Farhad Manjoo in Salon's War Room seems to accept the Republicans' explanation that the list is only a compilation of bad addresses returned from a direct-marketing mail. Given the Republicans' history in Florida, I'm not sure that's wise.
Meanwhile, in Ohio, Jesse Taylor of Pandagon reports in his capacity with, of all things, the Jerry Springer campaign, how the Dayton Daily News explains the power that the Republican thugs -- I mean pollwatchers -- will have over determining whether Ohioans can vote:
What will happen if my right to vote is challenged?
The challenger will have to state why your right to vote is being challenged. The four reasons they can challenge are that they believe you are either not 18 or older, not a U.S. citizen, not a Ohio resident for the past 30 days or not a resident of the county and precinct in which you are trying to vote.
One of the poll workers and you will move no less than 10 feet from the challenger.
You will be asked to take this oath: "Do you swear or affirm that you will fully and truly answer all of the following questions put to you, touching your place of residence and your qualifications as an elector at this election?"
You will be asked a series of questions about one of the four areas in which you are being challenged.
If you refuse to answer fully all questions or are unable to answer them fully, or your answers indicate you are too young, not a resident or a citizen, you will not be able to vote.
If you answer the questions to the satisfaction of the poll worker, you will be given a ballot and will be allowed to vote.
What if you want to appeal? The decisions of the poll workers are final.
What if the challenger appears to be attempting to cause delays or intimidate voters? The chief poll worker, the presiding judge, can expel them from the polling place.
What this means is that some moron who wants to try to keep you from voting, and doesn't even know you, can challenge your legitimacy, based on....nothing. Well, probably the color of your skin or your name, but he needs no evidence at all. How many people have time to run this kind of gauntlet to vote before going to work, or picking up the kids?
UPDATE: According to the latest Quinnipiac poll, enough New Jerseyans have been abducted by the Cult of the Codpiece that at least for the moment, NJ is now in play again. This is truly frustrating, because Kerry seems to have EXACTLY ZERO organization in this state. The good news is probably that Bush doesn't have much more than that, but for those of us who want to volunteer, and find that despite our state now being a battleground state, no one -- not Kerry's campaign, not ACT, not Moveon.org -- has a presence here, is just appalling.
MyDD has a scoop that the latest New York Times/CBS poll has been spiked because it shows Kerry up by four points, so they're assuming it must be wrong.
The Bushistas must be worried, though, because that bastion of truth (sic) Matt Drudge, is hyperventilating with his own "scoop" (sic) that ABC News is in possession of a new Al Qaeda tape that claims the next attack will dwarf 9/11. Drudge claims that ABC denies that it's holding the tape so as not to influence the election. Which of course means, if the story is true, that ABC is holding the tape so as not to influence the election. But if the Bush campaign is true to form, this kind of "YOU'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!" scare talk means that they're scared shitless.
Josh Marshall sums it up nicely:
I half expect that by tomorrow we'll be watching a grainy video of Ken Mehlman, decked out in a phony beard a la Woody Allen in Bananas, bellowing that he and his boss OBL are about to take over America with one mammoth terror attack and institute compulsory gay marriage before forcibly converting everyone to Islam.
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