Voter Suppression Starts, GOP’s Fear of Voter Fraud Myth Goes to Courts

In my search to find out if I was correctly registered to vote or not, I found out my wife wasn’t listed at all, even though she voted and was on the list at the polling station in this years primary. She has had trouble getting her name corrected on record for years, even though she really hasn’t suffered any real consequences, until possibly now. At first she kept her maiden name, then combined that with mine-no hyphen, then dropped her maiden name completely, all before officially changing it. That's when hyphens started appearing and old middle name initial...etc.

Imagine the possible chances of clerical errors.

Which brings me to our current state problem; Errors?

Keep in mind: The Elections Accountability Board last month found that information contained on more than 20 percent of recent voter registrations failed to match information maintained on state Department of Transportation records such as names and addresses, mostly because of variations in how a name was used, typographical errors or incompatibilities in the two agencies' databases. Even information from four of six Accountability Board members in the voter database failed to match DOT records.

As reported by the Wisconsin State Journal, our Attorney General and GOP vote suppressionist J.B. Van Hollen sprung into action:

Saying illegal Wisconsin votes could sway the presidential election, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen has sued the state elections agency to force ineligible voters off the rolls. But election experts warned that if the Justice Department lawsuit is successful, eligible voters could be disenfranchised and the state could face a post-election ballot-counting frenzy similar to Florida's after the 2000 presidential race. "You shouldn't penalize the voter because you've got mistakes in your database," said Dan Tokaji, an election law expert at Ohio State University. "That's the absolute worst thing to do.” The suit said “Because of the (board's) inaction, properly qualified voters are at risk of having their votes diminished and diluted by the votes of unqualified, ineligible voters who are not entitled to cast ballots.”

Of course, vote suppressionist Mark Jefferson, executive director of the state GOP, said, "The Government Accountability Board is not taking the HAVA law seriously. Thankfully, the attorney general is."

Another swing state, Michigan, has an energized suppressionist movement, also from the Republican Party there (coincidence?):

The Michigan Messanger reports: The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP’s effort to challenge some voters on Election Day. “We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses,” party chairman James Carabelli told Michigan Messenger State election rules allow parties to assign “election challengers” to polls to monitor the election. In addition to observing the poll workers, these volunteers can challenge the eligibility of any voter provided they “have a good reason to believe” that the person is not eligible to vote. One allowable reason is that the person is not a “true resident of the city or township.”

One expert questioned the legality of the tactic. “You can’t challenge people without a factual basis for doing so,” said J. Gerald Hebert, a former voting rights litigator for the U.S. Justice Department who now runs the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington D.C.-based public-interest law firm. “I don’t think a foreclosure notice is sufficient basis for a challenge, because people often remain in their homes after foreclosure begins and sometimes are able to negotiate and refinance.” As for the practice of challenging the right to vote of foreclosed property owners, Hebert called it, “mean-spirited.”

Let now go to Ohio, again, for this continuation on a theme:

Ohio, Doug Preisse, director of elections in Franklin County (around the city of Columbus) and the chair of the local GOP, told The Columbus Dispatch that he has not ruled out challenging voters before the election due to foreclosure-related address issues.

Let's check in on some election manipulation in Mississippi:

Mississippi’s governor, Haley Barbour, and its secretary of state have come up with a particularly cynical dirty trick for the November election. Let’s call it: “Where’s the Senate race?” Defying state law, they have decided to hide a hard-fought race for the United States Senate at the bottom of the ballot, where they clearly are hoping some voters will overlook it.

Their proposed design is not only illegal. It shows a deep contempt for Mississippi’s voters.
But this year, former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, a Democrat, has been running close to Senator Roger Wicker, a Republican, in the polls. Mr. Wicker was appointed to the seat by Governor Barbour in late December after Trent Lott stepped down.

Mississippi election law clearly states that federal elections must go at the top of ballots. And the secretary of state, Delbert Hosemann, argues that because the Wicker-Musgrove race is a special election to fill the remainder of Mr. Lott’s term, he is free to place it at the bottom, below state and county races. Mr. Hosemann is insisting on that placement even after the state attorney general’s office notified him that his ballot design violates state law. Mr. Hosemann’s ballot also violates the Voting Rights Act.

The case is likely to wind up, on appeal, in Mississippi’s Supreme Court. Voting rights advocates are worried that the Republican-leaning court will decide the case on partisan lines, rather than on the law.

UPDATE SEPT14: In Judge Green's ruling, she ordered the Governor and Secretary of State to follow the law. She ordered that the Musgrove/Wicker race must be near the top of the ballot with the other federal races. She found that because the Musgrove/Wicker race is a special election, it should be indicated as such not by placing it at the bottom of the ballot, but that it "must be accomplished by simply bold typing 'SPECIAL ELECTION' as a 'header' above the title of the office sought."

Barbour has announced he will appeal the decision...

And you thought Sarah Palin was their ace.