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Here, I
use the definition of Swing 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).
OREGON 11/1/04
[Permalink]
GOP distances itself from
vote
challenge complaint in Oregon by GOP volunteer/lawyer, saying he does
not formally represent BC04 and that the GOP has not decided whether
to challenge the voters. Complaint demanded IDs for thousands of new registrants in
liberal Multnomah county ONLY -- when
IDs are not required by state law and proper identification of such
voters is left to the states per the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) Via
reader KM, here's the first article
in the Oregonian (bold text is my emphasis):
Democrats accused
Republicans Sunday of trying to block thousands of young people's
votes, following a formal request by GOP lawyers to review ballots
cast by first-time voters in Oregon's most populous county.
In a letter issued
Friday, attorneys for the Oregon Republican Party demanded that
officials set aside ballots cast by new voters in Multnomah County
who have not provided proof of identification.
Democratic Sen.
Ron Wyden said that the Republican demand flies in the face of
Oregon law which does not require voters to show proof of
identification when registering.
...
Statewide,
207,053 first-time voters registered after May and 73,226 of them
are under the age of 25, according to numbers provided by Sunlight
Data Systems, a database manager working for groups backing
Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.
Twenty percent of
the new voters live in Multnomah County, home to liberal Portland.
...
Two years after the voting controversy in Florida, Congress passed
the Help America Vote Act [HAVA], aimed at curbing voting
irregularities. One of its many provisions was a requirement that
voters show proof of identification when voting. [eRiposte
note: This is an incorrect characterization of HAVA. More on this in
an additional article below]
Oregon's
congressional delegation took issue with that requirement because of
Oregon's unique vote-by-mail system, which had previously allowed
citizens to simply send in their ballots. It's more difficult
for a person voting by mail to Xerox their driver's license and
include it along with their mail-in ballot, than it is for a person
voting at a polling booth to pull it out of their pocket and show to
an elections official, the delegation argued.
The bipartisan
"Oregon Compromise," drafted by Wyden and Republican Sen.
Gordon Smith, added language which created an exception for Oregon
as a way to preserve its unique vote-by-mail system.
Oregon Elections
Director John Lindback said the state will fight the Republican
request and stressed that the GOP concern is unfounded.
"For years in
Oregon when a person signed their voter registration card, they were
warned that if they didn't tell the truth they would be charged with
a Class C Felony — that carries a $150,000 fine or up to five
years in jail," said Lindback. "It's a very serious
penalty and we believed that the warning was enough," he said.
He questioned the
GOP's sincerity, given that the request for ballot segregation was
only sent to Multnomah County.
"It looks
like they're trying to stop votes from being counted in a highly
liberal county. Why not in traditionally conservative counties like
Baker or Umatilla or Malheur. It looks very partisan," Lindback
said.
The Republican
challenge is set out in a letter dated Friday signed by Matthew
Lowe, an attorney in the Portland law firm of O'Donnell & Clark,
which according to the letter represents the Oregon Republican Party
and the Bush-Cheney 2004 re-election campaign. It is addressed to
John Kauffman, director of elections in Multnomah County.
"The purpose of
this letter is to demand that those ballots cast by persons who have
yet to provide valid identification be set aside so that voter's
registration can be reviewed and verified, and the ballots
challenged if necessary," Lowe writes.
"In the event we
cannot reach agreement on this matter, our client's only option will
be to challenge each and every ballot cast in which a voter's
identity — and qualifications — are still in question," the
letter said.
Wyden said that
although he is confident Oregon would prevail in a legal challenge,
a lawsuit this close to the election would serve to discourage
voters — especially young ones who, according to the senator,
already feel as if their votes do not count.
"Florida was
decided by 537 votes — and most college dorms are that size,"
said Wyden. "You bet that if a suit is filed tomorrow it could
have a chilling effect, especially on younger voters."
Kevin Mannix,
chairman of the Oregon Republican Party, did not immediately return
calls late Sunday afternoon.
