close elections: If the election ends up in the courts, all courts eventually lead to the Supreme Court, which, as we learned, can overrule state courts -- and pick the president.



[snip]



If the courts took away the people's right to choose the president, and George Bush in effect stole two elections in a row, this would surely produce a constitutional crisis and a crisis of legitimacy.



But what if they gave a constitutional crisis and nobody came? The most ominous outcome of all would be public passivity, echoing 2000. That would confirm that the theft of our democracy was real.



Call me partisan, but the best insurance against this horrific outcome would be a Kerry win big enough so that even Karl Rove would not dare to mount this maneuver. A razor-thin race virtually invites it. And if Bush wins handily, our democracy will have other problems.

Meanwhile, here's the Republicans' latest attempt to tamper with voter registrations, this time in Indiana County, PA:

The old caveat, read the fine print before you sign, has taken on new meaning for some students at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.



An official from the Indiana County Voter Registration Office estimated Tuesday that several hundred IUP students had been duped into registering as Republicans several weeks ago.



The duplicity occurred, voter registration chief Donna Hoover said, because forms that the students thought they were signing to support efforts to legalize marijuana for medicinal use were actually used to register them as Republicans.



No one has lost his or her ability to vote this fall, Hoover stressed. "It is not going to make a difference for these students this time." Voters, regardless of party registration, can select any candidate on the ballot on Nov. 2. Party registration will make a difference, however, in the primary election, when voters can only choose candidates of their party affiliation.



Indiana County Democratic Committee Chairwoman Della Jean Manning said she is already concerned how registration could affect the party's vote count next May.



"We certainly will put forth an effort to give them (the students who were duped) an opportunity ... to register as they intended to register," she said.



In the meantime, some IUP students are feeling frustrated.



They have tried to be conscientious this election year, but the electoral system has let them down, said Richard Auvil of Blairsville, a sophomore music major.



A victim of the registration scam, Auvil signed a petition and form supporting the marijuana issue, only to find out a week or so later that the paperwork caused his party registration to be changed from Democrat to Republican.



"It is disheartening not because my party was switched but because the process was tampered with so blatantly," he said.

And more atrocities from PA:

An ostensibly nonpartisan voter registration drive in Western Pennsylvania has triggered accusations that workers were cheated out of wages and given instructions to avoid adding anyone to the voter rolls who might support the Democratic presidential nominee.



Sproul & Associates, a consulting firm based in Chandler, Ariz., hired to conduct the drive by the Republican National Committee, employed several hundred canvassers throughout the state to register new voters. Some workers yesterday said they were told to avoid registering Democrats or anyone who indicated support for Democratic nominee John F. Kerry.



"We were told that if they wanted to register Democrat, there was no way we were to register them to vote," said Michele Tharp, of Meadville, who said she was sent out to canvass door-to-door and outside businesses in Meadville, Crawford County. "We were only to register Republicans."



Tharp said volunteers were sent door-to-door to seek registrants but were instructed to first ask prospective new voters which candidate they planned to support.



"If they said Kerry, we were just supposed to say thank you and walk away," Tharp said.

Everything you need to know about the slimebucket that is Nathan Sproul.



It doesn't surprise me in the least that the Republicans are trying to steal another election; after all, they got away with it once, and God knows they have nothing to run on. What does surprise me a little is how they aren't even trying to hide it anymore.



Remember on December 12, 2000, when we tried to console ourselves with "He doesn't have a mandate, there's only so bad it can be." Well, we now know how bad it can be. Let's not let them get away with it again.