Karl Rove Tactics in Los Angeles. Ohio 2004 Redux
Super Tuesday, 2008
Today, Super Tuesday, a disturbing number of Los Angeles voters were denied a proper ballot. Why? Because some time in the recent past, they received what appeared to be a piece of junk mail and they threw it away. Oops. It was a notification for them to re-register. Why did they receive it? Who knows. But today, they had to vote on a provisional ballot. That ballot will most likely not be counted. Certainly it will not be included in the first count, the count that gets released to the public and the media - the count that decides the winner.
That's called caging. It's a Karl Rove tactic that succeeded in Ohio in 2004, and succeeded in Florida in 2000. Karl had a direct mail business in Texas, you see. He not only knows how to do this, he will do it. I personally do not believe that Karl resigned his position in the Bush Administration to spend time cuddled in the hammock with the wife. He's out there, consulting and conniving and coming up with new ways to steal 2008.
Here's another triumph for Karl. Today I'm manning the phones for the LA Election Protection Task Force, getting calls from Poll Monitors who are observing huge mistakes made by poll workers - a lot of high school kids and elderly - overwhelmed and confused by the many duties of the job. Some poll workers are unhelpful and don't care to do what's correct and legal. None of them, even the most capable, and good hearted, can compensate for inadequate training from the County.
For example: You might have heard this report on local LA radio. Non-partisan voters are supposed to tick off a little "dem box" at the top of their ballot, if they want to vote for a Democratic candidate. Otherwise, their vote is not counted. Were these voters alerted to this by the poll workers? Not really. Was this pointed out in their "official" pollworker training? Not really. We hear roars of outrage and frustration and tears as voters (and the Obama campaign) realize their votes are for nothing.
Just one more, although I could go on and on. Many precincts were shifted around L.A. County. My precinct was split; half to another garage three streets away, half to the church up the hill. Were George and Heidi, my original polling place hosts, told where to direct the displaced voters? No. All over this county, voters wandered into the wrong polling place, and had to vote provisionally. (That's IF they could find the wrong polling place. Signage was often terrible.) Hey y'all, does this have a sickeningly familiar ring to it? How about "disenfranchisement in heavily Democratic precincts" as in, "Los Angeles Democrats make up 40% of the California Democratic party vote."
"Oh my God,!" I wailed after 2004, after going to Ohio and experiencing the ruins of a stolen election. "How can they DO this to people?" I was on the phone with my sister, whose husband has been an exec for GE and Tyco. Her response had a "Well, duh!" ring to it. "Because they want to win. " Oh. Ah. So. I wonder.
Do WE? Are we willing to give two days out of 365 this year to work the vote - at the polls or monitoring the vote? By two days, I mean, sign up and work in June, get the experience, get ready for November. Two days. Will YOU give a shift?
Today's planned chaos indicates that if we truly want to win in November, we are going to have to split our time between working for our dream candidate and working to protect the vote. A sign over our kitchen sink when I was growing up in Ohio: "If YOU don't do it, it WON'T get done."
Come on. Get involved. Unless you WANT Karl Rove to win. (Again.)
Onward to a true democracy,
Sheri Myers. Work the Vote LA
Details at
Courage Campaign and
BradBlogMimi Kennedy, Actor, Poll Inspector, Explains the LA Snafu
posted by zenie 