As I have highlighted in another
section of this webpage, HAVA is more nuanced than the way it is
portrayed in this article. As Alec
Applebaum said in The New Republic:
HAVA struck a
compromise between these burdens. It requires identification only
from people who register for the first time by mail. The
identification can be a bank statement, utility bill, driver's
license, or another government document. And, even if a voter
never provides identification, a poll worker must give the voter a
provisional ballot. By requiring identification only from
newcomers who haven't visited the county clerk's office, HAVA
entrusts local election officials to decide whether voters are who
they claim to be. And it ultimately protects voters by telling
states to set up rules for counting provisional ballots. "HAVA
does not require identification in order to have a vote
counted," says Wendy Weiser, a lawyer with New York
University's Brennan Center for Justice. But many Republican
election officials are conducting this year's vote as if it does.
Reader KM sent in this
update:
The final days of
Campaign 2004 also produced another flap about voting procedures,
this time related to a complaint filed by an attorney who said he
was representing the Bush campaign and the Republican Party.
The complaint, filed
Friday evening, demanded that Multnomah County set aside ballots
cast by voters who registered by mail but did not include
identification. The county refused, saying state and federal laws
were clear the ballots could be counted even if no identification
was included.
Democrats charged
that Republicans were trying to depress Democratic turnout.
"They're using
specious and selectively applied criteria to try and block out votes
they think are going to their opponents," said Oregon AFL-CIO
President Tim Nesbitt, a supporter of Democrat Sen. John Kerry.
The Bush campaign
said it had nothing to do with the complaint filed by Portland
attorney Matthew D. Lowe, despite his claim to represent the
campaign on this matter.
Jeb Mason, who is
running the Oregon Republican Party's get-out-the-vote effort, said
the attorney was a Republican volunteer asked to look out for
potential legal issues but was not authorized to file the complaint.
Mason said the party
has not decided whether to challenge the ballots mentioned in the
complaint.
10/21/04
[Permalink]
Oregon GOP voter
"observation manual" instruction on videotaping approaches
borderline intimidation; false information on voting deadline reveals
attempt at vote suppression Via
Hesiod,
here are a couple of reports. My initial thought was to consider that
the voting deadline issue was a possible error - but when I saw the
state GOP's response when the error was revealed in their document it
became clear this was no error. This was a wanton attempt to mislead
their supporters into indulging in vote suppression. Bend.com:
The Count Every Vote
project on Tuesday denounced what it called Republican plans to
suppress voter turnout in Oregon.
A front-page story in The Oregonian detailed a plan published by
Republicans that calls on operatives to mislead, videotape and
disenfranchise voters.
According to The Oregonian, State Elections Division Director John
Lindback has reviewed the Republican instruction manual and said it
had “serious” problems. The story outlines two Republican
suppression techniques from the manual such as videotaping voters
and misleading people who are standing in line on Election Night so
they will get discouraged and drop out of line.
“If they start videotaping when some people are still voting, some
voters might consider that intimidating,” Lindback said.
Lindback also pointed out that the Republican plan contains an
untruth about who has the right to vote that could discourage voters
who are in line to cast their ballots on Election Night. According
to the story, the Republican manual states that ballots dropped off
after 8 p.m. are not to be counted.
That is not correct. State law says that voters who are in line by 8
p.m. will have their ballots counted, even if they haven’t been
turned in by the deadline. When asked about this untruth, Republican
operative Jeb Mason said that there are a lot of definitions of
“in line.”
“If someone is in line, they are in line. And if they are in line
at 8:00 on Election Night, their vote will count,” says Bryan
Johnston, spokesperson for the Count Every Vote project. “It is
deeply troubling that in the first week of voting the Republicans
have already started a misinformation campaign.”
Johnston says the best defense against intimidation is to stand up
and be counted.
“If these efforts scare even one voter away from the polls,” he
says, “we all lose.”
Johnston also noted that The Oregonian reported that so far only a
Multnomah County plan has become public and that evidence is being
gathered to challenge ballots in this Democratic voter base.
“Are they planning to challenge ballots, videotape voters and
spread information in counties that aren’t Democratic
strongholds?” he asks. “It’s one thing to be opposed to
Democrats. I hope this doesn’t mean the Republicans are opposed to
democracy.”
The
Oregonian:
Democrats, pointing
to a Republican "observation manual" that has been widely
leaked, say Republicans are out to suppress turnout in Oregon as a
way to help Bush beat his Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry of
Massachusetts.
"The
Republicans' main goal is to make people uncomfortable and confused
in the election process," said Adam Green, spokesman for the
state Democratic Party. An example, he said, is "when
Republicans talk about videotaping people as they go turn in their
ballots."
