GOP dirty tricks primer: Part 1

The Republican Party is orchestrating a massive, coordinated campaign to subvert the 2004 elections. The media's "he said/she said" attitude is totally irresponsible. The facts just don't support the "partisan accusations fly on both sides" narrative.

A lot of people assume that both parties are equally crooked—just on general principle. This year, they're wrong. There is overwhelming evidence that the Republicans are relying on dirty tricks as a major election strategy. The highest echelons of the Republican campaign are implicated, including Govenor Jeb Bush.

Republican tactics include voter fraud, voter intimidation, illegal disenfranchisement, and smear campaigns designed to encourage voters to infer a false equivalence between Republican and Democratic tactics. [Paperwight]

Republican election tactics are part of a multi-pronged strategy to increase barriers to voting and disenfranchise likely Democratic voters. This is the first in a series of posts. I'm going to start by describing allegations of Republican voter registration fraud. These cases demonstrate a systematic and well-orchestrated campaign to disrupt Democratic voter registration in multiple states. The Republicans have had ample opportunity to denounce Sproul and distance themselves from the firm, but they have done no such thing. Instead, they are supporting legal battles to prevent potential victims of ballot destruction from re-registering.

In subsequent posts, I'll focus on voter intimidation, voting disruption (phone bank sabotage, last minute polling station changes, the provisional ballot wars) and illegal disenfranchisement (especially Jeb Bush's illegal purge of the Florida voting rolls).

Motives

Strategists on both sides agree that Democrats benefit from high voter turnout and Republicans benefit from low voter turnout.

Both parties have registered new voters in 2004, but Democrats have been disproportionately successful.

Newly registered voters are worth more to Democrats than to Republicans because the Democrats have a better ground game. New voter turnout rates are low, but Democratic GOTV can turn a higher percentage of new registrations into votes.

Voter Registration Fraud

One RNC-backed company, Sproul & Associates of Pheonix Arizona, has been accused of voter registration fraud in at least 6 states. Sproul has received over half a million dollars from the RNC in this election cycle. You would think the GOP would have fired an outfit like Sproul a long time ago. The firm is already under criminal investigation in Oregon. The FBI is investigating Sproul's voter registration activities in Nevada.

The charges against Sproul include:

• Destruction or disposal of Democratic voter-registration forms (Arizona, Nevada, Minnesota)
• Refusal to register Democratic voters (Oregon, Pennsylvania and West Virginia)
• Misrepresenting itself as the non-partisan group America Votes (Oregon)

Kos has a nice precis of Sproul and its nefarious activities: RNC funds voter suppression tactics:

Found the following links which all seem to point to the same company that is suspected of tearing up Democratic voter registration forms in Las Vegas. It has set up registration drives in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Florida and Nevada and is accused of the same things in most if not all of these states. Sproul & Associates is a Republican consulting firm run by Nathan Sproul, former head of the Arizona Republican party and Arizona Christian Coalition.

In Nevada, Democrats are fighting to reopen voter registration for the thousands of voters who may have been disenfranchised when Sproul operatives destroyed their ballots: So far, they have been unsuccessful: VOTER FRAUD ALLEGATIONS: Judge denies request

Republican voters are fighting any further attempts to reopen voter registration for potential Sproul victims:GOP voters ask Nevada judge to toss out voter registration case

Absentee Ballot Fraud

Questionable Absentee Ballots Lead To Criminal Charges

Questionable absentee ballots across the state lead to criminal charges.

Six Republican notary publics face misdemeanors in connection with absentee ballot applications filled out on South Dakota college campuses.

Check the dKosopedia's Voter Registration Fraud Clearinghouse for continuously updated information on these developing stories and advice on voting in your area.

Comments

[Mike H.]

What you saw in the 2004 Election is the power-elite's showing us that they are completely in control of the government at this point.

There's no way you can tell me that John Kerry was the best candidate that the Democratic Party could come up with... Kerry was put in there as a candidate that would be likeable enough to be convincing, but screw up enough to make his loss somewhat believeable.

Take a look at the election results... The Republicans now have the presidency, majority in both the house of representatives, and the senate, an Attorney General slot coming open, a Supreme Court slot coming open... They could easily railroad ANYTHING they want through legislation for the next two years...

Welcome to Corporate Facism.