I certainly didn't watch the Giannoulias vs. Kirk debate last night (MLB playoffs!) and because of that missed a good exchange. As TPM reports, Giannoulias went after Kirk on his "voter integrity" efforts, directly accusing Kirk of trying to suppress the African American vote. In case you missed it, Kirk was caught on tape talking about sending lawyers to predominantly black areas to watch for that Repub bugaboo, voter fraud. Never mind that instances of voter fraud are extraordinarily rare. Kirk's going after it!
This race is extremely close right now, with Kirk holding a tiny, tiny lead. Imagine how it would be if the Dems weren't running a shady candidate.
Showing posts with label voter suppression. Show all posts
Showing posts with label voter suppression. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Saturday Morning Update
Since Ilsa and Bridget are again making a lie out of our tagline and actually doing something to help Barack today, I'm pitching in.
The polls seem to have steadied--Gallup's three polls (registered, likely--expanded, and likely--traditional) have Obama up 11, 9, and 8 points respectively. The one outlier is a weird one-day Zogby poll from yesterday that actually has McCain up 1 point. But, Nate has already ridden to the rescue and told us why we don't need to pay attention to it. Oh, and you'll notice that he has McCain's chances of winning down to 2.8%. Right where he wants 'em!
While Eagleburger tried to recant his statements that Palin's not ready to be veep, Nevada Senator John Ensign didn't get the memo and joined the ranks of Repugs who've openly stated that she's not qualified.
Palin supported the arguments that she's not qualified yet again yesterday by showing that she doesn't understand the First Amendment. She stated that the press is endangering the First Amendment by calling her out on her lies.
While things are looking good, there is still a lot of concern about voter suppression. Luckily, so far, the Repug efforts have mostly stalled--including here in Colorado from where I'm posting. TPM has a good summary of the voter suppression efforts.
And, when voter suppression doesn't work, the federal government did show that it's willing to look to other dirty arenas to help the GOP. Today's entry: federal government law enforcement officials leaked to the AP that Obama's Kenyan aunt, with whom he has no relationship, has been in the U.S. illegally since 2004. The article asks the question, but can't answer if either the McCain campaign or the Bush White House were involved.
Oh, great. Now we have to worry about deflation.
Finally, Chicago Public Radio has a lot of great stuff up about Studs Terkel.
The polls seem to have steadied--Gallup's three polls (registered, likely--expanded, and likely--traditional) have Obama up 11, 9, and 8 points respectively. The one outlier is a weird one-day Zogby poll from yesterday that actually has McCain up 1 point. But, Nate has already ridden to the rescue and told us why we don't need to pay attention to it. Oh, and you'll notice that he has McCain's chances of winning down to 2.8%. Right where he wants 'em!
While Eagleburger tried to recant his statements that Palin's not ready to be veep, Nevada Senator John Ensign didn't get the memo and joined the ranks of Repugs who've openly stated that she's not qualified.
Palin supported the arguments that she's not qualified yet again yesterday by showing that she doesn't understand the First Amendment. She stated that the press is endangering the First Amendment by calling her out on her lies.
While things are looking good, there is still a lot of concern about voter suppression. Luckily, so far, the Repug efforts have mostly stalled--including here in Colorado from where I'm posting. TPM has a good summary of the voter suppression efforts.
And, when voter suppression doesn't work, the federal government did show that it's willing to look to other dirty arenas to help the GOP. Today's entry: federal government law enforcement officials leaked to the AP that Obama's Kenyan aunt, with whom he has no relationship, has been in the U.S. illegally since 2004. The article asks the question, but can't answer if either the McCain campaign or the Bush White House were involved.
Oh, great. Now we have to worry about deflation.
Finally, Chicago Public Radio has a lot of great stuff up about Studs Terkel.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
The Polls and Such
Responding to e-mails concerned about the stories on the polls tightening, Nate says, "Man, I thought I trained you guys better than this." Writing about the polls, Nate still feels like Obama's in good shape. And, after the tighter polls from Rasmussen and Fox came out, CBS/NYT released one with Barack up 11%. The best explanation I've seen is that McCain's numbers are coming up a bit, but Barack's aren't falling as the undecideds get off the fence. As Salon asks, "Was he [McCain] really only going to get 39% of the vote?"
That said, I'm watching Rachel Maddow right now and she's reporting about more voter suppression efforts in Colorado and voting machines in West Virginia flipping votes for Barack to McCain. Of course, in both states, the Secretary of State is Republican. Considering everything that's happened in every major election since 2000, it seems safe to assume that the GOP is again trying to monkey with the vote. Disgusting.