Adams referred to a
part of the nine-page GOP instruction manual that calls on
volunteers to show up at ballot drop-off sites at 7:45 p.m. on
election night, 15 minutes before the voting deadline.
"They should
have a video camera and cell phone," states the manual, a copy
of which was obtained by The Oregonian. "Their job is not to
confront anyone, but to record and notify the proper officials of
any activities that are not in compliance of federal, state or
county election laws."
John Lindback, state
elections director, looked at the Republican instruction manual and
said it had a few "serious" problems. He, too, was
concerned by the reference to video cameras at ballot drop-off
sites.
"If they start
videotaping when some people are still voting, some voters might
consider that intimidating," Lindback said.
He also took issue
with an implication in the manual that ballots dropped off after 8
p.m. are not to be counted.
According to the
state Elections Division, voters in line by 8 p.m. will have their
ballots counted, even if they haven't been turned in by the
deadline. In most cases, a sheriff's deputy will stand at the end of
the line to ensure no latecomers are allowed to vote.
But there are a lot
of definitions of "in line," said Jeb Mason, executive
director of Oregon Victory '04, the grass-roots organizing branch of
the state Republican Party. [eRiposte note: This is a blatant
indication of an intent to mislead voters].
10/19/04
[Permalink]
More attempted voter
registration fraud reported in Oregon, with students at OSU told that
they need to register Republican Via
Buzzflash, we
have this
report from Oregon State University:
On Tuesday, OSU
senior Brandy Martinez was met outside the Valley Library by
petitioners asking her to sign a petition to "lower car
insurance for young people."
The petitioner asked
her to sign her name and phone number on a blank sheet of paper and
then presented her with a form he said was required to "verify
[her] voter registration."
But she quickly
recognized the paper to be a voter registration form, with the title
obscured.
"I said, 'no,
this is a voter registration form,' and he said, 'No, you need to
fill this out to verify that you're registered,'" Martinez
said.
The petitioner went
on to say she needed to mark "Republican" on the form,
saying the Republicans were the only ones willing to fund the
petition.
She again refused and
immediately called the Benton County elections office.
ASOSU President
Kristen Downey said other universities have reported potential
fraud.
"We're in
contact with {Secretary of State] Bill Bradbury about issues we've
come across -- the targeting of college-aged students. They're
taking advantage of people -- it's probably their first time
registering."
College Democrats
member Joel Fischer said he wants anyone who thinks they may have
been misled to contact the elections office and write an affidavit
for submission to the secretary of state.
Martinez plans to do
just that.
Across the state,
other instances of possible fraud have been reported.
On the University of
Oregon campus, canvassers circulating a petition to "crack down
on child molesters" told students they must register as
Republicans in order for their signatures to "count," The
Associated Press reported.
10/13/04_2
[Permalink] UPDATED
10/14/04
Possible Destruction of
Democrats' voter registrations to be probed; multiple complaints about
RNC funded firm destroying Democrats' registrations now received by
Attorney General Via
reader PT, here's an AP
report from Oregon:
Secretary of State
Bill Bradbury and Attorney General Hardy Myers plan to investigate
allegations that a paid canvasser might have destroyed voter
registration forms.
"There have been
allegations made that someone threw out some voter registration
forms that had been submitted to them," Bradbury told The
Associated Press late Tuesday. "This is a violation of the law
and I will meet with the attorney general in the morning to talk
about what we can do to pursue this, and to make sure it doesn't
happen again."
Bradbury learned of
the conduct from KGW-TV, which interviewed Mike Johnson, 20, a
canvasser who said he was instructed to only accept Republican
registration forms. He told the TV reporter that he
"might" destroy forms turned in by Democrats.
"I have never in
my five years as secretary of state ever seen an allegation like the
one that came up tonight — ever," Bradbury said. "I
mean, frankly, it just totally offends me that someone would take
someone else's registration and throw it out."
Bradbury said the law
requires that groups registering voters submit forms no later than
five days after they were filled out. He added that canvassers can't
turn away a voter because of his or her party affiliation.
Rory Smith, a
spokeswoman for the Republican Party in Oregon, said the young man
interviewed by KGW-TV was not in their rolls. "We do not
condone this type of behavior," Smith told the Portland-based
station.
