3 Responses to “Does a Dead Person's Vote Count?”

Anonymous said...
September 27, 2008

VOTER RIGHTS: STATE-BY-STATE LINKS

The Brennan Center for Justice: Know Your Voting Rights

Drew and other reading this, what I am about to describe sounds both awful and unthinkable, but it is happening now all across our great nation.

It's called voter suppression, and it's no silly conspiracy myth, but being reported in local papers across the country, and in some instances, in national papers as well.

So far, voter suppression actions have been reported in the following states:
Florida
Indiana
Michigan
Mississippi
Ohio
Wisconsin
Alabama
Washington (state)
North Carolina

And against the following groups of voters:
Elderly
Lower Income and Fixed Income Groups
Nursing Homes and Skilled Nursing Facilities Residents
People losing their homes to foreclosure
Students
Disabled American Veterans
Minorities


If you want links to verify ANY part of what I am about to elucidate, please ask me to provide a link for any specific claim (below in the comments section), and I will be happy to do so. I am not doing so here because it would take too long to track each of them down and embed in this post.

At the end of this post, I will give some links which are providing useful tracking information of specific reporting on this, so click on the link if you wish to know more.

Also, what I am about to list may seem alarming and intimidating. It's meant to, by the people who are trying to tamper with our democracy. It may result in you working harder for your patient of loved on in order to make sure their voice will be heard. But remember this: No matter how weak their voice might be from their illness, it is a voice that has every right to be heard, and counted just as strongly as those would would shout from the roof tops or stand on a soapbox in the town square.

To begin, there was a recent Supreme Court ruling (on the despicable voter caging law in Indiana) which may or may not be on websites yet. Further, there were a number of measures adopted in the 109th Congress (the last Republican majority Congress) to suppress the votes of minority and poor voters that have also resulted in the suppression of votes of the elderly and absentee voter populations.

Some of those laws require that is a person is voting absentee, they must send in a COLOR photograph of the voter's driver's license or passport in order for their vote to be counted, or the ballot will be discarded. If they are voting in person, they must bring a color photo I.D.

The Brennan Center link can help clarify absentee ballot and restriction on voting that you may need to be prepared to encounter.

Further, in battleground states, the McCain campaign has sent out over a million absentee voter form requests which are invalid because they have an extra check box on them. If you complete and send those in, they will be destroyed, and the voter will not be able to vote absentee.

Again, if you want a link to the McCain campaign admitting this, let me know and I will provide it.

This is being done to discourage good people from helping fellow citizens who may need help with the physical process of voting. It's also being done to frighten the people who are helping into falsely believing that helping others claim and participate in their Constitutional right to vote, will somehow get them a felony conviction. They are using fear to keep voters, and those who would help them, away from the polls.

If people are voting from hospitals, but still have a legal residence elsewhere that matches their proof of citizenship, then they do not need to re-register to vote. They may have to send a color copy of their driver's license in with their absentee ballot. However, if they now reside full time at a nursing home or hospice facility and no longer have their home on their proof of residency document (driver's license or ID card), they may need, in certain states (Indiana) to re-register. Again, check the Brennan Center for Justice link above.

This is a voter suppression strategy called "caging". It's also being used against our military members and their who may have had to relocate because of duty requirements. In Michigan, it's being used against people who have had their house foreclosed upon. No house, no vote.

Make no mistake--this is a voter supression campaign that is being driven and funded by the Republican Party, and for those folks that didn't follow the Attorney General Gonzalez's Justice Department firings scandal, this was what was at the heart of it. The voter suppression aspect of this politicization of it was driven by Justice Department attorney under investigation Hans Van Spakovsky, until just less than six months ago, when he was forced to withdraw his name for consideration of a post on the Federal Elections Commission, due to his partisan voter suppression activities while at the Voting Rights division of the Justice Department.

The evidence that this is a Republican effort is sadly overwhelming.

Though Spakovsky is gone, the effects of his activities strongly reverberate and are still very much in force due to the unprecedented scope of his power in his former post.

If you live in a battleground state, you should be especially aware of the efforts taking place right now to suppress votes, and should take immediate action to protect your vote by calling your town clerk's office to make sure that you are on the roles, verify your voting location, and ask them to specifically tell you what, if any, form of identification you will need to bring with you in order to vote. If you plan on voting absentee, you should call immediately to find out when you must have your application in, and HOW YOU MAY GET ONE LOCALLY YOURSELF. Then ask for the website so you yourself may verify what was told to you. Do NOT necessarily trust any application sent to you in the mail.

The best thing to do is call your town clerk's office and ask them exactly what you need to do in order to vote, and when you need to do it, and where those rules are posted publicly. If someone is helping you, have that person call, and ask the clerk for a website address where this information is publicly posted. They are required under HAVA (Help America Vote Act) to publicly notice this information.

If anyone want links to articles, references, or the sworn testimony given in court and before Congress, please let me know and I will be happy to provide you with any request you may have.

Please be as specific in your request for more information as you can, since my library of information of voter fraud and supression tactics is both broad and extensive.

Everyone believes that voter suppression is something that happens somewhere else, and to someone else. And it is. Until is happens to you.

This election is too important to take the chance that your vote might not count. Act NOW to protect your vote. Don't become one of the many voices that will wake up in anger on the day after the elections saying, "If only I had made that call...".
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Drew includes helpful links in his post. I have another at the beginning of this post, and below is a link to a voter suppression clearinghouse of articles on the matter.
Newsvine: A non-partisan list of voter suppression stories with links to the original course material.

Link to State-by-State Guide To Your Voting Rights
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Again, I will check back in a couple of days to see if there are any questions.

Jus Tertii

shpilk said...
November 02, 2008

Nice comment Jus Tertii .. good information as well.

Christian Sinclair, MD said...
November 04, 2008

Yes JT great comment, I apologize I had not replied to it earlier. I am bummed that no other readers took up the mantle to look into their state. We have over 1200 readers, you would think one or two would let us know what their state rules are. Oh well, maybe it will get uncovered in 4 years again.

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