Mayor Tom Barrett: "They want us to stay home. Do not stay home."

Craig Gilbert reports from Milwaukee.

Pride - Shane Lucas, 11, and his Mom, Kenya. (Erin Richards)

GOP Loses Big Voter Suppression Case in Federal Court

Federal Court of Appeals Districts

Wisconsin is only one battle in the GOP war against voters.

Without massive voter suppression, Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Reince Priebus and the GOP cannot win a national electoral election.

So the RNC has tried to launch its 'ballot security' project again used to intimidate minority voters.

The Court of Appeals for the Third District knocked the RNC down in a unanimous opinion issued yesterday against the GOP's reprehensible practice.

Steven Rosenfeld quotes from the opinion reading:

The RNC asks that our court vacate a decree that has as its central purpose preventing the intimidation and suppression of minority voters. When, as here, a party voluntarily enters into a consent decree not once, but twice, and then waits over a quarter of a century before filing a motion to vacate to modify the decree, such action gives us pause... At present, appellant [the RNC] seeks review of the District Court's order denying vacatur because it prefers not to comply with the Consent Decree at a critical political juncture -- the upcoming election cycle.

Rosenfeld notes, "In other words, the RNC was hoping to remove the legal bind it agreed to three decades ago so that it could obstruct the voting process in 2012's swing states."

No matter how vital, how fundamental, voting rights are to a democracy the Republican Party seeks to undermine voting as an integral part of its desperate acts to rule over the American people.

Case is DNC; New Jersey Democratic State Committee; Feggins; Monroe v. RNC; New Jersey Republican State Committee; Hurtado, Kaufman, Kelly [No. 09-4615 - U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third District]

Forget the Democratic Flacks, Fight Voter Obstruction

Stay put, poor people!

Forget the Democratic Flacks like Marhsall at Talking Points Memo who cry there is nothing to be done on the federal level to fight Voter Obstruction. The stakes are so high that even the most spineless and foolish of Democrats will come around and join the fight. What the Koch Brothers-funded Americans for Prosperity and industry PACs are working for - successfully - in advancing state laws limiting voting is the model legislation promoted by the ultra-rightwing American Legislative Exchange (ALEC). It's won't be principle driving the Dems to join the civil rights groups, rather self-interest.

"I'm not a Democrat, I'm of no party. I'm for change for the operating knife when a party rots in power."
- John Sloan, 1908

By Donald Cohen

The boldest attack on the Denver Paid Sick Leave Voter Initiative isn’t from the Chamber of Commerce. With large majorities supporting the November 2011 ballot measure, opponents know they have to do more than simply argue against the common sense notion that people shouldn’t go to work sick. They need to find other ways to attack the measure which would require employers to provide nine days of paid sick leave per year for full time workers. Part time workers and employees of small businesses would have fewer days.

That’s why Scott Gessler, Colorado’s Republican Secretary of State, is suing the city of Denver to prevent the City Clerk’s office from mailing ballots to voters who didn’t cast ballots in the last election. In the November 2010 election conservatives turned out in higher numbers but expanded opportunities to vote by mail in Colorado actually helped increase turnout for both parties in the 2010 primary election over typical off-year primary elections. If Gessler wins his lawsuit, it will reverse those trends and many voters – particularly young, low-income and minority voters – would be disenfranchised, unable to vote for the sick leave measure.

Today, over 100,000 Denver employees – 40 percent of all workers and 72% of food service workers – have no paid sick days at their workplace. These workers, when sick, are faced with a choice: stay home and lose a day of pay or go to work. A recent survey found that nearly three out of every four workers (72%) go to work sick. Another study found that two thirds of restaurant workers go to work while sick, risking spreading illness ever further.

Opponents regularly attack laws that protect our health and help workers balance the oftentimes competing demands of work and family as “job killing” regulations that will destroy the economy. Although these arguments are often misguided and wrong, at least conservative opponents are trying to use persuasion to win their case. Now, however, they’ve resorted to prevention -- not again illness, but against voting.

Gessler’s voter suppression gambit is part of a conservative nation-wide effort led by Republican-controlled legislatures to make it more difficult to vote.