In Nevada earlier
Tuesday, KLAS-TV, a CBS affiliate, interviewed an employee of a
private voter registration organization who said hundreds —
perhaps thousands — of Democratic registration forms had been
destroyed.
UPDATE 10/14/04:
A CBS update,
via Bob
Johnson at Dailykos:
Officials in Oregon
have launched a criminal investigation after receiving numerous
complaints that a Republican-affiliated group was destroying
registration forms filed by Democratic voters statewide, Oregon
Secretary of State Bill Bradbury told CBSNews.com.
Meanwhile, CBS affiliate KLAS-TV is reporting accusations of
similar malfeasance in Nevada.
Both state's allegations are linked to a Phoenix political
consulting firm called Sproul & Associates run by Nathan Sproul,
former head of the Arizona Republican Party. Sproul & Associates
has received nearly $500,000 from the Republican National Committee
this election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive
Politics.
Calls from CBSNews.com to Sproul were not returned.
Late Thursday afternoon, two Democratic senators, Patrick Leahy of
Vermont and Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, sent a letter to Attorney
General John Ashcroft asking the Justice Department to "launch
an immediate investigation into the activities of Mr. Sproul and his
firm."
According to KLAS-TV, a former employee claimed hundreds, if not
thousands, of Democratic registration forms were destroyed by a
Sproul & Associates group called Voters Outreach of America.
The former employee first told local Nevada reporters that he had
personally witnessed his boss shredding eight to ten voter
registration forms, according to Steve George, a spokesman for the
Nevada Secretary of State.
KLAS-TV quotes the chair of the Nevada Republican Committee, Earlene
Forsythe, as saying, "The Republican National Party would never
intentionally hire any staff people to come into the state to
intentionally do voter fraud."
While Nevada is considering an investigation, Oregon's is well
underway. Bradbury expects to have more than 200,000 new registered
voters in Oregon by Election Day, when all the forms are tallied and
verified. He said that they are now paying particular attention to
issues of improper registration.
"We’ve had three [voter registration] complaints filed and we
forwarded them to the attorney general who’s doing the criminal
investigation," Bradbury, a Democrat, said in an interview.
"The complaints specifically name Sproul."
In Nevada and Oregon, Sproul allegedly canvassed voters for which
candidate they intend to support. If voters were leaning Republican,
the group is said to have assisted in their registration. If they
leaned Democratic, the group allegedly ignored them or later
destroyed the form.
It is illegal to destroy voting registration material.
"I’ve never seen this before. The allegations that are being
made just totally offend me, not only because they are
illegal," Bradbury said. "Regardless of whether it is a
Democratic, Republican or Independent form, there is no better way
to disenfranchise a voter than to say you are registered and then
throw away a voter registration form."
Both Oregon and Nevada are considered battleground states in the
presidential election. Though polls show Oregon likely to go to
Democrat John Kerry, Nevada remains a dead heat between Kerry and
President Bush.
Concerns over Sproul’s practices were initially raised in early
September when a Medford, Oregon, county librarian, Meghan
O’Flaherty, received a fax from Sproul requesting to hold a voter
registration drive at the local library on behalf of a nonpartisan
group called America Votes. As a precaution, O’Flaherty did her
own research on Sproul.
"I was just being a good reference librarian and checking the
facts. We want to be sure someone who claims to be nonpartisan is
nonpartisan," O’Flaherty said. "I didn’t want anything
going on here in the library that would call into question our
neutrality."
The fax from Sproul was also received by three other Oregon
libraries. CBSNews.com obtained a copy of the fax, as well.
In part, the fax reads: "Our firm has been contracted to help
coordinate a national nonpartisan voter registration drive, America
Votes!, in several states across the nation." The one-page fax
also claims, "We will equally register all those who wish to
register to vote."
However, Cecile Richards, the president of America Votes, said in a
letter to Sproul that he "had never even heard of Sproul &
Associates," and asked that "he refrain from using the
name 'America Votes' in any of your activities from this point
forward."
Part of the problem, said Bradbury, the Oregon secretary of state,
is the "bounty system" where people are "paid by the
signature for circulating petitions and that led to significant
fraud."
"I have not seen a bounty system for voter registration
before," Bradbury continued. "It’s not illegal but
I’ve never seen that before."
