Reality Bites Republicans; Film at Eleven

Have you noticed that there is a widespread lack of confidence in legitimacy of the electoral process? Yes, me too, and the reason is Republican-controlled electronic voting. But according to the Spinning Heads of the Right, the REAL concern is the voters themselves; massive hordes of illegal votes coming from graveyards and illegal immigrants; or in other words, what they think of as the Democratic "base."

That's a great line, actually.

But the reality is quite different. According to People for the American Way, USA Today has broken a story that shows that the Government has learned there is no legitimate reason for concern.

You’ve heard the expression, “the cure is worse than the disease.” Well that’s especially true when you don’t even have the disease in question!

Right-wing members of Congress and state legislators have been passing onerous laws that make it harder for citizens to vote. Despite erecting barriers to the ballot box and disenfranchising voters, they’ve claimed these laws are necessary to stop rampant voter fraud.

Thanks to a press leak, it is now public that the US Elections Assistance Commission (EAC) commissioned a report to find out about voter fraud. According to USA Today, the EAC’s report shows that there is no evidence that significant numbers of voters are lying about their identity at the polls, voting twice, or voting in the name of dead people. Let me repeat that: NO EVIDENCE.

While this has long been suspected by those of us who have fought discriminatory attempts to address “voter fraud” (e.g. voter ID bills that would, in effect, create a poll tax for poor, elderly and minority citizens who don’t have or need government issued ID in their regular lives), the EAC report makes it official: voter fraud does not present a health risk to our democracy. That is, it would be official if the EAC had released it. … But it won’t release it.

Please petition the EAC to release the report at http://www.ReleaseTheReport.com!

Across the country, states have been introducing legislation requiring voters to show identification before voting, preventing eligible voters from casting ballots. Indeed, the US Congress has tried to pass national Voter ID legislation four times in the last four months – all in the name of stopping the one electoral cancer from which we don’t appear to be suffering. Worse, the mostly Republican legislators who are pushing such “prescriptions” are more like doctors who are getting kickbacks for prescribing cancer drugs to healthy people, insofar as they are keeping away from the polls voters who tend to cast ballots for the other party.

Sign the petition to the EAC urging that this report be released and that hearings be held on its findings. We deserve to know which threats are real and which threats are imaginary.

http://www.ReleaseTheReport.com

-- Your Allies at People For the American Way Clearly

they are more concerned about legitimate voters. They can make up fraudulent voters all by themselves. Ordinarily, dirty politics are aimed at opponents and critics, but now the Republicans have simply skipped the middleman and are attempting to disenfranchise anyone who is statistically less likely to vote Republican.

You may wish to communicate your displeasure about this to your elected officials of all parties. I think they need to hear that you are willing to "pay any price and bear any burden" to vote.

tag: Vote Fraud, Diebold, Elections, Poll Tax, Voter ID, Disenfranchisement, Electoral Fraud, Election Rigging, Republicans, 2006, 2008, 2000, 2004