There is, of course, a long history of the powerful preventing the powerless from getting the right to vote. Since the American Revolution, the nation has progressively expanded the franchise to include men without property, former slaves, women and the young that we ask to fight in our wars. In the post-Civil War, post-Reconstruction era white southerners enacted laws and carried out campaigns of intimidation to decrease the size of the electorate. The 1965 Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts finally ended decades of disenfranchisement with poll taxes, literacy tests and other legal and extra legal-tactics. This brought millions of new voters – mostly African American – to the polls. The 1993 Motor Voter bill simplified voter registration, expanded voter participation and ultimately strengthened democracy.

The seeds of this current effort to reduce democratic participation began in the 1970’s as business interests began to regroup to regain political influence they lost as a result of consumer, environmental , women’s rights and labor activism. They feared that new laws like the Clean Air Act, Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Consumer Product Safety Act and Highway and Transportation Safety Act (making seat belts mandatory) were just the first wave of an assault on corporate priorities. They feared that Rachel Carson, Ralph Nader and other advocates were leading a crusade to destroy capitalism – or at least corporate power.

In 1974 and 1975, the Conference Board, a mainstream business organization, held a set of strategic brainstorming meetings with groups of top business executives to understand these threats to free enterprise and begin to chart a course to fight back. They openly expressed their worries whether democracy, in the long run, was even compatible with capitalism. “One man, one vote has undermined the power of business in all capitalist countries since WWII. “ said one participant. Said another, “We need to question the system itself: one man, one vote.”

Thirty years later, Grover Norquist, a conservative strategist and the founder of Americans for Tax Reform (and known for his widely quoted statement: “I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”) published an article in the American Spectator that was circulated widely in conservative circles. Norquist outlined the path to a permanent political majority for the GOP and conservatives. He argued for sustained conservative focus on “knocking down the five pillars” of Democratic support. His fifth pillar, (after unions, trial lawyers, federally funded non-profit social service providers, and big city political machines) was voter fraud, now a well-worn talking point by conservative candidates, think tanks and right wing media. His prescribed attack on unions is now also in full bloom with elimination of collective bargaining rights for public sector workers and “right to work” laws limiting private sector worker organization.

Now, conservative elected officials, backed by the Koch Brothers-funded Americans for Prosperity and industry PACs, are advancing dozens of laws to limit the vote. They are using model legislation promoted by the ultra-conservative American Legislative Exchange (ALEC), also funded by Koch and a who’s who of corporate America.

They obviously want to tip the scales before the next presidential election but the long term agenda is much larger.

The impact of Scott Gessler’s vote suppression scheme on the Denver paid sick leave policy illuminates the real motivation behind efforts to shrink the vote. In the short term it may help win elections but at the core it is about strengthening corporate and Republican power for the long haul.

The local opponents of the Denver measure are a mix of small, medium and large businesses, not necessarily representing the super-wealthy in America. But it’s in these businesses where most Americans work and this is where the rubber meets the road to define whether the American economy works for the many or the few. Sick leave ordinances help create the new social contract that revises the corporate view of a “healthy business climate” arguing that a strong economy is one that supports families and shares the prosperity. It says: we will succeed and grow as a nation only when we all rise together. Time off when you’re sick is the least we can do to make sure that happens.

Gessler’s move, unfortunately, is a cynical and bold attempt to ensure some do well while others struggle and fall behind. At a time when economic inequality is soaring to new heights, democracy and the right to vote is but one check on that growing divide. At a time when the impacts of global warming become ever more real, democracy and the right to vote are an important check on corporate efforts to weaken the Clean Air Act and other environmental protections. At a time when, Americans increasingly feel that America is run in someone else’s interest, the right to vote is our best hope for democracy.

Veterans with ID Cards Not Good Enough to Vote, Says GOP

Not good enough to vote, says GOP

As civil rights challenges to Republican-authored photo ID-voter suppression laws continue, the exclusion of veterans who have only a U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs (DVA) Veterans Identification Card (VIC) from voting is drawing increasing criticism.

In Wisconsin a VIC, used by veterans to obtain health care at VA medical facilities, is not sufficient to vote, notwithstanding veterans' service to our country. Wisconsin's restricting many veterans from voting is identical to numerous other GOP-passed laws such as Texas.

"The [Texas] law also prohibits veterans from using their ID card from the Department of Veterans Affairs to vote, even though it is a government-issued photo ID. Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) urged the state legislature to pass the law as an 'emergency item' and submitted the law to the U.S. Justice Department for 'pre-clearance' last month," writes Tanya Somanader.

Emergency. Voter suppression. Republicans are playing the same tune in states across the nation.

I think our veterans deserve better.

