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Here, I
use the definition of Red States by the Swing State Project. Please
select your state of interest to proceed. (If there is no link, that
means there is no content for that state yet).
GEORGIA
10/30/04 [Permalink]
Karl-Rove style Dirty
Trick from Tennessee makes its move to Georgia Remember
the dirty
trick in Tennessee surrounding the egregious flyer "Voting
for Bush is Like Running in the Special Olympics -- Even if You Win,
You're Still Retarded"? As was highlighted there,
there is no evidence that the Democrats put out this flier and the
evidence suggests it was a dirty trick that was played ON the
Democrats. Well, James
B3 on Dailykos points out that this has spread to Georgia. Here's
an article:
An upset Debra Lyons lashed out at Democrats for allegedly
distributing political flyers that take shots at retarded people.
Lyons, Chair of the Bibb County Republican Party, referred to a
picture of person running on a track.
It says voting for Bush would be like running in the Special
Olympics, "even if you win, you're still retarded."
Lyons said several were distributed in the Howard Oaks
neighborhood in North Macon.
She called it wrong and condemned it as a dirty campaign tactic.
DEBRA LYONS, CHAIR OF THE BIBB CO. REPUBLICAN PARTY:
"First of all, this is wrong and to condemn this type of
campaigning that's being done. Second, to say to the women
supporting Kerry's candidacy, where are you to condemn this
because it appears to me that it was an initiative supporting
Kerry since their literature was put with this."
Chair of Democratic Women of Bibb County Terry Tripp says she was
surprised that Republican Debra Lyons would think Democrats would
stoop that low.
Tripp also said she wouldn't be surprised if the Republicans
distributed the flyer themselves to anger their own voters into
coming out to the polls.
Amy Morton, State Coordinator of Women for Kerry-Edwards, reacted
sharply to Debra Lyons' accusations.
AMY MORTON, WOMEN FOR KERRY-EDWARDS:
"We find the accusations to be ridiculous, and we are
apalled that anyone would distribute this information. We think
it's wrong, and it has no place whatsoever in politics."
Morton said she has heard of flyers like this popping up in other
states. She felt Lyons should have contacted the Democratic Women
for Kerry-Edwards about the matter before she called a press
conference.
We contacted Debra Lyons afterwards, and she told us "It is
not her responsibilty to call them to inform them of her plans to
hold a press conference. It is only her responsibility to make
sure this type of campaigning doesn't take place again."
10/28/04 [Permalink]
Three racist Whites in
rural Georgia challenge Hispanic vote registrations purely based on
race - most of those challenged had already proven they are legally
allowed to vote; County Board dismisses complaint after race-based
petition becomes evident and challenges declined to provide evidence
in some cases
Hungry
Blues covers this:
I
was driving to work earlier this evening, I heard this
story on NPR [realplayer], and it made me sick to my stomach for
two hours. There's no text version to link to, but the summary blurb
reads:
Three white residents
in rural Georgia have challenged most Hispanic voter registrations
in their precinct, charging they are fraudulent. Most of those
challenged have already proven their legal status as voters, but
one wants a public hearing.
The
only original news coverage in print is at WALB
News, Albany, Georgia.
Ninety-eight letters
were sent by the Board of Registrars to Hispanics registered to
vote in Atkinson County. A version in both English and Spanish
informs them of a challenge to their right to vote based on the
fact that registered voters must be legal U.S. citizens.
You have to listen to
Pam Fessler's NPR piece to understand that that's ninety-eight
Hispanics out of the county's 123. The Hispanic voter who wants a
public hearing is Antonio Hernandez, who was born in Texas thirty
years ago and has lived in Georgia for the last twenty. According to
Frank Sutton (in the WALB story), one of the three who initiated the
challenge to almost every Atkinson County hispanic voter,
We discovered quite
accidentally that we had a lot of non-citizens registered to vote
in Atkinson County.