Of course, the most nefarious schemes can't alter the enthusiasm gap. As I'm sure you saw today, McCain not only can't even get Joe the Plumber to show up at his rallies, but his campaign had to bus in 4,000 schoolkids to get his audience up to 6,000 attendees.
That said, I'm watching Rachel Maddow right now and she's reporting about more voter suppression efforts in Colorado and voting machines in West Virginia flipping votes for Barack to McCain. Of course, in both states, the Secretary of State is Republican. Considering everything that's happened in every major election since 2000, it seems safe to assume that the GOP is again trying to monkey with the vote. Disgusting.
Of course, the most nefarious schemes can't alter the enthusiasm gap. As I'm sure you saw today, McCain not only can't even get Joe the Plumber to show up at his rallies, but his campaign had to bus in 4,000 schoolkids to get his audience up to 6,000 attendees.
Morning Roundup
Nate has a a really interesting article about a confrontation between McCain and Obama supporters at a McCain rally (it ain't pretty). It's a quick read but worth it. Nate is turning into quite the roving reporter.
The AP is calling the election for Obama barring some huge change in voter intention.
One hot chick wanted to take Chicago guy to Obama rally.
Obama widens his lead in NC and NV accdg to a new Time poll.
Bill and Barack take the stage together for the first time.
Only a hint of narrowing in the polls, but I still don't like it.
I keep forgetting Bush is still president but then he pulls a stupid stunt like this. Luckily he's being rebuffed by his own department.
Oh, and one more thing, from the city of brotherly love.
The AP is calling the election for Obama barring some huge change in voter intention.
One hot chick wanted to take Chicago guy to Obama rally.
Obama widens his lead in NC and NV accdg to a new Time poll.
Bill and Barack take the stage together for the first time.
Only a hint of narrowing in the polls, but I still don't like it.
I keep forgetting Bush is still president but then he pulls a stupid stunt like this. Luckily he's being rebuffed by his own department.
Oh, and one more thing, from the city of brotherly love.
Friday, October 17, 2008
GOP Vote Suppression Efforts
It's mid-October in an even-numbered year, so it must be voter suppression season. The GOP is in sanctimonious a lather about "voter fraud." ACORN! Registrations filled out for Mickey Mouse! Of course, the Repugs know that ACORN's efforts will not result in voter fraud. In fact, as this article explains, voter fraud is exceedingly rare and this is all really a concerted effort to keep people from voting.
This GOP effort also happened in 2006 as the DOJ unleashed the FBI to investigate voter fraud in the weeks leading to the election, despite DOJ policy to avoid such work right before an election, and which TPM reminds us led to the US Attorneys Scandal in the first place. In fact, they have a post today quoting fired US Attorney David Iglesias say this is a "scare tactic" by the White House.
But, the shifty FBI investigations are just a piece. Slate today describes other efforts including: bouncing 200,000 new voters from the Ohio rolls, an effort in Montana to bounce 6,000 American Indian and student voters from the rolls, fliers in Philly claiming that cops will hang out at polling stations to arrest people with outstanding tickets and/or warrants, and the Wisconsin GOP trying to recruit goons to "watch the polls" (i.e., intimidate voters) in minority districts in Milwaukee.
This happened in 2000, 2004, and 2006 (and probably 2002), and will probably keep the race tighter than we'd like. In fact, the atmosphere is so charged this year that I really think we'll be reading reports of voting stations on November 4. I think the remaining 18 days of this thing are going to be ugly.
This GOP effort also happened in 2006 as the DOJ unleashed the FBI to investigate voter fraud in the weeks leading to the election, despite DOJ policy to avoid such work right before an election, and which TPM reminds us led to the US Attorneys Scandal in the first place. In fact, they have a post today quoting fired US Attorney David Iglesias say this is a "scare tactic" by the White House.
But, the shifty FBI investigations are just a piece. Slate today describes other efforts including: bouncing 200,000 new voters from the Ohio rolls, an effort in Montana to bounce 6,000 American Indian and student voters from the rolls, fliers in Philly claiming that cops will hang out at polling stations to arrest people with outstanding tickets and/or warrants, and the Wisconsin GOP trying to recruit goons to "watch the polls" (i.e., intimidate voters) in minority districts in Milwaukee.
This happened in 2000, 2004, and 2006 (and probably 2002), and will probably keep the race tighter than we'd like. In fact, the atmosphere is so charged this year that I really think we'll be reading reports of voting stations on November 4. I think the remaining 18 days of this thing are going to be ugly.
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