"Photo IDs issued by the Department of Veteran Affairs ... are not acceptable photo ID for voting purposes," reads the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board informational site on the new photo ID requirements that are operative in next year's presidential primary election.

"Yes, the legislature did not include veterans' IDs as acceptable photo IDs for voting purposes," confirms Reid Magney, a spokesperson for the GAB, in a phone conversation this afternoon.

Magney didn't say it but it is the Republicans alone in the legislature who unanimously voted for the suppression disallowing veterans' VICs as sufficient to vote, with the unanimous Democratic bloc of legislators voting against the suppression bill.

Magney said the GAB will work with communities of interest in outreach efforts to work with veterans, such as homeless veterans who comprise "between 130,000 and 200,000 on any given night—representing between one fourth and one-fifth of all homeless people," according the National Coalition for the Homeless.

But as a veterans' advocate and as someone who worked last year as a census enumerator of the homeless, I can tell you that homeless veterans are a tough demographic to reach out to and inform about the free IDs they might be able to get at their local Dept of Motor Vehicle centers, if they ask.

"I got my VA [VIC] card and that's it," said a homeless man to me on West Washington Street near the capitol in the Spring of 2010. "I don't want the government to know where I am."

The man later explained he was Vietnam War veteran and didn't trust "anybody" associated with the "government," and didn't want to tell me his name. He was waiting near a church for a free dinner.

Regardless of whether this particular veteran would vote [I doubt he would], excluding disaffected veterans from voting by law is contemptible.

I would ask if the Republicans have no shame, but the answer is obvious.

Wisconsin Voter Suppression in Action

Here is a video of a mother trying to get her son a voter ID card in Wisconsin.

For anyone who hasn't seen this, please consider watching this DMV bureaucrat at work:



Apparently, "bank activity" is a requirement, and these DMV workers even write down how much money the young man has in his account.

Starting this fall, all Wisconsin IDs and driver's licenses will be made in California and take up to two weeks to receive in the mail. You used to walk out of the DMV with your license until Scott Walker became governor.

On top of that, he wants to close as many as 16 DMV offices. Funny how they're mostly in Democratic voting districts.

U.S. DoJ Challenge to Wisconsin Voter Suppression Law Possible

Voting Right Act - 1965

Will the U.S. Justice Department stop the assault on voting rights for minorities, the elderly, the rural and the poor?

Update: Sen. Dave Hansen; Confusion, Voter Suppression Law Obstruct Green Bay Voters.

The fact is right now: Before you can vote in Wisconsin you need to present a proof of residency and fill out a multi-question application to register to vote.

You need to attest you are who you say you are, are not a felon on probation or parole, are a U.S. citizen, among other questions answered under  penalty of federal law.

So, this being the case, how is the massive, GOP-claimed voter fraud occurring?

It's not, and the Voter ID law [set to take effect in Wiscosnin next Spring] is just a way to make it more difficult to vote with the objective of suppressing the votes of Democratically leaning voters.

It's possible U.S. Attorney General Holder will actually do something about the voter suppression as a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 [renewed on July 27, 2006 for 25 years as signed into law by Pres. George W. Bush, with the powerful support from House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr.].

On June 29, 2011 Sen. Herb Kohl along with 18 other U.S. senators signed a letter to AG Holder expressing concerns about highly restrictive photo identification requirements under consideration or already signed into law in several states, including Wisconsin.

Sen. Ron Johnson did not sign the letter. No Republican senators signed the letter.

The Honorable Eric Holder

Attorney General
United States Department of Justice
Robert F. Kennedy Building
950 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, DC 20530

Dear Attorney General Holder:

We are writing to express our concerns about highly restrictive photo identification requirements under consideration or already signed into law in several states. These measures have the potential to block millions of eligible American voters without addressing any problem commensurate with this kind of restriction on voting rights. Studies have shown that as high as 11% of eligible voters nationwide do not have a government-issued ID. This percentage is higher for seniors, racial minorities, low-income voters and students. Voting is the foundation of our democracy, and we urge you to protect the voting rights of Americans by using the full power of the Department of Justice to review these voter identification laws and scrutinize their implementation.

Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act vests significant authority in the Department to review laws before they are implemented in covered jurisdictions. As you know, the burden of proof in this preclearance process is on those covered jurisdictions, which must be able to show that legal changes will not have a discriminatory impact on minority voters. New photo identification laws, for instance, must be subjected to the highest scrutiny as states justify these new barriers to participation. In Section 5 jurisdictions, whenever photo identification legislation is considered, the Department should closely monitor the legislative process to track any unlawful intent evinced by the proceedings.