In Nevada, the allegations of voter registration malfeasance have
irked local election officials. The Nevada Secretary of State’s
office has contacted the Department of Justice in Washington. An
investigation is not yet underway.
"The allegations are that there was a group that was doing
voter outreach in Las Vegas – Voters Outreach of America –
allegedly made by one of its former workers that the group would
destroy Democratic voter registration forms," said George, the
spokesman for the Nevada Secretary of State’s office.
In Las Vegas, the Clark County registrar’s office has in the last
month alone received more than 100,000 new registrations. Though it
has only five electoral votes, the possibility that Nevada could go
for either Bush or Kerry has brought the state to the forefront of
the presidential race.
"If the allegations are true," George said "it
could" involve hundreds if not thousands of voter registration
forms. "We are looking at what state and federal laws may have
been broken."
10/13/04
[Permalink]
Students apparently
tricked into registering Republican at Portland State University by
unknown group Via conceptual
continuity at Dailykos, we have the PSU Vanguard reporting this
[bold text is eRiposte emphasis]:
Students passing
through the Park Blocks yesterday afternoon were shocked to discover
that a group of petitioners may have misled them into changing their
party affiliation to Republican on their voter registration.
The petitioners, who
refused to identify themselves and gave conflicting accounts of who
they were working for, asked passers by to sign a petition "to
lower auto insurance costs for young people." When students
signed the petition, they were handed voter registration cards and
told to fill out only the name and address section, in order to
"verify" their signature on the petition.
According to one of
the petitioners, the group's intent is to register everyone who
filled out the voter registration card, with "Republican"
selected under the party affiliation.
Many students who had
signed the petition where surprised or outraged to learn that they
may have inadvertently registered to vote as a Republican.
...
A petitioner who
identified himself as "Ben Over" said that he was employed
by a group called "Voters for All," but shouted "I
hate Democrats, man," as the reporter walked away.
No information
could be found on either West Coast Management or Voters for All in
searches of the internet, telephone directories or business
listings.
The petitioners also
gave conflicting accounts of how they were being paid for their
work.
10/12/04
[Permalink]
Partisan (GOP) political
consulting firm headed by former Arizona state Republican Party
executive director Nathan Sproul fraudulently poses as a
representative of (non-partisan) America Votes in enrolling new
registrants
Via Dailykos, here's the Oregon
Mail Tribune:
A local librarian
checking on a company’s request to set up a voter registration
booth in the library discovered the company was not affiliated with
a non-partisan national group as it claimed.
Sproul &
Associates, Inc. of Phoenix, Ariz., phoned and mailed the library in
September, saying it had been hired by America Votes.
That came as news to
America Votes.
"This
organization (Sproul) absolutely has nothing to do with America
Votes," said Kevin Looper, the state organizing director for
America Votes.
America Votes is a
non-partisan political organization formed in July 2003 to increase
voter registration, education and participation in electoral
politics.
Libraries in Oregon
and other states have been contacted by Sproul. Looper said
attorneys at America Votes’ Washington, D.C. headquarters have
taken over.
"We are in the
process of pursuing all of our legal options to pursue (an order to)
cease and desist."
But the man behind
the matter says it was an innocent mistake.
"We were not
trying to copy their name," said Nathan Sproul, owner of the
consulting and management company. "All we were trying to do is
register people to vote."
In September, the
Jackson County Library Services Central Library received a letter
from Sproul & Associates, Inc. which began:
"Our firm has
been contracted to help coordinate a national non-partisan voter
registration drive, America Votes! in several states across the
nation."
The letter went on to
ask if the company could register people to vote in front of the
library.
Meghan O’Flaherty,
headquarters library manager, contacted Kevin Looper, who informed
her America Votes did not hire the firm.
That’s when she
learned that Sproul & Associates, Inc. is a political consulting
firm headed up by former Arizona state Republican Party executive
director Nathan Sproul.
"The only
problem I have with it ... is that they’re misrepresenting
themselves as someone they’re not," she said.
Libraries in
Multnomah, Corvallis/Benton, West Slope and Washington counties also
had been contacted, said O’Flaherty.
She said she learned
on the Internet that Sproul & Associates is actually a partisan
political consulting firm, so the library cannot support them.
UPDATE 10/13/04: Librarian's email is here
and more about Sproul here
and here
(also via DailyKos).
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