Pam Fessler reports that
Sutton came into the office of the Election Superintendent and asked
for the names of every Hispanic voter in the county. The
Superintendent also explains that under Georgia law, any registered
voter can challenge the legitimacy of any other voter if he or she
believes there is a reason. These challenge rules were instituted in
Georgia and in other states for the specific purpose of keeping
Black voters from the polls. And what was Sutton's
"reason" for challenging the registrations of as many
Hispanic voters as he could? Here's Sutton, verbatim from Fessler's
report:
We're contesting these
because of a deep belief on my part that citizens of the United
States are the ones that people have died for to give us the right
to vote. That's the reason that we're contestin' these people that
we feel the vast majority of 'em are not citizens of the United
States.
That's right, Frank
Sutton is contesting the right of US citizens to vote wholly on the
basis of their ethnicity—a practice of selection also known as
racial profiling. This white, southern man, who appears old enough
to have fully enjoyed the benefits of segregation, uses racial
profiling and Jim Crow tactics to keep Hispanics from voting, all in
the name of the Southern Freedom Movement.
An AP
update via Buzzflash:
Ninety-five people
who make up more than three-quarters of a rural Georgia county's
registered Hispanic voters were summoned to a courthouse Thursday to
defend their right to vote after a complaint alleged a county
commissioner attempted to register non-U.S. citizens.
The Atkinson County
Board of Registrars, however, dismissed most of the complaint at the
beginning of the hearing, saying the case could open the county to
charges of violating the Voting Rights Act. Remaining complaints
against two voters were dropped when the complainants declined to
present any evidence against them.
"The challenges
... are legally insufficient because they are based solely on
race," County Attorney Russ Gillis said. "Those of you who
are here because you were challenged, go to the polls Tuesday and
vote."
The three men who
filed the complaint had said they have evidence a county
commissioner attempted to help non-U.S. citizens register so they
could vote for him in the July 20 Democratic primary.
Lawyers from the
American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal
Defense and Education Fund got involved because the men filed the
challenges based on a list they had received from the Board of
Registrars of all Hispanics registered in the south Georgia county.
Linda Davis, chief
registrar in Atkinson County, said she provided the men with a list
of the 121 voters on the rolls who listed their race as Hispanic or
Mexican. She said the men decided to challenge 95 of them.
"They asked for
all Hispanics. They did not say just Hispanics who had registered
for the election in July," Davis said. "Some of these
people have been registered since 1996."
Olga Contreras
Martinez, one of the challenged voters, said she became a
naturalized U.S. citizen four years ago. Her husband, who was also
challenged, was born in the United States.
"When I received
the letter last Friday, I have never been so humiliated in my
life," she said, choking back tears at Thursday's hearing as
she addressed the complainants. "It really hurts that you doubt
me."
The men who brought
the complaint have 10 days to appeal the ruling. They said after the
ruling that they still believe they should be able to challenge
people they believe are registered illegally.
...
Davis said the
registrars were required by state law to hear the complaint, and
letters were mailed in English and Spanish to all 95 Hispanic voters
summoning them to the hearing Thursday night.
The burden of proof
would have been on the complainants, not the voters, Davis said, but
voters who didn't attend the hearing could have had their ballots
voided had the complaint not been dismissed.
10/12/04
[Permalink]
GOP sends absentee
ballots with literature asking voters to support GOP, in violation of
Georgia law Via
Votelaw, the AP
is reporting the following:
Georgia Democrats say
a campaign mailer sent out by their Republican counterparts broke
state law by attaching absentee ballots to literature urging voters
to support the GOP.
In a letter Tuesday
to the state Elections Board, Democratic Party of Georgia Chairman
Bobby Kahn said the mailer - sent to Republican voters by the state
Republican Party - violates a law created by the Legislature in
2001.
He asked the board to
fine the state Republican Party up to $5,000 for each of the
hundreds of thousands of mailings.
"It is obvious
they will continue to engage in this illegal activity until the
State Election Board sends them a message that seeking advantage by
violating Georgia election law will not be tolerated," Kahn
wrote.
The mass mailing
contained an absentee ballot along with pictures of President Bush
and U.S. Senate candidate Johnny Isakson.
It reads: "Vote
by mail and help President George W. Bush, U.S. Senate candidate
Johnny Isakson and all of the other Georgia Republican candidates
win in November."
State law, passed in
2001, forbids anyone from distributing absentee ballots that also
advocate for or against a candidate, issue or party.
...
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