Restrictive photo identification requirements are also being considered or have passed in states and jurisdictions that are not covered by Section 5. The Department should exercise vigilance in overseeing whether these laws are implemented in a way that discriminates against protected classes in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Additionally, federal civil rights law - 42 U.S.C. 1971(a)(2)- prohibits different standards, practices or procedures from being applied to individuals within a jurisdiction. We believe the Department should ensure that these photo identification laws do not violate this statute or other federal voting rights statutes.

Highly restrictive photo identification requirements at the polls can make it more difficult for well-intentioned voters to cast their ballots, and as far as America's civil rights trajectory is concerned, that sort of effect takes America in the wrong direction. We urge you to exercise your authority to examine these laws so that voting rights are not jeopardized. We also request that you brief us on the efforts the Department is undertaking to ensure these new laws are implemented in accordance with the Voting Rights Act.

Thank you for your work protecting the civil rights of all Americans.

Michael F. Bennet, United States Senator
Harry Reid, United States Senator
Dick Durbin, United States Senator
Charles E. Schumer, United States Senator
Patty Murray, United States Senator
Jeanne Shaheen, United States Senator
Mary Landrieu, United States Senator
Benjamin L. Cardin, United States Senator
Sherrod Brown, United States Senator
Mark Begich, United States Senator
Jeff Merkley, United States Senator
Kirsten E. Gillibrand, United States Senator
Ron Wyden, United States Senator
Tom Harkin, United States Senator
Tom Udall, United States Senator
Herb Kohl, United States Senator

Bill Clinton: GOP Voting Crackdown Worst Since Jim Crow

By Benjy Sarlin at TPM

Former President Bill Clinton weighed in on Republican efforts in several states to pass new restrictions on voting, comparing the measures to the Jim Crow laws of the past.

'There has never been in my lifetime, since we got rid of the poll tax and all the Jim Crow burdens on voting, the determined effort to limit the franchise that we see today,' Clinton said in a speech at a Campus Progress conference in Washington.

GOP Won't Give Up on Voter Obstruction

The GOP calls itself the enemy of government getting in the way of people.

But it won't halt its nationwide GOP effort to compel government bureaucracies to make voting as difficult as possible.

Rhode Island, Missouri, Texas, the list of states is long where the GOP continues to employ its suppression tricks.

From Erin Ferns at MyDD, Voter Fraud Myth Used to Push Voting Policies that Harken Back to the Jim Crow Era:

In swing state Missouri (and this sounds a lot like our own corrupt Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen's efforts last year (who knows what else this guy will come up with)):

Last week, Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan spoke in defense of the 230,000 eligible voters in the state who would be disenfranchised because they lack the necessary ID required under pending House Joint Resolution 9. The effort to pass a strict voter ID law continues despite a similar bill's failure to pass last year as well as a recent report by Carnahan's office that showed there were no instances of voter impersonation at the polls during the last three elections. ...

Recent studies show that a more diverse electorate turned out last November, including historically underrepresented young and minority voters. Since the election, Republican operatives have continued to use the specter of voter fraud to loosen regulations on voter suppression activities while pushing policies to make voting more difficult for the crop of new voters.

Last week we reported how the Republican National Committee (RNC) had quietly filed a motion to dissolve a consent decree prohibiting them from practicing voter caging and other voter suppression activities. The decree had been established in the 1980s after so-called 'ballot security programs' to prevent voter fraud resulted in wrongful voter disenfranchisement of largely low-income and minority voters.

To monitor voter ID and other election bills, visit http://www.electionlegislation.org/%20or subscribe to the weekly Election Legislation digest, featuring election bills in all 50 states, by emailing Erin Ferns at eferns [at] projectvote.org.

WA Gov Signs Voting Rights Restoration Act

Giving more people the right to vote. Wonder what the GOP will say about the idea nationally.

From the Brennan Center, WA Governor Signs Voting Rights Restoration Act

Gov. Gregoire signed a bill restoring the right to vote to people living with criminal records, and eliminated the requirement that people pay all fees and fines, plus hefty surcharges and interest, before becoming eligible to vote. 'Simply put, the right to vote should never hinge on one's wealth or economic status,' says Erika Wood, Director of the Center's Right to Vote Project. 'The Voting Rights Restoration Act now eliminates this modern-day poll tax in Washington.'

Michael Steele Keeps Up ACORN Lie

ACORN did it.

Yeah, new Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele, is steering the GOP in a new direction.

This is business as usual on the right, see Lies and the Lying Liars Exposed.

And read this nonsense circulated in an e-mail through Human Events:

... It seems the Obama Administration has plans to rig the Census results.

President Obama's old friends from ACORN, the leftist, urban ‘community’ organization with a long history of promoting vote fraud, has been chosen by the Administration as a ‘partner’ with the Census Bureau to determine population counts in cities around the country.

With this group's track record of coming up with countless fraudulent voter registrations in heavily Democrat areas to sway elections to ultra-liberals, you can be sure they'll be manipulating population numbers as well.

And after receiving millions in political payback from the Democrats' recently passed ‘Stimulus’ Bill, ACORN's community organizers are eager to once again take action to aid their old friend in the White House.

Why is this important? The U.S. population has shifted in the last ten years. States like Illinois, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania (all states Obama won in 2008) have smaller populations, and states like Arizona, Georgia and South Carolina (all states that John McCain carried) have gained population.

The trend illustrates that urban strongholds, which favor Democrats, continue to lose population to more decentralized areas in states more likely to lean Republican.

If the Democrats and their friends at ACORN have their way, the Census will only ‘estimate’ state populations and therefore be subject to political calculations. And surely their estimate will be far higher than the actual number of people, and voters, present.

We must not let the Democrats and their radical leftist allies falsify the U.S. Census and manipulate elections in their favor. Our democracy, and the principle of ‘One Person, One Vote’ are in jeopardy.

Election Protection

In Wisconsin this means our attorney general and the Republicans.

But protecting voters from corrupt officials like Van Hollen is a nationwide effort.
---
We all know how crucial these final two days are.

Voters must know where to turn to if their right to vote is being hampered or outright denied on Tuesday or if they need any assistance whatsoever:
• For immediate assistance, call the nonpartisan 866-OUR-VOTE hotline
• To report problems to Election Protection’s state teams through Twitter, use these guidelines: http://www.866ourvote.org/page?id=0057.

Also, these resources will allow you and your readers to track our breaking news as it happens on Election Day:
• OurVoteLive.org (http://OurVoteLive.org) – A live map and full database of all the reports received through the hotline
• OurVoteLive Blog (http://blog.ourvotelive.org) – Breaking news and analysis on the state of the vote
• 866OurVote Twitter account (http://twitter.com/866ourvote) – Breaking news and reports as they happen

Fighting Suppression in Swing States

If you can't convince them to vote for you: Stop as many as you can from voting.

That's the GOP's mantra, but Barack Obama and a coalition of groups are fighting back.

From the Brennan Center for Justice:

Sean "P. Diddy" Combs and Russell Simmons have teamed up with the Advancement Project and the Brennan Center for Justice on a voter education campaign in the key states of Florida, Virginia, Ohio and Colorado.

The campaign kicked-off Saturday, with the release of Public Service Announcements, released to radio, which gave voters important information to bring ID and to contact 1-866-OUR-VOTE with any problems.

Radio ads can be found here.

When voters show up at the polls and have their eligibility questioned, they may be asked to vote with 'provisional ballots.' Known as a fail-safe for voters who are being challenged or who are not on the rolls, provisional ballots should be treated skeptically.

Rules vary from state to state, but these ballots are often counted only if the voter appears in a voter registration database or if the voter can provide evidence of his eligibility in the days after the election. For this reason, many provisional ballots go uncounted. In the 2008 primaries, 40% of provisional ballots were ultimately rejected.

The bottom line is that provisional ballots are not counted like regular ballots and are easy to toss out, as the New York Times reported last week. In a close race, results can rest on how many provisional ballots are ultimately counted.

Our experts can talk about voter purges, challenges, provisional ballots, voting machines, registration problems, intimidation, judicial elections, and other election day issues.

RFK Jr. & Palast: GOP's Vote-stealing Program

We already know that J.B. Van Hollen is a corrupt partisan.

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. & GREG PALAST reveal the national program of which Van Hollen is just one sleazy operative.

In state after state, Republican operatives — the party's elite commandos of bare-knuckle politics — are wielding new federal legislation to systematically disenfranchise Democrats. If this year's race is as close as the past two elections, the GOP's nationwide campaign could be large enough to determine the presidency in November.